Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 12:43 amcurly_whirly wrote:I'm pleased that rafa is buying young talented players, and south american players are some of hte most exciting players in the world to watch however it does concern me for a number of reasons.
Firstly how many full backs do we need? granted that it doesn't state which side (left or right) so i could be jumping the gun a bit, however if its another left back - what theis he doing buying him? we've got 3 as it is and one of them is already south american and itsn't exactly exciting us at the mo. If is a right back then thank god for that, we need cover for finnan.
Secondly how many south americans have we seen in the prem that just can't cope and are not performing...far too many. Just look at tevez and masc have not really sparkled and nor has aurelio really...more of how to give the ball away!
Thirdly, lets face it, are they goin to break into the first team...highly unlikely before they have to get their work permits renewed and then we will have to sell them...most we will have to send them on loan so they can get the permits back, however the smaller clubs won't be able to pay the players wages in full...so money is going out when we could be spending it slightly better??
Even though i bitching quiet a bit here...i still think rafa has been great with his purchases and i know he knows what he is doing as he is a great manager, the best we have had in years, so i can't fault the buy...however these things do concern me from time to time!
Yes we may have a glut of 'LEFT-SIDED' full backs at the mo, but as Lando said they're not conventional full-backs. At 17 years old it's quite clear that this is another one for the future and you can never have too many young prospects 'cos as we know for the one Steven Gerrard that we've developed there have been probably the bet part of 100 that haven't made the grade.
As for South Americans not settling in the Premiership one thing that makes them different SO FAR to this lad is their age. They've all been established players that are either fully moulded into a style of playing or have nearly fully developed. Insua is a young lad that has still to fully develop and can be moulded into the english style of playing. Admittedly the spanish league is very different to the premiership but a fine example of moulding young Argentine stars can be seen at Barca in the form of Messi. Yes he's been there about 4 years since he was a young lad but it shows that a player can be moulded in that space of time if he's got the talent (which Rafa seems to think Insua's got.) Barcelona have spotted the rough diamond of a player in Messi and started to polish it into a fine diamond of a player.
Young players coming into the first team is a rarity these days but it should never be discounted. I'm not clear on how long the work-permits last for (is it the length of the players contract or a period set by the bureaucrats) but if he's given somethin like a 4 or 5 year contract when the deal becomes permanent then he'll have been in the EU for 5 years and will qualify for an EU passport.
(I hope this makes some sense but I've been doing about 5 things whilst writing this so I may have gone awry somewhere along the way.)
