http://metro.co.uk/2015/06/26/brazilian-side-corinthians-praying-to-sell-alexander-pato-5267267/ Remember Alexandre Pato? You know, that young Brazilian striker who used to play for AC Milan and was pretty much the best player on Football Manager? Well it turns out things aren’t going so well for him anymore. In a sorry tale of ‘too much too young’ Pato struggled to live up to the hype after showing early promise at the San Siro and headed back to his homeland in a search for previous form, a tactic that has ultimately failed. Looking back on Pato’s time in Milan, his goalscoring record of 63 in 150 appearances is actually impressive, it’s the fact he only netted once in his final two seasons that leaves a sour taste in the mouths of Serie A fans and off he went, back to Brazil in a €15million deal. After one season with Corinthians, Pato failed to make double figures in his goal tally and has been on-loan at Sao Paulo since. Now though, reports suggest that Italian side Lazio are ready to make a move for the striker in a hope to rekindle his career, a move that Corinthians President Roberto De Andrade can’t complete soon enough. ‘I regret buying him,’ De Andrade reportedly told ESPN Brazil. ‘But the failure is his own fault. At the time no-one was against it. Everyone knows that we’re praying day and night, hoping to sell him.’ Ouch.
I personally think pato would be a great signing, the fact there so eager to sell means we should get him at a good price.
Anyone get the impression that we're looking at the last turkey in the window? It doesn't help that his name is almost the same as Paxo, either.
A lot of "narrative" in that Metro article. The reason he didn't score many in his last couple of seasons at Milan is because he didn't play many games due to a long list of thigh and hamstring injuries, which are all documented here: http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/alexandre-pato/verletzungen/spieler/37579 The reporting of his goals tally is also riddled with factual inaccuracies, too: Milan, 2011-12: 4 goals in 18 games Milan, 2012-13: 2 goals in 7 games Corinthians, 2013-14: 12 goals in 43 games Sao Paulo, 2014: 12 goals in 39 games Sao Paulo, 2015: 10 goals in 21 games As for bringing him in, that depends on a few factors - while it's true to say that his injury problems are behind him (barring a cruciate injury that ruled him out for two weeks in March-April) there's obviously going to be question marks about whether he's the player he was a few years ago. On the other hand, I've seen a fee of £5m bandied about, which makes taking a punt on him a more reasonable option than if the fee was double or triple that. With all that being said, though, Pato is not a player I'm comfortable being brought in as Kane's backup just in case his injury problems flare up again, which is exceptionally likely given this is Spurs we're talking about. A more sensible approach would be to bring in (for the sake of argument) Berahino as Kane's direct competition, and with that business settled bring in Pato to serve as competition for Kane/Whoever as well as Chadli.
Pato would be a waste of time imo. Brazilian strikers who go off the boil tend to stay off the boil. What happened to the Llorente rumours? Surely a safer option and would bring some much needed experience to the squad.
Where's the fun in buying **** players cheap when you can buy good ones expensively and make them **** ourselves
I disagree completely. Pato isn’t a turkey. "Pato" is a duck. Actually, I’m okay with buying him, assuming we will or have. He’s a player with an unfortunate history of injury and quite a good goal scoring record. Those numbers for Sao Paolo are more than decent, as are the players he faces. If we paid or pay 5 million for him, a small loss seems likeliest, but a big win is not that unlikely. I agree he’s not a backup to Kane, though. Him plus N’Jie may mean one or more forwards are out the door. Townsend seems likeliest, and Lamela might go as well, I would guess. The argument for getting him may be that he scores and Townsend doesn’t, so why not sell Townsend for twice or even three times as much and buy Pato? Besides, with Ade going, we’re short a player from the southern hemisphere whose attitude will be widely questioned.
Errm, Togo's in the northern hemisphere. That said, we can go one better: Musa Yahaya is a player whose very existence is widely questioned.
Depends on how you define "southern hemisphere." You seem, (like everyone else, to be fair) to define it being that part of the earth south of the equator. But considering the earth’s axis is not perpendicular to its orbit, and Togo is near the equator, I say Togo spends a portion of the year in the southern hemisphere, if we define north and south, sensibly, by the plane of the earth’s orbit (which, again to be fair, no one does but me, as far as I know).
Don't understand why we didn't go for Adama Traore. I watched him a couple of times for Barca last season and he was terrific. I can only assume Barca were insisting on a buy back clause to put off bigger clubs but whatever the reason, Sherwood's pulled off a great signing there. Don't know much about N'Jie but I'm not particularly impressed by the highlights videos on Youtube(for what little they're worth). Still at least he's pacy and a forward, I guess. Come on Levy, get Illaramendi and Berahino in and I'll forgive all
Can you ****ing believe that we signed Andy ****ing Booth once and that Raziak chap? So expect us to sign Heskey
I had to smile when I read Sherwoods quote Although that may be true, yet he said the same about Delph!
I think the management team is trying to play a perhaps half-baked version of moneyball. The idea is that you find bargains both to prevent goals and to score them. How to prevent goals cost-effectively? Replace your weaker CB with the favorite partner of your stronger CB. Very sensible in theory. How to score them without spending too much? Buy relatively cheap proven goalscorers like N’Jie and Pato, or a cheap goal creator like Trippier. Sell your overpriced non-goal scorers like Soldado, and quite possibly Townsend and Lamela and/or others. Bring in young players who cost very little and may well turn into effective attackers. And, of course, it’s worked beautifully so far. From open play we’ve put the ball in the net three times more often than the teams we’ve faced.
Am i missing something? We haven't scored 3 goals this season and 2 of the goals we've conceded were from open play
According to the BBC sport page, WBA have made enquiries about Fazio. Surely, there's a deal to be done there where we bring Berahino the other way? "West Bromwich Albion have made a £5m bid for Tottenham's Argentina defender Federico Fazio, 28, which leaves questions over 33-year-old Joleon Lescott's future at the Hawthorns. (Daily Telegraph)" In other more exciting/interesting/concerning/fabricated (delete as appropriate) news, Juve might be interested in taking Lamela if we refuse to part with Eriksen, which we will. If he goes, that's five of the magnificent seven bought and sold. Great business!
Hopefully the Fazio deal will help sweeten negotiations for Berahino. After Lamela's start to the season, he's making it very hard for even his most loyal fans to say that he needs more time, 3 seasons in and he seems to now be displaced at RW by our CM. I still fully believe he'll become a very good player but I'm also starting to feel that maybe we won't be the team that gets to witness it. If Juve come calling, I doubt he'd turn them down to be honest, maybe neither will we, especially if it helps deter them from any Eriksen bid. As for Pato, I'd definitely take him, we need a striker and he was once one of the most highly rated players on the planet and is still only 25, although the plight of Brazilian players over recent years is a concern, many seem to flourish early on then just begin to fade in the years they should be peaking. Paulinho - superb before us, cack when with us. Robinho - once labelled the new Pele, lost his place at Real, flopped at City (after an impressive start), done OK at Milan but Serie A is a **** league nowadays, now playing in China. Kaka - immense with AC, didn't get the fairest of cracks at Real but you'd have thought a player like him would've shone alongside Ronaldo and co. Pato - wonderkid in Brazil, started amazingly with AC, didn't play much in final two seasons and is now looking to be sold from his current Sao Paulo side. Bernard - still only 22 but hasn't done a great deal with Shakhtar despite looking like the Brazilian Messi at Atletico Mineiro. Adriano - beast of a striker, one of the best in his hay day, though for about 7 years has just been in obscurity and got pretty fat.
