01-03-2019, 05:04 PM
(01-03-2019, 04:28 PM)Nicolas Wrote: I personally don’t think that it is productive in any way to hold our current crop of players up against a "borderline" based on a team long gone.
If this club is to be brought back to a level that resembles former glory, it has to be done incrementally. Step by step. We don’t have the finances of Chelsea, City or PSG so there is no point in acting as if we do, by dismissing players based on our distant glorious memories.
At this point we cannot sign players of the quality of what we had in the past, simply because we are a much less attractive destination. That is why we have to settle for less now. But less is not necessarily bad, and a player like Bakayoko is most certainly an upgrade over Biglia, Montolivo, Kucha, Bertolacci, Fernandez, Pasalic, Locatelli and the rest of the central midfielders we have deployed over the past years.
We have to focus on qualifying consistently for the CL to be able to attract a better crop of players, and to accomplish that a player of Bakayoko’s level is a step in the right direction. It took Juventus five years to reach a point where they could compete for the scudetto after the Calciopoli, and in that time they signed a lot of mediocre players, not because those players were great, but because those were the players they could get - and in that process they managed to find a few to build upon. This club should not think or act big, because we are not big. We are mediocre in every sense of the word, and the only way out of it is by continuously make smart signings and incrementally improve our squad.
For those who think that every player should be held up against former legends, I ask you how well do you think signings like a young Gattuso or a young Pirlo would have compared against a "borderline" based on greats such as Rijkaard or Desailly? As far as I recall people weren’t terribly impressed by them in the beginning either, but eventually they came good, they were smart signings - not big stars.
Step by step improvement still don't mean that we need to settle for mediocres. And Bakayoko is currently one of them. He still needs to prove that he isn't. You 're saying that he is "step in right direction". How on the earth did you come to that conclusion?! Based on 4 semi good games?! You simply can not be serious. Before those games he had 10 absolutely dreadful games. Consdiering his all games since he arrived - he is still bad. We don't need player who will play 10 bad and 4 good games. We had tons of them. Let's wait and see if he can perform few months on certain levels ,and than we can talk about "steps in right direction".
As for former signings ,none of them had crucial role in team when they arrived. Than you can tolerate and let player to grow and learn on mistakes. It is acceptable. But it is not acceptable to have player like that and to consider him as vital part of team and to think "good, i have him, that's covered, let's move on"...
Bakayoko can not be ,and must not be (especially based on his performances since he arrived) considered as our first choice. We need to seek for better. And yes ,we can keep him as backup ,to let him grow and to see if he's going to turn in this or that direction.
We can attract big players. We "attracted" Bonucci ,Higuain...Those kind of players we need ,but in MIDFIELD ,not in defence and not in attack ,cause without midfield it's all worthless...as proved with both...
Avaiting for arrival of exorcist into our boardroom.