Interesting one, West Ham also interested.

See link
http://www.uptheclarets.com/clarets-linked-with-medel" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

At 31, his age profile is a bit out of where we want it. It’s meh from me.

I don't know much about him to be honest LB. But he's played for some good clubs (not including Cardiff in that link). He was a regular in the Cardiff team but they did go down.

Whats his injury record like?

The Pitbull? Certainly put some bite into the defensive midfield role! His gf is up there with Mrs Bardsley as well!

Just googled her (not a euphemism)

Hubba hubba...

Tanya won’t be pleased.....

Would certainly add some bite, and has been a regular in a good Chile team so clearly a good player. We need to be careful we don't end up with a squad of old men though.

I think he's too old as well.
Don't doubt his ability, but we need younger, hungrier players. Players that come with a sell on value. At 31 I can't see us recouping anywhere near 10 million for him. Plus we already have an aging squad, unless we start buying some youngsters in we'll end up needing to replace half the team in a single window.

I know a bit about this guy as I have followed the Chilean national side for a number of years bizarrely. He would add that extra bits as another poster says and would certainly fit our 'framework'. If his wages arnt too expensive I think he would be a good signing.

gandhisflipflop wrote:I know a bit about this guy as I have followed the Chilean national side for a number of years bizarrely. He would add that extra bits as another poster says and would certainly fit our 'framework'. If his wages arnt too expensive I think he would be a good signing.

I won't ask why you follow the Chilean national side but it will certainly give you more knowledge of him than anyone else.

I enjoy watching the South American world cup qualifiers and copa america and at the time it was on sky sports and Chile had Marcelo Bielsa in charge and played some wonderful football. It turned out a good time to watch them as it coincided with the emergence of Sanchez and Vidal.

gandhisflipflop wrote:I know a bit about this guy as I have followed the Chilean national side for a number of years bizarrely. He would add that extra bits as another poster says and would certainly fit our 'framework'. If his wages arnt too expensive I think he would be a good signing.

Hasn't he played centre back a lot for Chile? Seem to recall him playing there in the 2014 World Cup. Maybe didn't have the legs to play in midfield with Chile's all action pressing style?

jrgbfc wrote:Hasn't he played centre back a lot for Chile? Seem to recall him playing there in the 2014 World Cup. Maybe didn't have the legs to play in midfield with Chile's all action pressing style?

Yes he has played CB a lot for Chile but I'd say that is because their lack of quality in that area more than anything. He is more of a defensive minded midfielder for me. He offers good versatility though.

Initially I was underwhelmed (mainly because of his age and because I'd never heard of him despite his season with Cardiff), but reading up on him he reminds me a lot of Joey B and if we could get a couple of good seasons out of him he might be something we've been missing since Joey left.

Would be delighted with this if it came off. If we could get 2 or 3 years out of him that would be good money spent.

gandhisflipflop wrote:I know a bit about this guy as I have followed the Chilean national side for a number of years bizarrely. He would add that extra bits as another poster says and would certainly fit our 'framework'. If his wages arnt too expensive I think he would be a good signing.

That's good to hear mate, I love South American football as well (although not strictly Chilean) and regularly watch games mainly from Argentina but places as diverse as Bolivia and Peru (and Chile) as well. It is refreshing to see stuff that isn't 'PL' or even British. I sometimes think that people forget that there are huge clubs outside of Europe and the atmospheres, when the grounds are full, are amazing. Boca Juniors v River Plate in Argentina has been quoted years ago in (I think) The Observer magazine as 'one of the sporting events you should attend before you die'. Although it would be difficult at Boca for two reasons - they don't allow away fans at any games in Argentina these days because of past troubles and Boca only sell tickets to 'club members' so tickets for games there are never on general sale. One of my football ambitions is to go to see Racing (a club that rather bizarrely I have supported since I was a kid) play Independiente. The two grounds, both huge, are only a couple of hundred yards apart, how's that for a local derby?

