Are these players great or awful? No one can decide…
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Arsenal transfer news
1) Olivier Giroud (Arsenal)
A horror-miss one minute, a great goal the next…Olivier Giroud goes back and forth from flop to hero with each passing game. The Frenchman somehow doesn’t look good enough for a club of Arsenal’s size, and at the same time brilliant and worth being patient with. A mystery.
2) Samir Nasri (Manchester City)
Hailed as the next Zidane from a young age, Samir Nasri cost Manchester City £25m to sign from Arsenal, with Gunners fans split 50/50 at the time over whether or not this was a good move. He’s had great games and won two titles since moving to City, and still we’re none the wiser…
3) Marouane Fellaini (Manchester United)
A midfield powerhouse one week, a symptom of how far United have gone backwards the other – is Marouane Fellaini a great option to have in the squad, or does he turn the Red Devils into a long-ball team? He probably wasn’t worth £28m, but does that make him a bad player?
4) Joe Allen (Liverpool)
A great midfield playmaker who keeps the ball moving along like Xavi, or a one-dimensional boring player who just passes sideways? Joe Allen himself probably doesn’t know.
5) Simon Mignolet (Liverpool)
Terrific at former club Sunderland, up and down at Liverpool, Simon Mignolet was written off as a flop earlier this season but is now back in the team and performing, though the Reds are still linked with new signings to replace him. It’s a confusing situation all round.
6) Per Mertesacker (Arsenal)
Arsenal fans say he’s under-rated, everyone else thinks he’s over-rated. Per Mertesacker can look slow and clumsy one game, and then rock solid the next, and can a bad player really get over 100 caps for Germany? Speaking of which, let’s not even get onto the Lukas Podolski debate…
7) Emmanuel Adebayor (Tottenham Hotspur)
We’ve been asking these questions for his whole career. Emmanuel Adebayor started slowly at Arsenal, then scored 30 goals in one season, then dropped again, then joined Manchester City for £25m (inevitably), started well, dropped, joined Tottenham on loan, started well, now hated by fans and can’t get into the team. The Togolese striker is just one of life’s many unanswerable questions.
8) Edin Dzeko (Manchester City)
The Giroud of the Manchester City team, Edin Dzeko has never quite looked good enough for a team of his size. “Yeah but look at his goals-to-minutes ratio” – “Yeah but look at this appalling miss”. It’s time to give up trying to work this one out.
9) Phil Jones (Manchester United)
He makes funny faces and is occasionally a little lost at the back, but is he actually a bad player? Phil Jones made a great start to life at Manchester United and can play in a number of positions, which has been both a help and hinderance in the quest to work out if he’s any good.
10) Andy Carroll (West Ham United)
Just a battering ram for boring mid-table sides or an injury-prone and unlucky striker who had all the qualities to be a success for a big club like Liverpool even if he wasn’t quite worth £35m?