Said Benrahma

[Goobers]

Don't think anyone is saying he is AS good as Mahrez but he has a lot of potential and has good experience in the English game, fairly low risk.

Fair enough. I think fairly risk probably depends on what Brentford would ask for him.

 

[yankspurs]

Lol

 

[rossdapep]

Do people still consider Lamela a winger? He's clearly best playing between the lines behind the striker. I don't see this having any impact on him. If anything I would be concerned for Sess. He clearly isn't ready to play fullback and he's been playing on the wing in pre-season. If we sign another wide attacker then he's not likely to play much. A loan might be best for him to make way.

I don't think Lamela has ever really been a winger. I know Roma played him on the right of the front line but that was simply because they wanted him to come inside and create from the centre.

I think there was a big misconception when we bought him because he was seen as Bale's replacement which just wasn't true at all.

Anyway, we are not lacking wingers per say, we need a little bit of craft. Lucas is capable of it with his feet, he's just lacks a bit of intelligence

 

[Neon_Knight_]

Don't think anyone is saying he is AS good as Mahrez but he has a lot of potential and has good experience in the English game, fairly low risk.

At 25 years old he has comparable experience of the English game to an 18 year old Ryan Sessegnon - and comparable scoring stats in the Championship, while playing in the same role. If he costs circa £20m (that's what Brentford reportedly value him at), and has done literally nothing to evidence that he better than any of our existing wingers (correct me if I'm wrong), I don't consider that a low risk signing. I consider it a medium to high risk signing.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

Guy's got more tricks than Derren Brown. I'd take him for the entertainment factor alone, although a diminutive dribbling trickster hardly strikes me as a Mourinho player. Also his position is surely lower priority than ST, LB and maybe CB and I'm not sure how he'd fit into the team, unless as an alternative to Dele through the middle. Bit of a weird one.

As others have said, presumably we'd need to sell someone similar to buy, yet there hasn't been any interest in, say, Lamela that I'm aware of.

He plays on the opposite flank to Lamela, so this would contradict our current transfer strategy of improving the balance of the squad.

 

[Supersi32]

He plays on the opposite flank to Lamela, so this would contradict our current transfer strategy of improving the balance of the squad.

You mean we are throwing darts in the dark again....

 

[kendoddsdadsdogsdead]

We are definitely lacking this type of player in the final third it’s all quite similar at the moment a bit head down and run into trouble and maybe apart from Bergwijn(maybe in the future Sessegnon) who has a good delivery from out wide no one else really does.

 

[Klinsmannic]

With our fixture congestion and the large number of games, Jose will need to rotate our attack whilst keeping enough threat / quality in each game. I can see him wanting someone like Benrahma.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

His output for not one of the promoted sides during both seasons in the Championship suggests he’s good enough for a better league. Doesn’t necessarily mean the Premier League, but he deserves the move, I think even Brentford fans would agree at this point. I don’t overly see where he fits for us unless he’s more versatile than we realise and could compete with Dele at 10, but that type of player (nimble, tricky, good delivery, very good vision) tends to be effective left right or centre, just like Eriksen was.

 

[PrettyColors]

Flavor of the month player who is 25, English league premium but not homegrown, better on the LW than right, and to top it off there’s a bidding war for him with other PL clubs?

Even if this guy was truly the right footed Mahrez, which he isn’t, what kind of boxes does this guy tick to our scouts? This doesn’t make sense, it’s the one position we have depth in.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

Flavor of the month player who is 25, English league premium but not homegrown, better on the LW than right, and to top it off there’s a bidding war for him with other PL clubs?

Even if this guy was truly the right footed Mahrez, which he isn’t, what kind of boxes does this guy tick to our scouts? This doesn’t make sense, it’s the one position we have depth in.

It’s not ‘the one’ position we have depth in really, is it?

 

[floydiohead]

Granted, I've only seen him play in one match, which was the playoff final against Fulham, but I thought he did next to nothing in that game.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

At 25 years old he has comparable experience of the English game to an 18 year old Ryan Sessegnon - and comparable scoring stats in the Championship, while playing in the same role. If he costs circa £20m (that's what Brentford reportedly value him at), and has done literally nothing to evidence that he better than any of our existing wingers (correct me if I'm wrong), I don't consider that a low risk signing. I consider it a medium to high risk signing.

Yea I get what you mean in terms of experience that is a fair point although just watching him I personally think he's far far more effective that Sessengon currently is and he should be as he's 25 not 18. I'd say its more low risk than signing another N'Jie or Nknoudu for example and for circa £20m if he doesn't live up to it we should be able to get a reasonable amount back on sale but I think there are a lot of hidden gems or in his case not so hidden as he's been making headlines every week in the Championship. Liverpool signed Robertson from relgated Hull for example there are some real talents and if we can get him for a reasonable price I think he'd be brilliant, same for Watkins. Both have great attitudes as well. But each to their own opinion of course.