South West Claret. wrote:Whats his injury record like?

Pretty good

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/gary-me ... eler/60889" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It shows how far we’ve come that folks are ‘underwhelmed’ by a player who has more than 100 caps for a decorated Chile team who have twice been crowned ‘Copa America’ Champions. After Cardiff, he featured regularly for 3 seasons for Inter in Serie A. A fit, more robust version of Defour perhaps.

Would be happy with this, not bothered that he's 31, he would improve our first 11 for 18 months-2 years, and nine million Euro's is little these days (big wages though one would think).

Westwood has been excellent, Cork ok recently but poor this season overall, Defour non-existant and Hendrick not regarded as a starter in a 2 man midfield, so we need some depth there. He is different to the others in that he is more of a Ball/Barton type to win the ball and pass it off. I see the others as a bit 'nice'.

Mad dog Medel certainly would add steel in midfield
Its a shame we cant get him in to face the Watford Alehouse brawlers

Think he could be another Gazza? (Alexander that is)

Don’t remember him much from his time at Cardiff other than him turning up with a ridiculous disciplinary record.
He must love a tackle.

Would prefer us to be looking at younger hungrier players when you see the difference that McNeil has made in the last four games. We have plenty of experience, what we need is youth and enthusiasm.

Terrific player, loves a tackle and also has a great range of passing.
Be a fantastic signing imo.

Pheonomenal player.

Getting on a bit. But he is a great player. Especially for Chile and when he was at Inter.

Has energy. Bite. Ability on the ball.

He is basically an upgrade on Westwood.

We might as well sign him whilst tackling is still allowed.

I can confirm this is definitely happening.

We have just got back from The Besiktas stadium and there was one noticeble shirt missing...



Please dont shoot the messenger... actually Im taking the ****

Or am I

jedi_master wrote:Would be happy with this, not bothered that he's 31, he would improve our first 11 for 18 months-2 years, and nine million Euro's is little these days (big wages though one would think).

I don't sign up to this idea of its not that much money in todays market spiel when looking at signing a player. We need to look first at whether the player is good enough to improve our team (this guy might be) and then look at is the player worth the asking price and can we afford it.

Picking up players cos they are cheap and risk free just leaves you with players like Walters, Wells and Vydra or previously Juke and Sordell whose price mounts up and who take up a decent whack in combined wages without contributing much and without fixing any gaps or improving our team

Would have had him 3 years ago but not now.

But if he came and adds presence to our midfield and keeps us up it will be money well spent.

Would be a decent signing for 18 months - 2 years I’d say. If we are interested I’d hazard a guess and say that Defour will move on to China or the Middle East in the summer if Medel comes in .

It concerns me that we are looking at players of his age. I expected us to be only bringing in younger players, might cost more for younger quality but that's the way we should be re building imo.

A BIG `no!` from me.

We need medal winners not ball-winning Medels.

HiroshimaClaret wrote:A BIG `no!` from me.

We need medal winners not ball-winning Medels.

He is a medal winner, I suspect he’s won more international medals than the rest of our team put together!!

**** yes! Always been a big fan and would improve our midfield instantly. My only worry is if he speaks good English, whether he'd fit in our dressing room etc. If we do sign him I've no doubt he'd be a fan favourite.

cricketfieldclarets wrote:I can confirm this is definitely happening.

We have just got back from The Besiktas stadium and there was one noticeble shirt missing...



