Ikon

50m for a player that will do “well” and “fine” while also not solving our weaknesses

During this season I was watching Swedish television where they were talking about Elanga and how well he had done. The pundit then asked the others if they could see him playing for the top clubs in the PL or in Europe. They all said that he’s been fantastic for Forest where the team was built around his strengths as a player. They all agreed that he’s a good player but that he lacks some very important attributes in general play and that they didn’t see any of the top clubs going for him because of this. That he was in the perfekt setup where he is. I couldn’t t agree more!

There’s a middle ground to be had. Signing Elanga isn’t the wag to evolve.

It’s a safe bet that doesn’t really get us far or allow us to evolve, yea.

Extremely narrow minded in our targets if this is true. Would be very disappointed. Hope it’s just a smokescreen.

Admittedly not seen him more than say 5 games or so, but one player that has impressed me every time is Ismael Saibari at PSV. Versatile midfielder and technical. Could be a Morgan Rodgers for us (a bit at least). Obviously can’t say too much about his character, but at least on the pitch he didn’t look lazy to me. Wouldn’t cost a bomb I guess.

Yeah. What I’m saying is that I don’t want either, but a middle ground would be class even if a bit at the cost of “running”. Cherki for example is probably one of the best players in the world if you purely look at technical ability. It doesn’t have to be all black or white. I just think that we need better technical ability than a lot of our players have (even some of the more “expensive” buys we’ve made. To both improve us and give us more variety and tactic flexibility in some games.

I mean in this particular case it wasn’t possible for us to get him. But Reijnders for example if he played in our league already he would cost twice as much. Yeah you can possibly argue that that he isn’t proven in this league, but I still reckon my point stands to a degree. Or Tonali for example.

Obviously, like I hinted towards in my post already. Yeah they can cost a bomb if we go for the players that already are at the highest level/more experienced and especially from within our league alone. Personally I do think there is technical players out there that aren’t in the mould of Cherki for example, and that wouldn’t cost a bomb. It’s not like players like Elanga to name one isn’t very expensive.

I often see folks on here saying similar to “He’s not a Howe player” when player X is kind of creative and has very good technical ability. I mean, yeah sometimes it’s justified but I also see it when it’s not tbh. I know we currently don’t have much creativity or technical ability in some areas. Even out wide where we’ve spent close to 100m we lack this. I’d be amazed if Eddie doesn’t like great technical ability and some creativity. I mean he has been saying how much he admires the way PSG play football (so do I). Surely he would know that it’s needed to evolve and that you can’t play the way they do without it. Especially at the very highest level. It obviously cannot be 100% of that and then no work rate. Without great technical ability you can only get so far. I guess balance is key here. I take most links with a massive pinch of salt. I also hope and think that Howe realises that we need to improve in this area to go to the next level (sign technical ability). I love intensity and pressing but there needs to be a balance and variety on top of that. 100% intensity alone isn’t sustainable. Not mentally or physically. Especially with Europe involved. So, even if I know 90% of all the links are bullshit, I still don’t like it when we get linked with players that lack that extra natural ability on the ball. Hopefully we will get the right players in for us to take the next step.

Of course not! Would you take aids if offered?

Elanga is effective for teams that sit back and look for counters and transitions and run into space. Otherwise quite lacking in talent and efficiency. Give the ball to him standing still out wide against low block teams and he offers more or less nothing. He doesn’t use/have any flair or guile to drat the opposition out of shape. If we want to evolve and progress we need players with better IQ and technical ability. He will cost a bomb while not changing anything but squad depth basically. Would probably improve us actually, but not the degree so it’s worth it. Would be a bit of a waste of money and proper progress to evolve really. Would be disappointing if we sign him imo. Yea he would do “well” as he’s not shite. But doing well isn’t enough if we have any ambition to compete at the very highest level.

Lunatics on YouTube! Bailey doesn’t know his own shoe size.

I do, and I’m not stressed about it. Way too early to say too much or anything really. Having said that, it wouldn’t surprise me if we end up being quite slow to get them over the line like we have been before.

Football insider….. Fraud! Having sad that, I doubt he wants to go there.

Prices have gone up in Turkey tbf to him.

IF we were after Delap and Mbeumo that would have been about 30+60m. Maybe we can do something like Joao Pedro and a cheaper winger for these positions instead. Say Joao Pedro 60m + Bakayoko 30m (just a random linked player). Joao Pedro would definitely give us more options formation wise as well which I like.

Don’t see the transfer of Joao Pedro happening tbh. Having said that, it’s definitely a transfer I could get behind. He has genuine top quality/massive potential. At least with him I can see a player growing to a VERY high calibre player. Players such as Elanga leave a lot to be desired for me personally. Don’t want limited players that lack essentials to make it to the very top department. Also, I know they’re not the same, just thought I’d mentioned one name we’ve been linked with for big money. Pedro is so versatile too. Pedro as the withdrawn striker with Isak and Bruno and Tonali in a double pivot is something we could play and that to me sounds mouthwatering tbh. Add someone like Akliouche to the right hand side and we already look better as a team in many ways. And a Guehi or similar. That would cost more than 5 quid though.

Has Joao Pedro been injured a lot overall? Seen it mentioned but I’m not sure .

I said that I don’t even believe that we’ve bid 50m for him. Don’t talk about my trust to Howe, you have no clue about that. Even if he (hypothetically) did sign Elanga I wouldn’t think it’s the right choice from him. He can’t be perfect about everything. He would have my trust of most definitely get the best out of Elanga but I would still be of the opinion that if it’s someone else better then Howe would get even more out of said player.

This I don’t even think we bid 50m for him despite all the rumours. If we did I’m so happy we didn’t get him.

100% spot on

This my only worry about him too. Talent is there.

Would prefer him over Mbeumo even. He has that bit of extra.

I’m absolutely certain that no top club will be after Elanga. I hope we aren’t either. He can be effective in the right setup but he’s a limited player. At least if we are aiming for the top.