4. Lucas Silva Borges
And now for a player you might not be so familiar with.
Lucas Silva is a 21-year-old Brazilian currently playing for Cruzeiro Esporte Clube, who compete in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A – Brazil’s top division.
Cruzeiro managed to win the title for the third time in their history in 2013 thanks to some outstanding performances from Silva.
Although nowhere near as established as the other players on this list, Lucas has bags of potential, and with the right guidance could go on to become one of the best midfielders in the world football.
His current strengths are his tackling, dribbling, and long passing – although they are all a little raw.
Lucas isn’t afraid of getting stuck into the opposing players – barging men off the ball and committing a few fouls in the process. He also comes with traditional Brazilian flair, and prefers to play his way out of defence rather than knocking the ball long. His passing is extremely direct, and he likes to switch the play, spray long passes, and attempt killer through balls from the first to last-minute of games.
Every aspect of his game screams “gung-ho”, but don’t be alarmed. Although a defensive midfielder by trade, he has often been deployed in more advanced positions to help his side break down the opposition, hence the erratic nature of his performances.
If he was to play for Arsenal in the 2014/15 season, he’d cost us games, lose us possession, gift the opposition chances, and upset a large proportion of our fans.
However, if we could sign one of the other stars on this list as our first choice defensive midfielder and just introduce Silva to first team football in his first year at the club, we could end up with one of the brightest stars in world football come 2015.
He would cost somewhere in the region of £2-15 million – although Cruzeiro may well ask for a lot more if they’re feeling lucky. If he was available for £2-4 million, he might be worth buying alongside one of the other players on this list as our backup defensive midfielder. However, due to the risk involved in this deal, I’d rather we avoided buying the young Brazilian unless we had another target’s signature secured.