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Grealish

nayenezgani said:
Kovacic or Grealish, who do you sign?

I personally hope we're pushing hard for Kovacic and Grealish is our emergency last ditch option..
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They’re different type of players and obviously Kovacic is more established - I don’t think that’s an either/or. What I will say is people suggesting just promote a youth player, watch that Grealish video and tell me which youth player has that skill set? Whereas being linked to Cook I’d say there are youth players who could do a similar role to him from the youngsters albeit Cook has a head start. Kovacic would be great, but I get the feeling he’ll end up being one of those pipe dreams that get talked about much on here but doesn’t end up even coming close to happening, just like Martial....
 
scaramanga said:
So promote a kid and put the money towards someone that can improve the first team.
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This season we need to go all out to challenge for the league title, so we'll need the strongest squad possible in order to also compete in the CL and the two domestic trophies. That surely means we'll need to take up our full quota of 25 players. However eight of those need to be home-grown and over the age of 21. At present we only have seven.

If clubs want to take full advantage of the maximum player allowance, eight of them must be homegrown.

'Home Grown' simply means that a player must have been on the books of a club affiliated with the Football Association for at least three years before they turn 21 – it does not mean that they have to be English.

Chelsea's Cesc Fabregas, for example, having come up through Arsenal's academy, is classed as a homegrown player despite being a Spain international.

Another important caveat is that teams can use as many under-21 players as they like in addition to their main squad, regardless of nationality.

Bringing in another 'home-grown' over the age of 21 will not prevent us from utilising all our academy players - especially in the domestic cups - it simply means we we will have the strongest possible squad in order to mount a serious challenge for the League.

Our best academy players will no doubt get their chances in domestic cup ties and if any prove good enough to oust one of the full squad then there's nothing to prevent that. Naturally we all hope that proves to be the case but you'll surely agree it's a rare kid that can walk straight into the first team and keep his place at the very highest echelons of the PL.
 
Spur of the moment said:
This season we need to go all out to challenge for the league title, so we'll need the strongest squad possible in order to also compete in the CL and the two domestic trophies. That surely means we'll need to take up our full quota of 25 players. However eight of those need to be home-grown and over the age of 21. At present we only have seven.

If clubs want to take full advantage of the maximum player allowance, eight of them must be homegrown.

'Home Grown' simply means that a player must have been on the books of a club affiliated with the Football Association for at least three years before they turn 21 – it does not mean that they have to be English.

Chelsea's Cesc Fabregas, for example, having come up through Arsenal's academy, is classed as a homegrown player despite being a Spain international.

Another important caveat is that teams can use as many under-21 players as they like in addition to their main squad, regardless of nationality.

Bringing in another 'home-grown' over the age of 21 will not prevent us from utilising all our academy players - especially in the domestic cups - it simply means we we will have the strongest possible squad in order to mount a serious challenge for the League.

Our best academy players will no doubt get their chances in domestic cup ties and if any prove good enough to oust one of the full squad then there's nothing to prevent that. Naturally we all hope that proves to be the case but you'll surely agree it's a rare kid that can walk straight into the first team and keep his place at the very highest echelons of the PL.
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We're talking about an unused squad place - someone who will play the early rounds of the cups and the last 30 seconds of matches that are comfortably won.

You're right, a youth player will struggle to make the first team - Grealish is miles off of our first team too, so it's irrelevant. So let's save however many £Ms Villa want for Grealish and put that towards buying someone who will actually improve our first team, because that's what will move us closer to winning a trophy.
 
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nayenezgani said:
Kovacic or Grealish, who do you sign?

I personally hope we're pushing hard for Kovacic and Grealish is our emergency last ditch option..
Click to expand...

They are quite different players though

Kovacic is a CM, who can also play ACM (and on occasions DM).

Grealish is an ACM who potentially could be converted to play CM

Kovacic would be Dembele's replacement, whereas Grealish would be a deputy for Eriksen, Lamela and Alli
 
Gutter Boy said:
They are quite different players though

Kovacic is a CM, who can also play ACM (and on occasions DM).

Grealish is an ACM who potentially could be converted to play CM

Kovacic would be Dembele's replacement, whereas Grealish would be a deputy for Eriksen, Lamela and Alli
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Quite different but play the same positions? Ok then.

It'll be one or the other, not both.
 
scaramanga said:
We're talking about an unused squad place - someone who will play the early rounds of the cups and the last 30 seconds of matches that are comfortably won.

