hELL, I'd happily take Hleb, Flamini, Cecs, or Rosicky..they are all solid midfielders and each can be creative when needed.
Both Hleb and Rosicky where great central midfield players(with Rosicky breaking off to the left as well) in Germany, during a time where we could use some decent options in the midfield. Hleb was one of my favorite Stuttgart players and i always thought Rosicky would've done great in Madrid, especially when you think that he cost Arsenal "only" € 10m.
Both seem to play 2 games and be out for 2 games though. We don't need any more players to keep Robben and co company.
Yah, I guess i gave him to much credit. I think Flamini in Madrid for a free.. would be really good i mean it would be a better purchase then Saviola was.
Flamini has displaced Gilberto Silva in the starting XI this season he will undoubtedly get a contract extension, I don't really see him coming to us.
I rate Obi Mikel way higher than Flamini. He actually fits the mold of what Maca wants as well. If he could only tame his temper though....
When I first saw Mikel I thought he was a pure DM destroyer what with his physique and power, but after watching him for awhile he's much more than that, great passer and his first touch ain't bad. But your right about this temper, he's a booking waiting to happen at times.
I've seen quite a bit of him. He basically is the destroyer, creator, good on the ball, good touch and ability to read the game well, as well as providing a good presence. He needs to work on his temper, but he's young so he has time to mature like many others have. He seems to be a fighter though and I think he'd fit in well here. We should bully Chelsea promptly.
Mikel is a nutcase. I don't think he will mature over time, he just has this air of entitlement whereby he thinks he can get away with more than the average player. He gets dissent cards, slide from behind cards, stupid handball cards, bone-crunching send-offs, violent conduct cards... it's not that the man is a booking waiting to happen, it's that he's a booking connoisseur, he can get them in any shape and size. Also, the way he (and his agent, I presume) screwed ManU, it just doesn't bode well. Actually, if SAF had gotten his hands on him, he might have been able to straighten him out. He has a disciplinary record that is already several feet long. I would stay well clear of him.
You're calling a 20 year old a nutcase. LMAO. Same thing could be argued about Gago. He too does stupid tackles, double foot tackles, weird handballs, and has a tempermant about him. However I will agree that Mikel's temper is more than Gago's. Yep, and many said steer clear of C.R, look what he's become. I'm not saying this kid is the best ever, I'm saying he has great potential and as is is already better than many CM's and DM's I've seen and at a young age.
Well after seeing Gago's last couple games at DM and than Diarra, well you get what I am trying to say. I think everyone has the same opinion of him, great at destorying but good God his distribution is downright awful at times and I am not just talking about the Almeria game either. Mikel would be good but expensive as ********.
Yes. My point precisely is that it has little to do with age. I've never seen Gago display half the hot-headedness and not even a tenth of the viciousness that Mikel can summon. I don't think anyone ever said "steer clear." Someone might have said "overrated" or "not worth 100M and two kidneys." That's not the same. He is an Anelka waiting to happen.
You know how it is around bigsoccer... our memory sticks only hold a little more than 90 minutes worth of data. Previous long-term data is usually overwritten by the most recent amazing/rotten performance. You know that guy Cannavaro? The leader of a defense which did not give up a goal for 5 games? He is now teh suck. Just the way it is.
My point is rather you got alot of nerve to say a 20 year old is a nutcase. I've seen him display half, it's just that the officials don't pay him as much mind and our players pull him away and calm him down. You honestly are making him out to be this barbarian who attacks mindlessly for his own twisted desires. WTF man. "Steer clear" is no different than "Do not buy, overrate". Before his great season last year, many posters here and others said the guy was nothing more than a tricky pony. A mere denilson. They were wrong. That or he's a great midfielder waiting to happen. It's so good you see so much negative it blinds you from seeing any positive. Speak for yourself, lol. I didn't run him through the ground, I just brought up a suggestion in reply to Maca's conversation about Flamini. One guy said that, not this entire board. That same guy (Breitner) credit Guti as being the epicenter of the team, where as Guti is a double-edged sword for us.
mikel is a younger version of michael essien and mikel has the potential to get better and be better than essien.
