When I read Porque's list above was there really anyone that excited about Gerson? From what I've seen there was no way we should have spent anywhere near 16-20 Million on him and he wasn't exactly some top tier talent at the time at least compared to the likes of Malcom,Neres,Gabigol,Jesus etc.
He could still be a good player since he's young. But it surprised me however that Roma were willing to gleefully spend 20 million on him considering at the time they weren't exactly in a spot that they can just pull out 20 million on a prospect.
Yeah he was a bit of a stretch admittedly. But the point remains that every summer and every year some hot sh*t comes out of South America that we get linked to and alot of forumers want.
Its completely natural as it is easier to buy into the hype of an indiscovered emerging pearl compared to a solid European player.
Paqueta looks fantastic and I would support the option of taking a punt on him with the right type of deal (you can see my post on the first page for that). But if he doesnt come we have Malcolm and Dembele at a similar age group who have proven more and Arthur who is more balanced in MF.
I remember in the Saviola days we were always linked to D'allesandro. How could we miss out on him? We had to buy him. Stupid board not buying him.
Then he goes to Wolfsburg and does ok. And then moves to the Portsmouth of all teams.
Back to Gerson, I guess Roma caught onto the Pogba of South America hype after we were into him, and went crazy trying to get him first. It was the summer of Pogba's big move to Man Utd and pre Monchi too. So thats the context of that hype.