What is a "footballing brain" by the way?
Why does Dele pop up in the right positions all the time? Why does he instinctively show up in the perfect positions when the ball's bouncing around in the box? Why does he make the right pass, the right lay-off, the right run into the box, far more often than he makes an errant pass or run?
He's only 21 too - in fact, he's four months younger than Adama is. He arguably has less experience at the top level than Adama does - while Adama was playing in the Champions League for Barca, Dele was turning out for MK Dons' U-18 sides. While Adama was being instructed by the best coaches in the world at La Masia, Dele was imbibing his footballing education from some blokes from Milton Keynes. It's only in the last couple of years that Dele's had more playing time at a higher level than Adama. Yet, right from the off, he made the right decisions and got into the right positions far more than the reverse - while Adama's struggled at both Villa and Boro, both far worse sides playing at far lower levels and against opponents who don't pay nearly as much attention to their players as our opponents do to ours.
Yes, I think there is a special sort of brain that footballers have - it's the ability to see plays before they happen, anticipate where the ball's going to be, when the opposition is going to break on you, where to press, when to tackle, when to defend, when to counter. It's more of a natural instinct than it is a coached talent - Kane said as much when he was interviewed by Henry a few weeks ago. It can be coached to an *extent* - and it can be developed with lots and lots of practice. But it's unique to a footballer - it is, in essence, a 'footballing brain' you need to have to succeed at the top levels of the game.
It has nothing to do with real-world intelligence, and I mentioned as much. I don't know if Adama Traore reads Nietzsche or pores over the latest developments in string theory in his spare time - if he does, good for him. But on the field, he has shown nothing to indicate that he understands when to press and when to stand off, when to track back to help your teammates and when to stay up the field looking for counterattacking opportunities, when to pass and when not to dribble endlessly into cul-de-sacs, when to go for a simple ball as opposed to a run that leads nowhere or a pass that leads to a chance for the opposition instead.
To me he has a lack of experience, and needs the right coach. Do you think Poch would let him not track back? Do you think you need some kind of special brain to track back? Is that what a footballing brain gives you? Your coach tells you what is expected of you. Unless you are saying Traore has brain damage and can't learn, I don't know what you mean.
Taarabt had skill but not the physical strength and power of this kid. He's played in brick teams, yes there are issues otherwise the best dribbler in the league would be at a better club, but at 21, see past the slips that give the ball away...see the potential to tidy that up and the chances he can create. Few have that ability, he may not go on to use it, but if anyone can harness it, with improved disciple, practice and structure, I think Pochettino can.
Like I said, it can certainly be coached to an extent - players who have had to train extremely hard and play a lot to gain the sort of instinctual understanding of the game that Alli has (for example) won't ever get quite as good at anticipating where the ball will go and what needs to be done in a game at any given point, but they can comfortably reach levels that will allow them to not look out of place at the top end of football. Certainly, Adama can also do that.
But why does that have to be our job?
Adama Traore is 21, older than Dele and clearly lacking in footballing intelligence. His upside is his tremendous skill and power on the ball - his downside is a total inability to do anything with it, or to help out his team when he doesn't have the ball. He lacks an understanding of the game that many players develop at 17-18 - thus, he's a few years behind in his development, imo. And we are not a club that needs to take a gamble on getting him and filling up a squad space while hoping that Poch can get him passing the ball accurately over three yards, pressing (or even doing any defensive work whatsoever) when not on the ball, making runs at the right time, positioning himself in the right areas, etcetera, etcetera. Poch will basically have to do to him what Mourinho's been doing to Shaw (as per his own account) - 'his legs, my brain'. And hope that he can make up for a past inability to learn the tactical and structural basics of the game while this goes on.
To me, all he offers in return is an ability to dribble really well (but often into cul-de-sacs or useless areas) and good physical strength + pace. Not quite worth the effort of training him up in the very basics of the game for as long as it takes for him to get used to the idea of doing more than just dribbling a lot.
I'm definitely not opposed to the idea of buying him *eventually*, should he develop elsewhere into a more consistent, more aware, more rounded player - if he develops and shows that he has a good season in him, then by all means, snap him up then and teach him what he's still missing at that point. Hell, if he *just* develops a pressing ethic and an ability to pass to his own teammates on a consistent basis, that would be good enough for me to consider him a useful buy that we could further coach into a really good player. But at the moment, we're not quite desperate enough to take the plunge on Adama as the cheaper option, imo - he lacks even the pressing ethic and basic passing skills I mentioned above, we will have access to better, more rounded players, and we shouldn't really be looking to fill up our ranks with players who will need extensive coaching to the level that Adama would.
Edit: *Especially* when we could impart the same skills to Onomah, Edwards, Oakley-Boothe, Sterling and so on - players from our academy, brought up at our club, who have need of the same coaching and who wouldn't cost us anything. I figure missing out on a bit of dribbling skill in exchange for spending the same time teaching our own young ones the same basics we'll have to teach Traore is a good tradeoff.