Please dont shoot the messenger... actually Im taking the ****

Some team were gonna have medel and joe allen in midfield and aj on wing

If we're in competition with WHU who have a Chilean manager then I think we'd better move on.

houseboy wrote:That's good to hear mate, I love South American football as well (although not strictly Chilean) and regularly watch games mainly from Argentina but places as diverse as Bolivia and Peru (and Chile) as well. It is refreshing to see stuff that isn't 'PL' or even British. I sometimes think that people forget that there are huge clubs outside of Europe and the atmospheres, when the grounds are full, are amazing. Boca Juniors v River Plate in Argentina has been quoted years ago in (I think) The Observer magazine as 'one of the sporting events you should attend before you die'. Although it would be difficult at Boca for two reasons - they don't allow away fans at any games in Argentina these days because of past troubles and Boca only sell tickets to 'club members' so tickets for games there are never on general sale. One of my football ambitions is to go to see Racing (a club that rather bizarrely I have supported since I was a kid) play Independiente. The two grounds, both huge, are only a couple of hundred yards apart, how's that for a local derby?

Great post houseboy. I do keep regular contact with a friend who lives in Buenos Aires and is an independiente supporter. It's great to hear about what's going on in the football world over there and he regularly asks about Burnley. I prefer foreign football to the premier league at times apart from Burnley of course. As has been said about medel he does love a tackle and a slight negative is he is prone to picking up bookings but for 9m euros if we can get 2 or 3 good years out of him it will be money well spent. He will also bring out the best in defour in a midfield 3 imo as it will allow defour to concentrate on getting further forward.

beddie wrote:It concerns me that we are looking at players of his age. I expected us to be only bringing in younger players, might cost more for younger quality but that's the way we should be re building imo.

I think I'd sign him along with a younger player tbh. A player I really like is Kristoffer Ajer at Celtic. The guy is a man mountain and is destined for the PL imo. He can also play centre back and defensive midfield.

After watching the 37yr old Emre run rings around us on the Turf for Istanbul maybe age isn't that important?

He would be a cracking signing regardless of his age. A player of his mould doesn't rely on pace.

Burnley Ace wrote:He is a medal winner, I suspect he’s won more international medals than the rest of our team put together!!

party pooper!

Quickenthetempo wrote:After watching the 37yr old Emre run rings around us on the Turf for Istanbul maybe age isn't that important?

I don’t recall any of their players running rings around us. A lot of pretty passes and technical ability on show but it amounted to nothing.

He sounds perfect. A hard ball-winning midfieder who can pass. Good injury record. Just what we need. 31 isn't so old nowadays. We weren't moaning when we got Barton. And look at the difference he made. If we hadn't signed him, we wouldn't have gone back up.

Maybe Defour moving in the opposite direction? With his injury record and Dyche seemingly unwilling to trust him in a midfield 2 not sure it's worth keeping him around really if we could get him off the wage bill.

To be honest much as I love Defour. If this was a swap for Defour it would be even better business. Would be a fantastic move.

Get in someone of even higher quality but with a bit more to his game that we need.

And would make more sense than having both of them. That said if we could have both until summer - dreamworld.

If we need a player who is PL/first-team ready then to find someone in our price range it was always likely they would be that little bit older.

We're placing a heavy workload on our CM at the moment and if we're going to maintain that for the rest of the season that needs to be shared around more players, so the links with Medel and Allen make sense.

The time for longer-term squad rebuilding is summer. The imperative now is on survival, players who can step in immediately and play the way we need them to in the areas of the team where the cover is thin.

cricketfieldclarets wrote:To be honest much as I love Defour. If this was a swap for Defour it would be even better business. Would be a fantastic move.

Get in someone of even higher quality but with a bit more to his game that we need.

And would make more sense than having both of them. That said if we could have both until summer - dreamworld.

If we upgraded the midfield with more energy it might pave the way for Defour to comeback in. Unfortunately though I still think it would depend on us signing a striker good enough to play the lone role.

After exhaustive research (I've read this thread and googled his missus), I think we should sign him. UTC.

PremierLeagueClass wrote:I don’t recall any of their players running rings around us. A lot of pretty passes and technical ability on show but it amounted to nothing.

It amounted to no goals you're right, but we couldn't get the ball off them for large periods which was embarrasing at times.

Even City haven't dominated us that much at home.