Sandro the destructive to Spurs?
Friday, December 4, 2009 at 11:33AM Sandro. The missing piece of the jigsaw. Although if I'm completely honest, I'm basing that on what I think is the missing piece rather than the type of player Sandro actually is. I can't really offer anything in the way of personal 'I swear on my life' insight into what type of player the young Brazilian is. Sure, I can quote you from a tabloid transfer article or perhaps what a regular on the Glory Glory forum thinks, but I've never actually seen the bloke play. Youtube/online streaming video footage doesn't count, mainly because it has a habit of mis-interpretation.
I remember salivating at ridiculous 30 yard goals from impossible angles (Rebrov) and tricky instinctive box work (Postiga) only to be left crying despondently with regret later. My only 'experience' of Sandro is from signing him for Spurs side in my current FM2010 save game and using him as back-up for Wilson Palacios - sometimes even partnering him in the middle for a difficult away game. Based on a computer game, Sandro is strong and although defensive, has plenty of attacking qualities and an eye for scoring from distance (although this may be thanks to an in-game mis-representaiton/bug where far too many goals are scored from long range).
So, who is Sandro exactly? Can he hit the ground running if he turns out in Lilywhite come January, or will he require a season or so of 'bedding in' to settle into the tempo of the EPL? Or perhaps he is confident and adaptable and wont struggle as long as he joins a side that's in form. If we are performing, it will be far easier for him to get to grips with midfield tussles.
All I have to go on is a gut feeling at the moment. Which is risky. So I can only think our scouts have seen enough of this lad to warrant him a worthy acquisition. Rather than a superfluous (there's that word again) one. The last time we signed a DM, it was Wilson. And although Wilson appears to have suffered a little with form in recent months - there's no doubt he will recapture the type of discipline he possessed at the back end of last season. So bringing in a young understudy has to be the answer. Jamie O'Hara obviously is not. Bostock is possibly a couple of seasons away from breaking into the first team (and he's a little more offensive). Jenas is Jenas, bless his little cotton socks.
Sandro, still the missing piece of the jigsaw? What does he do exactly? Based on what others say:
He's comfortable on the ball
He works hard
Has box to box qualities
Aggressive in the tackle
Has leadership qualities
Not overly creative (could improve)
Decent in a holding role
Doesn't sound shabby. There's a Willie Gannon article on Sandro that includes such statements as:
'dynamic midfielder'
'holding midfielder - his primary role for Inter where he has been destructive'
'initiates his team’s many attacks with his penetrating runs through midfield'
'simplistic style /rarely gives the ball away'
Again, doesn't sound too shabby at all. But once more, these are opinions which you may or may not trust as they are words of others rather than something you've witnessed with your own eyes. But leaps of faith is what we take with imported players. And Sandro, Brazilian U20 captain (I think), does appear to have some substance to the hype.
As far as the centre of the park is concerned, he appears to offer more dimensions to his play than our other current options. The key quality being leadership. I might look him up on Youtube. After being burnt by the Rebrov and Postiga collections the last time I dared venture was to see clips of a certain Bulgarian. So perhaps the internet doesn't always lie.
I do like his attitude in print. To quote the man: "I don't want to speak too much about this but I am ready to move to Europe. I am convinced my style will suit a team that favours an attacking approach."
He seems confident of his abilities. And the Internacional fans also seem to like him where it matters most, on the pitch and on the terraces:
"Sandro scores the goals, Sandro scores the goals, Sandro scores the goals, so we will give him a cow, and he will milk it"
We might need to re-work that for the Park Lane. Don't ask me about the cow. I haven't got a clue.
So for now, we wait. The press are making various assumptions about price (ranging from £6M to the original/traditional £16M figure). There's the issue rights/ownership, which if you remember ruined our chances of signing Diego several years ago. His club claim he's not leaving, then we read about how the deal is progressing. Sit back, and hold onto your hats.
Reader Comments (43)
We signed Rebrov 5 years before youtube existed ;-)
So he's basically a good version of Zokora/JJ/Hudd.
I think anyone would be an improvement on them three. Can't wait!
is he anywhere close to boarding the south africa bound plane next summer with his other brazilian buddies? because we could always cock that up for him by buying him then not really playing him for half the season...
its more than likely he'll take a while to settle, the best often do - modric being the best recent example...
Spoke to a friend of mine who moved to Brazil a few years ago and supports Inter out there. He said Sandro is a good player but not great, and the question is how long it will take him to settle down in England. He said the Arsenal midfielder ( is it Denilson?) is a better player and look how long it is taking him..
Whatever existed before youtube then. I've still got the movie files of his mad skillz.
Perfect match? I think you are discounting many things here - youth, inexperience, nationality. It is a big gamble. How many Brazilians have come to premier league and done well? I can only remember Juninho - and he was a freak - so enthusiastic. I can extend that question: how many Brazilians have come here can stayed? There may be culture, weather, homesick problems. He may just take paycheck and go through the motions - or go off the rails driving around London in his Bugatti - we just don't know. Let's not get too optimistic here. If he comes, I expect him to hardly feature for us this season. It is likely to take time (i.e Hudd) or not happen at all (Taarabt/Dos Santos).
