Now I'm not one for getting too carried away with monikers. Every year the next new thing is the next new someone, for every next Messi there's a new Gerrard. Raheem Sterling's Jamaican roots have had people call him the new Digger, and we even have the Welsh Xavi although someone should have let us know that we weren't necessarily chatting about Señor Hernandez!!
Last year I was watching a match and I commented to my son, "the last person I seen do so much with so little space was Iniesta in Pep's last year." It's not like me to notice things like that, I'm not, despite my football manager experience, that good at seeing things in football. And that's what made me sit up.
Normally, like most on here, I am unreservedly optimistic about most of our bigger signings. I think Emre Can and Lazar Markovic will be great signings based simply on what people write about them and the fact that Brendan Rodgers has bought them. I think they'll both be worldies and I think Rickie Lambert will improve too. But then there's Adam Lallana, the St Albian Iniesta.
I genuinely believe that in terms of the team, he is the most significant signing of all. His ability to make positive passes at speed and his ability to take the ball in a crowded area, maintain possession and pick a good pass will be the difference for us next year. It takes pressure of the defence and defensive midfield and allows us to push up higher as the forwards know that they can be found and take control higher on the park. I'm not saying he's the class of Iniesta, few are, but it's not a bad player to be similar too.
I'm gutted he is out for the first few weeks and it means that we will play a different way than we would with Lallana. I genuinely think he is a big loss based upon the way Rodgers builds his teams, and I can only hope that our option b is one that will simply make our option a even better.
Anyway, that's my bit. We would all love a new Rushie or Kenny, but it would be sacrilegious to wish for that. In the meantime, the St Albian Iniesta will do for me.