I really like what I've seen of Todibo. We should definitely get him in. I also like the look of Antonio Silva too, as well as Ousmane Diomande who seems particularly good in passing from the back.
Todibo seems to fit that profile of a player who is already very good but yet to take that next step to become a top, top player. Exactly the sort of profile we should be looking at. That 22-24 year old who is on the cusp of making the next big step up, and can become a star for us very quickly. There are high potential breakthrough players, then established quality players pre-prime, then quality players in their prime, and finally post or tail end prime quality players. We seem to sign a lot of players from the first or last category, whereas the core of our recruitment should come from the second category. Players ready to become a star, but will make that transition at United. Fergie always used to say that we make stars instead of signing them; and that was largely true.
Hojlund is the first player we've done that with in a while, although you could say Martinez fit the bill too - yet the defining marker of that signing was that the manager had worked with him before. Just this summer we've seen Lavia (55m), Mac Allister (35m), Szoboszlai (60m), Timber (34m), Moussa Diaby (42m), Verbruggen (15m), Nkunku (55m), Gravenberch (35m), Doku (56m), Matheus Nunes (53m), Tonali (55m), Kulusevski (26m), Johnson (48m), Ward-Prowse (30m), who all more or less fit that strategy - give or take the odd exception - and almost all of who would've improved us long term or been better than the older or more overpriced options we have gone for. Season before we had players like Bruno Guimaraes, who was eminently affordable, and would've fit us like a glove at a reasonable fee.
Most of those players are between 21 and 25, already proven at a high level, and just ripe to make the next step up to become great players. Doesn't mean that all will - of course not - but meanwhile we are signing a 33 year old Eriksen (albeit on a free) and a 30 year old Casemiro for 65m, or huge fees for players that fit the age profile but the price is simply too high for where they are in their career. See Sancho for 73M or Antony for 85m. For the price of those two we could have signed Bruno Guimaraes, Jurrien Timber, Jeremy Doku, and Dejan Kulusevski, and had a much, much better squad.
And that's just the most basic way of looking at it. Our recruitment is appalling. I don't know if we just don't trust our scouts, or don't do the scouting work, or if it's because there is no coherent voice at thew top in the form of a knowledgable DoF (the latter I assume), but the end result is that we buy players past their prime, or massively overpay for young but largely unproven talent that we haven't done enough homework on.
This isn't to scapegoat any players, but it's more to identify a pattern that is blatantly obvious. One of the main reasons I was behind the Mount signing is because it adds a quality player that can play several positions, giving us much needed depth, and he's only 24. Looking at the prices of the players I just mentioned, its the sort of price bracket that you can get very good quality for.
exactly