Saint Graziano!

6 and a bit million for a striker who has scored 55 goals in 66 games over the last two seasons?! Shoddy bit of business that, what are we thinking?!!

Okay Eredivise isn't one of the big four leagues, but it's not exactly crap either. If we were buying a striker from the Championship who had the same scoring record, we'd all be very excited.

In comparison, over the last two seasons Danny Ings has scored 29 goals in 78 games.



(I'd still rather have Ings though! - haha)

 

So, I decided to do a little bit of a project...all of the top five in goals scored in each of the Eredivisie seasons from '07/'08 to '12/'13, and how they performed in their next (non-Dutch) stops...if they have had one.

'12/'13:

Wilfried Bony - 16 goals in 34 games with Swansea.
Graziano Pelle - N/A.
Alfreð Finnbogason - N/A.
Jozy Altidore - 1 goal in 30 games with Sunderland.
Sanharib Malki - 6 goals in 24 games with Kasımpaşa.

'11/'12:

Bas Dost - 12 goals in 41 games with Wolfsburg.
Luuk de Jong - 6 goals in 48 games between Gladbach/Newcastle.
Sanharib Malki - see above.
Dries Mertens - 11 goals in 33 games with Napoli.
John Guidetti - 0 goals in 6 games with Stoke (but a bit of a special case).

'10/'11

Björn Vleminckx - 22 goals in 72 games with Club Brugge/Gençlerbirliği/Kayseri Erciyesspor.
Dmitri Bulykin - 0 goals in 7 games for Volga Nizhny Novgorod...this was three stops later however and he was very old.
Mads Junker - 7 goals in 44 games for KV Mechelen.
Tim Matavž - N/A; he's still in Holland. Also glad that the rumoured transfer never came off; it's been all downhill.
Balázs Dzsudzsák - 5 goals in 67 games with Anzhi/Dynamo Moscow.

'09/'10

Luis Suarez - Probably don't need numbers. Kinda good.
Bryan Ruiz - 8 goals in 68 games for Fulham.
Mads Junker - see above.
Mounir El Hamdaoui - 6 goals in 29 games for Fiorentina/Malaga.
Marko Pantelić - 20 goals in 38 games for Olympiakos.

'08/'09

Mounir El Hamdaoui - see above.
Luis Suárez - still good.
Roy Makaay - N/A; retired.
Blaise Nkufo - 5 goals in 11 games for Seattle; also retired on account of the ancient.
Marcus Berg - 20 goals in 73 games for Hamburg/Panathinaikos.
Danijel Pranjić - I am equally bemused that Pranjić made the list once.

 

Yep a Lampard type is what we need. More goals from midfield.

 

He was great that year, earned himself a transfer to Bayern.

But probably a good example why one needs to be careful when buying players from Eredivisie.

 

For a positive spin, the only striker to appear on that list in the top two scorers for two seasons in a row is Luis Suarez. You could argue that because the Eredivsie is a selling league at relatively low prices that players get snapped up on the back of one good season.

I'm cautious about Pelle, but every player is different. Just because someone with a beard is a twat, does not make everyone with a beard a twatbeard.

I think we're all of the same opinion that it's wait and see how he does for us, but we have different levels of expectation.

we have to fill this internet space somehow

 

I'm sure if he joins we will still buy another striker.

 

I don't know, but I'm guessing, that a lot of the prejudice against Pelle is down to a simple case of perverse football snobbery. Being big and physical does not have to mean you lack skill and technique. It does seem to arouse instant suspicion from the self styled connoisseurs of the beautiful game, frequently without justification. For example, plenty of people could never see beyond Peter Crouch's height, and dismissed him without ever noticing how good he is with his feet.

 

crouch is a very fair comparison
[video=youtube;y9pua6Azb_8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9pua6Azb_8[/video]
(recommend muting)

 

Yep, poor stats. Main problem is that these players are snapped up after 1 good season and went for huge salaries. Dzsudzak, Berg, Luuk de Jong, Altidore for example should've stayed in the Eredivisie to mature. The only one that truly failed because he just failed was Bas Dost. At times he is still brilliant, last year he personally brought down Borussia Dortmund in an epic match for example 3-2 victory for Wolfsburg.

Other than that I see the odd mediocre target man: Vleminkx, Junker, Malki, Bulykin. Most of them scored simple tap ins or headers etc. But other than Mads Junker nothing special. Mertens is a winger so can't see him as a striker, Bryan Ruiz is a midfielder, Marko Pantelic was 32 when his contract wasn't extended at Ajax and Mounir El Hamdaoui is just a batshit crazy. Did I forget anyone?

 

Well I can't see any of us being prejudiced because of that, considering who our last striker was!

 

You're right, but he does lack skill and technique.

 

Yeah it's totally about that, we all hate big strikers. None of us want Bony or Lukaku or Zlatan and we all thought Lambert was just a big lump.

 

I actually don't want Lukaku though.

 

Yeah, Lambert was rubbish. I like the look of Pelle, though this may be due to my increasing fear in early July that we will never sign anyone.

 

Haha, I know he's not quite as good as some of us (myself included) thought but still, a lot of people who are anti-Pelle certainly wouldn't turn Lukaku down.

 

I'd take him over Pelle for sure, but he'd cost a hell of a lot more as well.

 

looking at the way lukaku actually plays rather than just focusing on his goal scoring record, I really wouldn't want him.

most everton fans i've encountered feel that way.

 

I was one who argued the case against you last season. I have watched him closely during the World Cup, and I apologise - you were right. If, and it's a big if, someone got inside his head, they could get him into a really, really good player. Sadly I don't think that would happen.

 

if we could get lukaku for £6m as a gamble i'd consider it.

 

No need for apologies buddy, it's just opinions. I think it's become clear why Mourinho was never keen.