Part IX: Striker
I always thought that is not too hard to find a good striker, but growing up I got used to a very high standard:
Ronaldo, Cruz, Adriano, Vieri, Ibra, Crespo, Milito and now Icardi, even Palacio shone in a very average squad, and I’m sure I’m letting other excellent players out (no, no Belfodil, not you…).
At this moment the situation with our Captain is really complicated, half of the supporters are tired of his contract-saga and all the drama attached to his wife/agent. If we decided to “let him go” at the end of the season, we could get rid of the FFP for good and give more space to Lautaro “el Toro” Martinez. If we were able to bring peace with a new richer contract, we will keep a fantastic scorer for at least another year (kidding!..?)
No matter what, I think it would be wise to look around in search of a possible heir or a super-sub to keep around for all the games we will play next season. These are just a couple on names, I’m sure you have your own favourite outside this list and I would like to hear it from you. Leave a comment and let us know!
Option 1:
Lincoln
Age: 18
Value: €5M
Club: Flamengo
Agent: TFM Agency (Vinicius, Samir, and a lot of other Brazilian players in Europe).
At a first look, he reminds me a mix between Adriano and Balotelli. Big structure, not too heavy and definitely not as powerful as the Imperatore! He likes to move on the attacking front like other Brazilian attackers, see Neymar.
To get to this player Inter will try to swap Gabigol in return during the next transfer window (he will renew his contract until June 2020, this will make it possible to sell him from €15M, perfect for this exchange). Last year Atletico Madrid was really close to signing him but decided to wait another year, Leonardo at Milan just turned him down for financial reasons (They bought Paqueta’ instead) and Barca, City, PSG & Bayern Munich are knocking at the Brazilian’s club door. We could have a small advantage, should we risk a striker from Brazil again?
Possible move in January: 0% Possible move in the summer: 25%
Option 2:
Takumi Minamino
Age: 23
Value: €5M
Club: RB Salzburg
Agent: Sarcle Co. Ltd (Osako, Inui, Nakajima…)
He is not, in any way, an Inter target, as far as I know. He is probably not even in Ausilio’s radar at the moment, maybe. And I’m pretty confident that, unless you are a Salzburg connoisseur, this is the first time you heard his name.
But if you look at the numbers, this 23 years old Japanese fellow scores 1 every 3 games. 152 presences in Austrian Bundesliga and 51 goals, 27 games between Champions and Europa League and 9 goals. In the domestic cup he scored 8 goals in 19 matches, even better.
I’m not saying he’s the next Messi and we should spend billions of euros for him, but his price is pretty low, he already has a lot of experience in Europe and he can cover all the positions in the front (he kinda remind me Politano but with a scoring instinct).
The only team apparently interested in him is Celtic, but everything can happened during this AFC Asian Cup. By the way, he scored 4 goal in 7 games with his national team, just saying.
