Ballack: betrayal or sensible offloading?

blutgraetsche wrote:the Premier League is full of third-choice Hilarios who take up squad places ahead of local youngsters. Do Bolton, for example, really need an Omani as their third keeper? There are, of course, countless examples of imported outfield players who are useless too. Ask yourself who is benefiting from such arrangements.

Allez les rouges wrote:Maybe I'm blind but I don't see a thread being devoted to one of the biggest and most controversial topics at the moment, the Chelsea axing of Ballack from their Champions League squad (even though Blut has drawn attention to this in various threads).

This means that he cannot now play in any CL fixtures before a hypothetical second-round fixture in February, although he is slated to be fit within maybe even a couple of weeks and German manager Jogi Löw is planning with him for the internationals from Oct 13th and onwards.

To me (though I don't expect others of a different persuasion to agree) this is a shocking betrayal of Ballack's loyalty to the club and only explainable in terms of the view that Chelsea want to offload him in the NEXT transfer window while he is not cup-tied and thus make a tidy sum for him. (Even less understandable in footballing terms given that as I understand it Chelsea have only named 23 players when they are entitled to name 25.) In the meantime he is left kicking his heels while unable to play in Europe's premier competition, part of his reason for making the move to Chelsea (and as I understood it part of Chelsea's reasons for signing him in the first place), which makes life difficult for him at international level too.

(Admittedly Chelsea would have to play a rather different system to get the best out of him and admittedly, as repeatedly rehearsed by Blut, this was all along a deeply misguided move on his part as well as Chelsea's – all side issues if relevant...)

What, then, are people's views on this??

Allez les rouges wrote:Don't be ridiculous Rez, to compare an unfit, unprofessional Adriano who hasn't been performing at the highest level for a long time now to Ballack displays some serious ignorance of world football at the moment. The likes of Bridge, who is apparently injured for longer, along with four right-backs apparently (I don't know if that refers to the original list) are ahead of him, for God's sake.

Some typically insightful points from Don't Panic there too.

Thanks for the Honigstein link Blut.

For those who read German, there's a decent summary of some of the reaction on Indirekter Freistoß, with the links:

http://www.indirekter-freistoss.de/home/deutscheelf-050907.html

For those who don't, here's a rough translation of one of the shorter opinion pieces:

Underestimated as ever (Stefan Hermanns)

There is hardly any other player in European football at the moment who provokes such conflicting reactions as Michael Ballack. This is no new observation, but in recent days the general conflict has effectively reached crisis point: no sooner had Joachim Löw announced Ballack's return to the football pitch than it became clear that Chelsea FC had not registered the German for the Champions League. Whereas Ballack's recovery can hardly come too quickly for Löw, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho meanwhile considers the midfielder largely surplus to requirements. Until the end of the year at any rate, and possibly beyond.

One could see Chelsea's affront to the best German footballer as an affront to German football in general. Could. Because even in his homeland Ballack has long since got used to disparagement of all sorts. For instance, to this day the country has been incapable of agreeing whether the captain's performance in last year's World Cup was average or outstanding. In the collective Torsten Frings fever his own contribution to the success of the World Cup project has quite simply not received the credit it deserves.

This is typical. Bayern Munich, too, thought it didn't need Michael Ballack – and without him endured its poorest season for over a decade. Chelsea went out of the Champions League in spring – when Ballack was injured and couldn't play. But should we really expect Chelsea FC to draw the correct conclusions? The club considers itself to be the smartest in the world, even though it lacks every possible qualification for such a claim, in terms of style as well as major international titles. Purely as a point of comparison: Michael Ballack has already appeared in the final of the Champions League more often than this supposedly world-class club from London. Once, to be precise.

