Damn, losing Smalldini sucks. Haggling about a few milions for our best player this season is unprecedented. Even if we get Vertongen, I am sure he will not do as good as Smalling did. Smalling is more of a old schoold defender who is very good at one-on-one and in the air. Vertongen is more suitable for possession system. Yes, we enforece possession, but we are regularly outclasssed in that segment by bigger clubs. On top of that, with Ibanez showing up, he can make up for what Smalling lacks, and that’s passing abilty. I didn’t follow Roma lately, except for a last few games. I do not know what happened with Petrarchi, but he did a good job. Brining in Micky and Smalling on loan was smart, those two players carried this team. He brought Mancini, Veretout, Diawara, Pau Lopez, Spinna... players we can build a team around. When you look at it, only in January he brought a few players who can be the very core of our team in the future. Ibanez is amazing, he is a very decent player now with the potential of becoming a great, modern CB. He is so technical and fast. I can see a big offer coming for him next year. Villar showed last night what he can do. Perez is also a very good player, and can only become better. As someone wrote, I just hope it’s our scouting system that brought the last 3, and not Petrarchi.
Corriere dello Sport: Roma-Vertonghen agree to terms https://t.co/T0EQVs1jGN— RomaPress (@ASRomaPress) August 2, 2020 Same wages as Smalling and we don’t have to pay 25m. Makes sense. He’ll also fit better in a back 3 on the left and he’s good on the ball. Not sure how much better or worse or a defender he is than Smalldini tho.
Fabio Capello maintains Roma starlet Nicolò Zaniolo has ‘the potential to become a Ballon d’Or winner’ in future. ‘I am in love with this player.’ https://t.co/LW7uta7Dv3 #ASRoma #SerieA #Calcio pic.twitter.com/eTVRXSHOSm— Football Italia (@footballitalia) August 2, 2020
As long as we aren't expecting him to run a lot, Vertonghen is better than Smalling. He'd be another Kolarov level signing. I do hope we still go for Smalling. Vertonghen-Smalling-Mancini would take us to another level.
#Cetin all’#HellasVerona, confermate le cifre: 1 M di prestito annuale + diritto di riscatto a 7 M. All’#ASRoma il contro riscatto fissato a 15 milioni di euro. Vicino lo scambio di documenti tra club #Calciomercato @PagineRomaniste— David Moresco (@DavidMoresco) August 2, 2020
I like the 3-4-3 for this team as I think it suits our players more and good wingers generally cost more which a team in our position does not have money to go after. I just hope we get a good sporting director that compliments Fonseca's vision. Losing Petrachi was a mistake. Whoever comes in next really needs to focus on offloading as much of our dead weight as possible. Lopez Mancini Mancini Kolarov Peres Spinazzola Diawara Veretout Zaniolo Mkhitaryan Dzeko Its really not too bad. I wish we could of kept Smalling as the defense would be solid with him and push one of those guys into the 4th defender spot. With 3 defenders you may not need defenders that are "as good", however you probably need more of them and they still need to be competent. I think we need to invest in guys that can grow into starters to back the starting team up. If you're selling Under, Kluivert, and some of our dead weight we should have a bit of funds available to play with.
He's been cast aside at spurs. This is a gamble seeing as how Smalling is younger and had, all things considered, a very good season. I'm not confident about this at all. At least it's a short term deal.
Florenzi watching Spinazzola and Peres pic.twitter.com/aejYSBodar— Shaffra 🇵🇸🔻 (@Zozzovic) August 3, 2020
Why are you so obsessed with this transfer? Bianda cost like 5 million and we can still get some of it back, Iturbe cost nearly 30
According to the doctor Mongo bought him because he was a French African and was jumping on the bandwagon after France won the world cup. Solid theory.
For me the difference is this. With someone like Iturbe, he was a player with who had played at the highest level. While scouting may have been poor there was at least the fact he was a very young player who played in a top league and scored a fair amount of goals. Sure bad scouting but there was some statistical evidence to support the purchase Bianda was a guy with absolutely no history at all. He played no games in Ligue 1 and only a handful of youth team games.. not to mention he had a major injury. In the end Mongo bought a 5 million lottery ticket. Personally, I don't even mind gambles like Coric or Cetin because there is some history to take a calculated gamble.
He was a talented youth player who represented France through all the underage levels. Not exactly a lottery ticket if your job is to be aware of youth talent. Checking out international matches would be a place to keep your eye on wouldnt it? Lens also have an extensive history of bringing through talent, similar to Atalanta. He didn't make a breakthrough for any number of reasons we cannot say for sure and is being sold with a clause that will activate 5 million purchase once he plays enough games next year. Some young players make it, some dont. He might need more experience and pop up at the top level in a few years time or not. 5 million ffs Its a non story lol
Tossing a few million at prospects is the best chance we have at having good players. All it takes is one Marquinhos to more than pay off all the Biandas. And to be fair to Bianda, he is still only 20.
He played 1 game for U16, 13 games for U17, 7 games for U18 and 2 U19. So again, just not a whole lot of games. No 5 million isn't a ton of money but no matter how you slice it Bianda was a blind gamble.
Thats actually a lot of games for U17 international appearances (It means he was playing in the age group below the age, hence being a talent) and a good chunk for U18. More than enough games to be able to get a solid opinion. Along with having people who see him more closely you trust giving you a verdict on his youth team appearances at Lens. Its their job to follow these talents, not yours. So again, its no "blind gamble".
He was 16.5 when he played his first U17 game and 17.5 when he played his last so he was exactly the right age for both U17 and U18. Also, you can see his chance with the national team got fewer and fewer as he got older. IMO, paying 5 million for a Primavera player is a huge gamble and essentially that was sum total of his experience. I guess we can agree to disagree on this.
He came to Roma and has been basically injured for 2 years. Hes barley played for our youth team in that time either so yeah his appearances stopped for France to. Hes 20, not 25. You just appear to not understand how scouting works for youth players by claiming there wasn't much to go on.
Zaniolo is a stud. If Roma are forced to sell him, I'd sell him abroad for a boatload... He would be great in England.
Finally good news in 2020: Bayer Leverkusen in talks with Roma for Robin Olsen https://t.co/CbLsA2aQDb— RomaPress (@ASRomaPress) August 3, 2020
All of this also applies to Zaniolo when we got him. By this logic 5 million for him would be a bad gamble. That’s the price you pay to pick someone up before they get big, that’s the scouting departments job, to see players that you or I would never think about.