This happened quickly, guess he isn't going to United. 🚨 OFFICIAL: Liverpool have signed Cody Gakpo from PSV Eindhoven, the deal has been signed tonight between clubs. #LFCGakpo will sign long-term deal later this week as contract is fully agreed too.Liverpool will pay £37m plus add-ons, up to £50m potential package. pic.twitter.com/JFSKL6zQKH— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) December 26, 2022
More than anything this deal just shows how bad the Antony transfer was. Gapko is a significantly better EPL-level wide player. Even with my reservations about his production if he isn't dominating ball possession for his team.
I don’t know their injury timelines, but Jota, Firmino, and Diaz are all out injured. Ox started at left wing today and pool ended the game with three teenagers on the pitch.
And he was awful. Worst player on the field for them even taking Darwin's horrific finishing into account.
I did think about it before I posted it, but I have had the bad luck of catching a few Spurs games while waiting for our matches and they have a habit of letting bad teams get the jump on them, then they reel them back in before getting the draw. The good thing is, in the general football threads I follow, this leads to the hilarity of Spurs fans realising that every game is following the same horrendous trend. Go behind early, be sad. Equalise, be angry that you went behind but at least you aren't losing. Game ends a draw, be grumpy for days for bottling it and dropping points against teams you should beat. Wonder if Big Van Dick was in his ear during the WC. You know, just like how Ramsdale and Saka would have been in Bellinghams Well based on their team against Villa, Gakpo goes straight onto the LW where he plays for PSV. Cuts in on his right, they keep Salah on the RW cutting in on his left, and Nunez stays central and shanks everything. I think they had Elliott at LW against Villa at times today, so Gakpo is an immediate upgrade.
amazing how people still overpaid for broke wenger products until late in the day ox literally can’t play football properly what did liverpools elite scouts ‘see’ in him?
They probably saw the same thing Arsene saw, a 16 year old that started 27 games for Southampton in League 1 and scored 9 goals with 8 assists. There are always coaches who believe they have the key to unlocking a player’s potential. Why they spent more than £30m for him is puzzling.
I think an issue with some of these wenger products is they didn’t learn basics of football E.g Ramsey can’t play midfield yet excels at certain things
The fact that Ox was able to play with men at 16, albeit in the third tier, suggests that physically he was so dominate at the youth level that he may have relied on his athleticism to succeed not basic skills and awareness. However, we shouldn’t forget that he is another player that has had an injury riddled career, both at Arsenal and at Liverpool. Finally, I know you like to lay blame for some of this on Wenger, but player development is primarily the responsibility of the academies. With 50 plus games in a season, and two or three trainings between weekend and midweek games most managers focus trainings on the next opponent, not the basics some players missed at the youth level because they jumped into the first team as teenagers. Wenger’s responsibility may lie in promoting teenagers into the team to early. A strategy he used in the second half of his Arsenal career to balance the books.
Always thought Ox played his best as a right-wing back, never understood Wenger's contention that he would be a CM. Never had the touch and it wasted his speed. Don't think Ox liked RWB, got a higher fee for him than Iwobi but in the same ballpark for homegrown talent that's PL proven.
There is a next level of midfield play you only can learn in the first team. You saw this with Kroos who was absurdly talented at age 22 but only developed into a complete midfielder over the next couple of years it’s been well covered before but wengers teams lacked key ideas is spacing, pressing and structures. Mostly because he never hired any elite first team trainers to bring in the IP Ramsey is an obvious example of this. When he first came in as a wide midfielder he was atrocious. I was amazed he would even be considered for Arsenal his touch was so poor. But his general confidence and dynamism took him far. But it never became clear what type of player he was. Wenger tried him in pivot when he is clearly more of a 10 a huge ongoing issue at arsenal was also the lack of any elite midfielder anyone could learn from remember fabregas came up with Gilberto and Vieira at the club …
yes his speed is highly valued at the top end of football I agree he lacks 5% on dribbling, first touch and passing
well no but I was responding to the idea players would learn all that outside of premier league football there are of course plenty of players who don’t make the further strides from teenage talent and they will fail in the first team it could be that ox is simply a below average EPL player which is still a reasonable level
Yea, but he was a prick and I was never convinced he seriously applied himself. I suspect it was the latter, Santi was signed the year after Nasir left for City.
Nasri had like 160 Marseille appearances and had just played with France at the Euros before signing. I don't think it's fair to say he wasn't developed elsewhere. If you want to start that timeframe with Ramsey (signed 10 days earlier), I'll give you that. Nasri was a well-established professional on arrival though.
Na, na na na, na na na na, Samir Nasri NASRI, SAMIR NASRI!! so good for 12 months we added an extra syllable to his name
I kept an eye on Chelsea game today and one thing I noticed was their goal celebrations and how they were different than Arsenal's. Something I've been saying about our boys this season (and Monday was no exception) is that they have great unity, chemistry, etc. By and large the group is more important than the individual. You can see that in our goal celebrations. And it wasn't the same with Chelsea's I thought. Long may that last. p.s. Leeds might be a bit similar these days, so maybe just maybe they can use this to their advantage against Citeh today. I can't think of a game that I'll be a bigger supporter for Jesse, Tyler, Brenden and all their boys. Come on you whites!