You're right, a youth player will struggle to make the first team - Grealish is miles off of our first team too, so it's irrelevant. So let's save however many £Ms Villa want for Grealish and put that towards buying someone who will actually improve our first team, because that's what will move us closer to winning a trophy.
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That's probably true, the problem is it does not insure us against a freak run of injuries, especially in certain areas of the pitch.

Currently Grealish looks capable of becoming the closest we could get to Eriksen, a player that could make Tottenham tick. It's often said that when Eriksen plays so do Tottenham, and that's the kind of player we need as back up should the Dane be out for any length of time. Grealish has that little bit of magic in his boots, the ability to take on and go past players and create openings. For me the likes of Winks, Lamela and Maura whilst being excellent CMs don't quite have that extra something.

True it's possible that someone like Onomah or Skipp could eventually become that player but right now I'd say Grealish is probably ahead of them.
 
nayenezgani said:
Kovacic or Grealish, who do you sign?

I personally hope we're pushing hard for Kovacic and Grealish is our emergency last ditch option..
Click to expand...

Are they comparable?

Id imagine Kovacic would effectively replace Dembele, wouldnt he? As well as being a senior and established player.

Grealish would be more in the Alli/Eriksen mould, to my mind, and will clearly be coming in as something of a junior in the squad.

I dont see why we wouldnt get both, to be honest.

Aside from finances/other priorities getting in the way.


jabbathehut said:
Even if we meet the financials Kovacic is going to be hard to convince to come to us from Real Madrid.
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Will it? We can offer good money, CL football, a title challenge (potentially!), London living, and sell him on the feel good factor around a rising team/club.

We got Moura, IMO a similar kind of player, in that he is a top talent, highly rated, somewhat sidelined at a mega rich club....
 
Spur of the moment said:
That's probably true, the problem is it does not insure us against a freak run of injuries, especially in certain areas of the pitch.

Currently Grealish looks capable of becoming the closest we could get to Eriksen, a player that could make Tottenham tick. It's often said that when Eriksen plays so do Tottenham, and that's the kind of player we need as back up should the Dane be out for any length of time. Grealish has that little bit of magic in his boots, the ability to take on and go past players and create openings. For me the likes of Winks, Lamela and Maura whilst being excellent CMs don't quite have that extra something.

True it's possible that someone like Onomah or Skipp could eventually become that player but right now I'd say Grealish is probably ahead of them.
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Grealish is probably the closest in style to Eriksen of those you've listed. Unfortunately he's not even worthy of being mentioned in the same breath (few are). In much the same way as we can't have a replacement for Kane on the bench (nobody good enough to fill in for Kane would sit on any team's bench) we can't for Eriksen either. What we can do is increase competition in the first team, with players actually likely to push for a starting place without the need for serious injury to others. Those players can then all fill in for each other during injury/rest periods.

The step down to someone like Grealish is just too far for our first team.
 
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Spur of the moment said:
That's probably true, the problem is it does not insure us against a freak run of injuries, especially in certain areas of the pitch.

Currently Grealish looks capable of becoming the closest we could get to Eriksen, a player that could make Tottenham tick. It's often said that when Eriksen plays so do Tottenham, and that's the kind of player we need as back up should the Dane be out for any length of time. Grealish has that little bit of magic in his boots, the ability to take on and go past players and create openings. For me the likes of Winks, Lamela and Maura whilst being excellent CMs don't quite have that extra something.

True it's possible that someone like Onomah or Skipp could eventually become that player but right now I'd say Grealish is probably ahead of them.
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But do you think the club are looking for that type of player, they passed up on Maddison who I'm sure would have chosen us and will probably end up being around the same price? Maybe they just prefer Grealish.
 
scaramanga said:
Grealish is probably the closest in style to Eriksen of those you've listed. Unfortunately he's not even worthy of being mentioned in the same breath (few are). In much the same way as we can't have a replacement for Kane on the bench (nobody good enough to fill in for Kane would sit on any team's bench) we can't for Eriksen either. What we can do is increase competition in the first team, with players actually likely to push for a starting place without the need for serious injury to others. Those players can then all fill in for each other during injury/rest periods.

The step down to someone like Grealish is just to far for our first team.
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Okay so we have completely different takes on Grealish. Fair enough, let's wait and see how it all pans out.
 
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