Keita Baldé Diao

JUSTINSIGNAL said:

It's pointless speculating. For all we know the player has been keeping us waiting as we're not his first choice. We can't do anything about that other than wait our turn

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barry said:

It does enter my mind, I just think if we worked faster, especially on transfers well within our remit, these things have less chance of cropping up.

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TH1239 said:

After harping on about him for months here with faint hopes of actually landing him, I'm in a bit of disbelief that we are actually pursuing and may sign him. I started watching him closely back in November of last year, when he really stood out on the pitch in a fixture against Palermo. The rest of the players looked like they were moving in quicksand compared to him. His off the ball movement was really dynamic.

I began watching Lazio games regularly after that (they were very entertaining last season under Simone Inzaghi). There was a stretch of time around March when Keita fell out of favor with Inzaghi and was on the bench for a series of games. Given that he had issues with the manager and club to start the season, I figured he'd have a hard time working his way back into the side. To his credit, he embraced the substitute role and made a number of appearances off the bench, including one where he came on very late in a 1-1 game against Torino and scored a ridiculous goal to help them win all three points. After a few more bench appearances, he came back into the starting lineup and again versus Palermo, had a standout performance where he scored a hat-trick in 6 minutes. He finished the year playing as a striker and scored 8 goals in Lazio's last 5 league games, including 2 goals in a whipping of Roma in a late April derby.

I know I've mentioned this numerous times, but he scored 16 times in Serie A last season in 1929 minutes at age 21/22. If I'm not mistaken, the only other players in the last 6 seasons in Italy's top flight that have scored a minimum of 16 goals at the same age were El Sharaawy for Milan in 2012-2013 (scored 16 goals in close to 2900 minutes), Icardi at Inter in 2014-2015 (scored 22 goals in almost 2900 minutes, too) and Dybala in 2015-2016 (scored 19 goals in just under 2500 minutes). In case you're wondering, Lamela scored 15 goals in 2600 minutes on a terrible Roma team that played completely open. So, to have a player scoring at that rate in a very good side, is pretty rare. It's even more impressive if you consider that he only started 21 games last year for Lazio, so a lot of his minutes came off the bench, too.

As far as his individual strengths go, they have been well highlighted here. Explosive pace like Mane (has the ability to split defenders and latch onto through balls like Mane did against us at Anfield last season), but he also has an absolute hammer of a right foot. Like Eriksen, Son and Kane, he also has a very capable left foot, too. He can play both as a wing-forward on the left cutting inside or on the right. Poch could also deploy him as part of a strike partnership with Kane up top, like he played with Immobile last season.

His weaknesses have also been mentioned. He doesn't always track back, isn't ultra aggressively looking to tackle players high up the pitch to win the ball back and like Kane in some ways, can be greedy about looking to shoot on sight. The attitude issues from his past have been discussed quite a bit here since the spring whenever his name came up, but as I've said before, I think he's worth the gamble. Poch, contrary to the popular belief, seems like he's always willing to take a chance on talent, even if they have less than stellar reputations (Osvaldo, Berahino, Zaha, Sissoko). I trust him to get the best out of Keita if we sign him. Inzaghi has said he has been training fine at Lazio while the transfer speculation has continued all summer, and he actually said multiple times since the end of last season he wanted the club to find a way to keep him. Given that, and the way he ended last season, I'm inclined to believe there's maybe been a breakthrough here with the player. Adjusting to life in England will be a challenge, but I think he'll be very valuable in Champions League matches and off the bench as a livewire before asserting himself as potentially first choice in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

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barry said:

You could be right, but this shit happens a lot for us, and today it really has grated with me. Really wanted this kid

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spursfan77 said:

So no pereira and no balde in the space of 12 hours. This window is getting worse by the day

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daryl hannah said:

Surely if we'd offered £50m, Lazio would have pushed through the move.

#Bargaining

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Clark28 said:

If we miss out on Ross I will cry over Spurs for the first time since Bale left

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SlunkSoma said:

Sometimes there is no 'faster'. A player might not agree to meet a club until other interest has been scared up. It weakens their bargaining power if they get into negotiations with a club without the posibilty of a counter offer.

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daryl hannah said:

Surely if we'd offered £50m, Lazio would have pushed through the move.

#Bargaining

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HildoSpur said:

I don't think its anything to do with the fee - sounds like the player has chosen to go elsewhere. Not much you can do about that.

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barry said:

That's true. But sometimes our transfer department negotiates the hell out of every deal, which causes delays in the transfer happening thus allowing other clubs to come in, or for the player to change his mind. This has been cathartic for me, I'm feeling better now, so I'll try not to post any more negative shit.

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absolute bobbins said:

Does anyone know what happened?

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TEESSIDE1 said:

There isn't but why waste time pursuing them when we should have been looking at someone attainable... instead of the usual let's leave ourselves up shit creek with a wafer thin squad for the start of the season.

There were also reports weeks ago that he'd turned us down.

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