Former France ace seals surprise move to English Championship promotion hopefuls (original) (raw)

West Bromwich Albion seal surprise transfer of former France international until end of the season

West Bromwich Albion have taken a punt on the veteran former France international Yann M'Vila, bringing in a player well known to boss Carlos Corberan on a free transfer until the end of the season

Former France midfielder Yann M'Vila has joined West Brom

Yann M’Vila admits the chance to be reunited with Carlos Corberan was key to him joining West Brom.

The 33-year-old free agent, capped 22 times by France, has joined the Baggies for the remainder of the campaign. Former Sunderland man M’Vila played under Baggies boss Corberan at Olympiacos and will add further depth to a midfield currently without the injured Jayson Molumby.

“I know the manager Carlos Corberán really well and he knows me really well because we worked together before in Greece at Olympiakos,” M'Vila said. “It was a pleasure to work with him and I’m really pleased to be back with him again now.

“He contacted me and asked me to come here and straight away, I said yes.”

M'Vila has been a free agent since May when he left the Greek side and may take some time in getting up to speed as the Championship season entires its final quarter. But if he can get fit quickly, then he could be a big asset to play-off chasing Albion.

Fifth-placed West Brom face Plymouth on Tuesday night and defender Conor Townsend reckons last week's takeover of the club by American businessman Shilen Patel can be a further boost to their play-off hopes.

He said: "We can use the positivity as a driving force. I think we've done well to take no notice of (takeover talk) and try to keep ploughing on as a group of people to try to get the best of what we've got.

"We've done well so far, we're fifth in the league, we've given ourselves a good chance to be in the play-offs and it's all about these last 14 or 15 games, going on a decent run and keeping that positivity around the club, to use that to drive us on."

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