Lack of Ambition?!?

By: Cesar | October 13th, 2008

Not much to report after Spain’s emphatic 3-0 victory over Estonia. I had the pleasure of watching the match with Timothy Lakefront at my local and good times were had. Thanks for coming, Tim.

As for our Beloved, the news wires are a bit cold. But here’s 2 news tidbits I saw bandying around the soccer news wires.

First, Real Madrid coach Bernd Schuster had the audacity to say striker David Villa and Villarreal midfielder Santi Carzola were ‘not ambitious’ because they refused to join Los Merengues in the summer.

“It surprises me to see Villa and Cazorla’s lack of ambition when they decided not to come here,” was Schuster’s rather blunt declaration to ’sports paper’ MARCA.

What’s that about?

Not ambitious because he decided to forgo the money and stay with a team and situation he liked?

Please. This coming from a guy who is your typical football mercenary, playing for Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid during his playing days.

This from a coach that ran Valencia city rivals Levante into relegation.

This from a guy who is still a card carrying member of FC Barcelona.

Please. He should shut up and worry about his club, not about ‘unambitious’ footballers like Villa, who only leads Spain in scoring and won the leading scorer position in this summer’s Euro 2008.

Villa’s obviously less hot-headed than I am. When asked by MARCA what he thought about the German coach’s comments, El Guaje said, “I don’t have any comments. I am not going to say anything about the matter.”

Good lad. Again, why is Villa getting lambasted so much over his decision to stay with Valencia? Shouldn’t he be praised for not running after the money during his career, unlike people like Schuster, who jumped into bed with any club that offered him more money?

I dunno about you, but I’m proud of our striker …

Anyways, Villa is simply brilliant these days. Valencia striker Villa, that is.

His penalty for Spain in the 3-0 win over Estonia Saturday was his 12th goal in 14 overall games this season with Spain and Valencia. He’s scored eight with Valencia and four for La Selección.

While he is clearly thrilled with his form, he admitted that it is not something that comes easily.

“I’m very happy with the way I’ve started the season. It’s the fruit of all the hard work that I put in every day,” he was quoted as saying.

“It’s not something that’s given to me and I must continue to work to maintain my form. I don’t know what lies ahead in the coming games but I hope I can avoid injuries and continue scoring,” he added.

The 26-year old has now netted 22 goals for Spain, tied with Julio Salinas in the nation’s list of all-time leading goalscorers, just one behind the legendary Alfredo di Stéfano. He will have a chance to equal or surpass the former Real Madrid icon on Wednesday when La Furia Roja take on Belgium.

Amazing player, isn’t he? So unambitious …

The second news item comes via goal.com, who say Inter Milan are interested in a swap deal to send us striker Hernan Crespo for midfielder Ever Banega plus €12m.

No, please no. Keep Ever. Let him develop. There’s no need for an aging, temperamental striker like Crespo on this club. He’s good, but he’s not needed here, kind of like Patrick Kluivert wasn’t needed a few seasons back.

Stick to the current game-plan and let’s focus on developing players, not aging superstars. It’s the right way to go.