Fair few Brits have gone and done a decent job in Italy I think. Those that you mentioned. Ray Wilkins has a spell at Milan too, and Gary Charles I think his name was scored a shitload for Juve once upon a time. Robbie Keane’s spell at Inter was short but I don’t think he was as bad as made out either.
Nicolo Barella
- Thread starter RedNed77
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Very true, I must admit.Surprised everybody is talking of him as the perfect replacement for Herrera. Times I have seen him he has made great lung busting runs with the ball, darted forward without it to the edge of the box, good technique and passing, positionally sound and aggresive defensively.....for me he is more the perfect replacement for Pogba. NDombele looks like more the perfect replacement for Herrera even though he is a different type of player.
Bissaka, Upamecano and Barella are the three main great young talents that stand out for me of us having a really good chance of signing this summer and being exactly what we need, with the clubs they are at and also in terms of value as though hardly cheap I think we would be looking at £150m odd or less for the three of them.
Bissaka, Upamecano and Barella are the three main great young talents that stand out for me of us having a really good chance of signing this summer and being exactly what we need, with the clubs they are at and also in terms of value as though hardly cheap I think we would be looking at £150m odd or less for the three of them.
He's a allround player that can attack and defend well to a high level it seems.
His abilites makes him able to perform different midfield roles. We should definitively sign him, not that we are going to.
Yes I think he could play anywhere across the midfield and though doesnt have the physical attributes or technique of Pogba for example he does share the ability to make lung busting runs, dont get the Scholes comparison though personally bar ghosting into the box
Doesn't remind me of Scholes either. Scholes was better on the ball, but Barella is better off the ball. Barella also plays at a high intensity due to his high energy levels and would be perfect for the heavy pressing Ole wants.
If we can get this lad in, I'm hyped. However, knowing how we're run, I don't have my hope up.
Has there ever been an exciting young Italian that was a huge success in the PL? There's been plenty of big names from Serie A that came for a big final pay day, in the days when Serie A was above the PL, but I don't think a young exciting Italian has ever been a huge hit in the PL.
Jorginho is Brazilian really and he was supposedly the best midfielder in Serie A but has flattered to deceive mostly
Jorginho is Brazilian really and he was supposedly the best midfielder in Serie A but has flattered to deceive mostly
True, but what young Italians highly rated have even come here? Jorginho was such a bad signing simply for the fact Kante is the best in the world probably in that position. Was for Sarri ball I guess and the midfield just looks muddled doesnt it. Think he has looked pertty good on the ball myself but just not able to adpat to the pace of the premiership without the ball
Jorginho is not a very balanced player. He certainly can pass the ball, but can easily be marked out of games due to his lack of pace and physicality by one player alone --> Why Chelsea have struggled in a number of games this season.
Barella is not as good a passer as Jorginho, but clubs will not sign him to be the one that controls the game like Chelsea signed Jorginho to do.
Yes I think that too. It painful to watch how easy the last few year teams have moved through our midfield. Think that why the likes of Herrera and McTominay have got some credit due to there effort winning the ball back andI dont think either are particular clever at it either. Herrera is decent with the ball but think there are so many players could be better than him for us.
Not many come over, possibly due to 5 or 6 clubs in Italy having the stage for young players to thrive already in their homeland?
Would love this sort of signing. Italy seem to have a few promising midfielders coming through
Any credible links?
Any credible links?
Exactly, I think Barella would be a great signing fro many reasons, a major one being his energy, would be intersting to see how that would translate to the premiership
Yes, maybe cultural too, a bit like England really in that not many players seem to want to make a move abroad. Partly I guess because of a bit of a lack of exceptional talent any real quality yougnsters get hoovered up by the bigger sides there and here.
We have seen more moving abroad from our country now there are more coming through. Italian youth side looked very good too, so wonder if something similar may start to happen there too
Well there was Macheda, Petrucci, Giuseppe Rossi, Darmian, Flamini etc that were all meant to be the new Bagguio's, but never really seemed to happen for any of them.
