I open the papers last week, smiling at the pictures and headlines from England`s fantastic win over India in the Cricket. I know it`s not football but I need something to keep me going for the next fortnight!
So among all the celebrations a little story pops up, in the well-known free commuter newspaper, surrounding the almost finalised deal between Villa and Wigan over the transfer of Charles N`Zogbia.
I`m furious to say the least.
A fair few months back I wrote an article about the 25 year-old as the perfect replacement for our Slo-Mo, Florent Malouda. I quoted the January offer from Birmingham that was accepted (£9 million) and it seems that only an extra £500,000 has convinced the Wigan board to accept Villa`s advances.
Malouda, who turned 31 last month, has been after a contract extension in order to see out his career with the Blues. The commitment is honourable, he`s clearly enjoying life in London and with his team mates, but is he still good enough for our World-Class team?
Malouda was the strongest starter in the 10/11 season. He scored 6 goals in our first 5 games. Unfortunately his form dipped.
I fear that within the current team there are players who are only comfortable playing with each other. Malouda has not seen any impressive form whilst on the same pitch as Torres, yet he thrives with Drogba.
With many of our players reaching their final seasons at the club, despite their age I really believe some of them might not be able to compete at this level for much longer, would it not be easier to look into changing the majority of the squad look rather than keeping a group of players who are declining together.
I`m not talking of rash signings and changing the whole squad; just how the squad looks. With plenty of our reserve team members joining the first team as well as last year`s signings – Benayoun, Ramires, Luiz, Torres – There are probably 50% of the squad who are not used to playing together.
We can see it with Torres and Drogba. Two big names, both commanding a starting place. The ideal solution would be for them to hurry up and learn to play together but I think that won`t happen, especially in a 4-3-3 formation. So that means that every game, one of them will only get about 60 minutes or a sub appearance for half an hour. Asking a player like Torres, who`s under enormous pressure, to find goals in either of those windows week in week out is ridiculous! If a striker plays 90 mins every game then the rest of the team learn what he requires for service. Torres won`t get that until he is made our out-and-out first choice striker.
So where does all this rambling lead me to? Well. I think we should`ve acquired N`Zogbia in this transfer window. At £9.5million he is an absolute bargain. PL experience, goals, assists, age. And if we want to continue the Malouda memories, he`s French too!
It`s those sorts out players we should be looking at.
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