I know he has been scouted previously for the B team, but it seems to me that the bulk of our interest is based off of him tearing us apart in pre-season.
At the very least he has a clear position in our system unlike Griezmann and Coutinho, but does seem a bit too similar to Ansu who fulfills the same positions.
Tough one.
People here complain about Depay losing balls...
In his past couple games in Austrian Bundesliga, Adeyemi has lost the ball a unbelievable 42 times in total. The Austrian league is weak and he is playing for the by far best team in it. You can compare it to playing for Barca B in Segunda B.
Quick look at their top scorers over the years (not that Adeyemi is a lock to do so as I mentioned above) :
2020-21 : Patson Daka, RB's record sale, with 27 league goals and an average of a league goal every 71 minutes.
Only played 117 league minutes for a struggling Leicester so far and other than the game against Spartak Moscow, has not been worth what they paid.
2019-20 : Shon Weissman, 30 league goals and 8 assists.
Moved to Valladolid after that season and only managed 6 goals in 32 appearances in LaLiga after scoring 30 league goals in one season... He is now in Segunda with 8 goals in 16 games.
2017-18/2018-19 : Munas Dabbur, another RB striker, 22 league goals and then 20 goals the next year.
Moved to Sevilla where he played a solitary 24 league minutes in a whole year despite never being injured. Now took a step down to Hoffenheim where he is again rooted to the bench.
2016-17 : Olarenwaju Kayode, with 16 league goals.
No idea who this is but looking at his profile, again, he moved to Man City where he was loaned out to Girona and managed to only play 372 minutes in LaLiga. He's now in Turkey where he's managed 2 goals in 13 games.
Does anyone see a consistent theme here? Whilst there has been notable successes from Austrian league there has also been a whole load of busts. Almost all of their top scorers move to not even big clubs, any first division clubs and can't start even for teams as Valladolid or Girona in LaLiga.
It is the same story as you go down the list to their 2nd, 3rd, 4th top scorers. The second top scorer last year, Nikolai Baden Frederiksen with 18 goals, moved to Vitesse after his loan season in Austria and is currently struggling there, in the Eredivisie. It's comical the amount of players with ridiculous stats from here that fail in half decent leagues. I mean even Luuk De Jong put 25 in Eredivisie.
People are looking to get another Mane or another Haaland but there is also a big risk of getting burned buying from this league as well. So keep this in mind when focusing on Adeyemi to rejuvenate and carry our attack.
Having said that, could he specifically be one of the gems from Austria? He is undoubtedly talented but would he be a 100m forward as some here are saying?
He has a good goal average so far this season, with 11 league goals in 16 games, and 3 goals in 5 CL games, although 2 of those were penalties.
He is a typical counter-attacking forward who plays well against high lines, with a lot of pace and acceleration, although physically weak. He is more of a winger than a 9 and going off the games I have watched and the opinion of the RB Salzburg fans, he struggles to open up the game against deep blocks and performs well when there is space to make runs. He is not a true 9 who will hold up the ball, win duels and be a presence in the box but more of an inside forward/quasi striker like Ansu or Depay, not necessarily the profile we need, and he lacks flair, however if he could bring goals he would be a success.
Their fans often compare him to Patson Daka, who as we know isn't doing too well at Leicester right now. Adeyemi has mixed performances in CL games and has put in some great performances and some stinkers against likes of Lille/Wolfsburg/Sevilla. Encouraging signs, but not the finished product right now, and indications he may well struggle here were he to come and be made an instant starter.
The rumours of Adeyemi to Chelsea, Liverpool, Bayern etc are most likely unfounded at this moment. He would almost certainly not get minutes at any of those teams considering he has struggled even in the Austrian Bundesliga at times and has some obvious weaknesses as a young player. So if we were in the race to get him we probably face opposition such as Leipzig (who have a preferential option) or BVB, that are willing to pay around 40m.
For those reasons I think this transfer is unrealistic. Much more of a gamble than is being made out and 40m + wages at this time is a big outlay requiring a lot of economic effort from us for a player who may or may not turn out to be a top player. Would rather bring a proven attacker that fits our desired profile such as Sterling or to a lesser extent Ferran Torres that have proven themselves in good leagues and who we know have quality, therefore less likely to come here and flop and be another disappointment.
