World Football Postulant

Tottenham Hotspur many not have been able to prove themselves a big club this summer, having hit the end of the transfer window with few of their many rumored targets hit, but on the home-front they can at least show themselves capable of acting like a big-boy.  That could be the resolution of the Dimitar Berbatov saga:  Tottenham sitting on their best player, putting him on the bench or relegating him to the reserves, and implicitly telling him that nobody does this to Tottenham.

Continue Reading »

After Liverpool’s defeat of Standard Liège, it was announced that Steven Gerrard would undergo surgery Thursday morning to correct a groin problem that has bothered him for the last month. The Reds’ captain decided to play through the pain this weekend against Middlesbrough as well as tonight, though against the Belgian champions he was a none factor and Rafa Benitez probably would have been better served with somebody else in the lineup. That Liverpool does not have somebody to fill that spot may have contributed to the decision to play Gerrard, and thanks to the upcoming break in the club schedule for World Cup qualifiers, Liverpool should only have to go one match without Stevie G.

Continue Reading »

Liverpool may be one of the eight teams in the top pool for tomorrow’s Champions League group stage draw, but they were the closest of the thirty-two teams to being out of the tournament after the final round of qualifying finished today.

Continue Reading »

It will be suggested that Middlesbrough was done wrong on Saturday, and if you look at how and when Liverpool scored their two goals, the suggestion is persuasive.  But Liverpool’s 2-1 victory is no more unjust than Middlesbrough’s 1-0 win would have been.  That both of the Reds’ goals came after the 85th minute - one deflection from a Jamie Carragher shot; another, a laser beam from Steven Gerrard - is an irony of timing.  It does nothing to change the rest of the match, a rather evenly played affair that had Liverpool continue their struggles in the opponent’s third.  For Middlesbrough, the match showed Gareth Southgate’s team may be ready to take another step forward in spite of their loss. Continue Reading »

Two months of the Andrei Arshavin saga will end next weekend when the international transfer window closes, but unless Zenit St. Petersburg shows some new-found willingness to compromise their position, that window may as well be closed now, as it concerns Arshavin.

On the club’s web site, Zenit announced that they will not be selling Arshavin.  They were unable to come to an agreement with Tottenham, who the player and agent had zero’d in on as Arshavin’s best chance of moving this summer.  Wanting two weeks to replace the Russian Player of the Year, the inability to get the deal done today has Zenit convinced not to sell him.

Continue Reading »

Some will think Gretar Steinsson’s better, but Fernando Torres’ game winning goal against Sunderland has the benefit of being unambiguously intentional - a laser from just outside the box in the 83rd minute that was beyond Craig Gordon seemingly before he could leap. Off an innocuous build-up in a match that Liverpool and Sunderland has played somewhat even, Torres gave his fans another reason to think him the best player in the world. He took a performance that was by-the-book, recent vintage Liverpool - uninspiring, playing down to their opponents, potentially leaving points on the field - and salvaged the weekend with a win.

Given what happened Wednesday (a 0-0 draw in the first leg of Liverpool’s Champions League tie against Belgium’s Standard Liege), Torres salvaged the club’s week. Given what happened this summer (famously failing to get Gareth Barry), Torres may have salvaged the team’s last two months by finally giving LFC fans something to cheer. Given the subtle whispers that have started humming about Rafa Benitez’s status with the club, Torres may have temporarily unplugged the rumor mill.

But Benitez did not look his normal, confident self on the sidelines today. He seems legitimately concerned that his talented roster had so much trouble. The Reds tied gainst the champions from Belgium, and against Sunderland - a lower-half team without their biggest scoring threat - they were played surprisingly even.

In typical Liverpool fashion, they granted their opponents very few opportunities. Aside from some heart-starting miscues from Sami Hyppia and Andrea Dossena (miscues that made Liverpool backers thankful for the presence of Jamie Carragher), Sunderland were not afforded opportunities. At the same time, Liverpool showed almost no ambition in attack, allowing almost the same stalwart description to be applied to Sunderland’s defense. The difference, of course, is that the Reds have Torres, Steven Gerrard and Robbie Keane.  Liverpool should expect more of themselves.

The continued inability of Benitez to get his team to play to their talent level has to be the first charge in his indictment, a charge that looked all the more valid when you consider what Roy Keane is working with. Against one of the eight or ten most talented teams in the world, Keane assembled a collection of cast-offs and still almost salvaged a point. The Black Cats played tight and smart, but they did not bring out the bus. They did try to score, if they weren’t exactly ambitious. When you have players like Andy Reid in your starting XI, there’s only so ambitious you can be.

