Every transfer window Fulham seem to be linked with a rather unheralded African. This time it’s Dieumerci Mbokani. The News of the World suggests that we would be willing to pay Standard Liege £5m for his services.
There’s no doubt that Mbokani has a very impressive scoring record in Belgian football. He scored four goals in just nine appearances in his first season for Anderlecht, helping them win the league tittle and netting a hat-trick against K.S.V. Roeselare.
He has won two more league titles with Standard. He scored 15 goals in 32 games in 2007-08 and followed that up with 20 goals in 41 games this season. His physique – Mbokani stands at 6ft 1in tall – makes him an ideal target man and isn’t difficult to see him working well together with Andy Johnson, for example.
Whether his well-documented ‘disciplinary problems’ which led to a surprise (and now seemingly costly exit) from Anderlecht would fit in with Roy’s very strong team ethos remains to be seen. At 23, though, Mbokani is still young and you would hope that he would be keen to learn from a distinguished coach like Hodgson. There is a case for suggesting, too, that the £5m fee for a striker who has fired Standard into the Champions’ League for the second year running is a little on the conservative side.
The Belgian League is not one of the best in Europe, so I not consider any player who comes to the fore in it is necessarily of high enough standard to perform in the Premier League.
Standard nearly knocked out Liverpool in the champions league and did knock out Everton in the Uefa Cup. Regardless of the strength of the Belgian league, Standard Liege are a good side. The current Belgium side is quite young and talented, just a pity they were drawn into such a tough qualifying group.
mbokani is a great upcoming player , i think he would be a perfect player for fulham. Even if he has been playing in the belgium league, one can tell that he is such a talent by watchin his style of play (e.g the liverpool defence struggled to handle him when they played last year). Everton player Falaini came from the same team as Mboka, therefore we can’t jst dismis a player only bcoz he playz in the belgium league.