Let me run with this fantasy, till late afternoon at least:
Key advantage to Dembele/Ramsey deal, apart from getting a good player in a position we're lacking, is the age profile. We're all super happy with our attacking options right now, but we're basically driving towards a cliff edge in a few years time. Dembele goes a long way to solving that, he can bridge the two generations. He's good enough to start now, but also go on into the future.
We'd have experience in Cech, Kos, Sokratis, Lich, Monreal, Özil, Mkhi & Auba. Players in that prime bracket like Leno, Xhaka and Lacazette. But then a whole swathe of young players in Bellerin, Mavro, Holding, Chambers, Torreira, Guendouzi, AMN, Iwobi, ESR, Nelson, Dembele and Nketiah. That's 12 U-23 players who could feature in the first team, 8 of whom are homegrown.
It's future-proofing. Our defence is actually pretty well future-proofed. Leno has many years in him, and there's Joao Virginia coming through. LB is an issue, but apart from that it's pretty good.
Midfield is all of a sudden looking very bright. You're not just relying on AMN's development, or Willock's, cos you're confident in the development of Torreira and Guendouzi. Then you have players like Iwobi and ESR who could succeed Özil in that advanced midfield role.
Attack is trickiest because that's where the big drop-off is. Dembele remedies this. It's a risk relying on the development of Nelson and Nketiah, our fingers are crossed but who knows what'll happen. Dembele is the insurance policy, he guarantees you a good attack even if the youngsters fail to step up to replace Auba etc.
Good fantasy, no? Shame I have to wake up.
Key advantage to Dembele/Ramsey deal, apart from getting a good player in a position we're lacking, is the age profile. We're all super happy with our attacking options right now, but we're basically driving towards a cliff edge in a few years time. Dembele goes a long way to solving that, he can bridge the two generations. He's good enough to start now, but also go on into the future.
We'd have experience in Cech, Kos, Sokratis, Lich, Monreal, Özil, Mkhi & Auba. Players in that prime bracket like Leno, Xhaka and Lacazette. But then a whole swathe of young players in Bellerin, Mavro, Holding, Chambers, Torreira, Guendouzi, AMN, Iwobi, ESR, Nelson, Dembele and Nketiah. That's 12 U-23 players who could feature in the first team, 8 of whom are homegrown.
It's future-proofing. Our defence is actually pretty well future-proofed. Leno has many years in him, and there's Joao Virginia coming through. LB is an issue, but apart from that it's pretty good.
Midfield is all of a sudden looking very bright. You're not just relying on AMN's development, or Willock's, cos you're confident in the development of Torreira and Guendouzi. Then you have players like Iwobi and ESR who could succeed Özil in that advanced midfield role.
Attack is trickiest because that's where the big drop-off is. Dembele remedies this. It's a risk relying on the development of Nelson and Nketiah, our fingers are crossed but who knows what'll happen. Dembele is the insurance policy, he guarantees you a good attack even if the youngsters fail to step up to replace Auba etc.
Good fantasy, no? Shame I have to wake up.
