Guðjónsson – is he next?

Last updated : 21 January 2007 By Tony Scholes

It was all sparked off by manager Steve Cotterill in his after match comments at Southampton a week ago, and that left the speculators with a few days to dig up names, often aided by the media who through a couple in for us.

They all seemed to be defenders, there was Jonathan Fortune from Charlton and Middlesbrough's Andrew Davies, but nothing and happened with Cotterill saying he was now looking at other targets.

However, no sooner had he said it then the most unlikely of links appeared, from of all places an Icelandic web site that was suggesting we were in negotiations with Dutch club AZ Alkmaar to sign Icelandic international midfielder Joey Gudjonsson, who was with Leicester last season.

Gudjonsson, son of former Stoke boss Gudjon Thordason, had loan spells with both Aston Villa and Wolves before joining Leicester in the summer of 2004. He had two very successful years there and was player of the season last season before opting to move to Holland, a country he had played in before.

Things have moved on and Dutch sources are now reporting that a deal between the clubs looks to have been done with the Clarets set to pay AZ a fee of €400,000 (£260,000) for his services and that the player is on his way to discuss terms and have a medical.

The 26-year-old, who has also played for such as Racing Club Genk, MVV Maastricht and Real Betis, is described as a comfortable passer, a tough-tackler and a player with a knack of scoring spectacular goals on a regular basis. He was considered by Leicester fans to be a mixture between Robbie Savage and Muzzy Izzet.