At 24 he's still a way off his peak. I'm not saying he'll be a long term back up for us, I just don't think it is particularly controversial to say that Berghuis isn't going to be a regular player for us in his first season in England. Especially considering the very noticeable focus on age and experience this year. I have no doubt the club have high expectations of him, but I think this season is too soon for him to make the impact some are expecting.
He's a nasty man but was probably the best defender in the Premiership last year. Barton's a nasty man and got relegated. With Terry in our team, we would probably be competing for Europe. With Barton, we'd be just as likely to be relegated. I know which one I'd prefer.
Berghuis said himself he needs to build strength, and didn't have the energy levels to contribute in both defensive and offensive phases. Think he will be given time to get up to speed, there is no rush - Diamante fills the immediate need. I'd be amazed though if he's not in the 25 man squad and regularly coming off the bench from autumn onwards.
Central attacking midfielders: Jurado, Abdi, Fessi? Wingers: Anya, Berguis, Leyun. Am I missing anybody? If not, having a direct, pacy, skilful winger might be quite useful. However, I think DM is still more of a priority.
He's a good fit there but put Terry in any other team he'd look ordinary IMO. He's was generally dreadful for England with zero positional discipline.... If he signed for us I'd go support Tranmere till he's gone.
What if Berghuis is absolutely ****? Do you know anything about him? All I've seen is he is as skinny as a rake.
Just my conclusion after looking at a number of factors. He's young and has limited experience. This year's preference for experienced players. The physical step up of the Premier League. The depth of experienced options in his position. All points to him being a bit part player this year rather than a regular. Will be thrilled if he steps up this year though.
Haha I wasn't there but I would have probably been at least thinking that. What I'm saying is we need to stop pretending he's going to be a superstar. I would hazard a guess maybe 10 people, if that, had seen him play prior to him signing for Watford. I have no idea if he needs to man up.
It's the Perotti / Terry thread. There's growing WFC forums speculation that we are about to sign JT on a 5 year deal with Berghuis as makeweight (albeit quite a light one).....and Godfather is buying a Tranmere season ticket.
I'm not 100% guaranteeing he will be, but there's no particular reason to believe so vehemently that he won't be. Quite a few signs point to the fact that he is very talented, and will play for us a lot. The fact that most people hadn't seen him play before signing for us has absolutely nothing to do with the impact he will have here, and if we need clues, it could be being called into a Netherlands squad, or the myriad statistics we have seen that placed him as AZ's best player last season, and one of the most effective attackers in the league. I thought the hoary old cliche of 'too small for English football' had been put to bed by now with the impact of players like David Silva in the Prem, but apparently not. It does seem he needs to work on his fitness and possibly train with a mind to becoming physically more robust, but this is hardly a novel concept, and as soon as he does he will be playing for us. We're not Chelsea, we don't just buy young talent to stockpile in the reserves and eventually sell abroad, he wouldn't have come here to sit on the bench and the idea that he wouldn't make the squad is insane. If he thought that he would have gone to PSV to play Champion's League football, not challenge himself here.
So none of the factors are his actual ability, which evidently we rate very highly? Berghuis has played almost 100 top flights games in Europe. More than Ighalo, more than Vydra, more than Deeney, more than Forestieri, more than Anya, more than Layun. He's not some kid. He's a clear talent, hitting form. We shouldn't waste him.
You've misunderstood me. I'm not saying that he isn't talented and he is most likely very good. Playing a secondary role in his first season in England wouldn't be wasting him, it's just being realistic. I'm not writing off what should be a long and successful career with us. Personally, I doubt he'll become a particularly important player for us in the next 9 months. We're going to have to wait a while to find out who's right.
I definitely swap one. If I did that, I'd own John Terry and two steaming buckets of sh!t. I could then upend two steaming buckets of sh!t over my new John Terry. Bargain at twice the price.
Oh wonderful. All the internet hard men are coming out of the woodwork - right on schedule. These are the blokes who fancy morons like Barton, likely because of their own feelings of inadequacy. Each season they find one boo boy they can slate for not being as tough as they are in their own minds. Brilliant. Why don't you lot go find some Brum tickets so you can trot up there and moan at Fabbrini. You should be able to re-use all your posts from last year, saving you loads of time that you can use to keep up with Barton's nonsensical tweets.
I presume so Dev. I'll be very upset if I don't see you trotting past my house on your way to Middlesbrough, as per this chap's instructions
Why are we waiting till Middlesbrough appear at St Andrews to do our booing? Superior acoustics so Fab is fully aware at our displeasure?
The Perotti deal went deal a few weeks ago after WD Sport confirmed that we'd pulled out any possible deal. He's also not interested in coming here. Why is this still being discussed?
The likely destination for Perotti is Internazionale. Plenty of Argentines there still like Palacio and Icardi.