Rate our Mercato // Summer 2015 (13 Viewers)
- Thread starter Cheesio
- Start date
5/10 for me
- lost vidal and pirlo, two starter material midfielders, and bought in a talent in lemina, and an injury prone khedira who never was a great player
- lost tevez, who was our best player for 2 years, and could (and did, actually) make the difference every other game
- it was clear even last summer that our coach is a 4-3-1-2 guy. turns out a year later that our trequartista is a panic buy.
- some questionable riddances like letting go nando as a free agent, trading a top forward like tevez for teenagers
- losing 3 true leaders and 2 guys who were the heart and soul of the group (pepe&storari) in one transfer window might backfire
- dybala is without any proper backup, he's our only forward who could create. i pray to every possible god for him not getting injured.
- pogba might find the pressure too much, he's not a leader as of yet.
+ alex sandro is finally a quality lb
+ dybala is a huge talent (but he should have had a year to accomodate, with tevez in the squad)
+ some nice swaps like ogbonna-rugani, llorente-mandzu or cuadrado-isla
+ the squad as a whole is certainly younger
+ neto is a great keeper
to sum it up: we spent a shitload of money, still the squad is weaker, the midfield seems castrated, we might lack the class (especially tevez), the reliability and the depth of last seasons. we have a group without natural born leaders, except maybe bonucci. i don't consider this squad the strongest in italy anymore. i'd still say that if we had 4 points after the opening rounds.
- lost vidal and pirlo, two starter material midfielders, and bought in a talent in lemina, and an injury prone khedira who never was a great player
- lost tevez, who was our best player for 2 years, and could (and did, actually) make the difference every other game
- it was clear even last summer that our coach is a 4-3-1-2 guy. turns out a year later that our trequartista is a panic buy.
- some questionable riddances like letting go nando as a free agent, trading a top forward like tevez for teenagers
- losing 3 true leaders and 2 guys who were the heart and soul of the group (pepe&storari) in one transfer window might backfire
- dybala is without any proper backup, he's our only forward who could create. i pray to every possible god for him not getting injured.
- pogba might find the pressure too much, he's not a leader as of yet.
+ alex sandro is finally a quality lb
+ dybala is a huge talent (but he should have had a year to accomodate, with tevez in the squad)
+ some nice swaps like ogbonna-rugani, llorente-mandzu or cuadrado-isla
+ the squad as a whole is certainly younger
+ neto is a great keeper
to sum it up: we spent a shitload of money, still the squad is weaker, the midfield seems castrated, we might lack the class (especially tevez), the reliability and the depth of last seasons. we have a group without natural born leaders, except maybe bonucci. i don't consider this squad the strongest in italy anymore. i'd still say that if we had 4 points after the opening rounds.
The Zaza 18m discussion is really laughable. We rated him at 13 freaking million last year and got the option (probably more of a forced option) then as well. 5 mil more is not the end of the world. And in total he cost us 11,5 mil which in the current market is a complete steal seeing Pinocchio & some dwarfs move for over 20 million elsewhere.
the incoming guys are decent additions, none of them arrived with huge expectations (save for dybala, but i'm sure he'll do great), so none of them will fail per definition. even zaza can't fail, 'cause everybody expect him to be shitty anyways. (i expect him to score 4-5 goals, that's fine from a 4-5th choice striker.)
my main concern is that we should have bought a better tq than hernanes, and 2 classier midfielders than khedira and lemina. our main asset was our midfield for the last 4 seasons, and we faded in that department.
my main concern is that we should have bought a better tq than hernanes, and 2 classier midfielders than khedira and lemina. our main asset was our midfield for the last 4 seasons, and we faded in that department.