HairSprayGooners
My brother posted it ⏩
Now Koscielny is definitely going, and for a good fee I can really see us signing a CB.
Quality of players is pretty subjective & hard to judge for us fans especially when moving from a smaller league or only played a handful of pro games.Some of you are impossible to please. The only thing we should consider as fans is the quality of players being brought in and how they plug gaps in our current squad.
It was to trick the universe in conspiring for us to go for someone big. Did the same with Brahimi on a free.
The only team we are far off is Man city..Liverpool has a wonderful 1st 11 but they dont have enough quality to go the distance in the league.Last year they wr very lucky with injuries.if we get a proper CB and Tierney I say we give city a run for thr money.Agree with most of it. But we're still very far off Liverpool, even on paper.
Interesting observation. Didn't think of it that way. But to be honest, Hummels and Pique apart most of these Cbs like Boateng, Bonnucci etc developed their on the ball quality later actually or the use of it. Even Koscienly wasn't initially a good passer at all and it was surprising when he later on was able to show that side of him with on with his comfort and vision.Haven't seen him in a while, but someone like him could potentially be an addition similar to Mertesacker - not rated among the world's top top CBs but still a class player with a fitting profile and probably not too expensive.
Right off the top of my head I can't think of too many CBs with good passing/opening play and good perception in their early or mid 20s. Everyone I can think of is an athletic ball winner who's maybe good on the ball, not not neccesarilly a great passer. But right now that seems to be the trend with CBs anyway as most football moves away from very slow build up and overly high possession rates.
We have always done this though. We used to go for the most promising young players with plenty of upside same as we seem to be doing now with Saliba, Guendouzi, Pepe, Upamecano, Tierney and the rest. Only difference is the market has gone bonkers and we have to move along with it. I'd say paying for say Auba and Laca at their ages isn't our tradition.I'm still not used to Arsenal paying these sums though. On some level I find the money in football disgusting and always respected Arsenal for not going mental with the money (and try stuff like signing Holding or Guendouzi instead). We have an awful lot of catching up to do though.