By Daniel Feliciano

10th Jun, 2022 | 12:41pm

Scouting Expert: Wolves were close to signing Boubacar Kamara before Aston Villa swooped

We’re delighted to welcome Football Manager’s Wolves researcher Dave Azzopardi as our exclusive columnist. Each week the scouting expert will be giving his views on the biggest talking points on Wonderkids across the UK…

Wolves were close to signing Boubacar Kamara from Marseille before Aston Villa swooped to get a deal done, according to scouting expert Dave Azzopardi.

The France Under-21 international joined Villa on a five-year-deal at the end of the 2021/22 season, with the deal becoming official on July 1st when his contract at Marseille expires.

But according to Azzopardi, Kamara was “pretty close” to signing for the Midlands club instead and while that didn’t happen in the end he expects the 22-year-old defensive midfielder to be a “great” signing.

Yeah I mean he was a player that Wolves were looking at, to sign in the summer, and we were pretty close to signing him,” he told The Football Wonderkids.

I think at the time he wasn’t sure if Wolves would be the right move, so he was definitely a player that I would have taken at our club last year.

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Obviously with a lot of big teams linked with him as well, I think Atletico Madrid, Manchester United were looking at him as well. Some big teams looking at him.

“I think he’s a great signing for Villa. When it came out that they were close to doing the business, obviously confirmed now, that sort of sets the standard for the transfer window.

“You want business to be done as early as we can so the fact we’re already seeing deals, just a day after the Premier League season [ends], we’re seeing deals being done already it bodes well really.

Kamara was linked with a host of top clubs including Manchester United and Leeds, as reported by LeedsLive on April 14th, but ultimately it was Steven Gerrard’s side that were successful in bringing him to England.

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