GoonerAlexandre wrote:Özim wrote:GoonerAlexandre wrote:Vasilis added: "He’s considered the ‘next big thing’ in terms of Greek defenders after the likes of Panagiotis Retsos (Bayer Leverkusen), Sokratis (Borussia Dortmund) and Manolas (Roma) left Greece for Europe.
"Olympiakos was close to signing him in October for €1m. However, it was not an official offer from Olympiakos. They wanted to have the first refusal on the player if he became for sale in January. PAS told them that if they received a better offer from outside they will accept it, which is why he is now heading to Arsenal."
Also shares the same agent with Sokratis btw, you can tell a lot about a player from the agent he has.
I don't think any of those defenders are all that to be honest so that doesn't say much to me, Greece doesn't really have any standout talents. Dortmund aren't the team they use to be either.
We're signing him for what 2 1/2 times that, we must have the worst negotiators in football if Olympiakos nearly got him for 1 million Euros a few months ago.
I'm not hopeful about this guy at all, we've had plenty of better known youngsters fail.
Sokratis would be the 2nd best defender at the club tbh
Özim wrote:GoonerAlexandre wrote:Additional Info for those interested:
"Interestingly, Arsenal’s chief scout Sven Mislintat watched Greece Under-20s play last summer and signed young Olympiakos player Argiris Kampetsis (for Mislintat's former club Borussia Dortmund). He clearly has knowledge of the Greek market and Mavropanos’ arrival could be the start of similar signings, if his previous work is anything to go by.
Giannis Petrakis trusted him enough to put him in the starting line-up for games against Veria and AEK Athens this season, and he was voted man of the match against AEK. AEK Athens were Runners Up in the Superleague Greece btw
Might be true, but then Xhaka was supposedly a world beater and in the Bundesligue team of the season, yet he can't pass, tackle of defend so these facts don't mean a lot in reality.
Heard this hype about these youngsters many times before, that's all it is hype, mostly unwarranted.
Those who watched Bundesliga said Xhaka was shit before he joined us.
SchlandGooner wrote:I think we could buy a better midfielder for the rumoured 40+m tbh.
He's apart from his age no real upgrade from what we already have but maybe he surprises me.
Imo he commits way to many fouls and his tackling isn't that good also his passing is overrated and his shooting is kind of horrible also he is always good for an error. Personally I also don't like his regular dribblings against pressing opponents with only 1-2 defender behind him. If you focus on defensive stats (per 90min) in the league and compare him with Flamini (who has no standing here) he isn't really better. Imo there are more interesting and most likely cheaper players in the Bundesliga we could think about.
Stats from Xhaka, Flamini, Dahoud (first season as starter), Elneny, Cazorla focussed on passing and defensive shizzle
http://tinyurl.com/zqclabbAnd before someone start mention it I already wrote multiple times that I wish Ramsey would move to another club cause I guess he won't develope under Wenger to his full potential.
gooney also flatly said that he was Elneny-Coquelin level
Not hard to be 2nd best defender because quite frankly our defenders are rubbish, so it would be no great achievement.
As for Xhaka I also thought he was a waste of time, fact is though some people said he can't be bad if he's in the Bundesligue team of the season and reckoned he was top notch. My point was that hearsay doesn't mean a lot, all these young players get hyped up something chronic, very few ever make it, how many have we found in the 100s we've wasted money on.
A for the people looking for players, sometimes they get someone decent, sometimes they don't, like I said Dortmund aren't all that and haven't been since Klopp left and the hard facts are Wenger will have final say like he always does and the guy doesn't have a clue about what makes a decent player despite his 20,000 substitutions.