Haven't seen him

Just a quick update: Andrasz Sporar, the Slovenian striker has been sold by Slovan Bratislava to Sporting Lisbon for about 5,5 million pounds. That's a really great striker we missed out on. Keep an eye on him in the next years.

Mislav Orsic....now everyone is talking about Carrasco, but why not check out Mislav Orsic instead? I don;t know if any of the Palace board watches these threads or talks )), but I'll write this anyway: there could not be 2 morea similar players than Carrasco and Mislav Orsic of Dinamo Zagreb. Both are o similar age (8 months between them), exactly the same height, very similar playing style on the left and good technique (I'd actually give Orsic the edge here after having seen him in 6 Champions League matches this year: 2 times against Manchester City, 2 times against Atalanta and 2 times against Shakhtar Donetsk, all very powerful times, and where he established himself as an amazing player, dribbling with ease and in very high speeds).

The point is that WBA really, really wants to transfer him now. They are offering Dinamo Zagreb 8 million for him, while the Croatians want 12.5. I think a 10 million offer would land him. His annual salary in Zagreb is 0.5 million, so he'll surely agree to a move to England. WBA has all salaries under 50.000 per week (maybe with the exception of Charlie Austin, who was an experienced goalscorer when he signed) and most their salaries are in the 30-40k a week range. I expect they'd offer Orsic the same. A 60k per week would definitely get him to us. That would mean 3.2 per year. In 4 years almost 13 million and with an initial fee of 10 million, it would be a 23 million investment in Orsic in the next 4 years.

Now with Carrasco....things are far more complicated. He would initially come on loan and if he does manage to settle in, I think a salary of at least 7 million will need to be paid (if he takes a pay cut)+ a transfer fee of about 10-15 million (it was talk of 18 million in the summer, but he's closing in in his final years of contract). Right now he's on 180k per week, so 9.5 million. If he doesn't take a pay-cut, it would be 38 million+ a transfer fee of 10 million to a total of 48 million investment in him in 4 years. Even if he takes a pay cut, it would still be somewhere at 43 million.

Sure, Carrasco has been a good player for Monaco and Atletico Madrid and the Belgium national team. But Orsic's misfortune was that he was born in a place so far away from western football. He had no opportunities to join Monaco or Atletico at a young age. All he had from Croatian football was the opportunity to go to South Korea and earn better salary there. And he did for a while. Before coming back to Dinamo Zagreb, he played in South Korea and in China for a couple of years. Considering that his team there scored 76 goals in 103 matches and Carrasco's scored 60 goals in the Chinese league in 80 matches, the scoring percentage is rather similar.

Orsic contributed to 11 goals and 10 assists in 5100 minutes in his Korean playing days in 2017 and 2018 and in the Asean Champions League (which the Koreans, Japanese and Chinese pretty much dominate in that part of the world).

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As a comparison, Carrasco contributed to 14 goals (disregarding 10 penalties which could have been taken by anyone, but he was the star of the team so he took them) and 17 assists in 4700 minutes, 900 of which as center forward, a little more advanced and easier to score.

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Carrasco's stats look a little better than Orsic's in the far East. But here comes Orsic back to Europe and he's on the rise incredibly with some amazing matches for Dinamo Zagreb which make him even surpass Carrasco's days in Atletico Madrid:

20 goals and 7 assists in 2900 minutes in Croatia and 12 goals and 5 assists in 2350 minutes in European football, including a hat-trick in the Champions League against Italian very strong team Atalanta (3rd place finish last year and Champions League last 16 now) and some terrific matches against Man City and Shakhtar.

Also made the Croatian national team post- their World Cup final and in a team where the wingers are Perisic from Bayern Munich, Rebic from AC Milan and 21 year old 40 million Breckalo from Wolfsburg.

IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHO MISLAV ORSIC IS AND HOW HE IS COMPARED TO CARRASCO, WATCH THIS:

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Here him against Shakhtar in the Champions league: [Link]

You can see his assist at 1:28 seconds. And great skills with him hitting the post at 2:20.

And his hatt-trick against Atalanta: [Link]

He has also had touches of greatness against Mancgester City, even though against City, Dinamo Zagreb were having a hard time, much like any PL team would. Even if Orsic's level has been lower than Carrasco's top La Liga football, his percentage of scoring or assisting once every 120 minutes could surely translate to scoring or assisting once every 180 minutes in a top league like the PL. And doing this in below than 200 minutes....well, it's outstanding for a winger. Very few achieve this.

Zaha is one of those (long term, not current form). Orsic could be adequate replacement for Zaha.

Taking Carrasco is like having to buy a car and going with the more expensive one just cause it's more famous, when there's an exactly alike model 20-25 million cheaper. And 20-25 million are a lot of money for a club!!

West Brom's interest, with a Croatian manager, makes sense then.