Arsene Wenger is reportedly increasing scouting missions on 17-year-old Frenchman Benjamin Mendy, dubbed the new Patrice Evra, who is rumoured to have a £3m release clause.
This would normally be a depressing rumour. In particular, when you’re chasing 17 year olds the idea is normally to find ones that cost a few hundred grand or £1m at most because most of them won’t make it and if you regularly splash out £2-3m trying to find a bargain then soon you’ve spent £20m and could have bought a couple of £10m players for the first team. Examples of this kind of policy going wrong are Nordtveit (£2m), Merida (£2m), Sunu (£2m), Wellington (£4m), cumulatively £10m’s worth of nothing. In contrast, when you’re bringing in players for £250k or less then with some decent scouting, all it takes is a few successes (Kolo Toure for £100k, Bendtner for £75k, Clichy for £250k) to pay for a couple of dozen flops.
However, if Wenger’s sticking around (which seems likely) and he’s keen to stick with Gibbs/Santos (which also seems likely) then left back seems like the ideal position for a big splash on a promising 17 year old. The likelihood is that he will get plenty of game and bench time while Gibbs is injured for 40 games a season, but in the theoretically possible case where Gibbs is fit for a run of games, you can fob off a 17 year old with reserve football and the occasional short-term championship loan.
Obviously I’d much rather just cough up for Leighton Baines!
No comments:
Post a Comment