Mitoma

elmo said:
The bar was lowered when people said Rashford was world class years ago.
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The bar was never lowered, people were just wrong.

I think at one point early in his career Rashford showed the potential and work ethic to perhaps become world class one day, but players don't become world class unless they either possess some outrageous level of talent e.g. Ronaldinho, or have a very high level of talent and combine it with an insanely dedicated work ethic and footballing intelligence e.g. Cristiano Ronaldo. When they have both, you get players like Messi.

For Rashford to ever be world class he was going to have to work unbelievably hard to be on a never ending crusade to improve and work harder than everyone else around him. He had the base level of talent and physique to be an elite forward, and perhaps truly world class, but by 22/23 he had stopped putting in the work. Like so many other players who could've been so much more. Having a world class mentality is almost always the differentiator between the greats, the goods and the wasted potentials. Too many players are recruited on the basis of physical ability and technical ability, without anywhere near enough focus on mentality. If I was running recruitment, I would make mental and personality assessment a central component of all scouting, initially centered around exhaustive background checks on their training performances, private lives, dietary habits etc. Then moving on to series of interactions/interviews before moving to sign the player. The flipside of this is that I would provide an unprecedented level of support to integrate the player into the local community, culture, and lifestyle, focusing on elements such as intensive language support/training, social mixing, support networks etc.

Clubs sometimes spend fifty or nearly a hundred million pounds on one individual, who is relocating to a foreign country, but then forget that these assets are people, not things; and those that provide a valuable return on investment are inevitably those that integrate the best into the club, country, and community. That can't happen without giving serious deference and attention to the human side of the equation and providing a massive amount of assistance and support to ensure that the enormous investment is worth it. As a club, I think we have been quite poor in the last decade or so in doing that, and I think it reflects in how poorly so many of our big signings have done.

Anyway, Mitoma...Fabulous little player on his day. An absolute gem for them and a real bargain as well. Not a player I would spend big money on, as he doesn't do it regularly enough for my tastes. He's also already 27, and would probably cost 75m+, but he is so enjoyable to watch on his day, and is one of the best players outside of the "big six". Today's goal was world class in his touch, control and finish. Truly fluid, sublime and clinical. There was something very Berbatovy about that touch, flick inside and immediate finish. A world class goal from a very good player.
 
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