Who would you rather we sign as a winger/AM for approx £20m out of interest from the players we've been linked with or anyone else realistic ?

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Flavor of the month player who is 25, English league premium but not homegrown, better on the LW than right, and to top it off there’s a bidding war for him with other PL clubs?

Even if this guy was truly the right footed Mahrez, which he isn’t, what kind of boxes does this guy tick to our scouts? This doesn’t make sense, it’s the one position we have depth in.

Agree with all that apart from the depth part, I'd say ok we in theory have depth but Lamela can't play more than 10-15 games a season and Sessengon is still a very young talent so the actual quality of depth isn't that great, Lucas doesn't really produce much quality very often so that really only leaves Son and Bergweign who again is still young and adapting to the league. I think we really need a player who offers something different and can beat a man and be unpredictable and that is what this guy could offer. Agree on your points though doesn't tick many boxes for us so probably unlikely but if we are after Leon Bailey as well then this guy could be a cheaper alternative.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

With our fixture congestion and the large number of games, Jose will need to rotate our attack whilst keeping enough threat / quality in each game. I can see him wanting someone like Benrahma.

100% this, especially as Lo Celso or Dele might need to drop to CM if we can't trust Ndombele and if we don't have a back-up striker then Son/Lucas might need to cover up front so we need to one way or another get more quality and depth across these positions whether that is a new striker signing and AM/winger or new striker and CM or all 3 lets see.

 

[joey55]

I think he's the kind of player we need, as we are lacking a creative spark and I think we need to find an extra 20 goals compared to last season, if we want to achieve anything. But, I think there are question marks about his ability to step up the Prem. As with Watkins, I get the impression that eyes are being drawn more to his total output and not sufficient focus is placed on the time it took him to get those numbers.

When you look at his assists per minute, which you have to do, due to the amount of extra games Championship clubs play and of course even more for Brentford who made the play offs, he ranks 37th in the league for assists. That's only including players who made more than 20 appearances, as less than that and the data is easily skewed.

In terms of key passes he's ranked 9th in the Championship.

His goal scoring is impressive, comparable per min with Son, Ali and Berg. But it's in the Championship and history shows us it's very rare that a player maintains those scoring rates in the Prem and the drop off is usually significant.

I haven't seen too much of him myself, but based on his stats and age, he looks like a massive gamble. If he was 20, I think a punt on a player like him, would be more appealing.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

You mean we are throwing darts in the dark again....

No, I mean that by selling Lamela to fund Benrahma we would be deliberately choosing to leave ourselves with fewer options in one position in order to increase options in another area that already has more depth - actively going out of our way to reduce the balance of the squad, instead of increasing it. "Throwing darts in the dark" would be more akin buying random players and hoping they coincidentally meet the squad's requirements.

 

[Japhet]

Can't see where he fits in at all. We already have Son, Bergwijn and Sessegnon who fill up our left AM position. Don't know why we're not at least taking a look at Buendia who'd bring something we're lacking.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

Yea I get what you mean in terms of experience that is a fair point although just watching him I personally think he's far far more effective that Sessengon currently is and he should be as he's 25 not 18. I'd say its more low risk than signing another N'Jie or Nknoudu for example and for circa £20m if he doesn't live up to it we should be able to get a reasonable amount back on sale but I think there are a lot of hidden gems or in his case not so hidden as he's been making headlines every week in the Championship. Liverpool signed Robertson from relgated Hull for example there are some real talents and if we can get him for a reasonable price I think he'd be brilliant, same for Watkins. Both have great attitudes as well. But each to their own opinion of course.

Who would you rather we sign as a winger/AM for approx £20m out of interest from the players we've been linked with or anyone else realistic ?

I'd rather we stick with what we have, as it's the area where we have most strength in depth and we can't realistic improve on what we have for £20m. We signed a winger/AM in January (Bergwijn), without selling one. Who would you like us to sell in order to make space for Benrahma?

I think we should focus on signing the players needed to balance our squad, as we have done with the three completed signings so far. My perception of the gaps in our squad are: CF (we only have one in the entire squad), LB (Rose is clearly not in our plans), CB (Vertonghen hasn't been replaced).

 

[Neon_Knight_]

Can't see where he fits in at all. We already have Son, Bergwijn and Sessegnon who fill up our left AM position. Don't know why we're not at least taking a look at Buendia who'd bring something we're lacking.

And we currently have Bergwijn mostly playing on the opposite flank, as he otherwise wouldn't get much playing time.