Yoann Gourcuff - is he?

Mr. Presentable

going to be a great? I haven't seen him play, but is he the next big thing?

Collie D

Never heard of him, the latest in a long line of next Pele/Maradona/insert appropriate nationality here...? Don't believe the hype

Pighead

Never heard of him to be honest. I'm guessing he's the next teenage whizz kid yeah? I know this is a long shot but I don't suppose Yoann is Irish?

Vokes

All i know is he's seen as Zidane's heir apparent.

What have you heard of him, OP ?

Mr. Presentable

Plays for Milan, 20 years old, dug this up:

http://www.uefa.com/magazine/news/Kind=512/newsId=458621.html

MrJoeSoap

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=gourcuff&search=Search

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoann_Gourcuff

Considering he has made one start for Milan and about 70 for Rennes I doubt there are too many people here who have seen him play very often.

Guy:Incognito

SofaKing wrote:

All i know is he's seen as Zidane's heir apparent.

Isnt that Bruno Cheyrou?

Vokes

Yes, well, we Liverpool fans don't like to talk about that, do we. Houllier was a bit mad wasn't he

Collie D

SofaKing wrote:

Yes, well, we Liverpool fans don't like to talk about that, do we. Houllier was a bit mad wasn't he

I assume Lyon must have no transfer funds, he's been there a year and no dodgy buys yet

Guy:Incognito

Collie D wrote:

I assume Lyon must have no transfer funds, he's been there a year and no dodgy buys yet

Was he not in for ciise at one stagebefore he got injured? So it's not like he isnt trying.:)

Maybe rafa is taking pity on him and refusing to sell him on the crap he bought into liverpool.

gustavo

Collie D wrote:

I assume Lyon must have no transfer funds, he's been there a year and no dodgy buys yet

He's made some good signings as far as i can tell Kallstrom , Tiago , Fred etc

Ponster

He's a pretty good player, seen him play and score a couple of times. He's probably the best young player in the French league since Ronaldinho left in 2003.

zAbbo

Better than Franck Ribery, Samir Nasri, Hatem Ben Arfa, Jeremy Ménez and Mourad Meghni ?

Ponster

zabbo wrote:

Better than Franck Ribery, Samir Nasri, Hatem Ben Arfa, Jeremy Ménez and Mourad Meghni ?

Yes. Ribery aside, the rest are either having trouble in breaking through or in the case of Meghni, has already moved back to France after a failed tour in Italy I think. This of course isn't my opinion but that of the French football fans I work with

Ribery is a fine player but isn't belisved to be the "next big thing" in France.

iregk

To be honest I think he is goign to be a star. As a Milan fan I have watched him quite a bit and the noise preseason in Milanello was that they have unearthed a star in the making. Certainly from his performances so far he has enormous potential. You can see the areas of his game he needs to work on (decision making, release the ball a touch quicker and take a little less time on it) but these will come with age and experience. Remember Zidane wasn't world class until he was approaching his mid 20's.

Id say watch out for him, he has future world player of the year written all over him.

DerekD Goldfish

The sooner he gets back from injury and takes Sedorfs place in midfeild the better

Seaneh

He is already a very very good player, he will be a Milan legend, unlike Milan's last few big young signings (Pozzi, Borriello to name but two).

His passing is so so good, his bead ball delivery is great, can walk past players, great in the air, great finisher.... he reminds me so so much of Kaka, except maybe not as fast and plays a little deeper.

iregk

Seaneh wrote:

His passing is so so good, his bead ball delivery is great, can walk past players, great in the air, great finisher.... he reminds me so so much of Kaka, except maybe not as fast and plays a little deeper.

I'd agree with all of that. His dead ball delivery I forgot to mention is exceptional...

Also Seaneh you can put in the biggest young flop in Milans recent past. Sam Della Bonna..

MrJoeSoap

iregk wrote:

To be honest I think he is goign to be a star. As a Milan fan I have watched him quite a bit and the noise preseason in Milanello was that they have unearthed a star in the making. Certainly from his performances so far he has enormous potential. You can see the areas of his game he needs to work on (decision making, release the ball a touch quicker and take a little less time on it) but these will come with age and experience. Remember Zidane wasn't world class until he was approaching his mid 20's.

Id say watch out for him, he has future world player of the year written all over him.

But he has only played for Milan once I thought...

DerekD Goldfish

MrJoeSoap wrote:

But he has only played for Milan once I thought...

Only one competitive game he is injured at the moment
I assume he has seen him pre-season

iregk

DerekD Goldfish wrote:

Only one competitive game he is injured at the moment
I assume he has seen him pre-season

Indeed, preseason and competitive game.