Beerfuelledman wrote:
The accepted wisdom in playing this game is to not trust "Carlos Kickaball" until he has proven himself. I often read statements like "How can Zlatan be a Carlos Kickaball" and the answer is - because he is. He is new to the Premier league. No one is rendering any questions over his previous pedigree; his mazy goal run for Ajax is still one of my favourite ever goals and he is quite possibly the 3rd greatest player of his generation (*Messi * Ronaldo). But we didnt know when the 34yr old from the French leagues came if he would cut it here; so many (Shevchenko, Veron, Deco, Kezman, Aquilani, Crespo, Van Der Meyde, Rebrov, Santa Cruz, Alfonso Alves, Mitroglou, Steve Marlet, Tomas Brolin, Francis Jeffers, Bosko Balaban, Stephane Guivarc'h) to name but a 'few' have failed. We've had our Zola's, our Klinnsmanns but they tend to be the exception rather than the rule.
The key thing there is "he is quite possibly the 3rd greatest player of his generation".
Of those players on your list, only Shevchenko could come close to satisfying that description. The others were players who had good records abroad that didn't translate over here but they weren't in that elite class...Zola and Klinsmann were more in the elite class, as was Bergkamp, and they are a better parallel to Zlatan.
Now I do agree with the general point that there is risk, but a key factor with Zlatan is he has moved about multiple times before, to big clubs, with a lot of pressure of big fees around him, and he has always delivered. He isn't someone that struggles to adapt to new environments. Also he produces outputs even when he isn't playing well - sometimes he is a sublime dominant player with loads of deft touches all game bringing players in to play, sometimes he is a bit scrappy and anonymous but even in those games he is a good bet to pop up with a header or lash a ball in to the net unexpectedly...these are the factors that made my mind up. He's proven at being able to adapt to new teams and leagues and even if it takes him a while to properly settle in he has a fair chance of keeping his goal/assist record ticking over.