What would Roy Keane be able to do with Liverpool’s talent? It’s almost a scary question to ask, and there seems little doubt he would do more than Benitez has. And because Benitez was matched-up with Keane today and barely salvaged a point, it is as if the Spaniard lost, though his team got three points. For eighty-three minutes, Liverpool let Sunderland play even with them. If, on the season’s opening day and three days after an embarrassing result against Standard Liege, Benitez can not get his players to be the dominant force their talent dictates, then will Liverpool ever play the consistently great football it will take to challenge for the league title?

Saturday’s match gave us every reason to believe Roy Keane’s growing reputation well-earned. He appears to be on the verge of taking the Tottenham cast-offs he has acquired and making them into a team that might rise to the middle of the table. On Saturday, they looked as good or better than half the teams in the league.

Benitez, on the other hand, is forcing followers to ask questions. It is only one game, and Liverpool could still go on to have a great season. Yet, the match was so incredibly emblematic of every criticism leveled at Benitez over the last few seasons. If they can not show better in matches like today’s, when will they show?

Note: This article will be edited for posting to American Soccer Reader.

Links
Torres summons lightning strike
Sunderland 0 Liverpool 1: Moment of Torres magic lifts Benitez
Keane points to fatigue
Torres spares Reds’ blushes
Sunderland 0-1 Liverpool: Torres to the rescue
Rafa hails match winner Torres
Torres strike knicks Reds victory
Keane please despite defeat
Sunderland v Liverpool ratings&stats
Torres strike sinks Sunderland
Sunderland 0-1 Liverpool
Torres the hero as Reds leave it late

We have been here before, various times this summer, but the extent to which this story is being picked-up this time makes me believe the transfer is now going to happen.  Sources which were previously suspicious in jittery in trying to break the news are now sober in their reports.  Dimitar Berbatov seems destined for Manchester United.  The current Tottenham striker will move to Old Trafford Wednesday or Thursday for a reported £25 million.

It seems United has had their eyes on Berbatov all summer and had been hoping Spurs’ asking price would come down. Now, this close to the start of the season (and the close of the transfer window), they are going to move to finalize the deal, paying slightly more than Liverpool paid for an equally effective Robbie Keane. Both Spurs and United seem to think Berbatov the better player, though Berbatov is more of a fit, need solution for a Red Devil club that has been playing for some time without a true target man.

Despite that need and their injury and availability issues, I doubt Manchester United is making a desperation buy here.  My gut feeling is that Manchester United has been prepared to pay this price all summer and only refrained from doing so in the hope that the number would come down.  With only a couple of weeks left to finalize deals, Alex Ferguson is not waiting any longer.

While it may not make their ideal XI much better, this deal does help United get from the season’s beginning to Cristiano Ronaldo’s return, where the drop-off in goal scoring could cost them the few points they will need to retain their title.  As tight as the Premiership stands to be, even those points contested at the season’s beginning will have a major effect on how the table looks in May.  With a somewhat difficult first two months on the fixture list, the addition of a Berbatov would be a big boost for Ferguson’s club.

It is a great price for Tottenham to get, though it locks them into Darren Bent, who - despite playing incredibly throughout the preseason - is coming off a terrible season.  Potential England call-up rumors aside, I do not see how Juande Ramos can possibly be comfortable with his strike force, should Berbatov leave.  Giovani Dos Santos will slot into the number 10 role and Bent plays high, but I doubt this is the strike force Ramos dreamed of at the summer’s onset.

There are not a lot of good stories about Tottenham getting another striker.  Twenty-five million pounds has a way of changing that, though.  With that kind of cash infusion, Ramos will quickly be able to find out if David Villa is really staying at Valencia or Zenit St. Petersburg is set on keeping Andrei Arshavin.

Of course, the problem with both the Villa and the Arshavin scenarios is that they replace Keane more then Berbatov.  Berbatov is a traditional nine - a target man - and while it is conceivable Ramos feels no need to adhere to that kind of conventional tactic, it begs the question as to why they were willing to go a couple of weeks without Keane, preparing as if they would have a true lead striker, only to have to subtly change preparations with a Berbatov sale.

Tottenham may have a longer view of such a move, acquiring another, somewhat superfluous complementary striker with the idea of completing their long-term roster in either January or next summer.  For this season, they may get Villa or Arshavin (or both) and take a page out of Manchester United’s book and play without a target.  At worst, it would provide symmetry to this deal.

Links
United seal £25 million deal for Spurs star
Berbatov to United in 48 hours - Report
Berbatov on the brink of £28m transfer from Suprs to United
Berbatov on brink of Man Utd move
Spurs losing hope of hanging on to Berbatov

Zenit St. Petersburg star Andrei Arshavin has gone on strike.

Arshavin and his representation have been working overtime to secure his transfer to Tottenham Hotspur, but Zenit is not wavering in their demand of top dollar for their best player. On the contrary, Zenit’s demand seems to be going up, with their near £22 million demand of last month having morphed into a reported £27 million figure now. Tottenham has never gotten close to the £22 million figure, let alone the £27 million one quoted below.  Like Martin O’Neill’s continued pushing of Gareth Barry’s fee, this is doing nothing to foster a deal (which might be exactly the point).

