by bigmick » Mon Oct 10, 2005 8:50 am
I was just thinking the other day, what if one of the bright young managers in the Prem, (Curbishley, Allardyce, Pearce etc) got poached to go and run Real Haveawedge in La Liga, would they come back and plunder the English Market like Houllier, Benitez and Wenger have done with their home nation? Would their fans be happy if they did? Who would they buy, are they good enough and would it be a good idea?
British players are too expensive though surely? Well, Rafa came to Liverpool and bought Alonso. An unqualified success and a fantastic player. An English comparison? Michael Carrick. Don't think he's quite in Alonso's class TBH so don't all go crazy but I do think he's an excellent player. He is the best English holding midfielder by a mile in my view. Price? 3 million quid from West Ham. Hardly an out of the blue purchase, he was touted by all and sundry before Spurs went in. Luis Garcia? One of my favourite players, trickster and game breaker extraordinaire. Comparison? Joe Cole would probably cost about the same money (6 million), would he offer more on a consistent basis? No in my opinion but by now I hope you are getting my drift. Reina at 8 million quid? makes Paul Robinson look quite cheap at 2.5 million IMHO, or another young keeper that I like, Robert Green at about 3 mill'. Morientes at 6 mill? Don't get me started.
So what's the point? Good question. Well, January is coming up and we're like as not going to pay 10-12 million for this Simao bloke. Haven't seen much of him TBH but can imagine he's a top player. Realistically though, how long will it take him to adapt to British football. How long would it take Sean Wright-Phillips to adapt to La Liga with it's different language, climate and style of play? How long did it take Ian Rush to adapt to Italy? (not a bad player in his day). We should just buy Joaquin say most. 20-25 million in all probability. Need a centre half? Milito at about 10-15 million is your man mate. First time he plays against Drunkan Duncan and doesn't get a foul when he falls over he'll think WTF. A top player no doubt but how long will it take him to settle? A season anyone? Remember Pires, Reyes etc etc they all say. Well I do and they took a while and what's more Reyes who is a superb player admittedly, would jet back to spain in a jiffy if one of the big clubs came in.
Still don't see your point mate, sorry. Well, I say if we need a centre-half lets look closer to home. Ledley King at about 15 million quid. Overpriced? don't make me laugh, the bloke would settle from day one and would be worth about ten league points a season to us. Need a winger? sure lets look at Simao etc etc but if Curbishley was manager at Simao's club who would he buy to replace him? Stuart Downing maybe? (I think Simao generally plays wide-right but against Manure he played left so run with it). I reckon he'd get Downing for around 7 mill' and make himself 5 on the deal. Need somebody wide right? I've long said it, lets take a punt on Glen Johnson. Somebody will one day convert him from a full back into a wide midfielder, might as well be us. 2 mill' mate for a Josemi type gamble. Worse comes to the worst, you could alwways flog Josemi to pay for it and use Johnson as your right-back cover aswell.
British players expensive? I don't think so necessarily. You've just got to look closely. Somebody spotted Dean Ashton who I'd swap for Morientes in a heartbeat, ditto Darren Bent. Danny Gabbidon was touted on here by Taff last season and needless to say he got laughed off. Looks quite cheap at 3 million now though I've got to say.
I don't think for one minute that this is the route we will go down but I think we should at least look. Please when you reply, don't get too hung up on the Alonso/Carrick comparison, that's not the point of the post. The point is, look at home first.
Last edited by
bigmick on Mon Oct 10, 2005 8:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
"se e in una bottigla ed e bianco, e latte".