Yaya Sanogo joins Arsenal

[MutableEarth]

Think the kid has a lot of potential from what I have seen in the U20 tourney, and he was very nervous too when he came on for us and you could see it. He doesn't quite look ready for first team football at a top club/

Despite his obvious potential, I still don't understand why we even signed this guy in the first place when we have Chuba Akpom, who is younger, faster and by all accounts looks more impressive and probably has more potential.

 

[k24bfan]

I saw the same Tournament and I wasn't impressed. He scored goals but I guess I could be wrong.

 

[MutableEarth]

I saw the same Tournament and I wasn't impressed. He scored goals but I guess I could be wrong.

You could see his movement was very intelligent, and he seemed to be able to pick out on-running midfielders with his passes at times - good for a big, target man. He's obviously a potentially dangerous finisher also.

Again though, at risk of repeating myself, did we not watch Chuba Akpom doing these things on tour and in the U21s last season? Out of the young players on the tour, only Zelalem outshined him, and it's debatable whether Gnabry did for all of his obvious talent. He has all the things Sanogo possesses and more.

I do like Sanogo, but I like Akpom better and can't understand why Wenger thought it was necessary to buy Sanogo. I questioned it before he signed and I question it now. Only reasoning I can summon outside of his potential is that it provides the necessary competition between two somewhat similar strikers. It's very early days for both, but I stick with my original feeling - Akpom is better IMO. I could be wrong but that's my feeling.

 

[silent_shadow]

I've wondered the same thing MutableEarth. And agree about Akpom being better. As a prospect and possibly currently. Doubt Wenger would've gone in for him if he weren't free.

And I'm also not writing Sanogo off btw.

 

[clockwork orange]

I also liked what I saw from Sanogo at the U20's. Certainly not the finished article and he wasn't playing very well, but he showed he has a lot to offer. Tactically smart, made well timed right angled runs, spotted teammates and came up with the right passes. First touch let him down a little at times, but you could see he is a pretty skilled player. I'm cautiously optimistic. Sharpen his finishing and he has the right attributes to be a very good striker.

 

[Godwin1]

The only thing is we're one injury away from having this raw injury prone talent in the first team. I really can't see why Wenger of all people went in for someone so injury prone.

I wont write this lad off though he does have potential, he was quite widly regarded as a future prospect before we signed him and before the U20 tourney.

 

[SomGooner]

Injury prone? That's harsh.

 

[outlaw_member]

A major club should not be developing young players in the first team squad. It should be giving opportunities to young players who merit first team action, but not as a vehicle to test and develop players.

 

[Jury]

Ahh...the old mystical 'injury prone' tag again. Is there an exorcist in the house?

 

[k24bfan]

Let's revisit this in 2-3 years. I just don't see WC written on him that's all. If he's just a good body to have I guess I get the move, but I thought AW was aiming higher but as we've seen this summer that may not be the case.

 

[MDGoonah41]

A major club should not be developing young players in the first team squad. It should be giving opportunities to young players who merit first team action, but not as a vehicle to test and develop players.

its like you've been in a coma for 8 years

 

[Buhry]

Looked unimpressive to me at the U20's. He really should have no business going near our first team any time soon but I fear we might see him a bit becasue our squad is so thin.

Signing him fine, playing him at this point, not fine, we should ahve had 3 senior strikers and he should have gone on loan somewhere. After being injured so much he needs game time but we should not be giving it to him at senior level.

 

[MDGoonah41]

i hate to admit it, but chelsea have figured out the process.

you trawl around europe, buy highly rated prospects, and then loan them out to teams willing to give them first team football. you let them develop. if they turn in to world beaters, you bring them back to the club and use them. if they fail to push on, you sell them on and recover your fee.

chelsea paid about £7.5m for courtois i believe. they've already recouped a bunch of loan fees from atletico for him. and if they were to entertain offers for him, they'd double their money.

their list is growing. they just did it again with atsu.

we should be following suit. buy these players. develop the relationships with betis and other clubs in top leagues. send the players out for a year or two to get them experience and see how they develop. if they push on, great, bring them in. but doing this to sanogo is not a good idea.

 

[Jury]

What have you got against using capital letters after a period, for names and at the beginning on sentences, MDG? Do you and mavelous use the same keyboards?

 

[MDGoonah41]

What have you got against capital letters after a period and at the beginning on sentences, MDG? Do you and mavelous use the same keyboards?

its aesthetics. i love the look of all lowercase. i disable auto-capitalization on my iphone/ipad as well because it was too much of a pain.

 

[Jury]

Oh, the arty type, are we? Fair enough

 

[bojed]

This kid might have the potential to outdo Messi but currently he reminds me of Kaba Diawara.

 

[dysphoria]

This kid might have the potential to outdo Messi but currently he reminds me of Kaba Diawara.

That's doing diawara a huge disservice, as crap as he was, he used to try his hardest, i don't think sanogo even bothered during his debut game against fulham and definitely not as much as he should've in his home debut against fernerbache. Put it this way, i'm sure had his signing for the club cost a pound more than it ended up being, wenger wouldn't have bothered.

 

[akhil]

And the eventual scapegoats are starting to form themselves. Can't believe some of you are having a go at this kid on 30 minutes of football. It's not his fault he's 2nd choice and our first option of the bench.

 

[DJ_Markstar]

Actually don't get the Sanogo hate at all. He doesn't look like the next Messi, but come on, Adebayor looked **** for a while too. Let's see how this kid develops.

Agree that it shouldn't be in the first team, but that isn't his fault.