Well at the moment just the twitter one from a supposed Italian football expert with no direct link to him. There were big links from us before with take it or leave it offers below what the club wanted, but didnt get hugely picked up as we were linke din other sagas at the time that didnt happen either
oh yes Petrucci was meant to be very special wasnt he, the new Totti, didnt he get destroyed by injuries? I liked Rossi, think he was here at the wrong time. Id actually never even heard of Darmian when we signed him...Flamini was French though?
One I always wanted was Del Piero, he was so good around the time we kept playing them. Him and Ronaldo were head and shoulders above the rest for a few years....always seemed rubbish for Italy though
Flamini is French.
For the rest, none of them were that great prospects in the first place. It's just like not long ago, PL doesn't have good luck with Spanish players, before Cesc, David Silva, Xavi Alonso, Fernando Torres... level of talents being imported, during the period the big 2 of La Liga having too many super stars to carter their attention to.
Style of play is an issue too. While other teams have foreign coaches that implement style that suit to Latin players, SAF was hit and miss with Latin players. We struggle most of the time with our Latin players.
Would rather Ndombele, but this chap does look rather good.
Doesn’t matter though does it as we’re signing Declan Rice.
Doesn’t matter though does it as we’re signing Declan Rice.
Pogba flourished when Herrera was on form. This lad is basically a younger and more attacking Herrera. Get him and Pogba will have that 'freedom' again. We'd also need a deep lying playmaker to be our other creator. That's where Neves comes in.
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I think he is very, very similar to the Ander Herrera we saw in Bilbao. I will not judge potential, because I have not seen enough from Barella, but the Barella I see today is very similar to the Herrera we saw then. And actually I think Herrera looked better (was also a few years older).
Yes, I agree Herrera had more quality on the ball especially before LVG broke all of that side of his game
John Charles. Played at both CB and as a forward. Welsh legend and probably one of their top 5 best players ever.
Souness played a season for Sampdoria, Rush played for Juventus, Ince played for Inter, and Gazza played for Lazio.
Also players like Gerry Hitchens, Liam Brady, Trevor Francis, David Platt, and Joe Jordon had passable careers there.
Even if he’s destined to be the next Pirlo, we'd turn him into Fred.
I'dI'd love him at OT. Plays like Stevie G with positional sense
This post is already a classic for so many reasons.
Considering he'd be cheaper than a lot of the other young midfield options, could be a shrewd bit of business. Would much rather him than spalshing £50M+ on basmati Busquets, he's ideal to replace Herrera.
It's not really. With Flamini's dad being Italian and him having a surname about as Italian as it gets, it just would never register that he was French. He'd probably have had more caps if he declared for Italy.
I remember Fergie gave Petrucci's family a house and his dad a job cutting Old Trafford grass or something such was his determination to land the new Totti.
I would take any midfielder at this point.
Balotelli is a young Italian who came to England and did very well at City.
Most of the good Italian players stuck to Serie A as it was in its pomp. More recently they haven't had many great players.
The last top Italian midfielder in my mind was Pirlo and he'd have been great anywhere. Veratti is as PSG. Perhaps Daniel De Rossi, but he was Roma4life.
I think Barella could be the next big thing from Italy. Right now Serie A is a 1 club league.
Sonwhat kind of player is he? Box to box? Offensive, defensive? Creative?
I would say the complete opposite of Fellaini.
Box to box. He is a good allround midfielder player
He was a flop, especially compared to his reputation.
He wasn’t at all. The British media just had some weird witch hunt against him, probably due to a subtle undertone of racism. Apart from Liverpool, Balotelli has scored goals everywhere he’s played. The press were obsessed with labelling him some sort of ‘bad boy’ because he doesn’t have a combover and use heroic buzzwords, instead preferring flash hairstyles and cars.
Then sign him