Higuain

[Marvin]

€90million for Higuain is obscene. It was a figure invented for his contract as a statement that he was staying with Napoli. Juventus are more than doubling their club transfer record on a player who wouldn't even be the best on their current squad.

It's a massive overspend that is, along with Pogba, evidence of how screwed the market is going to be. City's increasing emphasis on young talent is the smart approach.

The best players attract the biggest fees, especially if they are strikers, and in a rising market you get record fees or near record fees. The surprise comes when clubs start spending heavily on average players.

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

You and me must have very different ways of judging when somebody is wound up or not.

You mentioned poor value in relation to other clubs signings so forgive me if I was to take the very reasonable assumption that you think the Higuain deal isn't.

On value I suppose the question is what would Sergio go for, if we were to sell him? I was surprised that his and Higuains records are very similar, in terms of goals to games, although I suspect Higuain plays 90 minutes a lot more often. Sergio is about six months younger and, before this transfer to Juventus, I'd have thought he'd have been a £40M player. Now, if he was on the market, he'd be in the €100M bracket. Madness abounds...

 

[Cityfan]

But we are talking about now, not historically. Alves was an average back last season, and he is likely weaker now. Trust me I rail against blue tinted view too. I'm just not sure Alves is better than Sagna today.

While it is not dispositive, their whoscored ratings had Sagna ranked higher last season. Better in most defensive categories. And while this is not proof Sagna is better, it is arguable he was. And that alone suggests Alves wasn't the marauding dominant RB of yesteryears. The current one is just a shell of what he used to be.

Personally, I think currently Sagna is actually better. But I recognize others might believe otherwise. But what is clear to me is that they are close enough that both positions are legitimate and arguable withoutit being the functionof blue tinted glasses.

Juventus play three central defenders and wing backs an ageing Evra appears to have thrived in that system, both in Europe and domestically. I would think it will exploit Alves' strengths and minimise his weaknesses.

 

[Phil1]

On value I suppose the question is what would Sergio go for, if we were to sell him? I was surprised that his and Higuains records are very similar, in terms of goals to games, although I suspect Higuain plays 90 minutes a lot more often. Sergio is about six months younger and, before this transfer to Juventus, I'd have thought he'd have been a £40M player. Now, if he was on the market, he'd be in the €100M bracket. Madness abounds...

Somebody did the stats a few pages back and I think Higuain had scored 5 more than Sergio over the last 2/3 years but has played 30 more games in that time. He's also playing at a lower level in Serie A.
If Sergio was to go on the market my guess is there would be far more suitors lined up for him than the one club who are daft enough to pay Higuains fee.

 

[Pitchell]

Somebody did the stats a few pages back and I think Higuain had scored 5 more than Sergio over the last 2/3 years but has played 30 more games in that time. He's also playing at a lower level in Serie A.
If Sergio was to go on the market my guess is there would be far more suitors lined up for him than the one club who are daft enough to pay Higuains fee.

I'm not sure the "playing at a lower level" argument applies - many players have said that Serie A is the most difficult league for a striker to score in, given that teams are more defensive and tactically sound. So quality doesn't really come into it, it's more difficult to score against mediocre players who are well-organised than top class players who aren't.

 

[Centurions]

Gundogan's. He's a fine player, but has undoubtedly struggled pretty heavily with injuries so far in his career.

He had surgery for his back injury (actually something he was born with I think) and he came back from that in Oct 2014 and has never had a recurrence. He dislocated his kneecap in training (playing basketball) and should be back at the start of August.

It's a myth that gets perpetuated that he's injury prone, he isn't.

 

[kompany10]

He had surgery for his back injury (actually something he was born with I think) and he came back from that in Oct 2014 and has never had a recurrence. He dislocated his kneecap in training (playing basketball) and should be back at the start of August.

It's a myth that gets perpetuated that he's injury prone, he isn't.

He may not have had a recurrence of his back injury however he has had 2 or 3 other niggly injuries and is considered an injury prone player

 

[eversince 76]

I wish people stopped talking about transfer fees. Useless. We all know it's a money crazy world and football tells the story even clearer. In football it's about getting the players you want and need. If a club can afford him and it's within the rules l don't need to know what money has been spent. Again useless.

 

[Akiva]

He may not have had a recurrence of his back injury however he has had 2 or 3 other niggly injuries and is considered an injury prone player

Bullshit. How can you be injury prone if you don't suffer a recurrence of the same injury? David Silva is injury prone, Vincent Kompany is injury prone. Ilkay Gundogan had one major injury, with his back, and has had nothing to write home about outside of that. For example, last season he was sidelined for a few weeks with a bruised foot as a precaution. Outside of the back, he's missed only 36 games through injury or sickness and played in 347.

 

[Pitchell]

He had surgery for his back injury (actually something he was born with I think) and he came back from that in Oct 2014 and has never had a recurrence. He dislocated his kneecap in training (playing basketball) and should be back at the start of August.

It's a myth that gets perpetuated that he's injury prone, he isn't.

That's not quite true, is it? A cursory glance at his injury record shows that he suffered an injury a month since December 2015 and a number of other injuries before that. Thankfully most were minor, but there's no denying that he has suffered a high number of injuries for a 25 year old player.