David Villa, Worth More than Ronaldo?
It’s probably the most ridiculous release clause of any contract, ever: David Villa’s £130m release clause would make him worth two Ronaldos. A goal poacher, worth two Ronaldos? A goal poacher, worth an entire Newcastle United?
Yeah. It’s funny to me how this cat gets so much cred.
Arsenal have a player who has proven himself time and again as probably the best goal poacher in the history of the game and yet, he get’s short shrift from some Arsenal fans. Eduardo has 14 goals in 24 international matches giving him a ratio of.583 goals per game, Villa has 25 in 43 for a ratio of .581. In league play, Villa’s ratio for Valencia is .666 while at Dinamo Zagreb, Eduardo pulled in .7474.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, there are lies, damn lies and statistics, whatever. Eduardo is better than Villa and you cannot convince me otherwise.
The good news about this story is that at £130m Villa is so far beyond Arsenal’s means that maybe people can stop linking him to us. It’s not going to happen, ok?
Dog Fight Over Adebayor
This is the kind of transfer speculation that I like to report! The Daily Mail is reporting that AC Milan are now competing with Inter Milan for the signature of Arsenal’s want-away striker, Emannuel Adebayor.
Let’s hope this turns into a 4 dog race with AC Milan, Inter, Chelsea, and Man City all fighting over the scraps.
OH MY GOD THIS IS STILL DRAGGING ON
Peter Hill-Wood stirred the tempest in a tea pot today, criticizing the shareholders who he felt were disrespectful to Arsene Wenger duiring last week’s shareholder’s meeting.
Frankly, some of the questions were quite disgraceful. There you have the most successful manager in our history and two or three of the shareholders made the most negative and somewhat hostile and sarcastic comments, which I think were completely out of order.
Would everyone please grow up? Some people are going to be jerks, they are usually the loudest people in the room. Ignore them. Most supporters are adults and while we might criticize the club and the manager in private we would be respectful in person. People who can’t be respectful in person? Not adults.
At the same time, you’re an adult too, you need to accept the criticism, answer it, and move on with your life. When we hear that “Wenger has £30m to spend on a single player if he wants” and then he signs Silvestre for half a million, there’s a huge disconnect. If we think that our club is going to get a big name in and the boss re-assures us all summer that he’s looking at two “big” signings and specifies defense and midfield and then we get Silvestre, it makes us wonder what the hell just happened?
It would be like telling your wife, in front of all your friends, that you have £150k to spend on a new car for Christmas. You go on to explain that you’re thinking of getting a car that gets good mileage and has a strong record of reliability, and it’s fast and sexy. They would start thinking about maybe a BMW or at least an Acura and get all excited. Then come Christmas morning you show up with a used Suburban, that has a huge Man U sticker on the trunk: it gets terrible mileage, it’s got all kinds of reliability problems, and it only cost £500.
Your wife and friends would think you’re nuts.
Some people, real jerks, are going to be snarky and call Silvestre a used Suburban other people will ask
Arsene, you and the club categorically stated all summer that you had £30m to spend on two “big” signings and specifically targeted defense as an area that needed improvement. Yet, the only defensive signing was Silvestre. What can you tell the supporters about what happened in the summer with transfers that led to signing Silvestre.
The question is valid either way, and unfortunately, remains unanswered.
Youth Attack
Arsene Wenger has heaped praise upon the Arsenal youth team ahead of their FA Youth cup match against Liverpool, saying that several of the players could start featuring in the first team as soon as next year.
They will be like a new signing.
Meanwhile, Traore, who we know for sure is returning from his season long loan at Pompey, scored his first ever league goal last night. Yay.
Alonso Watch
I’ve made no bones about wanting Xavi Alonso at Arsenal, so you’ll have to indulge me in reporting that it’s looking less likely every day. Real Madrid are mooting a £21m offer, via the press of course, which is £3m more than Arsenal reportedly refused to offer last year. I have to say that £21m seems a fair price after this season’s performance, even if it means that Arsenal have been priced out of the market.
Future England Number One Watch
Current England Number One, David ‘Insano’ James has thrown England into a “keeper krisis” by having surgery.
YES
This is the perfect opportunity for Manuel Almunia to step in and claim the spot for himself. Go for it Manny.
One Last Bolded Headline
See you tomorrow!
I expect Traore to be used on the left flank when he returns and not as a LB and will provide us with another pacey option down the left. The only problem with this, is what happens to Vela? Most of his limited playing time this season has been on the wing, and with Eduardo supposedly ready to return, there is no space for him.
Unfortunately, a loan move may once again be in his best interests. We can’t have this supremely talented player sitting on the bench for two seasons. For me, Vela is a potential world class player and we need to provide an avenue for his abundant talent.
I think it’s an unfair comparison of Villa and Eduardo. I respect both and see both very similar in ability but comparing La Liga to the Croatian league – really? I’m not saying the Croatian league is or isn’t competitive but it’s not one of the top 4 leagues in the world. I believe Eddie has the ability but what I believe and what happens are different issues. The fact is that he still hasn’t completed an entire season with us so we cannot say what his goal return would be like. Villa has completed many seasons with Valencia – and a rather mediocre team at that – and still manages to be among the top scorers. Valencia aren’t the team they were in the early half of the 2000s but Villa still shines – it would be scary if he was in that old team that were considered La Liga and CL contenders. Villa is worth a pretty penny, I don’t deny that. How much zeros are on that penny I cannot say.
