Agree. I don't understand why we can't accomplish the simple task of identifying what type of player we need and buying them, like Dortmund always manage to do.
When Arsenal lost Fabregas they bought Arteta, obviously a downgrade but still a player of the right type that slotted into the system as a replacement. When we lost Modric we bought Dembele, then later Paulinho, Capoue, and Stambouli and were looking at Schneiderlin. The only direct replacement we seemed at all interested in was Moutinho, and of course we wouldn't cough up what was required. Since then, it doesn't seem like we've even been interested at all in a playmaker, and many good ones have gone to other clubs for decent prices while we've chased around players we don't need.
Approached by Arsenal, Chelsea and Juventus in the recent past, French Under-21 international midfielder Giannelli Imbula (22), who's currently on a deal with Olympique Marseille until June 2018, has been targeted by Tottenham management, according to latest rumours. Former Guingamp player's ownership is esteemed around 5 million euros.
http://www.transfermarketweb.com/?action=read&idsel=147188
IMO, Clasie would be. He also has that never give up attitude we miss at the moment.Just mentioned him in the Ligue 1 thread I just posted in General football. He's dynamic and tenacious but not a playmaker.
I honestly don't think a club like us is going to find a better CM2 player than Capoue. he's no Pirlo but he can spray the ball around and be pretty incisive at times as well, he also sees shit loads of it and combined with being defensively pretty sound I think we'd be hard pushed with our budget to find a better player of this type. I'm not even sure there are many "playmaker CM2" types out there available to us right now.
I think we (and others) missed a trick when Payet was available from Lille. Great little player who wouldn't have cost a fortune (about 7mGBP I reckon).
IMO, Clasie would be. He also has that never give up attitude we miss at the moment.
IMO, Clasie would be. He also has that never give up attitude we miss at the moment.