Why? A nutcase is a nutcase, be they 20 or 50 or 100. He's not a nutcase because he's 20, nor are all 20-year-olds nutcases. Cassano for example has been a nutcase his whole career and everyone that's said "he's young, he'll learn" has been mistaken. With Anelka it has taken him almost 10 years to become a player worthy and capable of playing for Chelsea and starting for France. I can rate someone as a player (as I used to rate Cassano) and still notwant to see him anywhere near my team. Every time I watch Mikel he is barely in control of his own challenges and temper. And this is the EPL man, in Spain refs would have a field day with him. I didn't say he was a barbarian, or that he has twisted desires, he just needs to improve his self-awareness and control by quantum leaps. Maybe he'll learn, my opinion is he won't, or at least not in the short to medium run. Yes it is, "steer clear" means "under no circumstances," while "overrated" leaves room for improvement. Oh, I see the positive, I don't deny Mikel has a massive upside (depending on how he's coached in the next 3-4 years). I just feel the negative is always going to make him a liability that I would rather not deal with. We already have one Guti for that kind of thing, I don't want to have to get another when the original one retires.
That's your view, others however see him as a mentally unstable man hunter, lol. Well, I'm from the U.S. Here you give someone below 21 the benefit of a doubt since they are obviously not of legal age, haven't fully grown, and haven't fully matured yet. However where your from must be different, because for you to call young guys nutcase (without a Cassano moment) is beyond me. Even when he was throwing tempers and kicking corner flags he was always seen as high talented yet very temperamental. Cassano wasn't referred or deemed as a nutcase or crazy till he did the half naked "rant and rage" at a Roma game. This is when the media began to question his mental stability and not just deem him as being young and immature. Are you seriously comparing something like that, to a player who plays hard and well, but just gets his emotions caught up in the game? Again.. wtf? Gago at times is the same. Guti controls his tempers as well as my youngest God brother. You said he was a nutcase. A nutcase means he's either crazy or mentally unstable. You said that he wouldn't ever mature and that all he does is wild unexplainable actions (slide from behind cards, bone-crunching send-offs, violent conduct cards). How is your early description any different from the actions of a barbarian with a twisted mind?? If I describe a duck but don't call it a duck, aren't I still talking about a duck? Especially considering you completely wrote him off being able to mature like the example I gave of Cristiano. Has Guti's negatives made him a liability? (well not all the time, lol) Anyways for a guy who just said you don't deny he has a massive upside all you've said before that statement was negative. Like I said he could mature, and if he did we'd be the geniuses of the world, the same way SAF looks to be because of Cristiano. IMO, he's better than Gago (most likely due to more playing time with Chelsea). Anyways, since Schuster sometimes plays a 4-3-3, how interesting would it be to play Gago with Mikel and having Granero/AM in front of them? We wouldn't be playing with a typical destroyer type, we'd be playing with two very skillful passers who can also destroy (and lose their tempers), with a good AM in front of them would be killer. Considering the way Schuster has taught our team to defend and pressure together to recover balls to counter, it could turn out to a battle of through balls from our three midfielders. Quite the entertainment! Especially if we were pushing Robinho on the left, a good striker and a good RF/W.
Marca claims Ezequiel Garay has signed with Barca.. who do we turn to now (if true)? http://www.marca.com/edicion/marca/futbol/1a_division/real_madrid/es/desarrollo/1086526.html
Just quickly to answer... Flamini is having a superb season, he's not just a destructive DM and his contract is up in the summer. I'm not Diarra bashing, I feel we could do with another CM to compliment Diarra and Gago in the squad. Warming the bench?....on current form a Flamini Gago pairing with Diarra on the bench would be more likely. IMO Diarra is where Robinho was a few months ago. We all know what he is capable of...we now need to start seeing it...consistently.
Marca also claimed ufo's were seen camp nou, and Laporta has self respect. What do you think of Mikel? Besides the immaturity..