Sunderland target Nicolas Lombaerts has agreed to sign, according to reports in Russia 19:00, 6 JULY 2015 BY JAMES HUNTER Sunderland boss Dick Advocaat has apparently convinced Zenit St Petersburg defender Nicolas Lombaerts to move to Wearside please log in to view this image Nicolas Lombaerts of FC Zenit St. Petersburg Sunderland are closing in on the £5m signing of Zenit St Petersburg defender Nicolas Lombaerts, according to reports in Russia. Respected Russian newspaper Izvestia claims Black Cats head coach Dick Advocaat has spoken to Lombaerts and has convinced him to choose a move to Wearside ahead of a switch to Turkish side Galatasaray. Advocaat knows centre-back Lombaerts well having signed him for Zenit in 2007 for around £3m and, after leaving the Russian club, Advocaat continued to work with the player as coach of the Belgium national team. Lombaerts is regarded as one of the best defenders in the Russian league and has won four titles with Zenit, as well as a series of cups. Advocaat is in the process of revamping Sunderland’s defence, and has already signed centre-back Sebastian Coates from Liverpool for £2m, along with right-back Adam Matthews from Celtic for a similar fee. But he is looking to add another quality central defender and Lombaerts fits the bill. This has legs enough for me to shout that poster with all the knowlage. @Gustavo's Gonads? Is he an improvement?
Very good player from what I have seen, one I thought would be a good signing but thought we could not attract. This lad and Coates could form a decent partnership. He has some international experience and experience playing in the champions league, if your going to sign a player from outside of the premier league then this sort of experience is going to help. A bit old for me at 30 but I suppose beggars can't be choosers.
This one seems to be a matter of when rather than if... Know nowt about him though! He's the wrong side of 30 but that's not such a big issue with defenders, he could well have 5 years left at the top of his game. My only issue is (imo) we need a pacy CD alongside Coates/JOS/Wes and I'm not sure someone 30+ is where we should be looking but I'll trust Dick's judgement.
Looking promising but as is normally said, until it's on SSN or he's holding the scarf above his head it's not done.
Not seen much of him Funky, as the Russian league is pretty dull, to say the least, and I rarely watch it, but he's got a very solid reputation. The only real things I can recall is he looked very solid in the Europa a couple years back, but not the quickest. Being a regular for Belgium is a great sign at the minute, and lets be hinest, he will surely improve on what we have. Dick, to sign him twice, must trust the lad, so that's enough for me mate.
Hmm, we'd still lack pace at the back then. Is Dick going to set us up as a counter attacking side then? That would mean we'd need attacking pace even more desperately.
Could be that the fact we have 2 pacey WB's in place now we don't need CB's to be quick as there will in theory be cover, but just as easy if they bomb on and leave us exposed we could get savaged. See who else we bring in...
Wouldn't get in there reserves mate, cos Taylor & Colo are mint and that. Williamson is the new Baresi.
I have no knowledge of this lad, however, my mates are telling me that he would be a vast improvement on our current centre-backs. They say say he's solid and has style. He plays the ball out of defence instead of launching it !
So by the sounds of it, with Lombaerts and Coates we'd have the ideal CB pairing of quality and brawn. I think Lombaerts is left footed too so thats another plus point for the partnership. With the fast left and right backs that we have it's looking like a very decent defensive line.
If we got this lad I can see Coates benched while Brown/O'Shea support this lad to adapt to the league.
