The bargain free agent Euro 2024 star who could be an ideal fit for Fulham or Wolves

Many Premier League fans will be hearing the name Yusuf Yazici for the first time this week, as the Turkey international finds himself linked with a whole host of clubs now that he’s become a free agent in his prime. Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa and Newcastle United are among the sides who have found their name put next to his in the gossip columns, among many others – but who is he, and what sort of club would he really suit?

The former Lille midfielder has 45 caps for his country and made two substitute appearances at Euro 2024 but has yet to become a household name in European football despite making 134 appearances and scoring 29 goals in France after making a €17.5m (£14.8m) move from hometown club Trabzonspor back in 2019 – and his career trajectory since arriving in Ligue 1 offers some hints as to why he may not be all that well known.

After a slow start to life at Lille, he enjoyed an impressive 2020/21 campaign, scoring 14 and assisting six more in 42 appearances, but he never really established himself as an absolute regular, starting just 20 of those games. Loan spells followed at CSKA Moscow and back at Trabzonspor, with mixed results (impressive in Russia, less so in Turkey) but he was back at Lille last season with similar results – 12 goals in 40 games but just 24 starts, and seven of his goals came in cup competitions against weaker sides. Scoring twice in a 12-0 Coupe de France win over Golden Lion can reasonably be described as stat-padding - although he did get a goal against Aston Villa in the Europa Conference League as well.

So it was that the 27-year-old, who never really found his groove in France, is on the free agent market. Nothing in his playing history really screams that he should be connected to some of the Premier League’s biggest clubs, or indeed to AC Milan, whose manager Paulo Fonseca worked with him at Lille – but he is, and nobody gets 45 caps for Turkey without having something about them…

What he does have going for him when he’s at his best is flair, a smoothness of touch and movement that allows him to beat defenders on the run, good off-ball play which gets him into plenty of good positions in the box and strong finishing – since he first season at Lille, he has consistently outperformed his xG and he looks composed in the box while also scoring the occasional screamer from further out.

At his very best, he’s been a genuine threatening creative force. For much of his career he has averaged between four and six shooting chances generated every game across competitions, which is an impressive mark, and he has a very respectable total of 95 goal involvements in 249 domestic matches across his career as a whole. That’s the tale of a player still good enough to feature for a very decent Turkey team over the summer.

He definitely didn’t play at his best for Lille last season, however, or for Trabzonspor the season before. Five or more shooting chances generated every match became less than two in Turkey and only a little more in France. His goalscoring fell away, too, and the elements of his game which are less impressive – his relative lack of pace and his ineffectiveness out of possession, for instance, started to look a little more problematic.

It would, bluntly, be hugely surprising if a team as big as Manchester United or AC Milan signed him unless it was strictly for some depth and as a back-up. It would be equally surprising if teams like Spurs and Newcastle, whose games are built around intense, high pressing in midfield, took a chance on a player who doesn’t suit such a system.

Some of the other teams mentioned in recent reports by outlets like HITC may be better suited to take a gamble on him – Southampton and Fulham both come up, for instance, and an article on The 72 suggested Leeds United as a possible destination. That’s closer to his level on the evidence of the last couple of years, although he is certainly capable of moments which imply that he can get a little closer to a higher level. It’s the lack of proof that he can play like that consistently which is the problem, especially in an era of the game in which pressing ability is critically important to so many teams.

He may well yet end up at Galatasaray, who have also been strongly linked with him, although there are reports that his wage demands are proving a stumbling block given that the Istanbul outfit wouldn’t necessarily see him as a nailed-on starter.

What Yazici needs is a club who require a player who can break lines, create chances and score goals but who don’t look to press continuously off the ball. Fulham and Wolverhampton Wanderers, both teams who have been mentioned in dispatches and who don’t typically press with particularly high intensity in the final third, could be options, and the way both teams line up should suit an attacking midfielder who likes to exploit the channels going forward. Whether the rumours linking either side with Yazici are true and not just the result of an agent desperately shopping his client around remain to be seen, of course.