How is Riquelme so far?

Juego de la Okkas wrote:Nope. He'll be seeing out the season from the stands.

Juego de la Okkas wrote:Precisely. Pellegrini's now got Mati Fernandez and Pires in that position so doesn't need him anymore. He'll probably end up moving to Italy in the transfer window.

The Yellow Submarine Resurfaces
Thursday's 365 Spanish Thing Piece

Aside from a rare round of midweek league action, it was a fairly routine few days in the topsy-turvy world of the Spanish Primera.

Real Madrid's president Ramón Calderón was detained at New York's JFK airport, having been mistaken for South American narco-king Ramós Calderón. "Even if you arrive by private jet you are just another person. There are no privileges here," complained the Real Madrid top dog.

Barcelona big-wig Joan Laporta decided to grab his own headlines by declaring his desire for his homeland to be independent from the rest of the Spain.

"My dream is for Catalunya to play in the World Cup," barked the barmy Barça chief whilst posing next to a model of the Norman Foster-designed 'nou Nou Camp' - which, incidentally, resembles a birthday cake with Smarties jammed into the side.

The one oddity for those waking up on Thursday morning still basking in the footballing glory of Barcelona's Leo Messi-inspired 4-1 thrashing of Zaragoza, was to see Villarreal sitting proudly at the top of the league table for the first time in their nine years in the top flight.

For the casual observer of Spanish football, the last memory of the Yellow Submarine was of a knee-trembling, lip-quivering Román Riquelme having his penalty saved by Jens Lehmann in the 2006 Champions League semi-final.

And this bitter blow took some time to get over. The following season saw Villarreal stumbling around mid-table in a bit of a hungover haze before finally coming to their senses and putting together an eight-match winning streak to barge past Atletico Madrid and squeeze into fifth.

All the more remarkably, this sprint finish was achieved without the special play-making and penalty-bottling talents of Riquelme.

A falling-out with pretty much everyone in the club and a six month-long sulk saw the Argentinean midfielder being shipped out on loan to Boca Juniors half-way through last year's campaign.

"When you pull too much on a string, this string can break," claimed the club's director general José Manuel Llanzoza back in January, before shunting the troublesome Riquelme off to his former club.

And that's where Villarreal manager Manuel Pellegrini was hoping he would stay. But, according to club president Fernando Roig, the man who is currently the highest-paid handyman in world football turned down all offers that met the club's reported 18million Euro asking price to return to the Madrigal.

Although the Argentinean international is contracted to 2009, is in training with the side and has been given the number 16 squad number, there is more chance of Fernando Torres playing two matches in a row for Liverpool than Riquelme running - well, strolling - onto a football pitch in the bright yellow shirt of Villarreal.

It is clear that Riquelme's special talents will not be required at El Madrigal this
season - unless he knows how to change a light bulb or mend a squeaky door, perhaps.

At the beginning of the campaign, the club's Chilean coach claimed that "we have Robert Pires and Matías Fernández playing in his position and we ended up in our second-highest finish of all time" and that he was more than happy to have Riquelme seeing out his contract from the stands, if need be.

And looking at their start to the season, Pellegrini is fully justified in plotting this particular course for the Yellow Submarine.

Despite a bizarre 5-0 home stuffing by Real Madrid, Villarreal have won four of their five matches this year without conceding a goal - all the more amazing considering the presence of Pascal Cygan in the backfour.

Half of the club's eight league goals in this run have come from another Premier League reject Giuseppe Rossi, the forward unwanted by Manchester United.

The American Italian was handed the unenviable task of having to replace Diego Forlán's goals after the Uruguayan's summer departure to Atletico Madrid - and it is a task he is achieving with some aplomb.

It was Rossi who clinched the second in the side's 2-0 away win at Racing Santander on Wednesday night, the striker's fourth of the season.

Pellegrini called Villarreal's top of the table appearance 'an anecdote', especially considering that Real Madrid could overtake them on Thursday night in the final match of the round.

However, the manager of the Yellow Submarine - now in his fourth season at the club - must surely feel his team have a good chance of a return to the Champions League when looking at a squad so strong that the likes of Pires and Santiago Cazorla can be parked on the bench, as they were against Racing Santander.

The future is considerably less rosy for poor old Riquelme. The Argentinean's real desire is to return to his beloved Boca Juniors, However, the transfer fee demanded by a heel-digging Villarreal is well out of their price range.

A winter window transfer move to the Premier League will be much discussed, but it would be a disaster for a player whose rather ponderous pace would be ill-suited to the high-octane excitement - or thuggery - of England.

"He'd last seconds," winced one Argentinean football writer at the thought of Román being hacked to pieces whilst plotting his latest defence-splitting pass.

Despite a claim that "I've never caused problems in the dressing room", clubs in Spain go weak at the knees at thought of bringing in a player who has extraordinary talent, but an extraordinary reputation for sulking to go with it.

Atletico Madrid were minutes away from bringing in the midfielder on August's transfer deadline day, but manager Javier Aguirre backed away in the end considering his purchase was too much of a risk - even for them.

The world must wait another four months to see if anyone else will take a chance on Juan Román Riquelme. Villarreal certainly won't be

Jaime wrote:So far Pellegrini is being proven correct as Villarreal are second in the table and minus the match against us they have looked very good.

Torrente wrote:It's easy to criticize Pellegrini but I wonder if those people know the whole story. Depite his class, Riquelme was always a lazy c**t who often missed practice. Villareal used to forgive him this because he was so damn good but once his level dropped, this became unacceptable. Ronaldinho is suffering a similar situation in Barcelona. He's always acted like a mercenary who skips practice and doesn't care much about the team. Not too many people cared before but now that his level has dramaticall dropped nobody is going to take his Cr@p anymore, including the fans.

kas wrote:He does have a squad number, and is training, but won't play. Here's an article about it from La Liga Loca:

The Yellow Submarine Resurfaces
Thursday's 365 Spanish Thing Piece

Aside from a rare round of midweek league action, it was a fairly routine few days in the topsy-turvy world of the Spanish Primera.

Real Madrid's president Ramón Calderón was detained at New York's JFK airport, having been mistaken for South American narco-king Ramós Calderón. "Even if you arrive by private jet you are just another person. There are no privileges here," complained the Real Madrid top dog.

Barcelona big-wig Joan Laporta decided to grab his own headlines by declaring his desire for his homeland to be independent from the rest of the Spain.

"My dream is for Catalunya to play in the World Cup," barked the barmy Barça chief whilst posing next to a model of the Norman Foster-designed 'nou Nou Camp' - which, incidentally, resembles a birthday cake with Smarties jammed into the side.

Jaime wrote:At the beginning of the season I was not sure if they had a player that was capable of replacing Forlan. In midfield they were already had a very nice selection of players. But Rossi has been great in the early going of the season which I was not necessarily expecting. I'm still not sure that a defence led by Pascal Cygan will hold up against top opposition but so far so good.