Goodbye, Giovani
Goodbye, Giovani
Well, it’s belated adios time for Giovani Alex Dos Santos Ramírez. The 18-year old has joined Tottenham for approximately 6million euros, which could rise to 11million euros depending on appearances and performance. It was fun to have Gio in our side and, frankly, I’m sad to see him go. I can’t blame him for his [...]
Well, it’s belated adios time for Giovani Alex Dos Santos Ramírez. The 18-year old has joined Tottenham for approximately 6million euros, which could rise to 11million euros depending on appearances and performance. It was fun to have Gio in our side and, frankly, I’m sad to see him go. I can’t blame him for his move, as mercenary as it is, because he was in a side that was never really going to give him a large number of starts and thus was never going to give him a large-money contract.
Hopefully he has found a good home, but I have my doubts, as do many, I believe. I hope to be proven wrong and quickly so, really, but moving from Barcelona to Tottenham is by no means a step up, even if Gio claims, “It is a dream for me to come to a big club like Spurs.” Right, because Tottenham is a bigger club than Barcelona…(11th in the Premiership is better than 3rd in La Liga? Who knew.)
Enough of the negatives, though. I love the kid’s style and flair on the field and he was quickly developing; perhaps he’ll be another escaped gem like Fabregas and we’ll rue the day we didn’t give in to his demands for Ronaldinho-like money.
His stats with the team during his solitary year were:
La Liga: 28 appearances (10 starts, 18 subs); 3 goals; 4 assists*
Champions League: 5 appearances (1 start, 4 subs) 1 goal
Copa del Rey: 5 appearances, 0 goals
Overall: 38 appearances, 4 goals, 4 assists. Not too shabby for a first-year player who is only 18. Not bad at all, really. But he wanted more, so more he’ll get from Juande Ramos’ new “Spanish Armada”…Best of luck to our little man, who grew up in the youth ranks (from 2001) and is now plying his trade far from “home.” May it go well for you, Gio. And may Soccernet spell your name correctly some day.
*all assists are listed from Soccernet, even though I generally disagree with keeping assist stats in soccer because there is no way to define assists or, at the very least, an agreed upon way of figuring them out. Yet I’ll list them here because the stats are generally indicative of performance.
Martín Cáceres: blauguayan
A big welcome to Martín Cáceres, unveiled today, who has too many accents in his name for easy typing on an American keyboard. But he sure is Uruguayan and he sure is a defender, which is nice to see. Central D was our big failing last year, in my estimation, because of the lack of [...]
A big welcome to Martín Cáceres, unveiled today, who has too many accents in his name for easy typing on an American keyboard. But he sure is Uruguayan and he sure is a defender, which is nice to see. Central D was our big failing last year, in my estimation, because of the lack of depth; this year he’ll be standing in (or replacing outright) Gabi Milito, who is going to be injured until sometime around when the cows come home. Which is, unfortunately for the beef eaters out there, not until March or so.
The vital stats for Cáceres: 6′0″, age 21. Born in Montevideo, plays for the Uruguay national team, and has Sergio Ramos hair. For my money he looks like Javier Bardem’s younger, more athletic, less ruthless brother. And yeah, I’m acting as if the only movie Bardem has been in was No Country for Old Men cause I’m a jackass American.*
I expect big things from Cáceres, but I don’t expect him to start automatically unless he somehow has a great report with Puyol. I do expect Márquez to start alongside Puyol at first, but Guardiola may take advantage of his grace period and really just experiment with the lineup a little, including putting Cáceres in the starting 11 from the get-go. We’ll have to wait and see.
And I still very much dislike the new home jersey.
*For the record, I really liked Mar Adentro and I was so-so on Carne trémula, but I haven’t seen Before Night Falls, Love in the Time of Cholera, or actually anything else Bardem’s been in. And I didn’t even like No Country all that much, but only because I got bored by the end.
Seydou Keita: Official Presentation
Seydou Keita was officially presented to the press today. The FCB official has all the pics, of course. While he doesn’t have a number yet, neither his international number (12) nor his old Sevilla number (21) are currently in use at Barça. Maybe he likes a different one, though… Regardless, welcome to the club, Keita! May [...]
Seydou Keita was officially presented to the press today. The FCB official has all the pics, of course. While he doesn’t have a number yet, neither his international number (12) nor his old Sevilla number (21) are currently in use at Barça. Maybe he likes a different one, though…
Regardless, welcome to the club, Keita! May your stay be wonderful and full of more goals against Real Madrid!
Congratulations, Barça B!
With a 1-0 victory at the Miniestadi against Barbastro on Sunday, Barça B achieved promotion to the Segunda B. Hopefully this is the beginning of a revival that pushes the them all the way to the Segunda A, but they’ll have to do it without Pep Guardiola, who will be presented as the new first [...]
