Its summer. One of the most dreaded times in the life of any football fan. No football to watch, and insane amount of transfer rumors which are bound to keep you in a frenzy. I am yet another one of those beleaguered football fans, so I thought why not voice my opinions on the transfer activities of the summer. With Perez back in the spotlight, and Madrid rebuilding their infamous ""Galactico"" era this has to undoubtedly be the most frenetic summer seen in some time.
The most interesting signing made by Madrid is not that of Kaka or Ronaldo or even the more recent Benzema but is the one of Raul Albiol. Now, many ""experts"" believe that the main cause of the downfall of the first Galactico era was Perez's undermining of the role of defense in winning trophies (remember Makelele?), so to see him investing in arguably one of Spain's best and young central defenders is puzzling. My knowledge on Albiol is based on his recent showings for Spain ( in the Confed Cup) and to and extent from FM and I would say that he has a bright future ahead. Madrid's attacking might was never questioned last season and CANNOT be questioned now, but their defense has always been suspect with the slowing Cannavaro, the erroneous Pepe and well Heinze (having him in the back line is tense for any manager). Now with Cannavaro gone, and Albiol and Garay (remember him??) coming in, it is an open question whether or not the credit for a clean sheet would go solely to Casillas or not.
Albiol is a good defender and has experience of playing in the La Liga and Madrid required a defender. Top notch signing : 9/10.
The other signing I want to talk about is Manchester United's first of this season- Luis Antonio Valencia. A speedy tricky right winger who came for surely more than 15m (Wigan said it was a club record). This guy has been linked with United since last summer, so a lot of thought has gone into this transfer. Of what I have seen him in Utd v Wigan matches, it is sure that he is quick and can cross. With Ronaldo gone and everyone expecting Rooney to play a central role this season, the United squad needed a winger for which he fits perfectly. Papers reported that Utd had to beat off competition from Madrid (not the one which bought Faubert but the newer one) for his signature, so this lad sure is worth it. Only time will tell if he will be a squad player or a dazzling winger (the kind we are used to seeing at the Theater of Dreams).
Good player but needs to be seen how good he will be at Utd and the cost is a negative: 6.5/10
I think thats enough for the first post. I think I will talk on Benzema on the next and one more signing which I have to decide (or you can suggest).
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
A general take on the goings-on in the world of football
Posts
hmm...i am not sure about valencia since i have not seen him play but the scot knows what he is doing..i guess that guy we took from tottenham didnt do too well ths season and that was a mistake but usually the scot does think well when buying players.
ReplyDelete@cruel sage: do you mean carrick?? i'd disagree..rather this is the season where he truly shone and stood out. But i agree on the point that SAF knows best
ReplyDeletei dont think man utd need mid fielders, we need strikers, i hope benzema will come to utd, since the deal is still open..
ReplyDeleteWhat do u think man utd are going to do with $100m+ they got from ronaldo's transfer? I mean any big gun coming to UTD?
@kranthi...benzema to madrid is a done deal...its official..so stop dreaming about him :P ..i think utd will need a striker who will be content sitting on the bench but performs when called upon.
ReplyDeleteBeing a Liverpool supporter, my views may not be the most un-biased :P
ReplyDeleteBut from a football-PoV :
1. ManUre require a defensive-mid urgently. Scholes cant tackle. Hargreaves played 2 games last season. Carrick played ~1800 minutes of BPL football - about 20 full matches - Fergie doesnt have that much confidence in him. The reason L'pool crushed them 4-1 was because they stretched the space b/w midfield and defense and exploited it - ManUre need their own version of Mascherano.
2. Since the start of 2006-07, United conceded 73 goals, Chelsea 74 and Liverpool 82. Quite close. The title was won due to the goals scored - United with 231, Chelsea with 197 and 201 for Liverpool. Of that, 66 goals were by CRonaldo. Valencia has 7 goals in 83 games (2 full seasons). Huge, irreplacable loss. Title-deciding loss? I hope so :P
3. Madrid have many crappy players. They want to sell off Heinze, Huntelaar, Sneijder and a whole load of other dutch people. They actually loaned Julian Faubert and pay Jerzy Dudek's wages! Besides, remember how Liverpool crushed them 5-0?
RM need more defenders, why they are going for Arbeloa i don't understand. Agger might have been a better buy
ReplyDeleteI hope Alonso moves on to Madrid by the time you update. You can write about that then :)
@arcticmonkey
ReplyDeletethey were rumoured to be interested in agger - before he signed his contract with liverpool. besides, ramos is an attacking full back. attacking is not an issue - kaka, benzema, CRonaldo, etc. they are probably looking for a defensively solid full back, who is also spanish - arbeloa is the only option with enough CL experience (and he has just 1 year left on his contract)
RM have albiol and garay as the new entrants to the cb position...they need to invest in a lb and dunno how good garay is..07-08 he was gr8 wid racing...08-09 nt heard much of him bt mayb having secured a move to RM he didnt put in much effort
ReplyDeletealonso won't have an offer before 18th july, so update your blog then ;)
ReplyDeletei think i will wait until atleast one new big signing before my next post
ReplyDelete