Yan's the man for Alex

Let’s take a short moment to observe the curious case of Yannick Djalo.

First he was at Sporting Lisbon, loving life and scoring by the bagful.

Then he got bored of doing that, too easy for him, so he fancied a move to Nice and agreed a switch worth around £3.5m.

But FIFA were having none of it, saying that the deal had been completed after the August deadline, and so refused to ratify the deal with the French side.

That left poor Yannick in limbo, spending his days writing songs and watching Diagnosis: Murder, presumably.

Until now though, with a certain Premier League club rumoured to be offering the forward a way back into football.

Reports today state that Aston Villa are close to sealing a move for the 25 year-old, who hasn’t played for his Portuguese employers since August following the dispute.

Djalo has certainly joined the Villians for a trial, but despite Alex McLeish saying word of a permanent transfer is pre-mature, there are a lot of whispers saying that the Portuguese international could sign in the coming week.

Should McLeish get his man, he would provide competition for his current strikeforce of Emile Heskey, Darren Bent, Gabby Agbonlahor and Nathan Delfouneso.

And finally, Yannick can stop filling his days with the antics of Dick Van Dyke (presumably) and start scoring goals again.

James Shipp