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Riyad Mahrez

nayimfromthehalfwayline said:
I dont know what changed.

He inherited the best defence in the country. Then he managed to rebuild it, Campbell, Toure, Cole, Lehman - was an excellent back line for a while.

He had Vieira as a beast in midfield, when he went Gilberto did a very good, and understated job.

Clearly it wasnt the case that he inherited a spine and could never replicate it, because once he actually did.

Same as he lost Anelka, and got Henry.

These days? There really is no spine. They dont have a top quality centre forward, there is no beast in midfield, and the back line is weak.

And its been that way for years, with Wenger ignoring the most obvious deficiencies window after window...

Ive a few Gooner mates, all of them love Wenger for what he achieved with them in the glory days but are deeply, deeply frustrated with him for exactly this reason. They all know what they need, and that he refuses to address it baffles them.
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They never won the league without at least one of the old guard playing (keown was the last one)
 
nayimfromthehalfwayline said:
Really? I didnt realise that.

Definitely seems to have been a shift in attitude since the old guard left, might less fight in the side now.
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He played about half the games and wasn’t playing 90 minutes either but he was a leader there for that defence

But I have to say turning someone like Lauren into a solid right back and moving Toure to Centre back we’re great decisions
 
billyiddo said:
What went wrong is he lost his advantage in the transfer market (scouting and being the second biggest spenders in the league) and on the training field (fitness/diet) - he didnt adapt and got left behind.
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And he dithers over transfers and is a stubborn old clam who keeps repeating the same mistakes.
 
nayimfromthehalfwayline said:
I dont know what changed.

He inherited the best defence in the country. Then he managed to rebuild it, Campbell, Toure, Cole, Lehman - was an excellent back line for a while.

He had Vieira as a beast in midfield, when he went Gilberto did a very good, and understated job.

Clearly it wasnt the case that he inherited a spine and could never replicate it, because once he actually did.

Same as he lost Anelka, and got Henry.

These days? There really is no spine. They dont have a top quality centre forward, there is no beast in midfield, and the back line is weak.

And its been that way for years, with Wenger ignoring the most obvious deficiencies window after window...

Ive a few Gooner mates, all of them love Wenger for what he achieved with them in the glory days but are deeply, deeply frustrated with him for exactly this reason. They all know what they need, and that he refuses to address it baffles them.
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His last major trophy went with Viera who he has never adequately replaced.
 
Back to Mahrez fir a second...

Just been thinking about how we should/could develop our counter-attacking game for the latter stages of the CL (also away to top sides domestically) - being able to rotate in Mahrez and Son for these types of games would be a fantastic option to have, im pretty confident in our defence's ability to withstand even the best attacks, especially if we screen them with Wanyama and Dier - so if we were to line up with Son/Mahrez in support of Kane whilst having Aurier/Rose in the full back positions i think we could be on to a winner - even coming around to the idea of over-paying for Zaha as both players have the experience of playing on the counter
 
To be quite honest I think we need to revisit the concept of "over-paying".

I, like I think most of us, think the idea of £50m (say) for Zaha is obscene and ridiculous. And, as of 3 or 4 years ago, it would have been.

However - today? Thats probably the going rate (if not more). The market has blown up so much it defies all logic and reason.

Bear in mind we just payed £40m, a club record, for a promising young defender from Holland, with just a years experience in europe (and only a couple of years first team football)!.

AND, bear in mind, we have a few £100m+ players ourselves thanks to the ridiculous inflation.

While it doesnt sit well with me, the idea of spending so much, its also the world we live in and I think we just have to accept it.

Right now, I just take any moves we make with a pinch of salt as, frankly, Levy has earned that. I trust him without question on the finances. So if he sanctions a £50m deal on Zaha, thats fine by me.
 
My only isssue with that is that whilst its the 'going rate' for prem to prem transfers i still feel you could get a bigger prospect than Zaha from abroad in that sirt of price bracket.

Sanches, fir example, was 40m (probably quite dependant on addons) from abroad whereas VVD was 75m domestically - so there's still room for picking up relative bargains by shopping around
 
billyiddo said:
My only isssue with that is that whilst its the 'going rate' for prem to prem transfers i still feel you could get a bigger prospect than Zaha from abroad in that sirt of price bracket.

Sanches, fir example, was 40m (probably quite dependant on addons) from abroad whereas VVD was 75m domestically - so there's still room for picking up relative bargains by shopping around
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While I cant really argue your point, I dont think your example stands up.

VVD is a lot older and more experienced, and well proven both domestically and in european competition (CL with Celtic?). Sanches simply doesnt compare directly.

As it happens I think VVD is a decent player, but no more - and I feel in no time at all Sanches will prove to be the superior player by a distance!

Which does kind of evidence the point that bargains are there to be had I guess.

Ultimately Zaha would/should hit the ground running were we to buy him today. And that would be worth a premium if the intent is to improve our squad for this season. But, of course, we are in the realm of opinions where most are valid.
 
Well yes i did concede that i was coming around to the idea of paying the quoted prices for Zaha tbf - mostly because of the fact he is a known quantity and shouldn't take too much to get up to speed (at least with the league anyway) i jist feel for that price, as with Sanches, we could get a player from abroad with a higher ceiling (but will probably face a longer settling in period and have a bigger question mark over whether they would adapt)

VVD to me is someone who has been hyped up off of one good season at Southampton and because he likes to 'play football' - he wasnt a man in demand when he joined from Celtic so his form there doesn't really come in to it afaic...
 
nayimfromthehalfwayline said:
At Celtic he got good CL experience, that was the only point of reference really. He is a more mature, experienced player, so doesnt directly compare to Sanches.
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He also couldn’t keep up with Kane’s pace which says a lot to me as Kane is not rapid...

VVD is a big unit and a solid defender, nothing more IMO. He isn’t a great player but as the best players weren’t available they took the next available and the press hyped him accordingly
 
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