Nuno Gomes not a chance worth so much money

in the current transfer market, 19 million isn't actually that much, as gori said himself we got more than 37 million from batistuta sale and saved another 30 million from his salary.... so we have enough money to spend on another young and prolific striker, just like batistuta joining us when roberto baggio left.

time will tell if he is good enough, but do remember, even batistuta didn't achieve a marvelous first season debutting in serie a, so can't blame nuno gomes for adjusting with his first season. then if u think in a longer time span, it isn't difficult to realise that batigol will fade away, slowly but surely... while nuno gomes may evantually reach his full potential and expectations. actually i think i betrayed batistuta now after he betrayed fiorentina... so now i can only say he got his final chance to move on to a 'successful career' but then he lost his admirers by the same token, now i will surely bet on nuno gomes... who scored against tough defence of england and france!!!

A couple of things:

Nuno's suspension - young and inexperienced in dealing with officals on an international level? Yes. Trouble-maker? No. Nuno will be a model citizen for Fio. He's a quiet, laid-back player who hasn't let any of his success go to his head. The entire shirt-throwing incident was blown out of proportion, and was not done in anger. UEFA was trying to send a message to anyone who would dare question their authority and they answered with an 8-month suspension for Nuno.

Also - forgive my ignorance if they did, but did Fio even qualify for the UEFA Cup? His inability to play in the competition until the end of January wouldn't matter then, would it?

Nuno's play - Nuno has all the skills to be a prolific goal scorer in time. He definitely has the "striker's touch", but he will need some time to adjust to the defenses of Serie A (but not as long as you might think). Portugal's Primeira Liga may not have the overall talent level at all positions as Italia or Espanha, but it definitely has some world-class defences - with Portugal consistently being at or near the bottom of Europe in goals per game. Despite this defensive-oriented league, let's not forget that Nuno scored 24 goals in 1998/1999 with no legitimate playmaker in the midfield to set him up at Benfica. The majority of his goals were self-made. Also of note is that although his goal total was down last season, he didn't take any of the team's penalties, and he became more adept at creating opportunities for other players.

We all saw what he could do with someone of skill to feed him the ball at Euro 2000. With Rui Costa feeding him balls at Fio, Nuno will be good for 15-20 goals this season (assuming he starts on a regular basis).

Forca Benfica!
Forza Internazionale!

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