I saw a great post by
@brieverton on this a while back which was critical but fair. On the face of it we are repeating much of the mistakes of last summer, paying big fees for PL players.
I think there is a bit more to it though. Firstly he's the right age, Bolasie, Williams, Sigurdsson were not. He is very close to Marco Silva, who got an awful lot more out of him than the other manager did. When he was fresh under Silva, he was on course for 10 goals in the season and 10+ assists. As a baseline (and for me in a side that will be at least as good so the stats may get better) that would mark a very decent return for us next season.
There was also a lot of panic with the above players and it was difficult to see the logic of some. It looks like Silva has had a good look at the squad, prioritises the training pitch, making existing players better, and then looks for signings where he may have a gap, which is the right way to do it. Whereas for Koeman it was very much he wanted to gamble with players and signings. Richarlinson feels very targeted.
I understand the comparisons to Kliuvert and Malcolm. The first point is there is a big risk signing from European leagues, generally they are not as strong and also not as physical. The French is a drop off to the Premier League while the Dutch league is a big drop off again. Klaassen and Sandro had great records abroad but we have been burned on both players. To me there's a good argument to say that Richarlinson's performance in the PL, with 5 goals and 8 assists is better than the record of Malcolm in the weaker French League.
There is also an English tax. We'd be stupid to ignore that. So what sides in Europe sell to each other at bears little resemblance to what we end up paying. See Allisson at Liverpool, I doubt he goes for half that if it's another Italian team. But they know we have money and want players. It looks like the figure for Malcolm was very similar to Richarlinson and there may have been a final bit lobbed on for good measure to get it over the line.
I have no doubt longer term Brands will want to be more flexible with signings. However presently we cannot compete with Roma, Monaco, Dortmund, Athletico for players currently and will need to build up more runs in Europe to do so. So we are fortunate to get Richarlinson.
I like the lad, his stats are good but also he works incredibly hard off the ball, presses well, wins lots of headers, covers ground, wins tackles and blocks and generally presses from the front. If we can get just what he showed under Silva at Watford with that pressing he will be good for us.
It's a gamble from Silva, it will change the narrative, from the manager fighting against the odds with low expectations, to one who will now be expected to do vastly better than last season. He will live or die on his abilities to improve young players, and for me Richarlinson will be a fine example of that. If he can get 15 goals and 10+ assists in the league next season those goals will be invaluable in improving us.
Need some snarl in this side. With this fella, Walcott and Lookman we have pace for Cenk and The Prince to nod 'em in. Plenty of targets there for Sigs.
