The new season expectations demand to have the squad competitive to the best Premier League clubs. Especially when you are media predicted to finish at the 12th position. That's the reason why I spent much time on a transfer marker buying and selling players:
Sales
Epopee with Wijnaldum was finished - the wonderkid is sold to Aston Villa for $31M. Well, financially this is the good deal because his price was only $13.5M. I will miss him certainly... About Miralem Pjanic I wrote in the previous post - the chairman made transfer by himself spitting on my opinion. And Daniel Niculae has also left our team for just $4.2M (when his price was $6M). In contrast to Marius Niculae, Daniel was very unstable and poor performer during the last season. Actually I can acknowledge that it was my transfer failure about him. Though I didn't bought Daniel, just signed him as a free transfer.
Purchases
Purchased players are very interesting to discuss. I have great hopes about them!!! Below I described 5 best of them:
Ismael Bangura
After Wijnaldum and Pjanic sales I felt a hot need in new attacking wingers. Therefore Ismael Bangura was bought for large money - $23M. I know him very well in real life as the best forward of Dynamo Kiev (club I'm rooting for since childhood, and actually I live in Kiev :) ). Bangura is fast, technically gifted dribbling player. He can perform very good both with and without a ball having high values of Anticipation, Composure, Off The Ball. His preferred moves are: Moves Into Channels, Shoots With Power. Another his cool feature is position versatility. It doesn't matter for Ismael whether he is AML, AMR or FC!
Nicolae Mitea
Romanian AML bought from Bayern Munich. I think him to become a leading winger together with Bangura. Following his attribute values we can see that he has 17 on Dribbling, First Touch, Tecnique, Anticipation, Acceleration, Pace, Natural Fitness and 16 on Composure, Off The Ball, Stamina. That makes him very dangerous attacking flank player for any opponent. In addition Mitea has one preferred move - Runs With Ball Down Left.
Jelle Vossen
In the previous post I was reasoning about Marius Niculae's age and his fall of physical attributes. Low speed and average strength makes him not so dangerous for Premier League clubs as during the last seasons. That's why I decided to buy new striker for the first squad to replace Niculae.
Ok, it's Jelle Vossen. New German champion Schalke sold me their rather young forward for $19.25M. There were many other candidates for FC position but I chose Vossen for his high values of attributes and ability to use both legs. Frankly speaking he is not of Marius Niculae type. Vossen is quick technical forward who will try to score goals from first touch. Meantime Niculae prefers to score shooting a ball with power. Ok, we will see how this new forward from Belgium adapts in the team.
Federico Fazio
Federico Fazio is Argentinian versatile and strong defensive footballer. There is the same situation as with Marius Niculae. My first squad DC Abdoulaye Meite became 32 and his physical attributes fell perceptibly. So Fazio was signed from Sevilla to replace Meite in the first squad. He has high values of all attributes necessary for central defender. Though he is not so cool as Southampton's best central defender Dmytro Chygrynskyi.
Victor Dobrescu
Romanian colony in Southampton is growing :) Victor Dobresku was also signed from free transfer. He can play AMR and FC positions and has high-Q pack of preferred moves: Run With Ball Down RIght, Tries Tricks, Likes To Beat Man Repeatedly. Dobresku is only of 23 years old what promises some prospects in his development. Victor will compete with Ismael Bangura for AMR position, I think. He impresses me with brilliant values of First Touch, Dribbling and Work Rate. Seems like I signed new dribbler instead of Georginio Wijnaldum.
