{"id":381130,"date":"2026-01-20T22:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T22:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/381130\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T22:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T22:55:10","slug":"laurent-mendy-to-hearts-transfer-journey-began-in-obscure-setting-as-robbie-savage-gives-jamestown-target-perfect-billing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/381130\/","title":{"rendered":"Laurent Mendy to Hearts transfer journey began in obscure setting as Robbie Savage gives Jamestown target perfect billing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Jambos have submitted a bid for the Forest Green Rovers captain as they look to replace the injured Cammy Devlin<\/p>\n

18:47, 20 Jan 2026Updated 19:49, 20 Jan 2026<\/p>\n

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Laurent Mendy of Forest Green Rovers(Image: )<\/p>\n

Latest Hearts<\/a> transfer target Laurent Mendy once worked as a removal man but he could soon be taksed with making sure the Jambos won’t be moving from the Premiership summit.<\/p>\n

The Tynecastle club have reportedly lodged a bid for the Forest Green Rovers captain as they look to plug the gap left by Cammy Devlin<\/a>‘s injury, The Aussie midfielder is set to miss the next six to eight weeks with an ankle injury, as is captain Lawrence Shankland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mendy, who could be signed in time for Sunday’s top of the table showdown with Celtic<\/a> at Tynecastle, has taken the obscure route to pro football but is a perfect example of how Jamestown Analytics is supposed to unearth signings other clubs would overlook.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old has a huge admirer in Robbie Savage, who signed him after a successful trial at Macclesfield after playing amateur football in London and a stint with IFK Amal in Sweden, and took him to FGR before making him captain.<\/p>\n

Speaking when Mendy penned a new Macclesfield contract on 2022, Savage said: “You and your family should be so proud Mendy because you left London, your family are in France and you moved up to Manchester to live on your own.<\/p>\n

“You had a job as a removal man only a few years ago and now you’re on your third or fourth contract, leading this side in front of five thousand, honestly mate you should be so proud.”<\/p>\n

And Savage continued to wax lyrical about Mendy after taking him to Forest Green, revealing the midfielder had attained “third son” status in the dressing room.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Robbie Savage(Image: )<\/p>\n

“The lads hammer him saying that, you know, he\u2019s my third son,” he told the Stroud Times<\/a>. “I\u2019ve got two boys, Charlie, Freddie. They say Mendy\u2019s my third. But I just want him to do well and he\u2019s never let me down. He\u2019s never let Macclesfield or Forest Green down. Even against Carlisle, when it gets sent off, he was trying to do the right thing because he was that brave on the ball. I\u2019m not going to have a go at him from that. He knew he made an error, but he has been absolutely magnificent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMendy doesn\u2019t realise how good he is and it just comes so easy for him and it\u2019s a disbelief really how this kid has never played league football,\u201d Savage said. \u201cHopefully he can do that with us. But again, I\u2019m proud of him. I\u2019m proud of all my players who\u2019ve come from lower and given that opportunity. They\u2019re embracing it, they want to get better. But Mendy is an unbelievable talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Mendy\u2019s a natural defender. When he came to Macclesfield on trial from London, playing on the park pitches, he was a right-back. We moved him into midfield because of how comfortable he is on the ball. At Forest Green, because we keep possession so much, I wanted a centre-half who could drive forward with the ball. Our system allows one of the sixes to stay back when we rotate, so Mendy becomes a midfield player when we have the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people ask why he doesn\u2019t just play in midfield, but the thing is\u2014if he makes a mistake in midfield, the back four can cover him. If he makes a mistake as a centre-half, there\u2019s no security behind him except the goalkeeper, and he gets punished. His mistakes in midfield are protected because he has that security. He\u2019s brave on the ball and willing to take risks, and that\u2019s what makes him so special. I honestly don\u2019t have enough words to speak about Mendy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Jambos have submitted a bid for the Forest Green Rovers captain as they look to replace the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[143706,2817,218,9531,68013,8058,101,2719,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-381130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-cammy-devlin","tag-celtic-fc","tag-football","tag-hearts-fc","tag-lawrence-shankland","tag-scottish-premiership","tag-sports","tag-transfer-talk","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}