This is clearly a ‘deal’ sort of move. We have a file on Zaniolo that says he’s worth around 25m for us, and that he has pros and cons that make that number viable in our system. He’s suddenly available for that number so we’re moving for it. Fits our previous patterns when going for good deal players. Worst case we have an ok winger that we can probably sell for the same value in a few years.
Some people wanted him for around 40m in the summer. 25 loan obligation seems like a good deal for a player like Zaniolo, and fitting in a defined system with specific instructions, maybe he finds himself like Kessie did. That was Kessie’s problem before Pioli, too free doing too many things and needed focus and to limit what he does to the things he does best.
Who knows, maybe Zaniolo ends up being a better RW than Saelemaekers and Messias, in which case we can eventually sell both and get a RW to rotate with Zaniolo.
The point I’m trying to make is that the fact that he’s not expensive makes it’s a low risk move. High(ish) upside and very low downside for a position that we need to upgrade.
I doubt they would have moved for him if he wasn’t a good deal.
Bro I trust your analyses.
I don't like Zaniolo but I will support him if he comes and hope he does well
This is basically my position for most of the new signings at this point.
We took THE SAME gamble on Pellegri and it didn't pay off.
Zaniolo has been injured WORSE and has played WORSE after getting fit again.
I'm not sure where the hope the pro-Zaniolo ppl have is coming from.
Only R9 was properly world class with his serious injuries and that's because he was insanely good before.
ADP never regained his pre-injury stature although he was still a damn good player.
For me ACL is very serious.
This is another gamble like CDK, only that we're gambling with different parameters.
Then there's the "it can't be worse than...."
Well it absolutely can. We've been through basically a decade of shit LB's after Maldini and Serginho.
And each time it was..."well it couldn't be worse than...Antonini/Antonelli/Urby/Mesbah" etc.
We also kinda had this issue at #9