It has been a quiet week. Most players are on their well-deserved holidays, after a long year. Sir Alex is in Portugal, probably enjoying some glasses of good wine and most of all sun.
The transfer market was quiet, also for the teams who would love to compete with us next season.
Actually it is pretty hilarious.
Chelsea obviously has capped Jose’s budget. And so far even hasn’t proven to be ready to pay their best performing players enough to keep them.
OK, they landed Pizarro, but honestly what were they thinking? I remember Pizarro from when I lived in Germany. He just started collecting name and fame, playing for Werder Bremen, but when he moved to Bayern Munich, his little dream started to crumble. Obviously when you play at Bayern you are confronted with other defenses than when you play at Werder Bremen who just started to resurrect during his spell there. What was Pizarro’s record again? 99 Goals in 203 games? Sounds Coca-Cola Championship ready to me. I mean scoring against the likes of Mainz05, Freiburg or Hansa Rostock can’t be compared to play Blackburn Rovers, Bolton or even Reading and Wigan, not to mention his almost inexisting record in the Champions League.
Alex is finally joining his employer’s squad and hopes to prove himself in the Prem, competing the likes of Terry, Cole and Carvahlo. I hope for him that Chelsea will suffer many injuries again, because otherwise it looks bad for him.
Nevertheless, I think a fit Chelsea could go far, except that they don’t improve and suffer the inconvenience of having Mourinho as a manager.
The other Londoner club, Arsenal, still seem to suffer that they really aren’t competitive on the market and every time they get rid of players, those prove themselves to become even better.
Maybe this year for the first time they might acquire some experience as David Trezeguet is rumoured to be considered by Wenger, but honestly I never understood the Trezeguet hype. And he certainly doesn’t fit in the Arsenal style either.
Also, Arsenal seems to have a prestige problem. Or maybe it’s rather a form of greediness from Wenger, but with Champions League, a brand new stadium and the strongest league in the world, it is rather pityful if you’re not able to land a fellow Frenchman and young international talents prefer to go to Bayern Munich, even if that means playing UEFA Cup next year.
They secured a new keeper. Do they have 3 internationals competing for one spot now?
On the leave at Arsenal are Baptista (too expensive), Reyes (doesn’t want to return – and obviously Wenger has problems getting rid of him) and last but not least Thierry Henry. I think Henry finally realized he’ll never win anything with the Gooners and is now looking to at least have the chance to be internationally competitive.
Last but not least we’ve got that club with the beer sponsor. Probably the best beer in the world, but the Danes obviously made an error when deciding whom to sponsor and certainly didn’t chose the best club in the world, because there’s only one and that ManU!
The transfer period at Liverpool looks pretty much like a Season of Eastenders to me: Rafa has done his best to secure players who have proven over the last years not to be competitive enough to win the Prem, but they are good enough to secure long deals at Anfield.
Furthermore there’s the whole soap around Gillet and investment during the transfer period. Once more Gillet has said they will be active, but I fear Gillet is looking at another type of builders for Liverpool than the kind of builders they need. I fear Gillet’s eyes are more focused on the construction sector than on a decent striker.
All in all, so far it looks like we are set for a new title next year.
Already having secured our deals, and the title in the Museum, it looks like next weeks here we’ll be able to have some more fun at the expense of the opponent’s corner, but hey… they hand us the fun on a golden plate!