We would be in a good spot to get another promising youngster in midfield if Valverde planned on developing Coutinho into the LCM role, however, based on last season I think he has no intention of doing that. He usually played him at LW or RCM....on the right side where he is 50% as effective. An established CM who is in his prime would be ideal, who that may be....who knows.
We already have incredibly promising youngsters that are aren't getting playing time under Valverde, we don't need even more. Alena and Dembele last year, now Arthur. If we add de Jong to the mix I have no idea when any of them are going to play.
Yeah, but with Iniesta and now Paulinho gone, and hopefully some more like Gomes, Rafinha and Vidal to follow, Valverde is quickly running out of excuses (and players) to keep benching Dembele etc. and will be left with no choice but to play Arthur, Alena (and De Jong?) regularly too, considering Raki and Busquets are the only two midfielders left, if Coutinho plays up front. Can't very well play those two to the ground until January already, especially when they're both now 30 already. Even though i wouldn't put it past Valverde. But even if he did, there's still that 3rd or even 4th regular spot to fill in every game in midfield, and if there's one thing Valverde has shown, is that he is capable of developing and trusting young players too, even if the reason is that he has no one else to play with, like he did with many players at Bilbao.
Until he's here, i think our transfer policy should definitely be more 'laid back'. No more big, expensive signings, so that Valverde will have to operate more like he did with Bilbao (smaller squad too, which he confirmed himself that he wants), which seems to be more his comfort zone. If he doesn't do better in developing and trusting young players anyway, he'll hopefully be gone by next summer anyway, and we can switch our policy again after that, if needed. As for expensive signings, Coutinho and Dembele are enough for now, we need to put their trust in Dembele too.
Even though i would love someone like Eriksen, who could inject world class quality into our midfield immediately, but regarding that there is also the matter of this stupid Board. I simply don't trust them to pull such a high profile transfer off, since they are just too incompetent to pull off buying stars like that, so i would rather see talented youngsters like Arthur, Alena and De Jong get a fair chance then. Cause, with this Board, i wouldn't take any chances, risking seeing them take another one of their middle roads, when they first target a big star like Kante or Eriksen, can't get them, and then thinking they need to somehow save face, they stock our squad with more mediocre players like Rabiot and Willian, not to mention overpaying them and their clubs massively to even get them to come in the first place, and then get stuck with them for a couple of years at least, if not more, usually ending in endless loans and massive re-sell loss, when we manage to finally get rid of them. It was the same with Arda, Gomes, Paco, and it will be the same with Rabiot and even more so Willian, if they actually come. Not to mention, while they're here, they are hindering development and taking game time away from actual gems like Dembele, Arthur and Alena.
Dembele will be fucked again, if Willian comes, same goes for Arthur and Alena in case Rabiot does. So don't go Willian. This way Valverde will have no choice but to actually play Dembele regularly, with Vidal and Paulinho both gone too. As for the midfield, i'd still rather see us bringing De Jong then, so that Valverde has no choice but to choose among the players, that are actually good, because they are the only ones available. And if it comes to it, i'd still rather see Arthur and Alena benched for De Jong than Rabiot, at least we'd have some quality in the lineup then anyway.