I heard he can tackle a house! How does that one work Spook?
I wasn't being completely serious with the perfect match comment. We (fans) tend to be impressed by fancy words rather than the realism that is bubble-wrapped around a player - especially one from South America.
Re: Can tackle a house!
Perhaps he's good with a Dyson?
Dyson and Mr Muscle. Maybe when we lose against the Chelski next time he can come clean the distruction of my flat
I've removed that perfect match comment, because reading it back, it doesn't make the point I was trying to make. Ho hum.
He has the potential to be a beast does Sandro. For £6M I'd take him.
He sounds like Liverpool's much maligned Lucas to me.
Previous to him you had the much heralded Brazilian World Cup winner and Man Utd flop, Kleberson.
Brazilians scare me. Not sure they are cut out for the Prem. And the ones who do achieve moderate success (in recent years) lack the samba beats (Gilberto - although he was decent in a very un-Brazilian way).
Still, rather him than £20M on Sissoko.
I apologise, Spooky, for missing your 'perfect match', point. These other comments show that we can all see that Brazilians have hardly set the EPL alight. Of course I say this whilst still respecting their skill, talent and love of the game! Sandro is worth a shot as long as it is not too expensive. I say this because players of this supposed type are hard to find and we need some cover for Wilson.
Question: What are the other options?
Lucas-like? SHUDDER.
I my honest opinion, I do not think there are any other options. The best strong midfield players are all settled. I just think that we will have to wing it until end of season with Wilson, Hudd, Jenas (shudder), and should injuries affect us, recall O'Hara. Have a look at world cup, and then maybe buy someone on display there (probably for inflated price, but at least they would have proven worth)
Sandro is similar to Wilson as far as i have seen they play brazilian football on ESPN late night. only thing that concerns me is he hasnt made an apearence for Brazil and considering every bloke and his dog gets an apearence in thier friendly tours its a little worry.
He's U20 captain.
Sign him up, why the hell not? We are bound to spend money this Jan, it might as well be on him.
Don't overload a 20yr. old with too many expectations, new to the Premiership, new to the countryin the middle of winter. You know what Spurs fans are like.
To set another hare running: how many young foreign players, not just from Brazil, make an immediate impact?
Mark him down as one for next season and any contribution he makes this season will be a pleasant bonus
Otherwise we will be expecting the second coming, well obviously not 'us', and will be cruelly disappointed.
If we sign him.
We might be better off getting O'Hara back from Portsmouth in the New Year.
Good performances at world cups don't necessarily mean good in EPL - Zokora
I don't like the idea of buying players for that sort of money to be a backup but I'll trusts HR's judgement - there have been some investments in the future (Naughton & Walker) but HR's sucsess in the market has been to buy players that make an immediate improvement on the first team. In the Comolli era it would have been quite possible for us to splash 16m on an upcapped player (in this case Sandro in the past Bent) only for a established international to move for less in the same window (in the past Henry maybe this time Yaya Toure) - I really do hope we have learnt the value of players more these days. I know very little about Sandro but we havent got time to wait for him to settle in and if there is 16m floating about I would much rather a checky bid for Arteta or Cahill as Everton must be in seriously bad shape financially if they managed to make a 6m loss despite selling Lescott for 20m+. Giving them 2 (or maybe all three) of Pav, Bentley & Hutton for either of them would be great business in my opinion so long as there are no long term injury worries.
Consdidering our third choice RB (Naughton) cost about 6m, even as only a squad player Sandro could be worth it. That said, both Lucas and Denilson are very highly rated back in Brazil, and I doubt if Sandro is rated as highly. Denilson has taken a while to adapt but he's done well this season at l'Arse and is probably underrated, so if Sandro is like him I'll be pretty happy. Lucas is a bit more 'meh', but he hasn't done badly this season at all - probably one of their better players so far - and I suspect Harry would've been better at developing him than Benitez. All in all, let's just give him a chance and not pin too many hopes on him, as long as he's better than what we have in fringe CM players (Jenas/JOH) it'll be an improvement. I'll note that his style is nothing like Hudd's (Sandro is supposedly much better defensively but he's a genuine DM who rarely ventures forwards, and he's not much of a passer), so don't expect him to be a replacement for Hudd.
spooky if you find a decent vid that is more than just the one goal where he has a cheeky flick than a shot that deflects nicely into the opposite corner, cause that all i managed, could you post?
also why is Luka training with the youths. i havent heard of this before. is it cause hes fragile. is this common?
The problem I have is that according to some he's a holding midfield but likes to get forward, and then I read he is not so great going forward but still presents the side with an offensive option by virtue of getting forward. If it's the same type of offensive running Zoko use to do, then I'll pass...
