I wouldn't call that a bargain personally no. But you clearly rate him and I don't particularly. £12m is a lot in the Championship. Last time in the Championship we only spent £18m total. For me it all depends how much of a budget we have this time round. We've spent what? About £10m so far on Downs and Quarshie. If buying Azaz for £12m means we are done spending money this window I'd be severely underwhelmed with our spending.
I don’t especially rate him. But he is an upgrade on Smallbone and Aribo. Honestly if Downs is worth 8m, then Azaz for 12m is fine. He will actually improve the squad/first team.
Eh, £12m really isn't bad. I don't know if I'd go as far as to say bargain but I think it's a decent deal. His output is amongst the very best at this level for his position, despite what people's eye tests might be telling them If you spend £12m on him and he signs a 4yr deal, then his book value in a year from now is £9m and in two years from now is £6m - even if he is a total flop at PL level, we will be more than capable of breaking even and/or turning a profit for a AM in his mid 20s with the kind of output he has produced for Boro, Plymouth and hopefully ourselves Agree with you that if that's the end of our spending it's totally inadequate, but I really don't think it will be to be honest, we'll buy at least one more, pick up a GK and then take a couple of loans (1x wide player and 1x RB, I suspect)
Then if Dibling and/or Fernandes go for anything close to our reported demands, we'll likely see a few more on top of what you've mentioned.
A player who's still "young" (24), knows the division well and contributes in both goals and assists. We want to get back to the PL, and buying players that perform well in this division is essential in doing that, along with players that have upside of course. He reminds me of a slightly more potent Stuart Armstrong.
£12m seems fair, pretty much the starting point for player competency these days if we are looking to improve immediately. And he is better than some of our squad who currently steal a living in midfield
I'll qualify this by admitting to have seen very little of Azaz... But I think there's a certain arrogance in assuming we can just sign players who are PL ready whilst we are in the championship. a) they cost too much and b) they don't want to come to a championship team. What we should focus on for my money is a) getting players in with the qualities to get us promoted and b)improving the squad bit by bit. Azaz and possibly one other midfielder in and Aribo, Lallana and Gronbaek out *feels* like it puts us in a better place for now and in future. If we can do the same on the wing and at right back we'll be just fine and if we find that PL quality at the right price point then even better.
The list of great midfielders (not saying he is great) who went missing during games they ended up winning, is a long and noble one.
I really don’t know what some of our fanbase expects. We can’t sign PL ready players for the reasons you set out. But try and sign players that with a good season in a lower league have the potential to be good enough and that is also met with eye rolls and nods towards the failed experiments with city youngsters (by some). I expect the main issues with that latter approach are - too many of them and doing it in the PL So we can’t sign established premier league players. Our young players that aren’t ready and need development. But also signing players who perform well in the league we are actually in is met with derision as well. it sort of leaves washed up premier league players and that never goes well because they are also not really going to be ready should we go up granted - the above is an amalgamation of comments of fans across multiples sites. I doubt there is any one person who takes all of the above positions in one go. But the point is - we’re never going to please everyone in the fanbase. And some are more reasonable than others
