Depends how much you want to rely on Olympics goal scoring records. Moussa Konate and Oribe Peralta also scored well and nobody is suggesting we spend 20m on them.
Well I wouldn't buy a player on that basis no, but nor do I place much importance on their international goalscoring record in general. Robbie Keane has almost 20 times more international goals than Damiao, maybe we should be looking at him? Peter Byers has 35 in 48 caps for Antigua, sounds like a world-beater! I could go on.
There's lots of ways at looking at it, because you could say that Osvaldo has a good scoring record for Italy 3 in 8, but the teams he scored against were Bulgaria and Armenia. I like the fact Osvaldo has scored well in both Italy and Spain, as well as playing under Pochettino so would probably gain the edge on Damiao; either way Damiao or Osvaldo would be a fantastic addition!
Feel free to go on, it wasn't my point so I don't mind how much you argue with it. I was simply suggesting that listing international goals as a strength for Damiao over Osvaldo is a strange thing to do.
Well since you mention missing the point, I'm not sure that was his either, but ok. What about all the other stuff?
Yeah, and you could then take that further by saying Damiao has played against several crap nations and not scored, and his Olympics goals were against teams like Honduras U23s and New Zealand U23s. I just don't understand why it's so readily accepted that Damiao would be so amazing.
What about the other stuff? The only other positive he noted for Damiao is that he's younger. I can address that if you want? Yes, Damiao is indeed younger than Osvaldo.
Haha, yeah, in a way. I'm sure Damiao would be better than Jo, I've said before, I think he'd be decent but not exactly great. I'd not be against the signing.
So, theoretically speaking, if Damiao did come and our business for the summer ended with Lovren, Wanyama, Damiao and a new deal for Luke Shaw - how would people feel? (this is based on not losing any of our players too)
Would be uneasy because it'd be unlikely we'd see a great return on our money. That's be 40m spent and I'd not be confident of the progress people would expect from that level of spending. Love one signing (Vic), like one (Damiao) and dislike the other (Lovren). I'd be confident we'd improve, just not to the level most people might expect.
I think we had a squad capable of top 10 without any signings and bringing in wanyama, lvron and damiao should get us an extra few points atleast. Doubt they will change our team much tbh, a bit more class, set piece threat and maybe 1 or 2 long range goals. Cork partnered with schneiderlin was a very strong partnership and I don't think wanyama will improve on it much. I would however expect him to perform individually better than cork particularly when he is a goal threat. Equally Lovren might add some mobile physicality and he's a decent passer but I doubt he will be marking too many top strikers out of a game. Damiao I've never seen play and don't want to sign very much. I want a top 6 finish otherwise some of our best players will leave, I don't think we quite have the squad for that. Banega and a topclass wideman and we could finish top quarter.
Thorough as he is, I think there may be other factors that weren't specifically mentioned by DTLW. Damiao appears to play for Brazil as a kind of pivot around which the other forwards operate, in a similar way to Lambert I suppose. His contribution is greater than just his goals as his continued presence (when fit) in the Brazil side would attest. Osvaldo is more of a shoulder of the defender kind of striker as I understand it, so comparing their goalscoring records is quite unproductive. Osvaldo's attitude has also been questioned, and though some claim that's been overstated, there's no smoke without fire and so on. They're both international class strikers so I'd be happy with either, but Damiao would be my preference for his versatility and because I believe he would better hit into our system.
I can't really answer either of those points in detail. I've not seen Damiao play for Brazil's senior team so I can't give any valid reasoning of my own, but people calling him Brazil's main striker made me assume he played the same role Fred did at the Confed Cup, in which case his scoring record should certainly be better. As for Osvaldo's attitude, none of us can say with any certainty how bad it is. Originally, I was put right off him by some horror stories - since, I've read stories claiming it was overstated and have come to the realisation that if anybody knows what he's like, it's managers who have had to work with him, and with that in mind I'm happy to trust Pochettino's judgement. As for fitting into our system, I believe they both would, which means the only thing I can use to determine which I would prefer, is which has impressed me most from watching them, which Osvaldo leads by a significant margin. I'd like us to sign Damiao, don't get me wrong, but if it's one or the other, particularly if Osvaldo is cheaper, then I'm very sure which I'd prefer.
If you added Osvaldo to that list then I would be happy as we need a clinical striker. Even if we bought them two plus Banega which would mean quite a lot of money I wouldn't see this as wasteful due to the fact we would get back what we paid or even more.
Ignoring the fact that you are slating Damiao's international record without having seen him play; why do you dislike Lovren?!
Probably because although he has all the tools to be a top CB, he has been blighted by inconsistency and mental mistakes, and could very much end up as Hooiveld mk2. He could also thrive in the change of scenery and achieve his potential to be excellent, but like Dan I am a little uneasy about how he's going to fare this season, although I wouldn't go as far as him to say I actively dislike the signing.