We all talk about this player not worth this amount but in light of this, the reality is a player is worth what anyone wants to pay for them. Berbatov is garbage for 30M pounds but Spuds and Fergie have it in writing that he’s worth 30M because that was his transfer fee. These buy-out clauses are really just arbitrary detterents for other clubs who may be interested in their star players. Adebayor isn’t worth 20M or 30M or whatever it is Milan or Chelsea want to spend but if they’re willing to splash that cash then he’s worth whatever they want to pay. Wenger could easily put some ridiculous 100M pound clause in Ade’s contract simply to turn away any interested clubs. It’s more of a legal countermeasure than quantitative assessment of a player.
Oh and I forgot to ask – anyone read about Cryuff blasting the top four Prem teams because of their reliance on internationals instead of domestic talent. I think it was hilarious to hear that from a Dutchman who made his claim to fame at a Spanish club. Clearly he hasn’t seen Barca’s team as of late: Henry, Eto’o, Messi, Alves, Abidal, Marquez, Keita, Toure, Hleb, Milito, Sylvinho.
@WC,
I also saw the irony in that too.
You left out Guudjohnson
I knew someone would throw up the Croat v. La Liga thing. La Liga is not that great, as people liked to point out when Arsenal faced Villareal. There are some really, really good clubs like Barcelona, but even their second place club is inconsistent at best. And the fact is that Villa has only scored one goal against Barca in the last two years.
one.
Scoring goals isn’t easy, no matter what league you’re in and scoring bags of goals is even harder. Plus, the goals that Dud has scored for us have been simply amazing. I have poured over David Villa’s tapes and he just doesn’t score amazing goals.
Admit it, Dudu is the shit.
Well whether the goal is amazing or not doesn’t make a huge difference – as long as it goes in the back of the net. The fact is alot of strikers have a bogey team – OK so Villa has only scored against Madrid once, guess what? So has Torres and I don’t think even you Tim could deny Torres as being one of the best strikers in the world and we’d love to have him. He spent much of his early years at Atletico scoring goals regularly, but only scored once against their rivals and had never beaten them in that time. It’s just the way football is – some players just do better against certain teams than others historically.
Yes scoring goals isn’t easy – I play up front and know it’s not always cake to put the ball in a 10 ft goal mouth (though theoretically it would seem easy). However you look at many strikers who thrived in smaller leagues and then make the step up to one of the “big four leagues” and their reputaiton diminishes. Kuyt was a 20 goal a seaosn striker and at Liverpool he’s terrible as a striker and seems to have found his place as a midfielder. Afonso Alves likewise tore up the Eredivisie and can’t even get 10 goals at Boro.
La Liga has without a doubt become the Madrid/Barca show for the last few seasons and I acknolwedge they’re not exactly a cream of the crop league barring Barca but you still cannot deny that Villa is scoring here and now and the jury is still out on Eduardo. I’ve seen what Eddie can do and believe he could be a 20 goal a season striker but until he has an entire season to show it our sentiments are partisan at best because he plays for Arsenal. I’m not trying to put our Crozillian down, I’m just stating the present day facts that we just don’t know about Eduardo at Arsenal yet but Villa has the stats to prove his worth.
The football world is in irrational love (is there any other kind?) with Spanish players because of Spain’s recent win at the Euro. This reminds me of the years that followed France’s 98 world cup win where you had even the average French players get huge contracts abroad just because they were French. No way Villa is worth that kind of money. Tim is a better dribbler, and Doyle’s FC has only a $25 transfer clause on him.
@T-Town
Which is funny because Spain’s best player at Euro 2008, Marco Senna, is Brazilian.
I’ve had a good coach!
CLEARLY YOUR A DUMB FUCK MATT, if Marco Senna was Spains best player at Euro he would have got rewarded player of the competition i believe, DIDN’t THAT GO TO XAVI???
I will like to ask our fans who has been critisized Wenger for not winning trophies for us for long time this question, i am not exempted though. Now i heard the board only promised Wenger £13 millions to buyer players that can win us trophies, I want to know is anything wrong with arsenal board? Now is Wenger to be blame or the un-amibitious board, that only has their own interst at heart?.
They always mis-lead the fans, they lied all the time, expecially the so called Hill-wood, he kept saying if Wenger want to buy players that they would give him money, so is £13 millions encouraging at all, i don’t think so, they are just encumber to arsenal fc. They should all quit. They are to be blame not Wenger, did they expect the manager to use his salary to buy players, shame on them, Hill- wood, THE CHAIRMAN THAT HAS NO MENTAL SUCCESS.
Come to the topic, i think David Villa is better compare to DUDU, although, Dudu is a fine player, that injury will affect his career, if not the injury he is a world class footballer, i hope he can overcome the fear coming season. Booooooooooo to arsenal board.
@MATT YOU COCK!
Dude, please, we call each other cock sandwiches around here. Get with the program.
For what’s worth, I watched 80% of the tournament and, *in my opinion*, Marco Senna was Spain’s best performer. That might be because I have a hard on for midfielders that are both top=notch defenders and top-notch distributors, but, hey, don’t we all? And I trust my opinion more than UEFA’s, or whomever the hell gives out the MOTC award.
Finally: penis.
I think what you wrote for David Villa’s valuation is ridiculous. By law, every Spanish player needs to have a release clause and they are often very high (bordering on insanity) so no other club would actually pay it.
For sake of comparison, Messi’s release clause is for 150 million euros, Henry’s is for 125 million euros, even talented yet second tier (compared to messi, etc.) players like David Silva’s whose valuation is close to 20-25 million pounds has a release clause of 150 million euros.