[Albion] Mercurial, majestic, magnificent Mitoma [20/10/23: New deal signed]

[The Fits]

He reminds me of the difference Knocky made when he joined us, he was clearly a massive step up from anything we'd had before in that role and moved us onto the next level

Yup. Great comparison actually.

 

[Salty_Seagull]

With Chelsea looking to swoop in under Arsenal's nose for Mudryk there is A LOT of Arsenal fans on Twitter with their eyes set on MItoma. I just want him for another full season at least please!

 

[Farehamseagull]

I think it's slightly different. Caicedo has come straight in and looked one of the best midfielders in the league instantly. But with Mitoma it's something else. He has an ability to beat players that is almost surreal in its proficiency.
He gets the ball, sails past people, and you just think 'yup'. Then you're suddenly reminded he is playing top level football against some of the (supposed) best players in the world and think 'huh?'. It's unreal. And it's not like Lamptey. You don't double up on him. You could. But it just wouldn't work. His brain and feet feel at least a second ahead of anyone. We might all look very silly in a few games if his head drops, but I genuinely feel he's the one. We've found worldies in defence and midfield, and Tross can be outstanding when he's good, but Mitoma is the one. Dribbling, creating, scoring. Genius. Superstar status.

Bang on.

I can’t think of too many players who can/could glide across the pitch so effortlessly as he does with the ball stuck to his feet. Kaka at his peak maybe. It’s really quite special and wonderful to see.

Like I said, I think he’s actually making a similar impact on the league to Haaland but as he’s playing for Brighton, it’s just not been picked up by the media yet.

Previously I thought Caicedo would be our biggest sale when he goes but if he carries on like this, it will be Mitoma.

 

[Swansman]

Bang on.

I can’t think of too many players who can/could glide across the pitch so effortlessly as he does with the ball stuck to his feet. Kaka at his peak maybe. It’s really quite special and wonderful to see.

Like I said, I think he’s actually making a similar impact on the league to Haaland but as he’s playing for Brighton, it’s just not been picked up by the media yet.

Previously I thought Caicedo would be our biggest sale when he goes but if he carries on like this, it will be Mitoma.

Turns 26 in May though, likely to remove a few pounds from his price compared to if he was 22 or something.

 

[Farehamseagull]

Turns 26 in May though, likely to remove a few pounds from his price compared to if he was 22 or something.

True.

Keep forgetting how late he came to football. Stunning rise.

 

[Machiavelli]

Right now, he is the best wide player in the league. He could easily end up with double figure goals and would almost be there already if he could head the ball. He is also Japanese which is a huge pull in terms of marketing. Carry on like this and the likes of Real will be seeing him as a very sensible signing.

I disagree quite fundamentally. We saw two better on NYE: Saka and Martinelli. Solly might even be better than him, especially the bigged up Solly under RdZ. Rashford seems in rather good form at the moment too. I could go on ...

 

[dwayne]

Bang on.

I can’t think of too many players who can/could glide across the pitch so effortlessly as he does with the ball stuck to his feet. Kaka at his peak maybe. It’s really quite special and wonderful to see.

Like I said, I think he’s actually making a similar impact on the league to Haaland but as he’s playing for Brighton, it’s just not been picked up by the media yet.

Previously I thought Caicedo would be our biggest sale when he goes but if he carries on like this, it will be Mitoma.

Mbappe. He's like a more basic version of him.

 

[Machiavelli]

I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit. I think we can all agree that as wealthy as Mr Bloom is, he simply does not have the means to match the spending power of Arsenal, City, United, Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea or Newcastle. That’s seven teams straight away, which shows the scale of the task required to break into the European places at the end of the season.

We simply don’t have the financial clout to compete with these teams. I consider us absurdly lucky to be owned and run by a fan, who is far more inclined to consider the long term future of the club when going about it’s day to day running than any sovereign wealth fund manager. So we are faced with the question of how do we retain our best players within our existing structure? The overriding answer, sadly, will simply be that we can’t.

