It's been interesting for me reading about the problems Sakho has had at PSG the last couple of years. I saw quite a lot of him when he was younger and always thought he was destined to be one of the best defenders in the world. Haven't watched him much recently, he was always in the category of unattainable as far as I was concerned - and when we were linked I still didn't believe it. I knew he hadn't been playing much, and had vaguely seen mention of this Brazilian cartel type situation amongst PSG's defenders but seeing that there's been supposed attitude issues and stuff about him being made captain too young etc. I'm going to be honest it almost pleases me more than if it was just that Silva wanted to play alongside Brazilians because of the language barrier.
He's 23. It's very rare, even today, for young centre-backs to get as much football as he did from 17 onwards. And it's not like he wasn't brilliant to begin with, because that was back when I was watching him fairly regularly and he really was. But defenders of that age in particular they will always make a few mistakes, they will always develop in peaks and troughs and when you throw in the added pressure of the captaincy plus owners throwing money around like there's no tomorrow - it's really easy to see why, at 23 it's all gone a bit stale for him.
He's still got the talent and potential he had when he was 17, the potential to be one of the best defenders in the world. I couldn't be more pleased (and a little surprised) that we've managed to sign him.
