- Nov 5, 2004
- 2,078
- 2,465
Post is ruined by the bentaleb was the best midfielder on the pitch on Sunday bit !!!? Surely that's a wind up !!!!Funny window, reminds me a bit of the first window under Arnesen when we signed a plethora of off radar names, that turned out to be the start of the revolution that saw us take a turn for the better that so far, bar a blip or two, we haven't really looked back from.
Most of them were underwhelming names, signed for next to fuck all. Atouba, Naybet, Carrick, Tanio, Pamarot, Edman, Zeigler, Mendes et al.
That team wasn't about stars, it was about the team.
I may be wrong, but I reckon the boy Dier could be a real gem. He's no Ledley King but IMO could be the player everyone pretended Dawson was for way too long. He's got that fire in his belly, that commitment, but he's quicker and technically much better even today at 20. I'd have him in at CB now ahead of Kaboul. He'll make mistakes but he'll also quickly become the leader we need and a perfect partner for a Vertonghen or Chiriches. I read this week that he captained every level of Sporting Lisbon team he played in under the first team. Not bad for an English kid at one of the best academies around.
Schneiderlin is very good at what he does, but I am very, very happy to see Bentaleb given more first team time to progress. He deserves that IMO and I don't think he'd have got the time in the EPL that he needs to be properly tested if MS had arrived. And I said this weeks ago, not just because we haven't signed MS.
Bentaleb was the best midfielder on the pitch for the first 45 minutes Sunday. Not bad for a 19yo.
There's no super duper world class stars in our team, but maybe, just maybe that's a good thing, we might get to build something for a couple of years without one of the big fish coming in and ripping it to shreds.
We've got a brilliant academy that is churning out a higher level of end product than it ever has. Really well schooled footballers. Lets start making some use of that too.