Hes right on the first sentence.
He was never Irish anywayā¦
Does he mean our worst signing or in the PL or just by us.
Does he also mean value for money, because we have had far worse signings but nearly as expensive.
I can only assume he never saw Veron, for both Man U and Chelsea who was a record signing, or Torres at Liverpool or any of the players that Mourinho bought for ridiculous amounts of money that he then hardly ever played because they werenāt good enough.
Even spurs have wasted similar equivalent amounts on worse players in recent seasons.
I think he has shown, in a few games what he is capable of, and next season will be more consistent.
Cascarino does tend to talk first and then think later.
Seeing as he works for Talk Sport itās hardly surprising.
I donāt know what the Latin is for talking without thinking, but that should be the Talk Sport motto.
I just looked it up, and it might be "collocutio absque cogitabundus.
As if he has been the worse signing of all time. What a fucking ridiculous thing to be saying!
He isnt even the worst signing Wenger has made.
Exactly. Like he is worse than Stepanovs or Silvestre
Xhaka has at times been poor, no doubt about it, but it seems that after another loss every pundit and opposition fans want to point to Xhaka and say āsee thatās why their most expensive signing this seasonā. But in reality heās had 2 decent games on the trott.
Torres was good at Liverpool tbf.
So me basically.
Big Cas was basically a 1990s Jonathan Walters.
Youāre right, sorry, I meant Chelsea.
Liverpool sold Torres to Chelsea and was less than impressive after the transfer.
But, like you say, he was very good for Liverpool, who then spent around 40m on Carroll, who wasnāt much of a success either, mainly because of his constant injuries.
I really havenāt been that annoyed at Xhaka this season. Arsenal have been cumulatively shite - not one player.
More disappointed in the players who have been here longer and have largely dropped their level. Someone in the their first year in England, at 24 years old, is not the one.
Agree with this, but having said that, he came in with high expectations, and rightly soā¦ bigger issue for me are the basic flaws that he has displayed - poor touch, composure, simple misplaced passes at random moments, poor tackling - and frankly, not reading the game as well as I would expect. We knew he wasnāt the most mobile guy, and that is fine. I wasnāt expecting a superstar, but more of a tidy, intelligent player with great passing and technical ability - he looks just like the rest of our no-brainers atm and doesnāt seem to add that technical ability in the middle that I had hoped for.
Again, it is simply watching him play and the frequency of incredibly basic errors that concerns me - I could excuse a LOT for a new player in this diabolical system, but that is just incongruent with reasonable expectations for a player of that supposed calibre imho.
I havenāt completely given up on him but I am not at all optimistic.
Yeah heās not even in the same galaxy as some of the poor players weāve witnessed.
The money in football escalates so quickly that Iām not even sure at what point Ā£35m is classed as a mid-level spend for our club now, or if weāve passed that. I do know that we overpaid for him and the spotlight on him is bigger than at players at other clubs, who have more realistic price tags and who have also disappointed overall.
Anyway my contentious (rather less so now) viewpoint is that heās shown more promise going forward (as in the future) than our other Ā£35m signing of last summer.
Our system offers zero protection to the back 6.
Of course players like Xhaka canāt cover all that space - this has been a theme time and again over the last ten years.
We should be in a system that eliminates the deficiencies of players, or at least mitigates them, not continuing with this āone size fits allā ethos we have since 2008.
Yeah my issues are not that he isnāt doing his job of āprotectionā - agree this is larger issueā¦ my concerns are that he doesnāt yet show that he is that great of a footballer too often. Yes, he has had a game or two where he was pretty good and didnāt commit basic amateur errors, but there are plenty where he does - that is on the player, not the system.
Hes cost us goals with some very poor distribution at times and not always being pressed.
He hasnt done anything to convince me he has much to offer yet.
To me he has shown nothing to suggest he is a top player. Given the time and space any average player can look like a superstar. Itās the games where there is no time ponder where you have act fast and be affective that separates world class player from average ones. He has been dross like the rest of our midfield
If you expected technical ability, you just donāt know Xhaka. He is not this type of player. He will never be a Isco, Thiago Alcantara, etc.
We must stop see him as a world class player because he is not. We buy him for his passing ability, aggresivity (thanks refs) and his great vista. For me, he is a player who learn and Iām sure he will improve and prove his value soon. His season has been broken because of his stupid red cards.
Iāve been thinking about Xhaka and when he first came he didnāt play. Thatās bound to impact his fitness. And then he plays and heās off the pace and in a faster more intense league. Iām hoping he adapts to the pace after a pre-season.
Totally agree with you, Iāve the same thought about Granit, but:
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@ljungbergkamp is wrong, but the first to not understand the role is Wenger because talked about him as potential box to box midfielder, when we have seen how is bad when he plays into a duo on midfield (despite he has played many times with only one midfielder near him last year with Gladbach).
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Granit looks a mono-dimensional player. If he can perform in only one role, with precise tactics and conditions to show his talent, has been a big mistake to sign him, especially for the amount of money spent to sign him. I hope of his reaction during the final of the season and the next year, but at the moment he has under performed basing my judgment on the expectations. His qualities sold to us the idea to have signed the new Micheal Carrick, but at the moment he is miles away to be an āAlex Songā.