Nah, let Mendes work his magic for a sale. Maybe a Newcastle bite.
It's not a case of Kubo where he is/was lacking physically but all the technical traits were always there.
Ansu is a great finisher with timing, but lacks pace, link-up ability, one-on-one dribbling and the press. More suitable for a counter side or quick transition team which we are not.
I wouldn't go for Kubo, but we require wide players who excel individually like him, Mitoma, Demballs and at a pinch Nico.
Basically we got 1000 problems and 999 start with Xav. We need that one that fits him perfectly.
I think Ansu's link-up is good and he'll surely improve further under De Zerbi. Think he's still holding back a bit physically (or has instructions to do so) but don't see problem with his pressing either. Wouldn't be his main task anyway and can't be worse than Lewa on his last legs.
I think balanced team need players with different characteristics and we would kind of have that with those I've mentioned. Nico would bring pace and dribling Ansu doesn't have and Vitor is great at pressing from what I've seen (don't know how he'll be used here though). Both are also natural finishers which we need.
Morata also has good work rate and movement but can't really finish (at least not when he's onside, lol) so would be frustrating to watch but on a 1-2 year deal as a backup/squad player we could do a lot worse. And then Yamal who is really a wild card so early in his career but has 1 on 1 abilities and creativity so could be used different ways (remains to be seen if Xavi can figure that out though). Should definitely bring someone more experienced to get pressure off him though like Messi had Giuly early in his career. Or more likely just keep one of Raphinha/Ferran (will probably be impossible to offload both from a FFP perspective as both still have lot of unamortized value on the books) to compete with him.
Just my hunch but think Ansu would work well with Roque if we'd use last year's system with four midfielders and a more defensive RB (don't think we should buy Cancelo) and Balde overlapping on the left. Could also be used as that 4th midfielder. Xavi tried that few times end of last season but didn't really have enough consistency to see if that would work. But he's playing in that AM/SS role for Brighton and doing fine.
Either way I think giving up on Ansu IF he'll be injury free for two full seasons and show improvement at Brighton would be a mistake especially considering our alternatives are Raphinha, Ferran or spending big money on Felix.
Now if Mendes could bring us 70-80m then would def consider selling but not if that money would go directly for Felix which would probably be part of the deal. And I don't dislike Joao as a player just think he's not worth big money and would take Ansu over him if given a choice.
