i rate coentrao in the same catagorie as ashley cole and danny alves anyway.barca paid 23m for danny alves and personally i think it was worth it he was 3rd top assisting player in la liga last season with 15 assists and he was 2 years older than coentrao when barca bought him.i believe coentrao could do a similar job for us as its quality in the wide areas that we are rely lacking and i see lb as a very influecial position as you see with other players such as evra,alves,cole,baines,marcelo are very influencial players for there respective clubs.
i take your point. full backs have become more important in the modern game from the point of view of attacking etc.
i guess if our transfer kitty is 100mill, i'd say go for it with him. but if the kitty is only 50 million, would you still be as insistent on contreau if it left us with 26 mill to spend when, well in my opinion anyway, a cb and 2 wingers??