In response, Arshavin has refused to play. The Russian Prince sat on the sidelines as the current league champions bowed out of the Russian Cup with a 1-0 less of Sibir Novosibirsk, a team from outside the Russian Premier League. With Zenit finally pushing out of the cellar and climbing to within shouting distance of first place Rubin Kazan, Arshavin’s strike comes at a critical time in the season. Zenit now sides in seventh pace, just outside of European football qualification, eight points back of the league leaders. With the team’s other scoring threat Pavel Progrebnyak continuing to battle injury concerns, Arashvin’s absence will be felt.

Arshavin’s agent was scheduled for a meeting with the club president today, as he continues to go back and forth between St. Petersburg and London clubs, trying to broker a deal. Zenit’s president, however, canceled the meeting, an apparent reminder to agent, player, and buyer that the club will not be forced to sell. It leaves the sides in a situation out of some kind old, perverse Soviet fairy tale - the player on strike, the owners not talking to the player. Now it is a game of who will blink first, and if the club, which has never been inclined to sell, does not have a change of heart, Arshavin will have to come back to the team before Zenit even considers a sale. Zenit seems hell-bent on not being bulldozed by the player, even if it means compromising their season.

In the interim, Tottenham is forced to use Darren Bent, having already sold Robbie Keane. That looks fine thus far, even though their first real match is still over a week away. They are also unable to see Dimitar Berbatov, to Manchester United or anybody else, not having sufficient players up top. Juande Ramos and Spurs can not be held hostage while Arshavin and Zenit work through this. If they want to be confident in being a top seven team, possibly challenging the top four, it’s time to move on.

If that’s how this is to play out, the only good Arshavin’s strike will do is to end the saga. Unfortunately for him, it will end with him staying in St. Petersburg.  In the words of Arshavin’s agent, commenting after the Zenit president canceled the meeting, the chances of the Russian Prince moving to London now seem “very, very weak.”

Quotes

“This is the Russian way.  Nothing will change because this is the old Soviet Union way. For the Russian sports establishment the desires of a player mean absolutely nothing. They are the big bosses. It is a dictatorship. He is a slave.” -  Dennis Lachter, agent, Andrei Arshavin

Links

Arshavin goes on strike to put Spurs deal in jeopardy

If I had to bet, I would put money on Tottenham being without David Villa come September 1.  Still, there is an awful lot of smoke around these rumors for there not to be fire.  But the sticking points in my mind:  the current club says they’re not selling, and the player and his representation are being coy about it all.  This seems more Juande Ramos trying provide a cash catalyst to the situation.

Perhaps Ramos and Ramon Calderon went to some seminar together in the spring?

Today, new rumors come from reliable sources.  Tottenham is set to offer £32 million for David Villa.  The sale of Dimitar Berbatov would fund the transaction, with the Bulgarian to be moved for £30 million.

That reported chain of events should raise doubts as to the veracity of the rumors.  Who is going to pay £30 million for Berbatov?  The reports make it seem like not only will somebody do it (Barça?), but they have confirmed this to Spurs, who are only waiting to find another striker to finalize the Bulgarian’s signing.  And yet Berbatov still plays in the preseason games, as he did this weekend.  So beyond the fact that Valencia seems ill-disposed to selling their striker, there are problems with this story.

If somebody has confirmed they want to buy Berbatov for £30 million, why wait?  Spurs didn’t wait to sell Robbie Keane to Liverpool, were willing to create a hole in their linep (which, thankfully, Darren Bent has filled nicely), and now Zenit St. Petersburg is holding Ramos over the coals on Andrei Arshavin’s price.

The same rumors that have Spurs making a new, record-setting bid for Villa have them staying in the picture with Arshavin.  It is all very fantastical, but I refuse to doubt anything Spurs-related after they improbably sold Robbie Keane and then decided David Bentley was a good fit.   Just as I may be proven wrong on Bentley, I may be proven wrong on Villa, and the Spain international could be in London by the end of the month.

The move makes sense if Valencia is you think the reports of their debt problems are accurate.  I never know what to trust with those stories because there are so many different ways clubs can elect to report their debt that I always feel like I’m on the end of a marketing campaign.  If Valencia were inclined to see Villa, though, wouldn’t they have done it a month ago, when Villa’s value was sky-high after Euro 2008 and they could spend the next month using the proceeds to procure a replacement?  With their UEFA Cup campaign about to start and a reasonable expectation they will compete for a UEFA Cup (or even Champions League) spot for next season (as well as wanting to defend the Copa del Rey), how does now doing an about face on Villa make sense?

