It's just a prediction OnlyOneDB. I do believe we can do better, much better even, just being a realist in prediction. Trying to be objective. I'd be happy to be proven wrong by the team on the pitch, and I'll be cheering us on all the way. I do think that Arsenal and Liverpool are beatable, especially by us. I think we'll do well against those teams, but I think Liverpool will have a better time than they did last season in other games and I don't see Wenger slouching where transfers are concerned with the money and CL football he's just acquired. I even think we'll do better against Chelsea if we keep our core players fit. We were unlucky to lose against them last season imho. I just think we've needed to strengthen in key areas for the longest time, and still haven't. We still lack an obvious leader type who can take a game by the scruff of the neck and drive the team when needed. This was obvious against Man U last Monday, when we capitulated. Our midfield options, as good as they are, could be improved. It also now looks like King and Gallas are in worse shape than Woodgate!! Bassong isn't quite the rock we require and Dawson and Kaboul seem to need experienced help to perform at their best. I won't begin to talk about the strikers. I hear you vimhawk. I'll stand up now as one who'd be glad to take a chance on this Brazilian kid. Especially as other quality options don't seem to be coming in. Obviously, Levy and Harry know better than me and I trust their judgement, but I don't see him being worse than Pav was last season for example, and Pav was one of our better performers in the strikers department. I don't claim to know exactly all of the details of Levy's transfer successes and failures. I will admit that what I say is mostly theory. I'm not ITK. I'm actually a fan of Levy and even at this stage I'm confident that he will pull some gems out of the bag to push us forwards. However, my most reliable source for my 'theory' is Harry Redknapp. I just listen to what he has said about transfer dealing for the past year or so, re. Aguero and Llorente for example. He's hardly been silent about players we've been in for and couldn't get, and why. Then we have Modric talking about the 'ambition' of Chelsea. Mata talking openly about why he chose Chelsea over us and Arsenal. I believe we could do fourth again, with our meagre funds, as OnlyOneDB said. I believe we could even win the league. It's not beyond us. The question is, will we?
Since joining Santos in 2014, he's been on loan at various places and played his only 3 games ever in Europe (Real Betis earlier this year).Scored 10 goals in 52 games in this period. He's not featured for Brazil since 2013. 27 next week, but seemingly a spent force. Dodged a bullet there
The "bullet dodged" is not having had to pay all the money upfront that Internacional wanted, when doubt was there over his potential success.
Possibly, but big money was asked for him and it seems he's flopped when he should be at the peak of his career. Lucky escape, I think.
It certainly looks like it! I was all for it at that time. Obviously, it's hard to be sure how he would have fared here. But on the face of it, it looks like we swerved one - for once!!...
What's more telling is the last goal he scored was on August 8th 2015. He's coming up on an anniversary FFS!
