Considering as how nobody except Everton expressed any meaningful interest in him, there's certainly a strong basis to say nobody would have paid that for this window at least.
We can speculate about these kinds of things forever, and some speculations are smarter than others. But there's a danger in thinking that those kinds of speculations are likely to be accurate when they're not. I didn't think Ramsey would get nearly as much money or play for as big a club as he has. And I also thought Wenger would be able to get some kind of management job, and he hasn't. In fact, the Real manager's job has become vacant three times since we fired Wenger, and Wenger hasn't gotten a sniff of it once. Suffice to say, I hope Iwobi does well for Everton, except when he plays us. But, if it happens that in 18 months that Iwobi is the reincarnation of Cristiano Ronaldo, I still won't regret selling him for a moment. It was the right decision.
I felt like every single mention of a big club considering Wenger the summer he left was a total farce, equivalent to the "Coutinho to Arsenal" rumblings. Bordeaux is probably the best he could do for himself at this point.
I wasn’t ignoring the advanced metrics. We all watched iwobi play. Goals as a stat matter when for their current team don’t they? I’m not projecting some prospect from league 1 based on his goal output for another team in another league using simple goals. We know exactly what iwobi can do for us because we’ve done that 3 season experiment. What he brings is good and even excellent in many facets, but my argument is that it isn’t what we need from that position to improve. A frontline attacker must have final product in the way we play. I also compared him to miki who’s advanced metrics are the same or better yet people would pay him to leave—why does no one want miki? All season long we hear we need a winger, a real winger, a real wide player with pace, goal and XG output and upside. We get one and iwobi is the sacrificial lamb... all I hear about is moaning over the fee.
Perhaps, but interesting that Arsenal never tried him there. Could be dogmatic thinking, but also possible that he doesn't have the legs to play in midfield. He's a very good wide creator though.
Yeah, that's my main worry. With Ramsey gone and Ceballos not guaranteed past this season, I would've like to have seen Iwobi get minutes in the MF before selling him. I'd have sold Xhaka first without hesitation, but obviously other clubs weren't interested. Oh well.
To me, this seems like the kind of thing that would come from the manager, not the club. I don't think 1 season is enough of a sample to say what Emery's willingness is to try players in new positions, but I have a feeling we'll never know. I'd imagine most of this sort of thing (IF it happens) only happens in training. If it works, we will see it on the pitch, but if not, then we're all left to wonder and speculate.
Well yeah, but that's because United intends to play Jesse Lingard, a lot. That's because United's creative options are crap but ours are great. Which, by the way, is why for all our dysfunction we all still a better club than United. If we didn't have five better options than Iwobi every way to Sunday, well yeah, we'd probably have to keep him.
Utd would sell Jesé for iwobi money imo He’s not amazing and they have other midfield options better than him
Yeah, but who? I don't think they have a single attacking/creative guy who they really like, with a clear role, who is completely reliable as a mainstay to generate offense. Rashford is the closest they have, I think. The best I can say for United at the moment is that hopefully the defense is much stronger than it's been, and the pecking order is pretty clear on that side of the ball. And unlike prior managers, for any of the players who can't work with OGS, that's on the player.
We do. But I remember that when iwobi first started playing he came off after 70 minutes in every match. Possible they tried him there in practice and he just doesn’t have the legs to play that role
+1 I think it's easy for us to armchair general him into CM but there is obviously way more to it e.g Is this what the management want? Do they see a role for him there? Was he any good in training? Who else is competing for that? etc In my experience with Rugby down the years these kind of shifts come about more opportunisitically, or were always planned e.g mega talents like Ozil or Ramesy or Wilshere start in wide midfield but were always destined for CM To be honest i never had that feeling with Iwobi My guess is Emery doesn't rate him
Called "grooming Walcott". And then when he ended up as a ST it was, well, he is at Everton now on the bench for a reason.
Walcott was good as a striker! The problem was that he got hurt (once with an ACL tear and once coming on as a sub in a stupid milk cup game). And that he just didn't work as a striker without a good midfield behind him.
He's also a 30 year old sprinter, with 2 acl tears. Iwobi is a 23 year old midfielder who I've never seen not recieve a pass and turn successfully.
Iwobi needs a holding player or 2 but he would be a good cm/10 And it’s can play pogba matic and Fred and be more balanced
No, but he had just returned from vacation before he was sold, so he hasn't trained with Everton and isn't match fit.
Well we shall see how Iwobi turns out. Wilshere lasted a full 50 min for West Ham before limping off. Theo is a bench warmer. Hleb is an alcoholic. Life goes on. IMO Iwobi's market value was probably dictated by Ayoze Perez. Perez had Better numbers last season I think but comparable sell value ~$38 million.