In the history of the league, there are a handful (with some fingers missing) of big name, multi-million dollar, internationally famous DPs who earn their contract. Mostly foul balls, with an occasional single, and rarely a home run. For every David Villa there are dozens of Gerrards, Lampards, and Pirlos (and many much worse than those). Half of the content on here lately (and reasonably so) is complaining about the burden of Pirlo. The six million dollar type players are usually the vacationers, mostly hobbled by beaten down bodies, and always past the days of desiring to play for European national team. Unless Trump really did fuck it up for us, the Khedira we could get will be the Khedira a couple of years from now with a few more injuries. We went 1 for 3 on old, huge contract guys. Villa made me feel better about Lampard, but can only do so much to make me feel better about another year of being tactically hampered by Pirlo.
That’s a long-winded lead-in for me to say that I would prefer Alessandrini, Almiron, Lodeiro, Maxi, and efforts to sign the players who will turn out to be Piatti, Valeri and Diaz. It’s too early to judge Maxi. I think that he has looked great and will be an important game-changer when the team clicks and (if/when) PV lines us up most effectively. Even before judgment day on Maxi, I would take three Maxis over three Gerrards without hesitation. I could be off about Maxi, and if I am, then it’s a big miss by the team (especially since I don't expect a superstar DP signing this summer). From what I understand, that is the direction the team is moving in the future. There is still the possibility of the can’t-say-no signing of an Iniesta (and I can’t help still being attracted to the idea of the sexy signing even with the risk of an expensive miss). But our future DPs will be more of the two million dollar guys, than the six million dollar ones. A six million dollar player is Rooney or a one-legged Zlatan. A two million dollar player is Almiron (at least on the salary part). Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you assess the decision-making abilities of the team brains, this requires the precision and scouting acumen of jumping on an Almiron or guessing right on a Piatti. I believe that is where we are going to win or lose in the future. If we were to continue to sign three old Euro superstars, it’s more likely going to be the latter.