With a 1-0 victory at the Miniestadi against Barbastro on Sunday, Barça B achieved promotion to the Segunda B. Hopefully this is the beginning of a revival that pushes the them all the way to the Segunda A, but they’ll have to do it without Pep Guardiola, who will be presented as the new first team manager tomorrow (Tuesday).
The team finished the regular season with a record of 25W-8D-5L (83pts), 70GF 41GA (+29GD). At home they were unbeaten, winning 17 and drawing just twice. They weren’t so great away (8W-6D-5L), but they got the job done when it counted: the playoffs. There, they drew their first game away to Castillo 2-2, but then blanked them in the return leg 6-0. They advanced to the final and again started away to Barbastro, winning 0-2. At home in the return leg Barça B won 1-0 and secured their promotion.
Congratulations to all the Barça B players!
Welcoming Seydou Keita and Gerard Pique
Because I was away when they were officially signed and announced, here is a double post on our two newest members: Seydou Keita and Gerard Pique. Obviously most of you have heard of them — in fact, I’d be surprised if anyone reading this blog hadn’t heard of them, though that would suggest Kevin and [...]
Because I was away when they were officially signed and announced, here is a double post on our two newest members: Seydou Keita and Gerard Pique. Obviously most of you have heard of them — in fact, I’d be surprised if anyone reading this blog hadn’t heard of them, though that would suggest Kevin and I are reaching a very wide audience — but I’m going to doe quick profiles of them anyway.
I’ll start with Keita, who was first to be announced. His contract was purchased from Sevilla for his buyout clause of €14million euros and then he was signed to a 4-year deal. That means his contract runs through June 2012. His buyout clause has been reported at €90million, so it’s pretty damned unlikely that he’ll be leaving before his contract runs out unless the club wants him to go. But enough of the economics and on to who Keita is. He’s a 28-year old, 6-foot, Malian international midfielder who has previously played in France and also, obviously, for Sevilla. His on-the-pitch role tends to vacillate between defensive and attacking central midfielder, meaning that he brings a lot of versatility to the squad’s “engine room.” He provides a little bit more attacking capability than Yaya Toure (and yes, I realize that Toure is capable of attacking, but has been held back by tactics, but I still believe Keita is more of an attacker), but a lot more defensive capability than Deco. While he is neither as good as Toure at defense nor as good as Deco at offense, he provides a lot of much-needed depth. The best possible outcome is Keita being able to come off of the bench for anyone in the midfield or starting for them if they’re injured, but there is also a legitimate fear of him being incapable of playing with Toure, something could cause issues with both the squad and my heart.
Keita is talented, there’s no doubt about it, but he’s not the youngest player and he’s not the most attack-minded. Of the four goals he scored for Sevilla, though, I remember 3 of them being laser beams basically from the parking lot. Dude has a canon. Like a damn BFG or something. Perhaps if he starts bombing them in from range, it will force defense to step out a bit, giving our mighty mites a few more holes to worm their way through. That and it could provide Toure with the ability to step up and take his own broadsides at the net without having 7 defenders blocking his way.
All-in-all, I’m still on the fence about Keita, but I think he has tremendous potential and I’m willing to buy into the whole thing if he’s capable of co-existing rather than replacing. If he’s a replacement for Deco, he better have telepathic abilities with Messi and the capability to run into the corners while the front line shifts around. If he’s a replacement for Toure, I will need at least 4 trophies next year or it’s off with someone’s head. Period.
Now to Pique. 21 years old, 6′4″, born in Catalonia*, raised as an FC Barcelona member, played in the youth team, moved to England, ended up back in Spain on loan at Zaragoza where he had a good year, returned to ManU and idled on the bench most of the time before making the move to Barcelona for an undisclosed fee somewhere around €5million. He scores goals with his head because he’s gigantor and I like that. In fact, I’m enamored with the possibilities because what if (and imagine this in your mind, right now) when we got a corner kick, the other team shat itself instead of waiting patiently to outjump our tiny child-like attackers? That would mean we could have our cake and freakin’ eat it too because we wouldn’t need a legion of tall, ugly brute forwards like Ibrahimovic! Yay! The beautiful game wins again! Another wonderful thing is that when they get a corner kick or a solid cross into the middle, we don’t have to shit ourselves because we’ve got a 6′4″ behemoth of a man taking names and handing out free passes to the infirmary.
So, as you can tell, I’m very excited about Pique’s return to the fold. I don’t hold it against him that he left for England because I would have done the same. In fact, so would you. In a perfect world, he never would have left, but it’s not a perfect world and I think the time away has done him some good (it has, at the very least, kept us from having to worry about him developing or not and even if we paid a bunch to get him back, if it turns out he’s half the player I think he can be, it’s well worth it).
*don’t yell at me if you think it should be spelled Catalunya. I don’t know or care about the politics behind spelling things certain ways.