It will be good to have two wilsons for away games and even home games against the top sides. Imagine two wilsons at the lane against the anal destroying everything they have and the wide boys could carve them up real nice for JD! COYS
C'mon people, I don't understand the lack of faith in our current players. Especially Jamie O'Hara whom I rate rather highly. Jaime needs to come back and be given a shot. He's the type of midfielder that can do a little bit of everything and would be needed. We should rotate him and Hudd next to Willson, with JJ as backup.
Luka is training with the youth 'cause we've got no reserves this season.
Kranjcar, Modric, Palacios, Lennon...... I wonder how their combined weight compares to other midfields in the prem....
Appears Sandro will be coming, but we are still being linked with Sissoko.
If this is true, where does that leave Palacious ?
Are these 3 not very similar in style ?
Or maybe we will play 6 midfielders in a new 2-6-2 formation.
Here's some pie, here's some sky.....
Tut, tut...
I think it's either/or for Sandro/Sissoko. Sissoko I believe was our first choice, but he was too expensive, and his price has risen again this season since he's been doing well. Sandro is a much cheaper option at 6m. Tbh they all sound a little bit like Muntari, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him here instead.
O'Hara is doing ok at Pompey, but not as well as KPB, and frankly I haven't been too impressed with them from what I've seen at Portsmouth. Doyle completely destroyed Ohara for pace when they played Burnley, and we don't need JOH's set pieces with Kranjcar here. Given the lack of pace in our team outside Defoe and Lennon and Hudd's slowness, I would much rather have some pacy cover in CM that also has O'Hara's tenacity.
Denilson is a year older than Sandro and wasn't even captain of the Brazil Under 20's.
Sandro has been capped by Brazil full side and was on the bench for their last two or three world cup qualifiers so he must be fairly decent.
Any thought he didn't feature in the recent friendly somehow means something it doesn't,no domestic players were involved due to the Brazilian closing championship which Internacional are in with a shout of winning.
This could be good buy if he joins and is giving time to settle,the clubs partnership could be really great having first dibs on players like this.
We should also look at Giuliano at Inter he is the new Brazil Under 20 captain and real quality.
blimey could be a good expensive signing or could be an unproductive expensive signing...what gives me the pips is that sandro aint a spurs product...he aint a player that we av coached to become a 1st team player..its gettin me goat up(nehh nehh nehh)oh no the goats awake....i dont mind us buying players but our young player development is stagnating..i av only seen livermore in action twice but he showed a lot of potential...mind you huddlestone is finally gettin the picture and starting to play to is potential but the scary part is he still has so much talent and he is nowhere near his peak as a player its quite exciting....goodbye jj
Hi guys. I've been peeking inhere for a while, and now decided to chime in regarding Sandro. IMHO, there is a win-win situation if we sign him. I he comes on and flattens the world - GREAT. If he doesn't - we can make great return on selling him. And I have no doubts there will be suitors from bigs in Italy and Spain for young Brazilian U20 captain. If HR is for it I'll sign on it, because of his good footy and business judgments. And I base this on HR track record from last few years while he was Pompey boss; bought Muntari, Johnson, Diarra, Crouchy, Defoe, Kranjcar. These players not only performed great but when sold Pompey raked more than a double from what they paid for them. The man knows what he’s doing and very rarely fails. Did I say I trust Harry?
We were the first to bring in and settle Ossie A and Riky V, can't be that different surely. COYS
What we have to think about here is he is coming in the coldest and wettest time of the season and he is Brazilian surly Gomes has had a close look at him and knows if he is any good.What we should be asking is how come Botang looks good since he left our club could it be less pressure and more games.This will be the big problem getting a game ask Naughton Harry should use all is subs even if one only gets ten mins
@yidnews: Sandro played for Brasil in the World Cup qualifiers. I wouldn't say he has to worry about a place in their World Cup squad as they have Felipe Melo, Giberto Silva, and Josué. Even Lucas ahead of him which is a scary option.
we have major problems in defence.ledley and woodgate ,uncertain future.hudd great going forward but weak on defence.jenas erratic,tends to pass back or sideways.wilson poor passing lately.but we know hes got it.a strong tackler ,who knows where the opponents goal is must be a plus for 5 mill.ohara with the irish connection should have fire in his belly,but tends to disappear from games.spurs have done wonders under harry to be where they are now.
I am fan of Inter and Arsenal and I can say that Sandro is better than Denilson and Lucas. Despite kicking worse than both.
It closely resembles the style of Gilberto Silva.
You will have difficulty in buying him. He is highly valued.
My English is bad. sorry
Thanks for the info. I still think we have more than a good chance in signing him because we have a relationship with his club, for loans and potentially signing them.
Inter will sell Sandro, that's right.
Inter sells players easily.
However, this year we have sold Alex and Nilmar, that is, we are cash on hand.
where exactly will he fit in, the only thing i can think of is cover for wilson , and i dont think he will be happy sitting on the bench unless hopefully he will be in the carrick mould so he can team up with wilson but then again where does this leave modric as kranjcar cannot be dropped , it really is puzzling to me, and please dont anybody say rotation