Re: Gareth Bale
With us needing a new centre back, a new central midfielder, a new attacking midfielder and a new striker (and arguably a new goalie) to go straight into the first team setup I think the focus was on bringing in players who could fit right in and start performing from the get go. As the team is getting more settled and balanced it seems likely that we can go for more unknown youngsters.
I think much of the impression of AVB as someone focusing on scouting is that he was a scout himself so he's likely to value that part of running a football club. Slightly more concrete-ish he did also spend a fairly long time scouting players in Brazil/South America during his spell without a job. Would point towards him valuing scouting quite highly, can you imagine many other PL managers doing the same?
Levy's transfer policy seems to fit with what AVB wants imo.
as for the bit in bold, you say this but we have never actually done that to the point of if being a trend. our squad over the last 14 years has experienced every single need possible and been in every spectrum of transition and continuity available at the start of a summer and yet we have never ever truly gambled on a true unknown. we have bought youngsters but even they had marketability or their talent was enough to superceed the commercial needs of a transfer..and when that was the case we paid through the nose. as skyfarer says..commolli was a scatter gun type but he was a closer and he hit a few bulls eyes .
was AVB a talent scout though? didnt i hear he was an opposition scout and made dossiers on other teams and their players more for a competitive standpoint? if he is was primarily and full on talent scout then sure but i dont know what an oppostion scout does but i do know what a talent scout does and how they decide who to watch. If AVB wasnt a talent scout then who is to say his network is that extensive anyway?
hold on, when AVB didnt have a job he scouted players from south america for a long time? jeez thats dedication, where is that info anyway? is south america that lacking in talent that we couldnt find anyone for us this summer? why didnt we get anyone in? actually, where did you even read that from?
as for the policy, i think you have it the wrong way round....levy's policy doesnt fit with AVB....AVB was hired , IMHO , under the absolute knowlegde that he would have to work within the guidelines of levy's policy. AVB is levy's boy..., AVB is much more a coach than he is a SAF type manager, i mean think about it...if levy's transfer policy is right on the mark with AVBs then that means that upon all of AVBs scouting potential and talent assessment he actually sat there and thought "we dont need a striker, we should just only have adebayor extra, and if we want to get a striker we should go for leANDRO.....oh and dempsey is the man"
where as IMV, ade and leandro we from the administrations reccomendation and dempsey is a prem proven low risk squad purchase with american market potential.
i would be very surprised if we went for unknown youngsters for our first team squad like wenger does....and does successfully......next season