Ungarn Uber Alles wrote:
as I keep saying, same thing happened to Beckham at Madrid- was getting played out fo position, dropped from the team, taold never to play again, but he knuckled down and proved the doubters wrong. Time for Ballack to try the same thing. It hasnt helped playing in the Chelsea "system" which isnt his natural position, but for such a talented player- as we are always being told - he should be able to adapt. If not, then get the hell out of there, accept its been a failed experiment, and stop picking up 130K a week for doing nothing

Allez les rouges wrote:Häschen, I totally agree that a move would be, and would have be, in his best interests (and made a whole lot more sense just now than in the January transfer window!!), and of course I agree that Chelsea was absolutely the wrong club for him; although as I understand it at least an equally big problem was that Madrid couldn't pay the fee his agent would have required.

Nonetheless Chelsea's actions aren't remotely in their own interests either, as Honigstein observed, as there are cleverer ways of freezing a player out with a view to moving him on. S4P, I don't know what the "less enthusiasm" is about, as it's towards the end of the season that he started to make more of an impact. Besides, you can accuse him of naivety, foolishness and a lack of due thought in moving to a club that wasn't going to use him properly (to all intents and purposes being played wantonly out of position), but in those circumstances there is only so much he can do other than leaving...

Ballhaeschen wrote:

Allez les rouges wrote:Häschen, I totally agree that a move would be, and would have be, in his best interests (and made a whole lot more sense just now than in the January transfer window!!), and of course I agree that Chelsea was absolutely the wrong club for him; although as I understand it at least an equally big problem was that Madrid couldn't pay the fee his agent would have required.

Nonetheless Chelsea's actions aren't remotely in their own interests either, as Honigstein observed, as there are cleverer ways of freezing a player out with a view to moving him on. S4P, I don't know what the "less enthusiasm" is about, as it's towards the end of the season that he started to make more of an impact. Besides, you can accuse him of naivety, foolishness and a lack of due thought in moving to a club that wasn't going to use him properly (to all intents and purposes being played wantonly out of position), but in those circumstances there is only so much he can do other than leaving...

Of course, there are better ways to handle the situation, but we are talking about Mourinho here, who is not really famous for acting 'intelligently'.

Nevertheless, Ballack had the chance to leave the club, and didn't do it, now he has to live with the consequences.

Regarding his supposedly lacking enthusiasm. To be honest, he always looks rather uninterested on the pitch.

Allez les rouges wrote:Dammit, I'm under siege. Hase, d'you want to lend me the link to your old avatar/can I borrow it?

Allez les rouges wrote:

Ballhaeschen wrote:

Allez les rouges wrote:Häschen, I totally agree that a move would be, and would have be, in his best interests (and made a whole lot more sense just now than in the January transfer window!!), and of course I agree that Chelsea was absolutely the wrong club for him; although as I understand it at least an equally big problem was that Madrid couldn't pay the fee his agent would have required.

Nonetheless Chelsea's actions aren't remotely in their own interests either, as Honigstein observed, as there are cleverer ways of freezing a player out with a view to moving him on. S4P, I don't know what the "less enthusiasm" is about, as it's towards the end of the season that he started to make more of an impact. Besides, you can accuse him of naivety, foolishness and a lack of due thought in moving to a club that wasn't going to use him properly (to all intents and purposes being played wantonly out of position), but in those circumstances there is only so much he can do other than leaving...

Of course, there are better ways to handle the situation, but we are talking about Mourinho here, who is not really famous for acting 'intelligently'.

Nevertheless, Ballack had the chance to leave the club, and didn't do it, now he has to live with the consequences.

Regarding his supposedly lacking enthusiasm. To be honest, he always looks rather uninterested on the pitch.

Nja! Now this I think gets to the nub of an important issue. It's similar to the Rio Ferdinand issue, where people think he doesn't care because of his inherently lackadaisical style on the pitch. Similarly Micha plays with his head up, which makes him look arrogant to some, is not fast, and has a game reliant on awareness rather than "effort". It's just a question of perception; personally I think the idea that he is not giving his all is generally very mistaken.

