Clrnc wrote:

Zaha went from overrated to underrated when everyone shit on him to boost our Pepe signing last summer, and now is back to being in favour.

Have to say he really look good when he is motivated

I still think Zaha is overrated, and prefer Martinelli & Saka who look good just about all the time regardless.

He’s very inconsistent within games and across seasons. He’s having a tremendous season now. 8 goals in 15 games. But he score only 3 goals all last year. What Zaha will constantly give you is headaches for the opposing full banks, and lots of free kicks. But he is not necessarily turning his runs into useful possessions with good shots on goal. If he was the gem folks think he is, he would’ve been back at a high club by now. It’s a bit like the Buendia story where we see some highlights, are drawn to a guy but between the sssists, there’s frustration

Anzac wrote:

jelbana wrote:

72m for Pépé instead of Zaha has got to be one of the worst mistakes we've made, and to his credit Emery wanted Zaha.

IIRC Palace reportedly wanted 80m for Zaha before they would talk, and repeated that when Everton made an offer after us.

The mistake was making your record signing a player who was/is not yet ready to start - same as applies re Saliba.

Agree with you here. Just saying that if we were gonna spend 72m on a winger, might as well have got Zaha and pay the PL tax, and not massively overpay for the unproven winger from the French league.

emery wanted banega and zaha. for all we know they might even been more useful than pepe and torreira, both of whom he was overruled for. Raul paid the gestifute tax on pepe, probably to get in favour with mendes and whatever cabal he's fronting for

Gazza M wrote:

emery wanted banega and zaha. for all we know they might even been more useful than pepe and torreira, both of whom he was overruled for. Raul paid the gestifute tax on pepe, probably to get in favour with mendes and whatever cabal he's fronting for

On paper he was right in wanting a winger and a creative midfield player - just as Arteta still does now = recruiting is still the millstone around the managerial necks.

Gazza M wrote:

emery wanted banega and zaha. for all we know they might even been more useful than pepe and torreira, both of whom he was overruled for. Raul paid the gestifute tax on pepe, probably to get in favour with mendes and whatever cabal he's fronting for

Banega has retired to Qatar wherever. And Zaha is just a stronger, older more expensive Pépé. They were right to overrule him

Objectively speaking, paying 79M Eur for Zaha is crazy. But buying Pépé for that amount of money was clearly a mistake. Yeah, I am talking in hindsight but still, the sacking of Raul demonstrates that that transfer was made thinking of particular interests first and not Arsenal's

It was always a mistake. I said at the time we shouldn’t be spending £70m on anyone.

Claudius wrote:

Gazza M wrote:

emery wanted banega and zaha. for all we know they might even been more useful than pepe and torreira, both of whom he was overruled for. Raul paid the gestifute tax on pepe, probably to get in favour with mendes and whatever cabal he's fronting for

Banega has retired to Qatar wherever. And Zaha is just a stronger, older more expensive Pépé. They were right to overrule him

pepe was massively overvalued and I said as much at the time. always looked a 40m player to me, at max

Gazza M wrote:

Claudius wrote:

Banega has retired to Qatar wherever. And Zaha is just a stronger, older more expensive Pépé. They were right to overrule him

pepe was massively overvalued and I said as much at the time. always looked a 40m player to me, at max

Spending that kinda money on either was remarkably stupid.

We drove the price up so high that bayern pool etc. werent intrested at the price. That plan of outspending the rich clubs seems remarkably stupid. Especially when you consuider the weaknesses all over the team at the time we made these bids. These are a true sign of desperation.

Liverpool signed Mane for 34M Salah for 25M and 29 Firmino. Thats 88M, thats what we offered for lemar and not that much more than we payed for pepe. Who I said we should sell after his first 3 appearances, because he'd take too long to learn the basics. 

martinelli (6), Tierney(25) Gabriel (26)  These are the type of signings that contribute now and have the potential for us to actually build a decent team. And Have massive resale potential if they become top top players.  

speedy wrote:

Gazza M wrote:

pepe was massively overvalued and I said as much at the time. always looked a 40m player to me, at max

Spending that kinda money on either was remarkably stupid.

We drove the price up so high that bayern pool etc. werent intrested at the price. That plan of outspending the rich clubs seems remarkably stupid. Especially when you consuider the weaknesses all over the team at the time we made these bids. These are a true sign of desperation.

Liverpool signed Mane for 34M Salah for 25M and 29 Firmino. Thats 88M, thats what we offered for lemar and not that much more than we payed for pepe. Who I said we should sell after his first 3 appearances, because he'd take too long to learn the basics. 

martinelli (6), Tierney(25) Gabriel (26)  These are the type of signings that contribute now and have the potential for us to actually build a decent team. And Have massive resale potential if they become top top players.  

Yeah. In retrospect Pépé was an error. For that amount of money in future we need to be buying a sure thing. Because you’re unlikely to get a big multiple when selling a £72m player. So he should be the finished product. You live. You learn. 

Claudius wrote:

speedy wrote:

Spending that kinda money . . .

Yeah. In retrospect Pépé was an error. For that amount of money in future we need to be buying a sure thing. Because you’re unlikely to get a big multiple when selling a £72m player. So he should be the finished product. You live. You learn. 

There's no such things as a sure thing so you spread the risk by buying 3 players unless you've truck loads of cash. 

Even on the off chance Pepe was the real deal he'd just be forcing through a move to bayern now. And they'd be dangling 50m at us.

Van Dijk was a similar price. He is a sure thing.

Nobody called him the best CB in the world at Southampton.

He was probably the best defender in the league at the time. I remember his numbers on interceptions and heading were unparalleled. And he was incredible on the ball. The only surprise was the price jumping from £60 to £75m but Pool were determined it seems.

I don’t think he was a sure thing either. You have no idea how he would cope under different tactics, or under a different sort of pressure etc.

speedy wrote:

There's no such things as a sure thing so you spread the risk by buying 3 players unless you've truck loads of cash. 

You say that but when we were buying the likes of Xhaka, Mustafi, etc in that fashion people were saying we should just get a big star for the combined price. You either get the signing right or you don't. We way overpaid for Pepe but there is nothing to suggest we wouldn't have just signed 3 other overpriced players last summer instead. He was a risk worth taking at the time, he'd been the second best players in France that season and was the type of player the squad needed. It hasn't really worked out for him but he's been far from terrible either. If we had a decent attacking manager he'd probably look better too.

Claudius wrote:

Gazza M wrote:

emery wanted banega and zaha. for all we know they might even been more useful than pepe and torreira, both of whom he was overruled for. Raul paid the gestifute tax on pepe, probably to get in favour with mendes and whatever cabal he's fronting for

Banega has retired to Qatar wherever. And Zaha is just a stronger, older more expensive Pépé. They were right to overrule him

Agree. Most people thought both were great signings.

Claudius wrote:

Van Dijk was a similar price. He is a sure thing.

He was a pretty sure thing to be fair, but he'd also be kicking for a move to real or bayern.