Most people would be all for this transfer if we weren't so desperate for instant proven quality upfront.
Anthony Martial
- Thread starter Rozay
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Not the ideal signing for this season but you know what? Sod it. Future world class players are hard to come by and we'd all be gutted if City or Chelsea were buying him.
It's a bit feckin' mental...
Never heard of him
I think Martial has a better potential, but Lacazette is really good. He wasn't as good as Martial at the same age though.
And the thing is that Monaco is a selling club, but they don't sell like idiots they want to perform in the league and qualify in CL, so some players are planned to be sold, it was the case for Moutinho, Abdennour and Kurzawa but not the case for Kondogbia the offer was very good and they had enough players to cover his departure and therefore changed their plan.
For Martial they have no cover for this season but they will next season, so only a huge offer will make them change their mind and 50m isn't huge enough imo, Hernandez could have been a good offer.
Parody
Is he going to help us score more goals? I mainly just want us to score more goals.
He did but a good offer could have change everyone's mind, now it's too late I think.
Would his autograph classify as martial art? 
Never heard of the lad before, but €50+ million for a 19 year old in this market is nothing. World class potential etc. He looks awesome om youtube, and twitter says he's the greatest thing since sliced bread. And €50+ million for sliced bread ain't even that bad in this market.
Never heard of the lad before, but €50+ million for a 19 year old in this market is nothing. World class potential etc. He looks awesome om youtube, and twitter says he's the greatest thing since sliced bread. And €50+ million for sliced bread ain't even that bad in this market.
I'd rather take a punt at the next big thing of the month and pick up a few duds if it meant getting a future superstar every once in a while as well. No-one has a 100% hit rate when it comes to buying young players, but if you don't buy any you'll never get the best players without paying through the nose like Real have done with Ronaldo, Bale and James. I'd rather have picked up Hazard for half the price when he left Lille.
Memphis looks a prospect if he can adapt to the league, but apart from him, when's the last time we picked up a young attacking player who looked destined for greatness? 2007 with Nani and Anderson? No wonder our attack has gone to the dogs despite us spending fortunes on the likes of Berbatov, van Persie, Mata, Di Maria and wages for Falcao and Rooney. Throwing money at short-term "solutions" that have delivered for one or two seasons on average instead of thinking long-term and value for money by paying what it takes to get top young talent. The result is that we're now so desperate for quality up front that we have to keep throwing enormous sums around just to keep up. Martial won't fix anything for us now, and we need that fix if we're going to have a hope of improving on our 4th place finish from last season. If we'd had an established attack with players still in their prime, a player like Martial would have been an excellent addition to an already strong strike force, that could develop in an environment where the expectations put on him are lower. I feel like Memphis too is given less than ideal conditions to comfortably come to terms with the ins and outs of the league since he's being asked to so much of the work for us up front, even as a brand new signing barely into his twenties.
There was raving about Agüero, Hazard, Neymar, Silva, Sanchez and James long before they made their first big money moves. We were linked to all of them, but didn't pay what it took at the time. Hindsight is 20/20, but it's shocking in my opinion that we didn't sign even one of those players, with all our focus on youth and being the biggest club in the world. All the talk of value in the market in the last 5-7 years, and we've missed out on almost every future superstar at what we now know was a bargain price, because we didn't have the balls to take a chance on potential.
We did let Pogba go for free, though.
What is his actual position anyway? Winger? Striker? #10?
Scored 12 in 27 last season (all comps) which is decent, but not outstanding.
Scored 12 in 27 last season (all comps) which is decent, but not outstanding.
We will get fleeced.
Last season, left wing with Berbatov upfront and this season upfront as a lone striker.
So he's pretty versatile? I like that. And 12 goals from the wing is a very good return for a youngster.
My French mate who is very passionate and knowledgable about French football highly rates him. Similar and same potential as Benzema apparently
He also played upfront last season, so I couldn't tell you from where he scored exactly but yeah he is versatile.
Did very well in the game against Arsenal on the wing.
Not really sure I follow the logic of spending a shit load (and it is a shit load) of money on potential, when we need someone who can contribute on a consistant basis right now.
This would be a bit mental, but after 10 minutes of intensive youtube and google scouting I can confirm that I like the cut of his gib.
Thing is if they're rejecting 50m for a 19 year old then he must have some fecking potential. I don't know how any club could turn down that king of money for a 19 year old.
It is like another club spending £37m on Welbeck after his first season on loan with Sunderland. I am not entirely convinced, but that is only because I have not watched much of him.
It is good that he has pace, but I can't tell what else from the video. Last season during the champion league, from what I remember, he was anonymous
It is good that he has pace, but I can't tell what else from the video. Last season during the champion league, from what I remember, he was anonymous
Where do you reckon he'll end up playing in the end? Is he a natural striker, or more of a winger who's being converted?
I think they may just want to fleece us for as much as they can because they know how desperate we are with the window about to close.
Similar record to Benzema at the same age, though Benzema was still to have his true breakout season.
From what I've gleaned so far:
Would we be overpaying? Yes.
Might it still be worth it? Also yes.
Given that I don't care much what we do with the money we rinse from Aon for shoving branding all over Carrington, overpaying is fine with me. Just want the talent.
Unfortunately that boat (Pedro) has sailed. I do generally agree though.
I love young talented players as much as the next guy, but it does feel like we really need some instant quality right now.
His youth record was ridiculous, scored 32 goals in 21 games for Lyons u17s when he was 15
He is a striker, basically like Benzema and Henry, the french league is tough physically, so it's easier for the young strikers with pace and technique to gain some playing time on the wing.
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Cheers for into mate, appreciate it.
Taking a punt on a raw talent from an iffy league just seems insane at this point, especially for the fees being quoted. It's clearly going to take Depay a while to adjust, so expecting another young player to acclimatise, especially when there is so much pressure on the team to deliver, would seem like a recipe for disaster to me.
I'm all for gradually introducing promising young players but preferably when there is already a solid, functioning and successful structure in place. We just don't have that yet.
I'm all for gradually introducing promising young players but preferably when there is already a solid, functioning and successful structure in place. We just don't have that yet.
Thanks, I didn't have them. People haven't heard of him but he is the biggest talent since he is 14 years old. There is another one big anonymous talent who is playing at Clairefontaine but I don't have his name.
The positive about this potential transfer is he can play wide as well as striker so he'll surely get more than enough game times to develop to the player we want him to be.
Yeah I think if he had stayed at Lyon and played in the same team as Lacazette and Fekir last season there would be a lot more hype around him now
Doesn't have to work that way around - we brought Rooney and Ronaldo in when the rest of the team was in relative chaos, they were involved almost every week and by the time we got the rest of the side sorted, they were ready to be major players in it. Nani and Anderson were brought into a successful team and were in and out of it, neither really getting where they should have. The question is whether they have the talent and the mentality to make it with you, not whether the team can carry them whilst they learn.
We didn't really have that in 2004 either. We re-built the team with Rooney and Ronaldo and by the time we'd brought in the missing pieces (VdS, Vidic, Evra and Carrick) they'd already established themselves as important players, so by the time 06/07 came around it all came together nicely.
Where would he stand alongside Lazacatte and Fekir? They're the names I've heard a lot about from the French league.
At Lyon he was considered has better than Fekir, Benzia and all the rest, they played him in 2012/2013 for the first time, he was playing with the reserve.
So Monaco are saying he's not for sale and we have already sold Hernandez to Leverkusen?
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