Allez les rouges wrote:

Ballhaeschen wrote:

Allez les rouges wrote:Häschen, I totally agree that a move would be, and would have be, in his best interests (and made a whole lot more sense just now than in the January transfer window!!), and of course I agree that Chelsea was absolutely the wrong club for him; although as I understand it at least an equally big problem was that Madrid couldn't pay the fee his agent would have required.

Nonetheless Chelsea's actions aren't remotely in their own interests either, as Honigstein observed, as there are cleverer ways of freezing a player out with a view to moving him on. S4P, I don't know what the "less enthusiasm" is about, as it's towards the end of the season that he started to make more of an impact. Besides, you can accuse him of naivety, foolishness and a lack of due thought in moving to a club that wasn't going to use him properly (to all intents and purposes being played wantonly out of position), but in those circumstances there is only so much he can do other than leaving...

Of course, there are better ways to handle the situation, but we are talking about Mourinho here, who is not really famous for acting 'intelligently'.

Nevertheless, Ballack had the chance to leave the club, and didn't do it, now he has to live with the consequences.

Regarding his supposedly lacking enthusiasm. To be honest, he always looks rather uninterested on the pitch.

Nja! Now this I think gets to the nub of an important issue. It's similar to the Rio Ferdinand issue, where people think he doesn't care because of his inherently lackadaisical style on the pitch. Similarly Micha plays with his head up, which makes him look arrogant to some, is not fast, and has a game reliant on awareness rather than "effort". It's just a question of perception; personally I think the idea that he is not giving his all is generally very mistaken.

Ungarn Uber Alles wrote:Clearly the German stance on this is to blame the club and not the 130K-a-week player.

The thing is, players often get played out of position when they first join a club- Beckham was deployed as a deep lying defensive midfielder with Guti in Madrid's famed 2 man midefield sitting deep infron of the back 4 for much of his first couple of years. Everyone knows thats not Beckhams best position, but the guy got on with it and proved he was the man for the right wing.

We all go on about how Cr@p Lampard is and how great Ballack is, and that Ballack is the man for that position in midfield, but what is the use of saying all this if the bloke cant prove it on the pitch? To make matters worse, Flumps is scoring for fun again this season just as he does every season and yet still gets flack based on effectively being sh*t for England where the system also doesnt suit him, just like Ballack plays at international level a system that suits him but not at Chelsea. Flip reversal.

So yet Lampard should make way for Ballack according to the boffins on here?

I think Ballack should either knuckle down and prove what a good player he is, or pack his bags and leave. Chelsea are indeed partially to blame, but then they were in their treatment of SWP last season for example where the kid hardly got any time on the pitch and left open for ridicule. The reaction? He's now playing the best football of his career since he was tearing it up at Man City. Ditto Drogba. Time for Ballack to take note

Allez les rouges wrote:
Danke Häschen – I can't use that address though, maybe I need to do something clever??

Sorry, this is in haste...

Ungarn Uber Alles wrote:

Allez les rouges wrote:Don't be ridiculous Rez, to compare an unfit, unprofessional Adriano who hasn't been performing at the highest level for a long time now to Ballack displays some serious ignorance of world football at the moment. The likes of Bridge, who is apparently injured for longer, along with four right-backs apparently (I don't know if that refers to the original list) are ahead of him, for God's sake.

Some typically insightful points from Don't Panic there too.

Thanks for the Honigstein link Blut.

For those who read German, there's a decent summary of some of the reaction on Indirekter Freistoß, with the links:

http://www.indirekter-freistoss.de/home/deutscheelf-050907.html

For those who don't, here's a rough translation of one of the shorter opinion pieces:

Underestimated as ever (Stefan Hermanns)

There is hardly any other player in European football at the moment who provokes such conflicting reactions as Michael Ballack. This is no new observation, but in recent days the general conflict has effectively reached crisis point: no sooner had Joachim Löw announced Ballack's return to the football pitch than it became clear that Chelsea FC had not registered the German for the Champions League. Whereas Ballack's recovery can hardly come too quickly for Löw, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho meanwhile considers the midfielder largely surplus to requirements. Until the end of the year at any rate, and possibly beyond.

