There Is Only One Sinnacle

When I started up my website again one of the first points I wanted to touch on was Robin van Persie but then Wenger had to go on and say Robin van Persie is on par with Ronaldo and Messi. That comment made me throw up in my mouth alittle. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. There is Ronaldo and Messi then there is everyone else.

What I must admit however is the fact Robin van Persie is more important to Arsenal than Ronaldo and Messi is to Real Madrid and Barcelona. van Persie is really the only world class player Arsenal has left. Don’t even try to throw any other Arsenal player in the mix. Arshavin? Please. Walcott? The Reggie Bush of soccer. Was giving a place in history on hype. When Arsenal plays well it’s Robin van Persie carrying Arsenal on his back. When he doesn’t play well Arsenal don’t win simple as that. When Ronaldo doesn’t play well Real Madrid can still put the boots for you, same for Barcelona.

It’s smart for Arsenal to keep contract talks private and away from the press but if Arsenal isn’t trying to sign van Persie up long term they are fools. If they leave it until the summer with only a year left on his deal you know the rumours will do the same damage next year as the Cesc rumours did this summer. This is no time to be cheap, van Persie has the hammer so in my best Teddy K.G.B voice pay the man his fu**ing money.

Woke up this morning to the awful news that Wales boss and former EPL midfielder Gary Speed passed away at the age of 42. Even more shocking is the fact police has confirmed that Gary Speed took his own life.

I try to keep this website light but suicide is a very tricky subject for me. I try not to judge people in general (but I know, I do) Far be it for me to judge what is going on in a person’s mind during those final moments. For me however my heart breaks for his two kids. Those are the people I feel sorry for. His two kids will have the bear the scars of Gary Speed’s action for the rest of their lives. It’s those kids for are in my mind right now not so much Gary Speed who took his life at the age of 42.

I must admit after Benfica drew against Manchester United yesterday I was thinking at least there will be one Portuguese team left in the Champions League. After Porto lost 3-0 on the weekend in the Taca de Portugal I wasn’t exactly high on them flying to the other end of Europe and getting three points. Thanks to Hulk however Porto came away with a 2-0 win against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League keeps their hopes of advancing alive.

By the way raise your hands if you had Apoel advancing from the group in your Champions League pool? Raise your hands if you are even in a Champions League pool? With Apoel moving on Porto needs a win at home against Zenit to make it to the knockout stages. As Portugal found out against Denmark if Zenit plays for the draw they will find themselves in trouble and at the end of the day if Porto don’t win at home then they can only blame themselves for not advancing.

This is a perfect case of a club and coach needing each other at just the right time. Ranieri gets what could be one last kick at the can with a top club and Inter gets a coach by all accounts most players respect.

Claudio Ranieri has enough time to turn things around and there is no denying the talent Inter have. With all the other big clubs in Italy dropping points Inter is still in the mix. You know Ranieri would love to get rid of his rep of a coach who can’t lead a time to the mountain top.

It only seemed like yesterday when I was talking about Gian Piero Gasperini being hired by Inter. Now I’m writting about him being canned after only five games in charge. Boy was I wrong about his appointment. I figured Inter would like playing in his system but it was clear they hated playing with only three players at the back and the results showed.

Sometimes coaches can get fired too quickly but at the very least you gotta give people hope you are going to turn it around. After losing to Trabzonspor at home in the Champions League and then losing to promoted side Novara 3-1 it was clear the players have already turned sour on Gasperini and we all know it’s easier to get rid of the coach then the players.

I can forgive the penalty miss in yesterday’s game since it’s the only time I can remember Hulk missing a penalty. With that oh what a free kick, you look at it for the first time and you think the goalie should of done better since he got a hand on it then you watch it again and see the goalie did ever so well to just get a hand on it. What a unique player it’s a damn shame most people don’t get to watch his genius week in and week out.

Also out with the old in Falcao and in with the new that is Kléber who scored the winner yesterday and has a respectable two goals in his first four games with Porto.

With the international break this week there isn’t any real gossip to speak of. Thanfully Mario Balotelli has given me something to work with. While Balotelli has denied the story I love the rumours that Balotelli bought his ipad onto the touchline while Italy vs playing the Faroe Islands. It’s one of those stories where you just shake your head and laugh. In baseball they use to say that’s Manny being Manny after Manny Ramirez. Consider this story Mario being Mario.

I get Mario Balotelli, I also get why he could drive a coach crazy but I get him. Here you have a kid who came up from nothing and is now enjoying the good life. In his mind he has it made so he is going out and enjoying life on his own terms. Of course those terms rarely go along with the standard excepted from a professional football player but he can’t say he is dull.

