marco ruben

“I have a feeling about this lad, I don’t think Bobby or Whelan would have spent a record fee if they weren’t sure of his ability”

Whelan authorised the spending of £5mill on Marlon King, as well as various other amounts in the millions on Kapo, Hall etc.. so saying what you did about him aint really that good a barometer of how good a player is

Likewise with Bobby, he’s spent money (albeit lesser amounts) on players he has brought in who have been crap so far (Scotland, Gomez, Amaya etc..) & I’m sure no manager ever signs a player thinking he hasn’t got the ability to succeed

Personally rather than simply trust a manager’s judgement when he pays a large amount for a player (after all they all buy duds – even the greatest manager) I’ll go off their track record in signings so far, the level the guy is currently playing at, age, career history etc.. before I decide whether to get excited about em coming. I’ll wait till I see em play for a while before I judge em

With this signing I’m just slightly puzzled by Bobby saying that he wanted an English spine to his team, signing no English men so far (many foreigners often use the term English to describe anyone British so I may let himoff with Caldwell) & also saying that foreign players represented better value for money before spending £7mill on an Argentinian, Spanish League 2nd division player

I hope the lad turns out to be an absolute cracker & I’m forced to eat my words but, if Latics do have a limited transfer budget, this seems a very risky signing to have spent so much money on

the service in The Happy Palace used to be crap, do you remember ever going there in the 80’s and what the price was for Curried Chicken with Fried Rice?

Reserve player for a side who finished 5th last season and so can’t be any good???????
What if he had been a Utd, Arsenal, City, Spurs, Chelsea or Liverpool reserve.
I remember a few years back some young lad played for Arsenal reserves and there was a fuss when he got picked for England. Sure you know who I’m on about, similarly this young lad has played for Argentina.
Don’t some of you moaning and questioning Martinez think the Argentina coach saw something in him to allow him to challenge Carlos Tevez?

Put it into perspective, here………..

We are Wigan Athletic. Sorry, but the likes of Crespo aren’t gonna come to us.

Same as with Valencia, we sign a young player who has impressed our manager in whatever way. (DVD’s, live viewing, etc) Hopefully, the lad is a success. We have him for 2 or 3 seasons and then sell him for a few times the amount we paid for him. That’s the way of the business world for Wigan Athletic.
This is how we must do things. Young players…hungry to succeed. In all truth NONE will have dreamed of playing for Latics. We all know that, and you’d have to be seriously deluded to think otherwise. No. We sign them, and basically say “Do the business and big times and a big move will surely come”. We can’t do anything else. If the player gets a move, chances are he’s done the business. That’s all Zaki had to do. Knuckle down, bide his time. By Christmas last year, he was already being touted by Bayern, Liverpool, United, etc. He blew it because of a bad attitude.

And to put further perspective on it, we are here, debating over whether we should be paying 7 million for an Argentinian striker, when down on the South coast, Portsmouth fans are debating whether they’ll even have a club, next month. And Pompey are a FAR bigger club than us.

I doubt very much we would be forking out on him, if he didn’t have the ability. I hope he’s the first of a few Argentinians. What? A top football nation like that? He’s been at Rosario Central, who are like their ‘Aston Villa’ and River Plate, who are like their United. A physical league, too. Argentinian players tend to do very well over here in the Premiership. I can only think of one who didn’t and that was Alberto Tarantini, back in the early 80’s at Birmingham. But his problems were down to his nocturnal activities, not lack of ability.

Juan Sebastian Veron?

Hernon Crespo?

In my opinion he will be a very good signing and he is highly rated, so much so he was being talked about as being called up to villarreal a this summer!

This has probably come from Diame and Amaya as well as Bobbys contacts! However he will need time to settle in!