We appear to have nurtured something of a golden generation: a squad of sufficient talent and depth to have a genuine tilt at breaching the top seven. It is possible that for some players, a simple appeal to hang on for a season to see if we can achieve that goal might be enough. There might be one or two who are enjoying their time here so much that they feel they can afford to wait one year. However, to be able to secure the services of the entire squad, that appeal would probably need to be allied to a financial incentive to stick around that extra year. Right away, the risks become evident. Not only would we be engaging in the financial arms race that did for the likes of, say, Portsmouth, but we’d also be creating a potential point in the future at which an exodus might ensue if the goal is not met. Then the subsequent rebuild is made all the harder.

Even assuming that we did choose to circle the wagons and protect this squad, who’s to say that the bigger clubs wouldn’t break the impasse with increasingly daft, frankly irresistible sums of cash?

In conclusion, we are very close to the limit of what should reasonably be possible with a budget such as ours and that to climb the table much further is going to be really bloody difficult.

Three outstanding posts from you, just on this page.
One thing that might prevent players from leaving is witnessing how those that do (having been exalted as our star players, and looked up to by others in our squad) get on at their new 'bigger, shinier' club. White is about the only one that has done great, and he's one of the least fancied players by their fans in Arsenal's starting line-up.

Edit: Burn has also transpired to be one of Newcastle's better signings, and their hit-rate is high.

 

[Farehamseagull]

he's shit at headers though

You've forgotten the Wolves goal already!

 

[Farehamseagull]

Mbappe. He's like a more basic version of him.

Not for me, Mbappe's more about power and you can see that in the way he moves and dribbles. Mitoma is so graceful whilst being devastatingly effective. It's a rare thing and absolutely beautiful to see it in the stripes/big H.

 

[Rookie]

Why are some people seemingly desperate to sell out players, enjoy the ride and see what happens. Let the club deal with sales

 

[Justice]

Yesterday evening, one of the Albion or BBC text updates on the game said 'brilliant pass from Caicedo, poor first touch from Mitoma, but the bounce was lucky for him and he goes on to score' ...
Poor first touch?!?! rubbish,Mitoma knew what he was doing, took out the fullback completely with that heavy looking first touch. He has a brilliant footballing brain IMO.

He did a thesis on the art of dribbling towards his degree clueless commentators

 

[Guinness Boy]

Yesterday evening, one of the Albion or BBC text updates on the game said 'brilliant pass from Caicedo, poor first touch from Mitoma, but the bounce was lucky for him and he goes on to score' ...
Poor first touch?!?! rubbish,Mitoma knew what he was doing, took out the fullback completely with that heavy looking first touch. He has a brilliant footballing brain IMO.

He has incredible touch and knows exactly what he's doing. The first touch at Wolves that got Semedo sent off would have been drooled over for days on Sky had it not been a non televised 3pm KO.

 

[Weststander]

How to make the opposition dart in the wrong direction.

 

[Wozza]

How to make the opposition dart in the wrong direction.

Vertical video is a crime against humanity.

 

[Weststander]

Vertical video is a crime against humanity.

I have the same preference as you, but others are ever Instagram conscious.

 

[BrianSwan]

Mitoma reminds me of the Georgian player for Napoli whose name I wont dare to type...

I can see him making a big move to Arsenal/Man U/Newcastle in the coming years.

 

[Klaas]

Should have said image rights that generate a decent income, would love to know how many Mitoma shirts we are shifting in Japan now

This is a bit of a myth. Mitoma is well known in Japan and the profile of Brighton has risen, but apart from some hardcore fans, I doubt Brighton has made much money from shirts sold to Japanese.

 

[albionalex]

Would hope there's already a new contract on the table for him.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

I don't see Asian players being obsessed with big money moves to bigger clubs like some other groups.

Think there's more loyalty and humbleness about them.

So imo I don't think their heads can be turned by these soulless big clubs so easily.