Sillyness

By: Cesar | August 16th, 2007

Very good showing by the squad on Tuesday against Sweden’s Elfsborg, a 3-0 win in Champions League qualifying that virtually sends us to the Big Cup group stages. (The reason for this muppet’s picture to the left is explained below)

I didn’t watch the game. I tried but, as usual, it was in vain.

Regardless, I read the updates and the comments (thanks again) and it sounds like we dominated.

-Joaquin played like a beast. Very good showing.
-Vicente didn’t get injured. And he even scored!
-Villa didn’t play so great, but it’s early.
-Silva and Morientes look to be in mid-season form.
-Albelda played like Albelda! Good to see.

A tasty victory (could it be? I predicted correctly?) that assures the starters a rest in the away leg, which falls between the first two games of the La Liga campaign.

Of course, anything could happen in Sweden. Elfsborg could swing a deal for Maradona and Pele could sign a contract to play for the Swedish champions.

But I doubt it. Good game from the lads and let’s go on to the group stages.

One thing that is nauseting me about the current Valencia squad is our lack of a creative midfielder. Look at my earlier posts or ask any Valencia supporter and you’re bound to hear the same thing. We’ve been spurned by so many players, it reads like a who’s who of the footballing world: Lucho, Sneijder (that still hurts), Kallstrom, Maradona (he signed for Elfsborg).

But really, it’s been a tough buy. We can’t seem to get anyone to play point guard.

Still, not getting a midfielder is better than the stink being caused in Germany by the newest Valencia target, Rafael van der Vaart.

In short, the Dutch starlet wants to play for us. It’s his lifelong dream. Then again, it was his lifelong dream to play with Real Madrid a few weeks ago …

Anyways, he wants to play with us. His current club, Hamburg, doesn’t want to sell. So he’s throwing a fit, refusing to play, stomping up and down, rolling on the ground, kicking his toys, etc. so he gets his way.

In fact, he’s suddenly come down with an ‘injury’ playing with said toys (actually, his child).
So he’s not available to his employer in their UEFA Cup qualifier against Honved Budapest of Hungary.

It’s all well and good that he wants to play here, but is this the way to go about it?

Do we really want someone of that character playing for our team? Imagine in a few years when he suddenly remembers his childhood dream of playing with Real Madrid and decides to do the same thing to us? What then?

Read this article in today’s AS by M.A. Vara that talks about the same thing (sorry, it’s in Spanish).

I’d love to have the guy here. I hear he’s quite good, although he may not be the perfect solution to our problems. It’s just that this isn’t the way to go about it.

Hamburg doesn’t want to negotiate. So why waste our time? Can’t we go after someone like Riquelme, who is at odds with management at Villarreal and could probably be had for cheap?

Negotiating with Hamburg is going to prove impossible. They don’t want to sell the lad. van der Vaart is coming off as having a dubious character in this whole thing.

It reminds me of the Gaizka Mendieta affair of a few years back (the muppet, pictured above), when he suddenly remembered he wanted to play for Madrid his entire life and tried to force his way there.

Unfortunately, Valencia didn’t see it that way and sold him to Lazio for a box of shoes (Fiore and Corrardi, actually. Shoes might have been better).

Where’s Mendieta now? Working at the local El Corte Ingles? (Spanish people will get that zinger)

I don’t know. I just want better for us. To be a big club, let’s act like a big club and stop dealing with whiners that don’t have our best interests at heart.

Move on, Valencia. There’s better out there.

-Shirt update: I called the great Onion Bag Soccer Store yesterday to order my Valencia kit. They do great work on their shirts and are a delight to deal with.

Unfortunately, they don’t do names on the back of shirts! D’oh! Well, let me clarify … they don’t have the official lettering for the Valencia shirts. They could put a name on the back but it would be a standard lettering, not the nice font of the Valencia jersey.

So what do I do now?? Any suggestions?

And the name on the back of my shirt? I still don’t know, really … Silva? Villa? Sunny? Joaquin? I dunno.