07-08-2015, 06:53 PM
When it comes to Galliani, we kind of have to take the good with the bad these days. Rarely is he ever a manager who does everything right, even when he was younger and had a lot of money to spend every summer.
Adriano was probably a slight overpay based on his contract status, but the difference is likely 1 or 2M, which isn't really a lot in the grand scheme of things. Would we really feel that much better if he was signed for 7 or 6M? If the plan was to sign him for free in January, then the money makes a big difference, but that would also mean we wouldn't be able to count on him producing much this season at all, since it is a rather major adjustment to go from Ukraine to Italy;
Rami deal was a really bad one, in my opinion. He was our best defender and still had at least 3-4 years left in his prime. The fact that we sold him for so little was, to say the least, weird. But part of the bargaining also came from the price we signed the player for. We signed him for less than 5M the year before, and after a down year, it's a little difficult to convince another team to pay more than that for the guy. Juve signed Ogbonna for 15, 20M, and can therefore use that as a negotiation price point as well.
Kondo and JM deals were...circuses. Truth be told, I wanted both players more than Bacca and Bertolacci. Any time a team misses out on its primary targets and have to go with Plan B, the quality of the signing likely takes a dip. Plan A are plan A for a reason. But it all comes down to why the team identified them as our primary targets. Was Doyen the force behind it all? Or did Mihaj really thought Kondo and JM were the best fit for his scheme? If Doyen was the pushing hand, then Plan B might not be so bad afterall. But if Miha really wanted those two, then we could be taking a major risk with our Plan B guys.
Mauri's brother. Whatever, man. We got a 19 year old sensation for free and his brother wouldn't cost much. We have plenty of training cones with legs type of players in the squad and one more wouldn't hurt us much.
Mexes renewal. I wanted him gone, but if Alex and Zapata leaves instead, i would feel pretty good about it. Mexes can be useful if we put the right partner next to him. As long as his role is clearly defined, and it seems like he took a pretty massive paycut to stay, I am ok with this. Not happy, but ok.
My honest hope for the next two months is to get a good CB, a good midfielder and Ibra. If we end up with Laporte, Witsel and Ibra, this team can really go places. They would cost a lot, but we should still have a bit of cash left over from the 150M budget we had, and we can sell a few more players to raise some fund too.
Adriano was probably a slight overpay based on his contract status, but the difference is likely 1 or 2M, which isn't really a lot in the grand scheme of things. Would we really feel that much better if he was signed for 7 or 6M? If the plan was to sign him for free in January, then the money makes a big difference, but that would also mean we wouldn't be able to count on him producing much this season at all, since it is a rather major adjustment to go from Ukraine to Italy;
Rami deal was a really bad one, in my opinion. He was our best defender and still had at least 3-4 years left in his prime. The fact that we sold him for so little was, to say the least, weird. But part of the bargaining also came from the price we signed the player for. We signed him for less than 5M the year before, and after a down year, it's a little difficult to convince another team to pay more than that for the guy. Juve signed Ogbonna for 15, 20M, and can therefore use that as a negotiation price point as well.
Kondo and JM deals were...circuses. Truth be told, I wanted both players more than Bacca and Bertolacci. Any time a team misses out on its primary targets and have to go with Plan B, the quality of the signing likely takes a dip. Plan A are plan A for a reason. But it all comes down to why the team identified them as our primary targets. Was Doyen the force behind it all? Or did Mihaj really thought Kondo and JM were the best fit for his scheme? If Doyen was the pushing hand, then Plan B might not be so bad afterall. But if Miha really wanted those two, then we could be taking a major risk with our Plan B guys.
Mauri's brother. Whatever, man. We got a 19 year old sensation for free and his brother wouldn't cost much. We have plenty of training cones with legs type of players in the squad and one more wouldn't hurt us much.
Mexes renewal. I wanted him gone, but if Alex and Zapata leaves instead, i would feel pretty good about it. Mexes can be useful if we put the right partner next to him. As long as his role is clearly defined, and it seems like he took a pretty massive paycut to stay, I am ok with this. Not happy, but ok.
My honest hope for the next two months is to get a good CB, a good midfielder and Ibra. If we end up with Laporte, Witsel and Ibra, this team can really go places. They would cost a lot, but we should still have a bit of cash left over from the 150M budget we had, and we can sell a few more players to raise some fund too.