Quote Originally Posted by AfricanBluebird View Post
What do you all think of Brad Smith?

It's curious that Brad Smith has played less than 20 games in the English league system, which for a 26 year old raises some questions. Has he just been unlucky and been at clubs that had better players in front of him or is he just not quite good enough? He has played more international games than league football games which is odd.

He does seem well thought of with Liverpool even including a 'buy-back' clause in the transfer agreement with Bournemouth.

With him becoming a free transfer this summer would you like to see city sign him?

Personally I haven't really seen enough of him to form a strong opinion.
Bournemouth were "had" by Liverpool. Their Director of Football, Michael Edwards is some sort of transfer sorcerer.

He sold Brad Smith for £6m+, Ibe for £15m-20m and Solanke for £20m+ to Bournemouth. None of them have shown anything close to being worth what was paid.

Liverpool got £10m for Danny Ward from Leicester and managed to negotiate with Hull the transfer of Andy Robertson for about £10m whilst receiving £7.5m for Kevin Stewart.

He appears to be the second biggest reason after Klopp for their recent success.

Brad Smith was on Liverpool's books for too long without breaking through (a bit like Danny Ward and Kevin Stewart actually) so they capitalised on their reputation for developing youth players and made a lot of money off the back of it. I think some scouts look at the fact that they managed to get a couple of league apps under their belt for Liverpool and that was enough to think "there's something about them".

Smith never looked like making it in the top division and was hardly pulling up trees in League 1 or MLS when he actually got some games.

Bournemouth have also really struggled with injuries in their defence since signing Smith - yet he hasn't had a peek at getting in the team.

For those reasons, I can't see him making much of a difference in a City shirt.

Having said all that...

He's a cracking winger.