mdgoonah41 wrote:
Klaus wrote:
People don't realise just how easy it is to lure good players from Italy. There is virtually no one who can match the wages that tin-pot clubs like West Ham and Southampton put on the table. Torreira probably earns twice as much right now as he would have if he'd gone to Napoli.
if this is the case, then hopefully our signing torreira means we are going to start to actually scout and mine italy, since we seemed to have mostly ignored it under the wenger regime.
thinking about our positions of need, which of these guys would be able to make it at arsenal?
ghoulam
florenzi
lukaku
insigne
suso
berardi
under (might already be out of our price range)
mertens (out of our price range?, wont come here as a backup obviously)
sms
allan (would love him here, tbh)
pellegrini
im not a serie A expert, so hopefully those that are can comment
My cents:
Insigne is the pick of the bunch when you take age and position into consideration, but he's probably also the big exception. He's to Napoli what Totti and De Rossi are to Roma. He's their most revered player since Maradona. They've even talked about bringing the #10 shirt out of retirement for him. I think he'll retire in Naples.
Milinkovic-Savic is a galactico, and he seems destined for Real eventually. He looks like a future ballon d'or shortlisting when he's in form but the quoted price tag is insane. I think Cengiz Ünder is the most realistic target. He's young, he's an incredible talent, he plays on a position where we have no natural options, and he's at a club that would probably sell their stadium if a good bid came in. He almost fits us too well. Have to think he could be had for £35-40 million. Hopefully he's a summer target.
Like you I'm also a fan of Allan, and Pellegrini has impressed me a lot lately. He has so much drive. It's really refreshing to see. It helps that he's also 6 ft 2 and blessed with superb technique. Still, you wonder where we'd put him or whether he's significantly better than the young players we have.
The rest of them are plagued by various issues. Ghoulam is still making it back from an ACL (he would have been a wonderful replacement for Monreal otherwise), Berardi and Florenzi are terribly injury prone. Mertens is probably the best player on the list but he turns 32 in May and he's a 6 ft 7 striker. Suso is underrated but we have plenty of guys like him.
