Home
Another great post by Tim Stannard...my favourite parts in bold.
Tim Stannard wrote:
Everything Must Go At Barça
If you happen to be passing by the Camp Nou this week, you may well find Frank Rijkaard slumped in a deck chair, munching from a box of ham and cheese sandwiches. You see, Barcelona are having a car boot sale to rid themselves of their old cast off’s, now they have bought themselves some shiny new players in Henry, Abidal and Touré.
Amongst those to be perched on fold-up table and poked by doddering, fish paste smelling pensioners – and Sam Allardyce - are expected to be Motta, Belletti, Edmilson and Maxi Lopez.
Gio has already been palmed off on a freebie to Feyenoord – and that is precisely the same kind of deal that Motta is looking for. However the Barcelona bigwigs reckon that the Brazilian is still worth a bit of cash, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
The reason for this pecuniary persuasion is that the cash-splashing is not yet over in the Catalan camp. The club is still on the hunt for a centre back and is currently involved in a love triangle for Roma’s Romanian stopper, Chivu. If they fail the land this particular defensive fish, then Barcelona are expected to move for Gabi Milito from Zaragoza.
However, this is exactly the same cunning plan being dreamed up by Real Madrid, although no one is entirely sure what is going on up in the Gotham City Asylum. The club has yet to nab Bernd Schuster from Getafe, as Real are refusing to make a formal approach to the Madrid minnows for his release.
The trouble is that Schuster is refusing to resign, until he has the agreement from club president, Angel Torres that he will still get a 400,000 euro pay off. Unsurprisingly, Torres has told the Teutonic titan to spin on it.
There is more action over at Intertoto heavyweights, Atletico Madrid. With Fernando Torres about to depart to Scouseland, the rojiblancos have made the uncharacteristically smart move of bringing in Villarreal’s Diego Forlán for 21 million euros and four seasons.
With the gaping hole – well, pinprick – left by the departure of Galletti to Olympiacos, Atletico are on the brink of bringing in Liverpool’s tiny terror, Luis Garcia – another surprisingly good move from the normally calamitous club.
This activity comes a week after the club decided that the six-goal conceding Pichu was not the water tight back up to Leo Franco that they wanted and purchased Christian Abbiati from AC Milan. “I’ve come here to play”, said the ‘keeper reassuringly.
Villarreal are looking to replace the departing Forlán with Espanyol’s Raul Tamudo – although over the dead body of their VP, it seems, “if we want to be a big side, then we cannot sell players” huffed, Sebastián Javier.
Real Betis have picked Héctor Cúper as the poor sod that will be managing the club next season – correction; that should read, ‘exciting manager to lead the club into the Champions League’. After the announcement was made, a very pleased with himself Betis big wig, declared that the “most supporters still want me here”. Betis have also purchased a new striker – Mariano Pavone – from Estudiantes. The man known as ‘the Tank’ arrives on a 7 million euro deal.
Levante’s misfiring attacker, Kapo, has buggered off to Birmingham for 4.3 million euros and Zaragoza announced that they will be abandoning La Romareda in May 2008, for one, year, whilst the ground is given a new lick of paint.
Real Mallorca have decided that their smartest move this summer would be to flog top scorer, Bosko Jankovic. And that’s exactly what they’ve done. The Serbian is on his way to Palermo for 6 million euros – four million of which may be invested in occasional Real Madrid centre back, Mejía.
**********
All blog content copyright of La Liga Loca 2007
What have they put in the water at Vicente Calderon?? I mean, this is the same club who bought Maniche and Kezman.
