Transfer talk: Villa criticise Southampton Vlaar pursuit; Chelsea loan McEachran to Vitesse

Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert hit out at Southampton manager Ronald Koeman on Tuesday for expressing public interest in defender Ron Vlaar, whom Koeman once managed at Feyenoord.

Aston Villa defender Ron Vlaar, right, shown during a 2012/13 Premier League match against West Ham United. Glyn Kirk / AFP / February 10, 2013

Aston Villa

Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert spoke out to criticise Ronald Koeman on Tuesday after the Southampton head coach expressed an interest in signing Villa captain Ron Vlaar.

Koeman, who managed Vlaar at Feyenoord, has revealed that he would “really like” to bring the Netherlands centre-back to St Mary’s, and Lambert believes he was wrong to go public with his admiration of the player.

“I think he is disrespecting when talking about other team’s players when they are still their players. I think that’s wrong,” the Villa manager told Sky Sports.

“I wouldn’t mind if he picked up the phone, but you don’t go public on it. That’s the thing that annoyed me the most and the stance is still exactly the same with Ron.”

Vlaar, who shone for Holland at the World Cup in Brazil, has one year let to run on his current contract, but Villa are reportedly planning to offer him a new deal.

Bayern Munich

Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said on Tuesday that German World Cup-winning midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger will be out for “several weeks” with a knee problem, according to SID, an AFP subsidiary.

“It won’t only be a case of one or two weeks, but rather a bit longer,” said Rummenigge, adding that “several weeks of patience” would be required.

Schweinsteiger is suffering from a ligament problem in his left knee and will miss Friday’s game against Wolfsburg which will see Bayern begin their defence of the Bundesliga title.

Rummenigge added that the 30-year-old could also miss Germany’s friendly with Argentina in a repeat of the World Cup final on September 3 and their opening Euro 2016 qualifier against Scotland four days later.

Saint-Etienne

Cardiff City defender Kevin Theophile-Catherine has returned to his native France, joining Saint-Etienne on a season-long loan, the Ligue 1 club announced on Monday.

Saint-Etienne have an option to make the deal permanent for the 24-year-old Brittany-born full-back, who played in the Premier League last season for Cardiff after joining from Rennes.

However, with Cardiff having been relegated to the Championship, he comes back to France to become Saint-Etienne’s third summer signing.

They have already recruited winger Kevin Monnet-Paquet from Lorient and Dutch striker Ricky van Wolfswinkel on loan from Norwich City.

Persepolis

Costa Rica international defender Michael Umana has signed a two-year deal with Iranian club Persepolis.

The 32-year-old Umana has been capped 86 times by his country and was one of the pillars in defence in Costa Rica’s advance to the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Brazil.

He was one of the players, however, to miss his penalty when the quarter-final match against the Netherlands went to penalties, the Dutch going on to win 4-3.

Umana signed for Persepolis from Costa Rican side Deportivo Saprissa, having also played in the United States with Los Angeles Galaxy and Chivas.

“I’m very happy to join Persepolis and I hope to pass a good moment with the team,” Umana was quoted in local media as saying.

The Tehran-based Persepolis are, along with city rivals Esteghlal, one of the giants of the Iranian league, finishing second last season.

Vitesse Arnhem

Chelsea announced on Monday they have loaned their England Under-21 midfielder Josh McEachran to Dutch club Vitesse Arnhem until the end of the 2014/15 season.

The 21-year-old made his Chelsea debut at the age of just 17, but he has been successively loaned out in recent seasons, spending time at Swansea City, Middlesbrough, Watford and Wigan Athletic.

“Josh McEachran has today joined Vitesse Arnhem on a season-long loan,” read a statement from Chelsea. “We wish Josh well for his time in the Netherlands.”

McEachran was the 14th Chelsea player to be loaned out this season, following club-mates Wallace and Bertrand Traore to Vitesse, with whom Chelsea have a strategic partnership.

And later in the day, a 15th Chelsea reserve went out on loan as Germany winger Marko Marin sealed his season-long move to Italian side Fiorentina.

Serbia-born Marin has failed to make an impact at Chelsea since joining from Werder Bremen in April 2012 and spent last term on loan at Sevilla.

He appeared 16 times for Chelsea during his first season, scoring once, and then helped Sevilla win the Europa League last term.

“Marko Marin has today joined Fiorentina on loan for the 2014/15 campaign. We wish Marko well for the season ahead,” a statement on Chelsea’s website read.

Dalian Aerbin

Croatian striker Leon Benko has reported Chinese Super League club Dalian Aerbin to world governing body Fifa after claiming they did not pay him for three months.

The 30-year-old international said he would not return to the relegation-threatened side and was instead looking for a new team after his ill-fated six-month stay in northeast China.

“I don’t have any obligations towards Dalian Aerbin. There is a Fifa law that says if the player doesn’t get paid for 90 days that player becomes a free agent,” Benko was quoted as saying by China’s Xinhua news agency on Tuesday.

“I didn’t get paid for 90 days so I am free to sign the contract with any club.

“I’m not going back to China. I’m waiting for the Fifa ruling. I expect to have it by the end of September and then I will be able to talk about all the details of my case and about everything that I went through.”

Benko joined Dalian, who finished fifth last season, in February from Croatian side Rijeka where he had topped the scoring charts.

But the former Standard Liege and Nurnburg striker managed just one goal in nine appearances and has not played for Dalian since coming on as a late substitute in the 3-1 home win over bottom-placed side Harbin Yiteng in May.

Dalian are 14th in the 16-team table, just three points above the two relegation places with nine matches remaining in the campaign.

Arsenal

Arsenal defender Kieran Gibbs will miss both legs of the Champions League play-off against Besiktas after being ruled out for up to three weeks with a hamstring injury.

The left back was hurt in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Crystal Palace, Arsenal’s opening match of the Premier League season. Nacho Monreal will likely come on as a replacement.

Striker Yaya Sanogo has not traveled to Turkey for Tuesday’s first leg either, but centere-back Laurent Koscielny is fit after recovering from an Achilles problem.

The second leg is on August 27.

Arsenal are looking to qualify for the group stage of the Champions League for a 17th straight season.

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