In light of breaking news that I’m ITK about and my stellar record of starting 26 Saint! threads which led to zero signings I thought best to have a thread for the potential signing of Eduard Spertsyan
Straight from the horses mouth. «Սաութհեմփթոնի» թիրախ Էդուարդ Սպերցյանը իր ապագայի մասին. «Լեզյուր Ուորլդում Ժոանեսի հետ հանդիպելուց հետո հասկացա, որ ինձ համար կա միայն մեկ ակումբ»
Huh? We already have five FBs at the club: Bree, Sugawara, Manning, Welington, Taylor... and that's before you get to Edwards being asked to play at RB
I still think if he’s as good as people are making out, and the main reason nobody has bought him up until now is because of the issues around where he plays. Then if we are very publicly showing it can be done now, then someone else will come in and gazump us last minute.
An Armenian takes his son hunting with him for the first time. - I don't understand, Daddy, - the son says. - How are you going to hunt? You have no gun with you, no traps, no net even... - Ah, son, you don't know what our Armenian jinx is like. There, look, a rabbit is sitting under that bush. Such a strong, healthy little rabbit, such shiny fur it has, such bright eyes... The rabbit drops dead at once. - Wow, Daddy! That was something! You're so smart, so strong, such a great hunter, it was amazing how you took down that prey... Daddy? Daddy??? Daddy!!!
Do Brighton, Bournemouth and Brentford question all their unknown signings? Granted their track record is a lot better. But it can’t be that everyone they sign is 19 so without much track record behind them Caicedo was known to Man United but they didn’t like how his agents were handling things. They clearly regret that now It just might not be as simple as that. Could be that he is a very traditional number 10 that most teams - including us, don’t use and/or can’t fit into their systems There was a good article on either our main transfer page or the SW one talking about his potential suitors and why they might have dropped out
I don’t think we used to question unknown signings either. This was back when we had a good hit rate with finding players. Only natural to question it now with our hit rate of “unknowns” being pretty poor. I don’t think he is questioning the signing either, just saying that it would appear that Ajax dropped out because of it being hard to deal with a Russian side, and if we can get a deal done it could very easily leak out how the deal is structured/payment works and someone more attractive could just match that
If we are serious about getting a genuine number 10 type of player then I can only assume that playing with 3 CBs is a passing phase. Otherwise I don’t see how we fit him into the team without asking him to play a different role, unless we ditch the wide players and give the responsibility of giving the team width solely to the WBs, in a 3-4-1-2 formation. But doesn’t Still like wingers, I which case a 4-2-3-1 or 4-2-1-3 would give him the width.
He may see Fernades/new creative signing playing in the 2 alongside Downes or Charles. He might think we don’t need 2 more defensive minded players in those roles. Would be very attacking though. He has mentioned how he likes direct play and from what we’ve seen so far it looks like he wants to get the ball wide and cross it in for the forwards, or hit deeper balls into the box. This makes a creative central player pretty redundant in my view. He is also meant to be tactically flexible so maybe he has just identified that we are lacking a proper number 10 and wants one to be able to switch up formations and systems as he chooses and not have to play players in positions they don’t suit
