Jose Mourinho makes transfer plea amid Aston Villa talks
Jose Mourinho admits he's in desperate need of new centre-backs as Fenerbahce reportedly continue talks with Aston Villa over signing Diego Carlos.
The Turkish club are said to be progressing in negotiations with Villa to land Carlos, who is due to enter the final 12 months of his deal in the summer. He was made available for transfer last summer, but a move never materialised.
Carlos missed Villa's last Premier League match against Leicester City through injury and is also due to be absent on Friday night for the FA Cup clash against West Ham. While speculation continues over the 31-year-old's future, Fenerbahce manager Mourinho was asked about recruiting defenders in the winter window after beating Kasimpasa 3-0 on Friday night.
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"I think it is an obvious situation because we lost Jayden [Oosterwolde] and [Rodrigo] Becao for the whole season, they weren’t small injuries," Mourinho said. "We lost two centre-backs and we can also say Jayden is a left-back. Then the situation with Ferdi [Kadioglu] is that we lost him in the final days of the summer market.
"It is an area where we are weak. In this moment we have [Caglar] Soyuncu and Yusuf [Akcicek] as centre-backs and for the second part of the season. It is a completely impossible situation to manage. That’s why our main focus is going to be there [defence]."
Fenerbahce President Ali Koc also addressed the club's need for new additions when he spoke to the media on Thursday.
"We have three foreign player slots and three non-negotiable positions: two centre-backs and a left-back," he explained.
"We won’t disclose anything until we see signed contracts. We aim to address our deficiencies in this transfer window. Two very important players are out for the season, and some of the signings we make may seem costly to you.”
