He’s a tough one for me because he obviously has talent. But doesn’t seem to be able to take advantage of his opportunities. I don’t think he’s able to read the game in a way that is required for a deep/defensive mid. I think he should go on loan to a PL team where he will get minutes and re-assess. I’m not that quick to write off 23 year old players who have talent.
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Needs a loan to a promoted team next year. Burnley would be perfect.
If Kompany thinks he’s so great, give us 25m and call it a day.
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MGW has English tax
True, but we’ve seen Liverpool dump some of their scrubs for money just because of that halo effect.
Hell, you could argue we had a somewhat sustained model of buying “scrubs” (players who don’t quite make the cut) from other teams albeit at a higher level. It definitely got us mixed results but I think it’s fair to expect Edu to find a way to move some of these fringe young guys on for money. That’s the entire point of the project. It’s not just that you might have to cave and sell a Martinelli to Madrid for 150m, that’s great but you can only do that once. You’re more likely to have guys like Sambi or Nuno who earn relatively little compared to the stars and because of their age and wage the club would be in a position to at least break even. And iirc even if the club “just” breaks even, that whole fee is credited to the account as a lump sum which is different that when we buy a player and the fee is spread over the course of years.
If you’re getting loaned at 23 or 24 years of age it’s because you ain’t good enough for a top club imo.
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In the context of a straight loan yes, but how many times have we seen players sold with a buy back? A strategic loan might be the way forward for some talents.
I’m not saying Sambi is that player though by any stretch. A good season at an Everton, Palace or Leicester puts him in the 40m bracket.
Not having this. Your basically saying he’s redundant now for us by playing group stage football in the Europa League.
If we used that argument on a young Marquinos, I have no problem with that.
This player was bought for someone you use most of the season and proved not good enough.
The biggest accolade were giving him here is he’s on average wages.
That’s not good enough for our needs. It cost us on the run in last season when we came to the last couple of games.
He’s probably run his course in Europe now for this season.
He was signed for our first team matchday squad and it hasn’t worked, but because of lack of numbers it’s too easy to just say it’s a gamble signing.
By all means do things like this but have requisite numbers or it’s false economy.
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I think it was absolutely a gamble signing. We’ll never know for sure but I suspect the plan summer 2021 was to sell Xhaka and sign someone in his place like Neves. I mean, we had Xhaka basically joking around with a sideline reporter during the Euros that he hadn’t learned Italian yet wink wink.
Now you and I may disagree about what a gamble is or should be, but I think it was a risk the club thought they could take.
He probably played more at the start of last season than he should have, or than the club expected him to and I don’t think it’s a coincidence he was put on ice for a long long time.
And yeah, right now the biggest accolade you can give him is that he’s on low wages. It will help the club move him on. I think they bought him thinking he could grow into Partey’s position and they were proven wrong. Shit happens, it’s not the end of the world or letting the club off the hook to say it’s a gamble. They still have to do the heavy lifting and find a buyer but that’s how big clubs behave. They make signings, some work, some don’t and you try to move the guys who don’t work as quickly as possible.
Obviously not every signing works out. I don’t mind the element of gamble on the deal.
My issue is more with the club not having numbers in than the individual in this case tbh. Mainly because of that he got elevated and when clearly not working he couldn’t be absorbed into the squad as we have nothing better.
More disappointing this season because it’s the same issue on numbers.
I don’t think we can possibly move him yet anyway because even with a couple of editions in January the squad needs bodies.
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It was definitely irresponsible to end the last transfer window with him being a viable choice, especially with Elneny’s injury at the time.
We’ve been lucky not to be punished as Partey recovered pretty quickly from his injury and managed to stay fit for so long.
Should the club have overpaid for Douglas Luiz? Probably not, but the window wasn’t 1 week long. Club could’ve used the window better to address the obvious limitations of having Elneny and Lokonga as backups.
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No arguments there. We needed another midfielder before Elneny got hurt this season and if you believe the leaks we chased a wide player only to change tact on deadline day. The fact the club were prepared to drop everything and chase Douglas Luiz was a clear signal they didn’t rate Sambi.
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Arteta seems the type to make decisions quickly. If he doesn’t believe Sambi is good enough, he’ll phase him out. Now that El Nenny is back, we’ve got serviceable back up for Partey. I had hoped Sambi would be a decent rotation option for Xhaka but have lost faith.
Didn’t even the bench today. Yikes.
I wonder if he’s pissed off or disgusted…
Personally couldn’t give less of a shit tbh lol
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I hope he is, and he asks to leave in January.
Would gladly take someone better in midfield to cover #6/#8.
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I’d settle for someone with the same talent level who Arteta trusts tbh. If he isn’t going to use him there’s no point in having him around.
Are we talking about the Lokonga tnat arrived or the current Lokonga. Because his current level ain’t there.
It’s not even the laziness anymore, he’s plays it too safe and sometimes it feels like he is not even in the pitch.
Someone could argue Arteta is to blame but I don’t buy into that with Sambi, never really took the many opportunities he got and seems to have too big of a head for his own good.
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I think they bought him to replace Partey long term and realized he couldn’t. Then they tried him further forward and he’s not killing it there either. I don’t think he wants to play in the Xhaka role, he doesn’t appear to have the passing to play where Ødegaard does and I think he’s kind of cooked here unless he takes a leap forward over the WC break.
i reckon he is gassed…he has played an awful lot tbf.