Confirmed Signing Allan

[Houghty19]

Watched the vid, he's got to lose the kid creole tache. Likes a tackle with the looks of it, looks like he wants to go forward with the ball (dont think I'll ever get used to one of our midfielders doing this), looks like he can pick a pass. I'd have him in my midfield as long as the tache goes.

 

[TheSecondComing]

this is the one I can’t see happening maybe if he was last piece in the puzzle but he’s not

 

[Dutch Toffee]

this is the one I can’t see happening maybe if he was last piece in the puzzle but he’s not

Think we might be better off, throwing that complete puzzle in the bin and starting a brand new one.

 

[JLW]

Think we should go all out for him. Exactly what we need an absolute animal in the middle of the park. Right now we don’t have a ball player, a ball winner, a snide, someone athletic who can see a pass, no one to link play, we don’t even have two players that complement each other!

 

[Billy Dean]

Been no real successful 442 teams in the past 10 years+. Even Southampton's looks a little bit more fluid but to neglect just 2 in a midfield when majority of teams have three is a big no-no.

I thought this too but someone on here corrected me, mentioning Leicester, Atletico Madrid, RB Leipzig etc

 

[Stephenlloyd]

This is a good analysis. I don't think CA plays a traditional 4-4-2 with 2 wingers.
At least one of the wingers is encouraged to come inside to help the central 2.

But if you watched his Napoli team, Zielinski wouild often do that job from the wide areas. And he is more of a midfielder than a winger.

 

[Zezti]

I think there comes a point where you can't keep gambling on players who might step up or young players, otherwise you get in this endless loop we're in now of ~2 good players amongst a team of poor failures, selling one for big profit and taking a huge hit on the rest, reinvesting in gambles and repeat. Sometimes you just have to buy proven even if they're only around for 2-3 years.

 

[jazzy]

But if you watched his Napoli team, Zielinski wouild often do that job from the wide areas. And he is more of a midfielder than a winger.

yes I'd agree with that

 

[TheBigIguana]

I think there comes a point where you can't keep gambling on players who might step up or young players, otherwise you get in this endless loop we're in now of ~2 good players amongst a team of poor failures, selling one for big profit and taking a huge hit on the rest, reinvesting in gambles and repeat. Sometimes you just have to buy proven even if they're only around for 2-3 years.

The problem is that we can't buy an entire team of proven players that can compete. I mean how many have we found in the last decade that were CL level? Unfortunately we aren't in a position to do that. In fact most of the good players we've had down the last decade have been younger players who improved while at the club. Guys like Williams, Sigurdsson and Bolasie have been some of the worst buys.

That's not to say never buy someone who isn't young when the right opportunity comes, but is a borderline CL level player for 30m at age 29 the right opportunity?

 

[Bainesy's Left Peg]

Watched the vid, he's got to lose the kid creole tache. Likes a tackle with the looks of it, looks like he wants to go forward with the ball (dont think I'll ever get used to one of our midfielders doing this), looks like he can pick a pass. I'd have him in my midfield as long as the tache goes.

Couldn’t agree less. I’d have him in our midfield as long as the ‘tache STAYS...Hipster innit

 

[Houghty19]

Couldn’t agree less. I’d have him in our midfield as long as the ‘tache STAYS...Hipster innit

Being probably older than most on here it just brings back horrible memories of kid creole (although his coconuts can come along if they want). Too many bad fashions while thinking i looked "trendy" when infact i looked ridiculous. I just want to help Allan to not have to relive those days like i do when he eventually looks back and thinks "what was i thinking"

 

[Bainesy's Left Peg]

Being probably older than most on here it just brings back horrible memories of kid creole (although his coconuts can come along if they want). Too many bad fashions while thinking i looked "trendy" when infact i looked ridiculous. I just want to help Allan to not have to relive those days like i do when he eventually looks back and thinks "what was i thinking"

At risk of going seriously off topic...I used to video a programme called Raw Power which was a hard rock/heavy metal “magazine” show (loved my rock when in my teens) as it was shown around 2:30am, then used to catch up the next day. Absolutely devastated when without warning it was replaced with a Kid Creole and the Coconuts gig...
Anyway, Allan, sign him up, god knows we need some drive in the engine room

 

[allen]

I think there comes a point where you can't keep gambling on players who might step up or young players, otherwise you get in this endless loop we're in now of ~2 good players amongst a team of poor failures, selling one for big profit and taking a huge hit on the rest, reinvesting in gambles and repeat. Sometimes you just have to buy proven even if they're only around for 2-3 years.

But we tried that in summers of 2016 and 2017. That brought us such hits as Gylfi, Rooney, Bolasie and Ashley Williams.

We’re better off buying earlier in the curve. Not when players are at their peak.

Having said that, I’d still have Allan.

 

[Zezti]

But we tried that in summers of 2016 and 2017. That brought us such hits as Gylfi, Rooney, Bolasie and Ashley Williams.

We’re better off buying earlier in the curve. Not when players are at their peak.

Having said that, I’d still have Allan.

Gylfi, Bolasie and Williams were all from teams below us who don't even have 1 CL appearance between them. Allan has nearly 30. Not that its the best indicator of quality but its enough imo to show he's way ahead of those you listed. Rooney's the only exception and if I'm being honest we should have kept him for another season, but 1 striker-turned-midfielder isn't comparable to an actual midfielder who our manager personally knows, anyway.
Buying 24 year olds, giving them a fat wage on a 5 year deal is exactly how we end up with all this immovable crap when they don't step up.

 

[TheBigIguana]

Gylfi, Bolasie and Williams were all from teams below us who don't even have 1 CL appearance between them. Allan has nearly 30. Not that its the best indicator of quality but its enough imo to show he's way ahead of those you listed. Rooney's the only exception and if I'm being honest we should have kept him for another season, but 1 striker-turned-midfielder isn't comparable to an actual midfielder who our manager personally knows, anyway.
Buying 24 year olds, giving them a fat wage on a 5 year deal is exactly how we end up with all this immovable crap when they don't step up.

But we don't have that much immovable crap that we purchased at that age right? Sandro is one example but he still was only 5m originally. Another is Besic but again, no real outlay to begin with. McCarthy we weren't really trying to sell as much as we were trying to have him stay healthy. He went pretty quickly once he wasn't hurt anymore. I guess Mirallas took awhile to ship but he was a good player too at his peak. Other guys like Vlasic, Onyekuru and Lookman went quickly and at small profits to boot. Hell even Klaassen and Funes Mori weren't that hard to sell.

The flip side of that is Williams, Bolasie, Sigurdsson, Tosun, Walcott, Schneiderlin (their ages at purchase btw were 31, 27, 27, 26, 28, and 27) and whoever else who were all purchased at older ages and have not only stunk the place out like some of those listed above, but also been completely immovable once it was clear that they couldn't play. I do understand that Allan has a better pedigree than those (well by CL appearances he actually doesn't beat Walcott I'm sure but nonetheless), but the age is the key thing here for me. He has to be good or it is a disaster. If we buy Sangare as an example he could be average or worse and it still wouldn't completely cripple us, I don't think.

It just seems to me like the most damaging purchases have all been players who we paid big fees for at age 26+ because when those types of guys don't work no one is left wanting to take them on at any kind of real price. The worst of the youngish ones so far have been Iwobi and Klaassen and even those would probably be smaller losses than Schneiderlin was and Bolasie figures to be.