I can only assume you actually meant £20 will cancel out Lamela as that's about all he's worth these days. Hilariously, the United fans think us signing Berahino means we'll be selling them Kane. (Inb4 we actually do)
What a difference a signing makes. I have almost renewed my hope that this window could be a great one.
Goes to show, yet again, how different real world football is from computer game stuff. Absolutely obvious how decent a player he was when he was with us. Well, right up to the point where he would pull the trigger. What stats and videos and interviews can you do to see something like that coming? A very experienced, proven striker just completely losing his finishing ability for two years. And then getting it back the minute he leaves you. There are just so many factors at play in football it is so hard to tell how a player will fit, if they will "click" or if they won't. Berba and Keane come to mind. I always rated Keane as a so-so Prem player - fairly decent but not all that - good enough to provide some excitement for Irish fans at a World Cup, that sort of thing. But when he was with Berba he became a different player - it just worked perfectly and neither of them played as well as consistently as when they were together. Corluka and Lennon is another partnership which, in my opinion, just "clicked" and we got more than the sum of the parts out of the pair of them. It's why I remain absolutely agnostic about new signings for the most part - who knows what'll happen and how the player will fit? There are odd exceptions - I don't think there was much chance of Friedel being a let-down when he joined, for instance. But those times are few and far between. Really hope Soldado continues to re-ignite his career. Sorry that AVB broke him by playing a system that made him a spectator for the most part (really think the period when he first joined may have killed his confidence a bit) but, for a player who flopped so clearly for us, he's someone that most, if not all, Spurs fans will hold in remarkably warm regard.
If anyone destroyed Soldado's confidence, it was Sherwood - AVB made him the #1 striker, but Sherwood made him #3.
By that point AVB had worked his magic on him for half a season! Instituting a system where he barely touched the ball! I doubt if any Spurs fan at the time or since can really criticize the way Sherwood both got the best out of Adebayor and gave Kane his first real taste of the BPL. I'm not totally married to the theory that AVB had a key role in Soldado not working out at Spurs. But in trying to work it out I can't help but think of all those early games where I was pitying the poor sod as looking more isolated than any Spurs striker for a long while. Then again though - it's a tough job to pinpoint why and how things turn out as they do much of the time.
I am really pleased because he scored most of his goals from the right. That he scored most of them with his left foot is almost as impressive. I'd thought he was a right footed left winger. One source lists him as right footed, the other says "both". As it stands I'd guess he played mostly on the left because that's where Lederhosen needed him to play, but that if anything he's better on the right, where we need help. He's a better signing than I thought. Having an RM with a good right foot should really help.
Apparently, Pato's agent has confirmed we are negotiating with Corinthians over a move. Supposedly €11m. Sounds about right. We don't have any long term injury crocked players in our squad at the moment, so it's about time we had one. With his track record, that's such a risk, IMO.
Wow, he doesn't score dull goals this guy does he? What I like about him from this showreel is he has great pace and is willing to run at defences and beat them. We haven't had anything like that since Bale or even Lennon left (and no I wouldn't include Townsend in that category). He's also been blooded in the Bundesliga which will have toughened him up and been made to work against well drilled, tight defences. If he can score anything like the types of goals he's produced here and use that pace of his, we could have a real potential star on our hands. There's a ton of these montage videos around of players that tend to make them all look like world beaters so I tend to take them with a pinch of salt but this is the first one I've seen for a while where I thought damn this guy looks good. I remember being totally underwhelmed when I saw the Eric Lamela reel. It was dreadful. Speaking of which... his days have to be numbered now and surely he'll be off back to Italy by Monday.
Pato was once the most glorified young Brazilian on the planet, he was the Neymar of his time when at Internacional and then AC Milan but then it went pear-shaped after a couple seasons. Apparently he has 21 goals this season so it looks like his return to Brazil has seen him get amongst the goals again. If the fee is €11m, which is what, £7m? Then it's actually a deal we should pursue. IF we manage to get the Pato that at one point looked destined to become the best striker on the planet then £7m is ****ing peanuts in footballing terms, if he comes over and doesn't produce/ gets too many injuries then although not ideal, £7m really isn't going to hit the club too hard, at 25 years old we could probably recoup that if things didn't work out.
Pato would be a risk, he has been dogged by thigh and hamstring injuries, but at his best he is a quick, agile and creative forward, and an excellent finisher also. He would be worth pursuing at £7m in my opinion, and at 26 years old should be approaching his peak as a player.
So we can cross Llorente off the list: he joined Sevilla on Thursday. I bet he's already tweeting photos of him and Konoplyanka in training, the bastard!
I've just seen a report that said the original £7.26m for Pato is wrong, and his release clause would actually be £14.5m. Supposedly this is because of a non payment of image rights by Corinthians. How do you feel about the transfer at that price?
