Not going to lie, I'm pretty disappointed. I think he would have been decent as a normal signing, but signing him as a DP to a three year deal is extremely disappointed considering my expectations for the direction of our club.
(1) I disagree with others that say players are in their prime at 30. While some players are in their prime at that age, the vast majority aren't. The reason this is concerning is because I can't think of any players, at all, who actually improve once they hit 30. Being in your prime is one thing, but if we are getting a player who could barley cut it in a team 3rd from the bottom in Mexico, I would at least hope they have some time to improve. Give me a 24-25 year old with Maxi's track record and I would be excited.
(2) The three year deal poses a similar problem to the Mix debacle, but even worse because he's taking up a DP spot. If for whatever reason he doesn't work out, we are stuck with him. A huge gamble for any 30 year old, especially one as unproven as he is.
(3) Furthermore, I think this is a bad signing because we should have focused on other areas of the pitch. I get that some think we need people to help Villa out getting goals, but (1) Maxi doesn't have a great scoring record, (2) if you look at the games that we lost where it mattered it was more often than not because we conceded far too many, not because we couldn't put it in the back of the net. I fear that we are now going to have too many "decent" players up top and through the midfield, without focusing on areas of the pitch that need more reinforcements.
(4) Last point I'll make is that the comparisons with Giovinco are off-point and probably only because they're both midgets. Their playing style even isn't similar. Let's say they are similar players, there are still too many differences. (1) Gio is only 30 this season, after he's already been in the league for two seasons. (2) Gio came directly from the Serie A where he played for the best team in the league' Maxi is coming from a failed stint in Mexico after playing for a crappy team in Serie A. (3) Gio has more international goals than Maxi has international caps. I've seen someone point out that's because Maxi plays for Argentina, except Italy has done better than they have in the same time period.
In short, I am very disappointed with this decision, and I really hope it's not one that haunts us for a few years.
With that said, I'm going to support Maxi just like every other player and pray that he proves me wrong.