TOM'S TRANSFER TARGETS: LEFT BACK

With the injury-prone Aurelio following the inconsistent Italian Dossena on his way out, we need a new left-back who is stronger, bigger and quicker than Insua. Insua could still blossom into a top player but we've gotta get a new first-choice left-back to challenge him.

Criteria:

1. International: If he's not in his national squad, how can he could enough to compete at the top of the most competitive league in the world?
2. Not Asian/American: To avoid players being jet-lagged following international duty, ideally the player would be a UEFA/African international. The beachball incident in the defeat at Sunderland took attention away from the fact that both Lucas and Mascherano were jet-lagged and unfit for duty. We shouldn't have to rotate the squad after every international break. To compete with Insua, we cannot have a repeat of the Lucas and Mascherano debacle - we lost the title last season by a few points and could miss out on Champions League place by a small margin again so these fine details can make a big difference.
   
3. Not injury-prone (see Degen and Aurelio): a player with a track record of regular games and not repeated injury lay-offs.
4. Physically able to cope with demands of English game - good in air, quick, strong on ball.
5. We cannot afford to splash big cash on the position as the midfield and attack need quality reinforcements. So £5-6m at most would be the price range we could afford.
   

Premiership-based:

• Figueroa (Wigan): 27 this year, Honduran so potentially unavailable after internationals, lightning pace so can get forward and track back better than Insua, great long shots and throws, despite his wonder goal hasn't contributed as much he could going forward but understandable given the form of many of his Wigan colleagues. **
  
• Belhadj (Pompey): almost 28, Algerian and former France U-21 international, can also play in midfield, pacey, good crosser. **
  

Ones to watch in South Africa:

Taye Taiwo (Marseille): 26, 6ft, Nigerian international who is custom-made for the cut and thrust of the Premiership. Only drawback is international duty in Africa. ****

Michael Lumb (Zenit) Danish left back, 22, 5ft 10in, highly rated fullback was heavily scouted by several Premiership clubs but moved to St Petersburg in January after breaking into the Denmark squad alongside Daniel Agger. ***

Marcel Schäfer (Wolfsburg) German left back, 26, 6ft 1in, 7 caps for Germany. Made his name in last year's Bundesliga Linked with Real Madrid in the summer but Real did not offload enough players to be able to fund a move. Wolfsburg lie in 9th in the Bundesliga so he could be one of a few departures this summer. ****

Aleksandar Kolarov (Lazio) 24, 6ft 2in, Serbian left back with rocket of a left foot, tall and strong. Stand-out performer in a struggling Lazio side. ***