As you can tell by my inane use of questions as writing devices, I don’t think it does.  All this smoke we’re seeing it just that: smoke.  That said, he would fit rather nicely in North London.

Quotes
“David likes London and likes how Spurs play under Ramos. If they present an offer, Valencia will seriously study the subject.” - Jose Luis Tamargo, agent, Villa
“Valencia CF has made no agreement nor are they involved in any negotiations to transfer David Villa and David Jimenez Silva to any club in Spain or abroad.” - Valencia
“It is completely untrue. I have informed both the players and their agents in an official and clear manner that the firm intention of the club is for both of the players to stay with us and see out their contracts.” - Valencia

Links
Tottenham eyeing £60million triple swoop?
Spurs reportedly prep $80M mega-bid for Villa
Spurs set for record breaking swoop
Valencia furious over Villa-Silva sale claims
Valencia determined to keep stars
Valencia want to keep Spanish stars Villa and Silva
Soriano vows to keep stars at Valencia

It should surprise nobody that the July 30 deadline Martin O’Neill had imposed on a Gareth Barry transfer has not held up. Today, O’Neill admitted that the deadline now means nothing. The only time limit on the Barry-to-Anfield negotiations will be the end of the transfer window in four weeks.

O’Neill had originally implemented the transfer deadline so that his club’s whole summer wouldn’t be defined by the Barry saga. Unfortunately, it did not work, with Aston Villa’s plans being more influenced by Barry and the stall around his transfer than one would have suspected months ago. That this ordeal is carrying on into August after it looks such a sure, logical thing two months ago is a bit amazing. Liverpool stalled trying to sell Xabi Alonso and then funneled money to Robbie Keane all along knowing Barry was not going anywhere. If Martin O’Neill’s deadline attempted to mitigate the effects of Liverpool’s decisions, it hasn’t worked.

Barry does not want to stay but only wants to move to one club. That club finally seems willing to meet Villa’s evaluation, but they spent over a month balking at that price. Whereas O’Neill would like to have his money and be able to concentrate on his team’s problems at the back, he continues bogged in this Barry quagmire. It’s a situation that makes you question whether extracting the extra £2 million from Liverpool was worth the aggravation. It probably was, but that makes the ordeal no less infuriating for Villa fans who have alternated between disdain for Barry, to welcoming him in their Intertoto tie, to now feeling slapped in the face after Barry reiterated his desire to leave only days after being welcomed at Villa Park.

In the interim, Villa has acquired a keeper, Brad Friedel, that should keep them in the middle of UEFA Cup contention this season. Were Barry to stay, they would be a decent bet to finish in the top seven. Even if he leaves, O’Neill has a side that could qualify for Europe, especially if he takes the Barry funds and buys two quality backs to keep with his depth issues and keep Nigel Reo-Coker in midfield.

After two months of this story, with plot points stretching from Trinidad and Tobago to Denmark, I’ve come to feel for Martin O’Neill. At this point, he may just be trying to prepare for the season, yet is obligated to get as much as he can for one of his best assets. I challenge you to read his quotes (below) and not feel for him.  When the Premiership starts and he can get back to the fun part of the job, he may be one of the happiest men in the league.

And just as I’m starting to feel sorry for O’Neill, I can’t help but feel that Liverpool (who seem to be unintentionally jerking Villa around) and Barry (who handled his transfer desire in a much more public manner than he had to) deserve each other.  In three years when Liverpool to  looking on Barry with the same wanting that they’re now looking at Xabi Alonso, I hope Rafa Benitez doesn’t put O’Neill through all of this again over Reo-Coker.

Quotes

“I was hoping that (the clubs moving on from the deadline) would be the case and this was not a matter of Liverpool missing the deadline by 15 minutes, as seems to have been reported.” - O’Neill
“Liverpool first showed their interest in signing Gareth Barry almost four months ago, so this is not a case of missing a deadline by 15 minutes. That’s simply not true.” - O’Neill
“The following morning we were very upbeat on the strength of what had happened on Wednesday evening. We were very buoyant and optimistic that everything could come back to normal again.” - O’Neill
“That wasn’t to be though. On Thursday there was a meeting between Gareth’s agent, myself and the player. They still felt that even though the deadline had passed they still felt Liverpool were going to come in and do the deal.” - O’Neill
“Gareth’s head is a bit all over the place at the moment …” - O’Neill
“There will be no deadline and Liverpool have all the time in the world now to sign Gareth Barry. They’ve got up to the normal window, which is the 31st of this month.” - O’Neill
“I have a football club to run and I really do want people who want to play for us.” - O’Neill

Links

Barry’s Reds Move Still On
O’Neill:  Reds Can Still Sign Barry
O’Neill accepts Barry could still join Liverpool
Door open for Barry to exit Villa
O’Neill throws ball into Liverpool’s court over Barry