One could see Chelsea's affront to the best German footballer as an affront to German football in general. Could. Because even in his homeland Ballack has long since got used to disparagement of all sorts. For instance, to this day the country has been incapable of agreeing whether the captain's performance in last year's World Cup was average or outstanding. In the collective Torsten Frings fever his own contribution to the success of the World Cup project has quite simply not received the credit it deserves.

This is typical. Bayern Munich, too, thought it didn't need Michael Ballack – and without him endured its poorest season for over a decade. Chelsea went out of the Champions League in spring – when Ballack was injured and couldn't play. But should we really expect Chelsea FC to draw the correct conclusions? The club considers itself to be the smartest in the world, even though it lacks every possible qualification for such a claim, in terms of style as well as major international titles. Purely as a point of comparison: Michael Ballack has already appeared in the final of the Champions League more often than this supposedly world-class club from London. Once, to be precise.

Is this the German equivalent of the Sun? Because the suggestion that Chelsea went out in the CL - to another English club by the way - because Ballack was injured is hilarious. What a shoddy piece of journalism because it doesnt deal with the simplt fact that Ballack has not played well for Chelsea in general since he's been there. The original piece written in the Guardian re the squad spots is far more interesting, without resorting to a playground attack on Chelsea for not picking their golden boy.

as I keep saying, same thing happened to Beckham at Madrid- was getting played out fo position, dropped from the team, taold never to play again, but he knuckled down and proved the doubters wrong. Time for Ballack to try the same thing. It hasnt helped playing in the Chelsea "system" which isnt his natural position, but for such a talented player- as we are always being told - he should be able to adapt. If not, then get the hell out of there, accept its been a failed experiment, and stop picking up 130K a week for doing nothing

Allez les rouges wrote:
Danke Häschen – I can't use that address though, maybe I need to do something clever??

Sorry, this is in haste...

S4P wrote:Out of position? He played an attacking role in the 4-4-2 diamond (while Lampard played LCM) and then he played a deeper lying role in the 4-3-3 towards the end of the season. Tell me then allez, what do you think is Ballack's best position is?

Ungarn Uber Alles wrote:
We all go on about how Cr@p Lampard is and how great Ballack is, and that Ballack is the man for that position in midfield, but what is the use of saying all this if the bloke cant prove it on the pitch? To make matters worse, Flumps is scoring for fun again this season just as he does every season and yet still gets flack based on effectively being sh*t for England where the system also doesnt suit him, just like Ballack plays at international level a system that suits him but not at Chelsea. Flip reversal.

So yet Lampard should make way for Ballack according to the boffins on here?

I think Ballack should either knuckle down and prove what a good player he is, or pack his bags and leave. Chelsea are indeed partially to blame, but then they were in their treatment of SWP last season for example where the kid hardly got any time on the pitch and left open for ridicule. The reaction? He's now playing the best football of his career since he was tearing it up at Man City. Ditto Drogba. Time for Ballack to take note

Saturday
JA! Today I have taken my family for a treat. We went to London's bright lights for a Ballack family trip. So cool, I love London. I invite Ricky Carvalho because I don't think he has any friends or a lover, but he did not want to come with me. I think he still pretends to be frightened of me! In Germany we call persons like Ricky a 'narr'.

Without Ricky we went to some of the best historical and entertainment sightings that London, nein, the World has to offer.

Inside The Trocadero we made some novelty photos of my children as The Simpsons, and there was one of me pretending to be a Chelsea player in the Champions League final, with some clever photo-imposing trick. This photos will be on my mantelpiece for many years!

Then we decided to eat something tasty, so we found Pizza's Express. I phoned Lampsy on my mobile telephone to invite him and Elen, but it went straight into answerphone after a few rings. He must have been very busy. Or maybe he has changed mobile. There is no way Lampsy ignores my ringing! We are 'mates' as they say in London and Britain. And his car is often full of the empty pizza's boxes. I know he likes to eat pizza.


