Cassano to be the next Pandev?
The liberation of Goran Pandev in December set an interesting precedent for the treatment of players going out of contract in Serie A. In previous years if a player had been in unsuccessful contract negotiation or was requesting a transfer chairmen in Italy effectively put the player on the naughty step.
Antonio Cassano has been effectively excluded from the Sampdoria squad since the Genoese squad tried to offload the once upon a time reckless striker to Fiorentina in the January transfer window. Fees had been agreed but at the final hour the player pulled out. This transfer had come after a public falling out between the player and the Sampdoria manager Del Neri.
Since this public spat Cassano has been out of favour with Del Neri and hasn’t featured for the club. However they haven’t missed his presence, their first loss came at the weekend in a 1-0 defeat against Parma. the defeat only coming from a very generous penalty decision.
If this situation persists it will be interesting to see if this case pans out in a similar manner to the Pandev case. Arguably, Cassano is past any semblance of prime he ever had, more occupied with filling his face with pastries and having as much sex as he possibly can. I find it difficult to believe that he would make the impact transfer that Pandev has achieved at Inter. The precedent certainly suggests that further player’s have been handed further power, in a world where they already have the ability demand extortionate wages, this disrupts the player-club balance. To what extent the balance has been shifted, we will have to wait and see.
It also seems that the boat has sailed for both Cassano and his supporters, the 23-man squad was announced a few days ago. However there was a greater chance of a 2 legged horse winning the Grand National, than Antonio Cassano being called up to the Azzurri under Marcello Lippi. Their spats have been well publicised and Lippi recently produced a big fat ‘I told you so’ over Cassano’s bust up with Del Neri.
Everybody loves Johan (not Raymond)
You may find it surprising that for my first contribution to this blog, I will be writing about the retirement of a player. This was one of the stories this week which caught my eye, and no, it isn’t Jimmy Floyd Hasslebaink. It is another player who in his prime, was one of the foremost playmakers in Europe and won great renown in his native country and then in Germany. It is Johan Micoud.
Micoud isn’t a player whose name jumps off the page at you. That I can agree. However, for many the football connoisseur; Micoud was a luxury, a Ferrero Rocher player whose vision, technical skill and expertise from a dead-ball situation, meant he was always a danger to the opposition and player who always seemed to be a fans’ favourite. His career started with a very successful spell at Bordeaux, in which he helped them win the League, then on to a more difficult period at Parma. The best football of his career however was with Werder Bremen. He was the main man, the dogs bollocks, the creative force behind the team. His great influence was one of the main reasons behind their double success in 2004, the first in the teams’ history. His play earned him glowing reviews and interest from several top European clubs including Liverpool and Bayern Munich. They were probably deterred by the nineteen million pound asking fee.
For all his club success however, at international level he was stifled. This was down partly to the fact that his position was taken up by the best player in the last twenty years, Zinedine Zidane. It was also down to the madness that is Raymond Domenech. Micoud’s contempt for Domenech was apparent after being left out of a friendly against Slovakia. He called him ‘a blind man’ and said that ‘maybe I am not in the squad because my star sign is Leo, and there are too many in the French team.’
This would not be surprising considering Domenech is a grade A twat. He is a man whose management style is baffling, consulting the stars before selecting his team and insistence to play Pascal Chimbonda at any opportunity. Many might say, ‘he made a World Cup Final, surely that is enough?’ No it bloody well isn’t, especially considering their display in the European Championships. Totally shit is a phrase I would use. Austria played better football than France in that tournament. He did have a tough group, but his tactical naivety was apparent when he played two holding midfielders against the weakest team in the group, Romania; a team France should be beating with the players at their disposal. France should have been beaten but for a Mutu missed penalty. They were literally the most boring team I have seen ever at a major championship. They even wheeled out Claude Makelele for a few games. In the end, I don’t care. He can destroy French football if he wants. The French FA has kept him on as manager saying his, ‘results were not catastrophic’; they went on to lose against Austria, but kept him on anyway.
At 35, Micoud has retired after not being given a contract by Bordeaux after his return to the club from Bremen. It is sad to see a fine player and an honest professional retire, Raymond on the other hand, can piss off gladly. It would do French football the world of good.