.....Just watching the pundits eulogising over the performance this season of Michu for Swansea...definately the bargain of the season for just £2m, just wish that we could've agreed a deal when we were tracking him.
Remember saying on here that another club would nick him from Swansea' grasp for a bigger fee, still can't believe no-one did. Top player. Gone in Jan I expect.
I was just about to start a thread comparing Ramirez to Michu before I saw this. The basis was the speculative mentions Michu got from the La Liga fans on here in the epic summer transfer rumour thread and the dismissive responses from most regarding the likely expense. Well, it turns out that his fee was a fifth of our total outlay on Ramirez so forget the comparison, we could have bought both....
Good player for sure but don't think he would have fit our system without taking Ramirez out of the equation, and Ramirez is just a flat out better player so I don't feel any particular loss for not getting him. Regardless of the fees I'm very happy with our choice. If I was a team like Reading, Wigan, Villa, Sunderland etc. I'd be kicking myself though.
How are you defining 'better' exactly? Ramirez might have better technique but Michu's on for 20 league goals this season at the rate he's going. What exactly are you expecting from Ramirez?
Well I'm assuming you don't want a dictionary definition, but when you weigh them up as players he has better technique as you say, better long and short passing, better creativity, better runner with the ball and better shooting from distance. Only thing Michu has over him is finishing and heading, and we have that in Lambert. So for the most part Ramirez is a better player in most key aspects, he fits our team better, and he is younger and will only get better from here. The only thing Michu has going for him over Gaston is price, and despite what some of the conspiracy theorists may say we really didn't break the bank by buying Gaston so no real issue there. Michu gets the easy plaudits because of his goals and price, but Ramirez is just technically the better player and will have just as much or more of an impact as Michu this season.
The only thing Michu has going for him over Gaston is price? What about goals! You can have 11 fantastically talented footballers in your team but you need someone to put the ball away. I'm not saying we don't have that, or that I don't rate Ramirez, but Michu is worth his weight in gold for that reason. Without him Swansea would be where we are, he's contributing a lot more than Ramirez.
Yes but he provides that to Swansea because all their strikers combined don't come out as half the quality of a Premier League striker, he is their only main goal threat hence everything is centred around him at the top. We have the goals in Rickie and others, so the only thing Michu has going for him in regards of whether he is a better buy than Ramirez is his price. And since money isn't a huge concern for us then that is not exactly a huge bonus point. He's contributed more so far because he's played twice as many games as Ramirez, and two or three of the games Ramirez has played he was barely match fit. Come the end of the season their contributions to their teams will be similar, although I don't doubt that Michu will manage around 17-20 goals and will get most of the plaudits.
Ramirez isn't a natural goalscorer. He creates goals, which is what he has been doing. Of course he does chip in with goals but his main role is playmaker.
Not saying Ramirez should be scoring more, just making the point that goals are key, no matter how good you are. A 20-goal-a-season striker is worth tens of millions to some clubs.
Don't forget that Ramirez was bought later and has missed quite a bit through injury. Michu's certainly made a better start to life in the PL but Michu's been playing more advanced and Ramirez is a lot younger. Michu's probably better value for money though.