Jules Koundé

Bit reserved about this. Even with Ake and Kounde being added we still don’t have an immediate, ready made partner for Laporte.

Kounde is a great looking prospect and brings pace to the back line but he’s really young and raw, hard to imagine he settles in quickly and cements a first team spot within the first six months.

One of the huge positives with bringing Koulibaly in was his experience as well as how well he played under Sarri. Can’t help but feel a bit underwhelmed by the Kounde signing as I don’t see how he instantly improves the back line which is what we desperately need.
when did they announce the signing, missed it
 
Bit reserved about this. Even with Ake and Kounde being added we still don’t have an immediate, ready made partner for Laporte.

Kounde is a great looking prospect and brings pace to the back line but he’s really young and raw, hard to imagine he settles in quickly and cements a first team spot within the first six months.

One of the huge positives with bringing Koulibaly in was his experience as well as how well he played under Sarri. Can’t help but feel a bit underwhelmed by the Kounde signing as I don’t see how he instantly improves the back line which is what we desperately need.

Pace.
 
Bit reserved about this. Even with Ake and Kounde being added we still don’t have an immediate, ready made partner for Laporte.

Kounde is a great looking prospect and brings pace to the back line but he’s really young and raw, hard to imagine he settles in quickly and cements a first team spot within the first six months.

One of the huge positives with bringing Koulibaly in was his experience as well as how well he played under Sarri. Can’t help but feel a bit underwhelmed by the Kounde signing as I don’t see how he instantly improves the back line which is what we desperately need.
A player that played against elite teams and won the Europa league deserves some credit. Would you say Harland or Mbappe is too young to play for us? If you are good, you are good.
 
Bit reserved about this. Even with Ake and Kounde being added we still don’t have an immediate, ready made partner for Laporte.

Kounde is a great looking prospect and brings pace to the back line but he’s really young and raw, hard to imagine he settles in quickly and cements a first team spot within the first six months.

One of the huge positives with bringing Koulibaly in was his experience as well as how well he played under Sarri. Can’t help but feel a bit underwhelmed by the Kounde signing as I don’t see how he instantly improves the back line which is what we desperately need.
I think he's already better than any of the partners for Laporte that we have at the moment. What he isn't is a world class commanding presence, but if Laporte stays fit, then there's no reason that he can't be a very good partner for him for now, and improve into a world class player over a few years. I guess it's whether you want to buy a world class CB now who "guarantees" success, and then have to look for another in a couple of years, or buy a very good young CB that will allow us to tie down the position for years to come as he improves. Obviously there's no guarantee he'll develop into that player, but then there's no guarantee that Koulibaly won't come here and turn out to be past it, or struggle to adapt to the league.
 
Whoever we bring in needs more than pace though don’t they? Mangala had pace.

They need to be able to perform with the fundamentals of a Pep centre half along with being quick.

What is 'raw' about him ?

Compared to Otamendi, Stones, Garcia, Mendy, Zinchenko, Cancelo, for instance ?
 
Whoever we bring in needs more than pace though don’t they? Mangala had pace.

They need to be able to perform with the fundamentals of a Pep centre half along with being quick.

Mangala came from Portugal, I think any signing from that league is risky. I also think signing from Italy can be risky too.
But if we look at our signings from Spain, they’ve mostly done really well, including the defenders. When we look at all our centre backs in the last 10 years excluding Kompany. The most successful have come from the Spanish league. The way teams play in Spain, particular the top 6-8 teams, it’s probably just as tough to defend in as the PL nowadays.

Plus, he doesn’t just have pace, is excellent in the air, reads through game well and he’s a great passer. I think he’s made for our style of football. Yeah he’s young, but he’s very competitive. If he’s this good now at 21, where he’s playing week in week out for a top Spanish team and winning European trophies, he could be the best in the world at 24. Whereas Koulibaly will be 33-34 by this age.
 

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