The transfer saga that has enveloped Yann M’Vila for the past 18 months can be put to rest after the young Frenchman finally left Rennes for pastures new. However, he isn’t doing what was expected and joining a Premier League club, but instead chases the riches of a Russian billionaire owner after signing for Rubin Kazan.
M’Vila was widely tipped as the hottest young talent in French football in the summer of 2011 when news arose that Arsenal were tailing the defensive midfielder. Yet Arsene Wenger declined to make a move for M’Vila a year later after watching him a couple of times – most probably because of his attitude and professionalism that was called into question when he defied team orders during a night out with the French U21 squad last November
That defiance earned M’Vila a two-year international ban with the French Football Federation, although the defensive midfielder hardly seemed to care, most probably thinking himself above such things.
Spurs, Fulham, Everton and QPR were all chasing the youngster this January transfer window yet he declined to move to the Premier League, opting instead to take home a reported £3.75m a year after tax at Kazan. The £9.6m Kazan paid for M’Vila is pittance to what his footballing ability is actually worth, but luckily the Premier League has dodged this renegade personality – for the time being at least.
Both Spurs and Everton would do better to look at someone like Celtic’s defender Efe Ambrose – currently on Africa Cup of Nations duty with Nigeria – or midfielder Victor Wanyama than take on M’Vila, while QPR already have a host of big personalities in their dressing room and don’t need the disruption.
Sadly, a mega-rich Russian club was always going to be the destination for the renegade M’Vila, a player who failed to convince French football’s biggest fan – Wenger – that he was even worth a derisory transfer bid.
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