i just can't get excited by a 17yr old. How many have we had that are "the next rooney/zidane/ledley/etc"? None of them are in the team now. £17m is a right chunk of money, no wonder the Dinamo chairman described the price as "right".
In fairness to Dinamo they've produced some good players over the years. Modric, Corluka, Kranjcar, Kovacic, Badelj, Vrsaljko and now the new batch containing Halilovic and Jedvaj. Dinamo's president even mentioned that Halilovic had more talent than what Luka had at his age and basically saying Haliliovic is the best prospect to come from their academy.
that may be true, but there is SO much between a 17yr old and being a starter/squad player in a top premierleague club. Injuries, distractions, attitude, mentality etc. With that much standing between him and being a starter/squad player (which is what i would expect for nearly £10m) i think its a risky move
You obviously haven't met the right 17-year-old! Seriously though, I think that this sort of deal is the sort of thing that we have to go for. We signed Bale at a similar age and for a similar price. It's extremely difficult for us to bring in a top-notch player at the top of his game, so we have to use a slightly different strategy. As long as it doesn't stop us from addressing areas of the squad that need sorting out, then I'm happy to see us trying to build for the future.
Modric and Benny were fairly young when we signed them, both 21 I think. Bale's Welsh, can he be classed as foreign?
Yeah understand where you're coming from but isn't the initial deal to supposedly keep them at Dinamo for this season? So they'd be getting another years guaranteed first team footy before joining. I personally think Halilovic is good enough to play in our first team now anyway, not as a starter just yet but the likes of Bale and Lennon started being first teamers in their teens and I think Halilovic is of the same mould.
KPB- German young player of the year, GDS Barca wonderkid, Tarabt "the next Zidane." We haven't got a great record with pricey youngsters.... They're better off going to Arsenal and at least playing.
I meant teenagers, you know a bit more about a player 4 yrs later when their 21, so those two don't count in my Q. My point entirely Chirpy!
Ah right. To be fair though we shouldn't be using the examples of the ones that flopped to discredit the potential signing of Halilovic. Every player is different and one thing I will say is that Croatians have a very good work ethic and professionalism (well, exclude Luka in the last two Summers). Harry always banged on about how it was a joy to work with Luka, Niko and Vedran.
Croatia joined the EU today, coincidentally, so it's nice to know that work permits won't be an issue.
Modric's a rat, Niko's a lazy fatarse who took no notice of a specific fitness regime given to him, and Corluka hit the bottle for months (remember when he went missing and we were all led to believe injury) when his missus junked him!...****ers mate, ****ers!
You can have them, we need proper signings, not two kids that might turn out to be Chamakh and Santos Jr.
While I'm glad we're not forgetting to try to sign the next Modric or Bale, the price seems too high, as others mentioned. One possibility is that we're planning to sell Bale. I tend to think we won't this year, simply because the club has said we won't, and if they do, it will play hell with season ticket buyers and possibly with sponsorship deals. So maybe Joe Lewis has listened to me (ha, ha), or maybe he sees things as I do: invest a certain amount to make us a top four club and greatly increase our value, or don't, be content with fifth, and watch the value of the club stagnate. The problem with the former, of course, is that spending more than you take in is normally a bad idea for a number of reasons. If the deals go through, it's 34 million so far, and no one we're likely to sell who'll bring in much (unless you count Bale). And we still don't have a striker. For fun we could add in 12 for Villa, to make it 46. We'll be lucky to get 10 selling Beni and Parker. I suppose we could sell Gylfi and or Holtby, though that would be an odd move. The last possibility is that we're bluffing, and just trying to push the price up on the Croatian duo to make Arsenal overspend.
I don't think so. Halilovic has already played for the full Croatian side at 17. Anything is possible, but I can't see him turning into Santos! That would need one of the greatest metamorphoses of all time. He is reckoned by people in Croatia to be better than Modric, at his age.
Krome's right though, if Arsenal don't spend this supposed £70mill on high quality first team players then they're not going to speed away from us or catch up with those above them by much if at all. I'm intrigued by these two Croats but if they headed to Arsenal I wouldn't be quaking in my boots for the coming season.
