Crisis?

By: Cesar | September 7th, 2007

Spanish birdcage liner MARCA had a great way of emphasising every Real Madrid loss back in the Galactico days.

CRISIS!, the headline would scream! People would buy the gossip rag to read about the most recent loss, agonize over the startling way this array of talent could screw it up week in, week out.

Problem is, they didn’t really lose all that often. And the club was hardly in crisis.

But let’s state the facts here: The latest news out of Valencia could mean a full-blown crisis at the club.

Things are not good.

To recap:

Vicente’s been hurt.
He’s as brittle as a fine wine glass.
He’s also as talented as they come.
Vicente goes to the Valencia doctors.
They fix him up, say ‘Go on, lad. Have a kickabout!’
Vicente smiles, runs out with his mates, gets knicked again.
Vicente goes back to the doctor.
They fix him up again.
Wash, rinse, repeat. (He plays, gets injured. Gets fixed up, plays, gets injured immediately … do this about 456 times and you’ll get close to the reality of it.)
Vicente’s ok. Plays in last season’s Champions League game against Chelsea in Stamford Bridge.
Vicente looks like a star, toying with Chelsea’s defense, looks like the best player on the pitch.
Vicente gets injured (surprise!).
Vicente is out for the season and spends the entire off-season in rehabilitation.
Vicente plays some pre-season games.
Vicente gets injured.
Vicente goes to the Valencia doctors.
Doctors say, ‘You’re not injured. It’s all in your head. Go see a shrink.’
Vicente says, ‘Bugger off! I’m hurt! What’s this about my head?’
Vicente goes to the press and says, ‘I’ve lost all confidence in the medical staff. They have no idea what they’re doing.’
Valencia’s president, Juan Soler, suspends Vicente for making such inappropriate comments.
So Vicente and Valencia’s head of medical services Antonio Giner (the man who said he had psychological issues) travel to Madrid to see specialist Pedro Guillen.

Guess what? Vicente will be out of action for about a month after getting a second opinion on a thigh injury.

He was right all along.

“Some time ago he had a tear in the thigh muscle and the scar is the cause of the pain. He will need treatment that will surely go well, although he won’t be able to play for about four weeks,” Guillen was quoted as saying in the Spanish media on Friday.

The club is still going ahead with disciplinary proceedings. They issued this statement:

“The medical services want to make clear they have never said over this or previous injuries suffered by Vicente, that they were psychological in origin.”

You can’t make this stuff up, people.

Only at Valencia.

By the way, midfielder Ruben Baraja caused a ruckus during training a few weeks back when he said some negative things about Quique and the coaching staff. But he wasn’t fined. Maybe because we have no central midfielder (Sneijder?) and need Baraja?

Hypocritical? You can’t script a better plot than this.

For all the problems this squad has, for all the tactical lunacy that takes place, this is the one problem that could blow up in their face.

The people running this club have no clue.