Sunday
I was awoken by a ringing on my very private mobile telephone this morning. Very few people are having this number. Only my family, Boris Becker, coach of the Deutsche mannschaft Joachim Löw and JT and Lampsy has this number. Since I am knowing that JT and Lampsy never call me, I knew it was Joachim. He told me that he wanted that I play for Deutschland against Ireland on October 13th (for the European Championships, which we have won three times. 1972, 1980 and 1996. JT, Lampsy, Ashley, Wayne, Josef, and that tiny little boy Shaun Phillips - You have never won it!). I don't know if I can be fit but I will do everything possible to feel my Fatherland's adidas tunic on my skin again.

After my chatting with Joachim I called Ricky Carvalho to see if he wanted to watch Chelsea Football Club against Aston Villa with me and my family on our large television set. He answered after much ringing and sounded confused. I think he has the problems with technology and finds it difficult. He said that he wanted to watch Chelsea v Villa with us for sure!

Ricky arrived an hour late because I think he got lost. He was confused and panic looking. I made him a nice cup of German blond lager beer and he calmed down very fast. Without us the Blues were losing and although this Obi Mikel is a nice boy, he isn't Michael Ballack the handsome prince of Saxony, and the team failed. Ricky missed the second goal of the Aston Villa because he was locked inside the toilet by accident.

After the sad game we watched a film, 'Austin Powers Goldmember 3' and it was so funny. My children begged me to do my Austin Powers impersonation again to surprise Ricky. I said I was going upstairs to make some press-ups, but changed into my Austin Powers costume and then jumped out at Ricky when he was on his own in the kitchen. "JA! RICKY BABY I WANT TO SHAG YOU!" I screamed and he went the colour of a bed's sheet and ran into his car and drived off at high speed. He left his Prada shoes and jacket he was in such the hurry.


Monday
My agent is calling me today for a serious chat. I will meet him tomorrow to discuss something. Maybe Chelsea wants to offer me a big new deal. £121,000 every week is too small for London's glittering box of delightful items and attractions.

I think I am very loyal, in the summer I could have moved to Real Madrid, but I said no and stayed in Stamford Bridge to get very fit and win my dressing-room shirt's peg back! Robben the tiny falling baby went to Real, he ran away from the England Premier League. But not I.

When Madrid made some enquiry in July, Ashley Cole said I should 'do one' and I didn't know what it means, but I asked a friend in my favourite shop The Disney Store (I love the Disney Store, you can buy the Monster's Inc cup and plate combination! So cute! And only £20, maybe is £30...cheap as chipped potatoes!). My friend told me 'Do one' means say 'nein' to their offer and ignore them. Ash wanted me to stay with Chelsea. He is a gut boy. I think I will invite him and Cheryl for a concert, I know she works in music. We can see Michael Bolton or something like.


Tuesday
What a funny country, today the press is crazy in England! They are so stupid. I want to help them understand the truth. On April 27th, Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt, a brilliant German doktor, was operating on my ankle. And he has made a miracle with his hands. But he is not a magic man, and it is taking time for me to get better.

So Chelsea Football Club is giving me time to relax and recover. They are not listing me in the Champions League, so I can relax! Where ist the problems? Newspapers, stop getting in the twist. I am a Chelsea Blue Pensioner and am committed to the club. But if these papers don't stop giving me hassle I might change my ideas. I meet my agent for an unterredung chat and we access the options...

kas wrote:Ballack's Diary, from Football365:

Saturday
JA! Today I have taken my family for a treat. We went to London's bright lights for a Ballack family trip. So cool, I love London. I invite Ricky Carvalho because I don't think he has any friends or a lover, but he did not want to come with me. I think he still pretends to be frightened of me! In Germany we call persons like Ricky a 'narr'.

Without Ricky we went to some of the best historical and entertainment sightings that London, nein, the World has to offer.

