LFC2007 wrote:cuppatea wrote:I said it was an even split between good and bad comments on that forum...
You implied that there was a CLEAR consensus against Babel, hence why you wrote:
"but you can't tell me it doesn't worry you when the majority of Dutch football fans (who've seen him week in, week out) think we're getting mugged."
One forum does not represent the whole of Ajax, and there were plenty of comments offering him praise. That "but" that you talk about is nothing out of the ordinary, you can put a "but" over any player his age. The same applies to Nani and Anderson.
I don't think they would be too distraught at losing him, they are getting a more than healthy sum in return. There is an inevitability about Ajax's young players anyway, the quality ones will always seek to progress in a European League other than the Eredivisie. I think that has a part to play too.
Bad Bob wrote:As for Babel, I know very little about the lad. I doubt very much that he'll be an absolute world beater for us in his first season--particularly given the 'rawness' our Dutch friends keep alluding to. What I hope he'll be is a player that makes a significant impact for us when he plays this season (like Garcia did) and who will grow into the role of a quality first teamer over the next couple of years.
David Villa wrote:Bad Bob wrote:As for Babel, I know very little about the lad. I doubt very much that he'll be an absolute world beater for us in his first season--particularly given the 'rawness' our Dutch friends keep alluding to. What I hope he'll be is a player that makes a significant impact for us when he plays this season (like Garcia did) and who will grow into the role of a quality first teamer over the next couple of years.
Personally i think Yossi Benayoun will be the player to replace Luis Garcis because Yossi like Luis Garcia is a very technical player.
dawson99 wrote:I say it as from what ive seen on babel and what mates have seen i think hes the buy of the season in the premiership.
plus, no offence to the dutch fans, but they are probably stoned and definately bitter.
id love to know what players at ajax you think are better than him tbag
s@int wrote:I think the main difference between our signings and the mancs is that Torres and to a lesser extent Babel and Benayoun are intended to strengthen the team, whereas the mancs signings with the possible exception of Hargreaves are intended to strengthen their squad while they develop and adapt, in the same way I expect Lucas and Leto will for us.
My worry is that if Torres takes time to settle or (god forbid) does a Morientes and doesn't adapt, we have no-one else with any pace to replace him.
s@int wrote:I think the main difference between our signings and the mancs is that Torres and to a lesser extent Babel and Benayoun are intended to strengthen the team, whereas the mancs signings with the possible exception of Hargreaves are intended to strengthen their squad while they develop and adapt, in the same way I expect Lucas and Leto will for us.
Sean wrote:In October 1998, Roy Keane was the exact age Gerrard is now. By that stage he had already had won three league titles, was on the verge of being the main man in a team that would win an unprecedented treble that season and was captain of club and country.
Gerrard has another year or two to reach his peak but I just do not think he controls and dictates the pattern of a game like Keane used to do. Gerrard is better goal scoring threat but I reckon Keane bullyed his team mates into winning titles at the scum. His influence was enormous. I just wish Gerrard could acquire that domineering presence.
cuppatea wrote:Yes but like I say, those comments are for the benefit of an English Liverpool fan. It's like if someone from Panathanaikos had come on here 2 years ago asking about Igor Biscan, I'm guessing most would have been fairly complimentary about him,
http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfi....-20.php
There's a link to a translation of a Dutch forum (I had a Dutch mate translate it for me but you can get the jist from that, even if it's in broken English). Someone posted a link near the top saying Liverpool have offered 10 million euros for Babel (just over half what we eventually paid), and over half the comments that follow says they should take the offer. Not only that, but 4 or 5 of them describe the offer as "beautiful", aswell as chiming in with comments like "he needs 10 chances to score 1 goal", "10 mil for someone who can't trap a ball?", "an inefficient footballer with chronic tunnel vision" and "we missed the championship by 1 point and I blame a large part of that on the low output of Babel".
Now I take your point about Henry (God I hope he's another Henry), and the inevitibility of Ajax's status as a selling club affecting the fans attitude towards this deal, but at the same time, if you look at them talking about the 15 mil euro offer from Valencia for Sneijder, most of them are loathe to let him leave, which clearly isn't the case with Babel at all.
My fear here is that we missed out on our primary targets (Malouda, Mancini, Quaresma, Alves etc) and with time quickly running out (Benitez wanted new players in time for the start of pre-season training), Benitez opted for Babel (his price having been inflated by his performance in the U21 final), without having sufficiently scouted him during last season's Eredivisie.
bigmick wrote:Sean wrote: I despise the mancs as much as anyone but will acknowledge that Keane was the outstanding player of his generation and only wish Gerrard was on a par.
Well they are very different players and difficult as such to compare but I would have thought that Gerrard is probably entering a stage of his career where he could surpass Keane on an individual level.
There is absolutely no question that at his peak, Keane was the best midfield player in the Premiership with only latterly Vierra able to challenge him, and it is my view that Gerrard is comfortably the best around right now. It could in fact be argued that Gerrard is further ahead than Keane was of his immediate rivals as in all honesty, there isn't a midfield player in the truest sense of the word (ie not a winger) that could be realistically mentioned in the same breath as our captain at the moment. I would suppose that Fabregas is in the early stages of developing into an absolutely fantastic player, but he is alone on the horizon of challengers to Gerrard in my opinion anyway.
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