A very good draw as far as Portuguese clubs are concerned! It was quite nice seeing Porto in as a first seed. Shakhtar Donetsk and Zenit are both tricky teams and the away leg must suck travel wise but knock on wood Porto should still be in a good spot to claim one of the top two places in the group. Benfica as usual is the case faces up with Manchester United but the good news is the fact that Basel and Otelul Galati round up the group. Benfica should be head and shoulders above those two. Both Man United and Benfica should be happy with that group.

Bring grouped third it was a safe guess to say Manchester City was going to be in the group of death. Should be some interesting battles between Bayern Munich, Villaareal, Manchester City and Napoli.

Group A:

Bayern Munich, Villarreal, Manchester City, Napoli

Group B:

Inter Milan, CSKA Moscow, Lille, Trabzonspor

Group C:

Manchester United, Benfica, Basel, Otelul Galati

Group D:

Real Madrid, Lyon, Ajax, Dinamo Zagreb

Group E:

Chelsea, Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen, Genk

Group F:

Arsenal, Marseille, Olympiakos, Borussia Dortmund

Group G:

Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk, Zenit St Petersburg, APOEL Nicosia

Group H:

Barcelona, AC Milan, BATE Borisov, Viktoria Plzen

Atletcio Madrid have signed former Porto players Falcao and Ruben Michael for a combined €45 million. Sadly the writting was on the wall the second Sergio Aguero was sold to Manchester City and Falcao did Porto the favour of signing a new deal with a higher release clause.

I get it Atletico Madrid play in a much better league and Falcao will make much more than he made at Porto but still it’s not exactly a step up in teams then again Real Madrid and Chelsea never came calling. 40 million for Falcao at the end of the day is another example of great business for Porto who in two years have made a killing thanks to Falcao play. Ruben Micael isn’t a player to sleep on either, he never really got a crack in the Porto first team but the talent is there to the point where he may end up being a steal for Atletico Madrid. Michael couldn’t play for Porto yet he scored two goals in his first game with the Portuguese national team.

When you look at the bigger picture you can see why Porto have sold Radamel Falcao and how it was pretty much in the cards all along. Here are the players Porto have bought this summer.

Danilo – 13m Euro (Santos)
Alex Sandro – 9.6m Euro (Santos)
Mangala – 7m Euro (Standard)
Defour – 6m Euro (Standard)
Iturbe – 2.5m Euro (Cerro Porteno)
Kelvin – 2.5m Euro (Parana)
Kléber – 2.4m Euro (Atletico Mineiro)

Hulk – 40% more for 13.5m Euro
João Moutinho – 22.5% more for 4m Euro
James – 30% more for 2.25m Euro

Total – 62.75m Euro

If you think a club like Porto can spend 60 million in the transfer market, well you’d be wrong. They got 45 million for Falcao and Michael and the 15 million for Andre Villas Boas and guess what number you have? 60 million which pretty much balances the books.

It’s about damn time that this Cesc Fabregas transfer sags is over as the former Arsenal player moves on to Barcelona for a transfer fee up to 39 million. Now I’m going to contiune doing what I do oh so often and that is rip Arsenal for the way they handled this. Barcelona basically knocked the front door down, ate all the food, took all the china and left the place a mess for Arsenal to clear up.

I still can’t understand how Wenger with a straight face only a couple of days ago could flat out lie and say he expects no players to leave. It’s a damn shame Arsenal don’t have an owner who has any vision for this club cause Wenger should be answering a lot of tough questions right now. This is Arsenal right now, they can’t sign World Class players because they are “too expensive” and even when they produce a so called world class player he is going to want to leave for bigger and better things like Cesc did.

Arsenal could of played this so much better, they should of sold Cesc the second the season ended and spun it as they sold a player for 40 million that they pretty much stole eight years ago. Then right after spend that 40 million of players to give Arsenal fans hope going into the season. Now Arsenal fans have little hope cause even they know Wenger doesn’t get it anymore. It was beyond foolish that Arsenal let this drag onto the season which showed in their performance against Newcastle on the weekend.

Now with Cesc playing for Barcelona are they going to play a 2-7-1, I’m sure they will make it work but boy do they have a ton of midfielders. I do hope Barcelona falls and that the fans turn on Cesc. It would be karma for leaving a club where the fans blindly always sided with him even when it was clear his heart wasn’t into being Arsenal’s leader anymore.