Inside The Trocadero we made some novelty photos of my children as The Simpsons, and there was one of me pretending to be a Chelsea player in the Champions League final, with some clever photo-imposing trick. This photos will be on my mantelpiece for many years!

Then we decided to eat something tasty, so we found Pizza's Express. I phoned Lampsy on my mobile telephone to invite him and Elen, but it went straight into answerphone after a few rings. He must have been very busy. Or maybe he has changed mobile. There is no way Lampsy ignores my ringing! We are 'mates' as they say in London and Britain. And his car is often full of the empty pizza's boxes. I know he likes to eat pizza.


Sunday
I was awoken by a ringing on my very private mobile telephone this morning. Very few people are having this number. Only my family, Boris Becker, coach of the Deutsche mannschaft Joachim Löw and JT and Lampsy has this number. Since I am knowing that JT and Lampsy never call me, I knew it was Joachim. He told me that he wanted that I play for Deutschland against Ireland on October 13th (for the European Championships, which we have won three times. 1972, 1980 and 1996. JT, Lampsy, Ashley, Wayne, Josef, and that tiny little boy Shaun Phillips - You have never won it!). I don't know if I can be fit but I will do everything possible to feel my Fatherland's adidas tunic on my skin again.

After my chatting with Joachim I called Ricky Carvalho to see if he wanted to watch Chelsea Football Club against Aston Villa with me and my family on our large television set. He answered after much ringing and sounded confused. I think he has the problems with technology and finds it difficult. He said that he wanted to watch Chelsea v Villa with us for sure!

Ricky arrived an hour late because I think he got lost. He was confused and panic looking. I made him a nice cup of German blond lager beer and he calmed down very fast. Without us the Blues were losing and although this Obi Mikel is a nice boy, he isn't Michael Ballack the handsome prince of Saxony, and the team failed. Ricky missed the second goal of the Aston Villa because he was locked inside the toilet by accident.

After the sad game we watched a film, 'Austin Powers Goldmember 3' and it was so funny. My children begged me to do my Austin Powers impersonation again to surprise Ricky. I said I was going upstairs to make some press-ups, but changed into my Austin Powers costume and then jumped out at Ricky when he was on his own in the kitchen. "JA! RICKY BABY I WANT TO SHAG YOU!" I screamed and he went the colour of a bed's sheet and ran into his car and drived off at high speed. He left his Prada shoes and jacket he was in such the hurry.


Monday
My agent is calling me today for a serious chat. I will meet him tomorrow to discuss something. Maybe Chelsea wants to offer me a big new deal. £121,000 every week is too small for London's glittering box of delightful items and attractions.

I think I am very loyal, in the summer I could have moved to Real Madrid, but I said no and stayed in Stamford Bridge to get very fit and win my dressing-room shirt's peg back! Robben the tiny falling baby went to Real, he ran away from the England Premier League. But not I.

When Madrid made some enquiry in July, Ashley Cole said I should 'do one' and I didn't know what it means, but I asked a friend in my favourite shop The Disney Store (I love the Disney Store, you can buy the Monster's Inc cup and plate combination! So cute! And only £20, maybe is £30...cheap as chipped potatoes!). My friend told me 'Do one' means say 'nein' to their offer and ignore them. Ash wanted me to stay with Chelsea. He is a gut boy. I think I will invite him and Cheryl for a concert, I know she works in music. We can see Michael Bolton or something like.


Tuesday
What a funny country, today the press is crazy in England! They are so stupid. I want to help them understand the truth. On April 27th, Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt, a brilliant German doktor, was operating on my ankle. And he has made a miracle with his hands. But he is not a magic man, and it is taking time for me to get better.

So Chelsea Football Club is giving me time to relax and recover. They are not listing me in the Champions League, so I can relax! Where ist the problems? Newspapers, stop getting in the twist. I am a Chelsea Blue Pensioner and am committed to the club. But if these papers don't stop giving me hassle I might change my ideas. I meet my agent for an unterredung chat and we access the options...