Summer mercato 2021

[slifersd]

Sorry, I didn't mention his football capabilities 

- He is a master dribbler: completed 105 dribbles in 36 Serie A matches. At 30 I can't find anyone who could accomplish such a feat, except Messi 
- He is fast
- He is left-footed yet having a strong right foot.
- He can play RW, SS, and sometimes AM.
- He possesses good stamina, helped him play 36 matches full time while almost all wingers run out of gas quickly (ex: Chiesa, or our current RW)
- He has "instinct" in his dribbles and finishes, just my opinion 
And last but not least, he comes cheap for only 2.6M this season while someone like Faivre costs 12M+3 (our offer) or 15M right away (Brest). If Messias is 3 years younger, his price must be much higher than Faivre, IMO.

So, for CL:
- He can make us stronger by giving a new weapon: running pass opponent, on the right wing where both Alexis and Samu (and Florenzi) are not able to.
- More goals, our RWs (and LWs now) are not good at finishing
- He gives us depth. Surely. Any team competes in CL must have depth.
- He makes our tactics more realistically versatile by his position: RW in 4-2-3-1, SS in 4-4-2 (we now have 5 FWs: Ibra, Giroud, Pellegri, Rebic and he), and I think we could try him at CAM.

Of course, there are also downsides as his physical abilities can only get worse, his tactical awareness maybe not good (Milan can improve that), and I have questions for his 6 yellow cards last season (maybe that means he also joins the defense). 

In general, for 2.6M that's a nice move.

For 2.6m, he is fine for what he is. But we have glaring holes at RW and CAM that needed starter level players to fill, not some lottery ticket depth piece. This is pretty much in line with the Mandzukic signing from last season, signing a backup/depth piece for a role that needed someone much higher quality. He had one good season on a relegation level team, which means he has accomplished even less than someone like Samu or Krunic did before we signed them. And at the tender age of 30 (soon to be 31), he has no upside at all. That means, if he doesn't come in and immediately become a useful contributor, the signing was basically meaningless and useless because he has no upside at all. If we wanted to be financially responsible, this is the kind of signing we need to avoid at all cost. And before everyone start talking about how we should trust our scout network, I do trust them. And I know for a fact that this guy was option Z so that says a lot about his quality compared to the other targets we had. Better managed teams out there would've trusted a youth player over signing something like this.