We sold Naismith because we received an offer we couldn't refuse, given we signed him on a free transfer 4 years earlier and he wasn't getting any younger or going to improve. And it was also pre Moshiri, so we had to sell to buy.
We sold him to another Premier league team who were fighting relegation and gave us good money. I'm sure we had aspirations of improving on him when we did sell him, but it hasn't really worked out like that has it.
If you can honestly tell me Naismith wasn't more effective and more of a goal threat than this fella, even when played out of position in midfield, you are clearly incredibly blinkered and biased. Not only was he a better finisher, he did it against top teams as well. Tosun doesn't even turn up against lower teams more than half the time.
As for where Naismith is now playing, the fact he's not playing top level at 32 having had an ACL injury before we signed him is hardly surprising, and he is Scottish, so going back there is hardly some massive reach. It's a very dismissive argument, and has no bearing on the comparison of Tosuns ability.
Tosun for me, has done little to suggest he's going to improve. You can play well and not score, plenty of forwards can improve a team with movement, intelligence, hold up play, pace, winning the ball in the air, pulling defenders out of position to create space for others, neat interchange with other attacking players, etc. He does none of this, and his positioning and strikers instincts are almost non existent. He is in many ways, very similar to Sandro.
Sometimes, you can see bad form for what it is, things not falling for him, bad luck, etc. I don't see it with him, so I'm not confident it will fix itself with time.
I hope I'm wrong, but like Sigurdsson, we should be looking at better, or younger with room to grow and improve... preferably both.
Unfortunately, like last year, we have played ourself into a position where we are now desperate for points on the board, especially given the relative easy start we have messed up, so that throwing the younger players in at the deep end with our toxic crowd would be suicide. So we are stuck with going with "experience".
