Riyad Mahrez

[kaz7]

60 plus add ons I believe. Good price.

That would be best we could get away with,if he improves us then go for it txiki,pudge persuaded me by reminding me he has won the league and has play in the CL

 

[kaz7]

In my opinion we are adhering to prices that we do not need to. It is different when we need a player in our squad but Mahrez in my opinion is a luxury player.

Would you rather we don't strenghten whilst at the top? we made that mistake the last 2 times by buying dross

 

[mosssideblue]

In my opinion we are adhering to prices that we do not need to. It is different when we need a player in our squad but Mahrez in my opinion is a luxury player.

Clearly pep thinks otherwise - no?

 

[PragueBlue]

That would be best we could get away with,if he improves us then go for it txiki,pudge persuaded me by reminding me he has won the league and has play in the CL

And was voted player's POTY. He has been excellent in the Premier League with a fairly defensive Leicester team where defences only had to stop him and Vardy really. I suspect he would go up a few levels in the system we play.

 

[Kokonut1307]

On that theory we will never buy another player,the kids will get slotted in when pep thinks they will benefit,i believe mahrez can play on both sides or will be taught to as pep has moved around others

I will try to explain myself better. First of all what I meant with our youth players is that for positions where we already have good enough cover we could use them instead. Obviously we need a CDM due to Dinho beign the only capabale player at that positon. However, we have good enough senior cover (with Sterling and Jesus being able to cover both sides) on the wings so we could easily have academy players fill in roles. About Pep I have followed his career since Barcelona and he converts inside forwards if they can play as wingers which Mahrez does not have the ability for. Sane, Sanchez and Costa were all inside forwards before Pep got his hands on them and he converted them into wingers because they had the speed and playstyle to be able to. Robben, Ribery, Henry and our very own Bernardo have all stayed as inside forwards becuase it suits them a lot more to be able to cut inside. The interesting thing is how Sane is a hybrid because he still does pseudo inside cuts but then switches back to going outside (his beautiful goal against L'pool at Anfield), but thats a differnt discussion about his own brilliance. Back to Mahrez, he is left footed so in theory he could be utilised on the left but his magic comes from his ability to stride inwards to attack defending players. On the left you deprive of him of the ability to drift and cut inside. I find it very unlikely that he would be used as anything other than a RW in our team but who knows I may get surprised.

 

[waspish]

In my opinion we are adhering to prices that we do not need to. It is different when we need a player in our squad but Mahrez in my opinion is a luxury player.

What’s a luxury player?

 

[Kokonut1307]

Clearly pep thinks otherwise - no?

Pep is going towards having 2 squads (22 players) that can easily win the league so clearly we are going into luxury territory with Mahrez. Long term this will be unsustainable like how Madrid lost Danilo, Morata and James.

 

[FantasyIreland]

Pep is going towards having 2 squads (22 players) that can easily win the league so clearly we are going into luxury territory with Mahrez. Long term this will be unsustainable like how Madrid lost Danilo, Morata and James.

Is that the Madrid that are in a Champs final tonight?

 

[Kokonut1307]

Is that the Madrid that are in a Champs final tonight?

Yes the Madrid that got humiliated in the league by Barcelona (and arguably other teams) and knocked out by Leganes in their domestic cup.

 

[FantasyIreland]

Unbelievable that people genuinely think they know better than our management team.

 

[mosssideblue]

Pep is going towards having 2 squads (22 players) that can easily win the league so clearly we are going into luxury territory with Mahrez. Long term this will be unsustainable like how Madrid lost Danilo, Morata and James.

£75m isn't for a luxury player

 

[blueparrot]

Is that the Madrid that are in a Champs final tonight?

:) to be fair so are Liverpool and I wouldn't swap any our squad for theirs. Hopefully it will be the 3 years running European champions Madrid.

 

[richards30]

Fuck it I’m in!! Wanted the rawness of bailey but thinking about it we have the youngsters in sane, sterling, Bernardo and Diaz that currently play wide? An older more experienced player would help in certain away games imo. Oh and to be fair he’s a top player mahrez as well!

 

[Benarbia’s Backheel]

What?

Didn’t you know that Bernardo likes to go Downtown?

 

[Kokonut1307]

What’s a luxury player?

I hope that is just a serious question and not ridiculing me but it depends on the language I guess. In Italian language we use it for both players that are very passive during games or signings who are not necessary and instead are just bloating the squad.

 

[Andrew___K]

Pep is going towards having 2 squads (22 players) that can easily win the league so clearly we are going into luxury territory with Mahrez. Long term this will be unsustainable like how Madrid lost Danilo, Morata and James.

Madrid are replacing Danilo with a better player in Odriozola though. Both Carvajal and Odriozola are in the Spain WC squad, ahead of Bellerin.

At LB they have the world's best fullback in Marcelo and arguably the most latented young LB in Theo.

 

[cjn]

The key to that analysis is the word 'Elite' players.
Your analysis is right. But it doesn't affect the whole market. Just those deemed elite players. The key is too not get jobbed into letting teams caregorize your target as 'Elite'.

Hence why Salah goes for 40 mil and Dembele/Coutihno over 140. Statistically, all 3 were similarly talented players. The disparity in price was simply a function of arbitrary categorization.

This happens all the time. Fortunately for us Mahrez isn't deemed 'elite', even though he is as good as those who are (Ahem: Hazzard), but we should not pay a Tweener price. Pay the good player price. Which is now 40-60 milliim.

As an aside, for all we know, we might be paying 60m. It certainly wouldn't be the first time a transfer fee has been inflated in the media.

It does affect more than just elite players though. Look at VVD for example. Maybe Liverpool were only willing to pay 75m for him because of the Coutinho money, but a knock on effect of that was it made us look at Laporte's release clause and think, "we're going to hit that because its the going rate now". And guess what, if Chelsea goes for Koulibaly this summer (just picking a name), the asking price is going to be the 57m we paid for Laporte, not the 40-50m that would've been going rate a few years ago. Thats how inflation filters down in the market.

 

[pudge]

I'm not sure if it's true, his personal numbers check out, but apparently Mahrez is the only player in the PL to record double digits in goals and assists in two of the last three seasons.

For Leicester, no offence. I'd be excited to see what he does here.

 

[Kokonut1307]

£75m isn't for a luxury player

As an honest question do you see Mahrez displacing either Sane or Sterling from the wings? Personally I do not see it happening, so in my opinion we are most definitely overpaying for someone who we do not really need.

 

[FantasyIreland]

:) to be fair so are Liverpool and I wouldn't swap any our squad for theirs. Hopefully it will be the 3 years running European champions Madrid.

My point is,we want to be competitive in every competition and that means we need a squad capable of being such.This season was amazing but we fell short occasionally when it came to options and availability.Our squad depth needs to improve and a player like Mahrez does exactly that without the drama some wish to create.

As i said above,if you think you know better than our boss then you need medication.