[quote=“Boxtyeater, post: 748865, member: 246”]FAO Laz…
John “Scan” Concannon…Close thread.[/quote]
fuck off boxty you daft old cunt
TASE TFK.
[quote=“chewy louie, post: 747138, member: 1137”]Great article by Michael Cox on Juan Carlos Valeron
http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/tacticsandanalysis/id/1038?cc=5901
On Saturday evening he was applauded off the pitch at the Camp Nou, as he was at the Bernabeu and the San Mames. Wherever Juan Carlos Valeron goes, he commands great respect. “I got emotional because of the love the fans showed towards me,” he admitted at the weekend. Valeron, more than most, is a footballer that thrives on emotion.
The Deportivo playmaker is one of Spain’s most respected current footballers, which is remarkable given that this is – by a distance – the most talented and successful era the country has ever seen. Valeron hasn’t been involved in the three consecutive international tournament triumphs, but having spent his entire career away from Spain’s big two, no one has the slightest bit of resentment towards him.
Valeron’s career has, sadly, been ruined by injuries: Between January 2006 and January 2009 he didn’t start a single league game. He was never the strongest; never the most mobile, but continual knee problems affected his capabilities in an increasingly frenetic midfield zone. As it happens, Valeron says he was determined to succeed at the top level following the career-ending injury sustained by his brother Miguel Angel, a promising fullback. When playing Barcelona in 1997, he suffered a horrific injury – a broken tibia and fibula, and a fractured ankle. Coincidentally, he was only playing because Las Palmas’ first choice right back, Manuel Pablo, was out injured. Sixteen years later, Valeron finds himself alongside Pablo as the only surviving relics of Depor’s glory days.
Valeron is a link to the past in more ways than one. In this era of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi dominance, only one other player active in Europe – Kaka – has officially been named the world’s greatest footballer. Of other past winners, Ronaldinho is back in Brazil, while Fabio Cannavaro, Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo have long since retired.
But Valeron, perhaps, can claim to have been the world’s greatest footballer for a short period of time – in 2001-02. This was just after Francesco Totti had led Roma to a memorable Scudetto in 2000-01, and just before Ronaldo completed his miraculous comeback to win the World Cup’s Golden Boot. Valeron was consistently lighting up La Liga with some wonderful, pivotal displays from his classic number ten position – at a time when Zidane was struggling to adjust to La Liga, and the Galacticos were starting to get in each other’s way, despite their eventual European Cup triumph. Diego Tristan won the Pichichi that year in Deportivo’s blue and white. Roy Makaay did the same the following season. The common theme, of course, was Valeron.
Valeron’s closest challenger in 2001-02 was probably Arsenal’s Thierry Henry – who was leading Arsenal to the double. But Henry had yet to prove himself in European competition, and when Henry and Valeron met at Highbury, there was only one winner. Henry was extremely quiet, while Valeron ran the show.
“Valeron, an exquisite talent, scored the first and helped create the second with another swaggering run,” wrote Henry Winter [U]in The Telegraph[/U][/URL]. “His performance was a joy to behold. Playing off Tristan, Valeron’s movement mesmerised Arsenal’s defenders… it could have been Dennis Bergkamp arriving before the North Bank, such was the technique unfolding so effortlessly and devastatingly from Valeron.” His goal in that match was fantastic – a flowing move down the left side finished sublimely. From the position of the main television camera, you could [URL=‘http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Th9bX6Nmho’][U]barely see the ball[/U] – now you know how defenders felt when facing Valeron. Arsene Wenger still remembers his display. “He had his career stolen,” the Frenchman said a couple of years ago, referring to the constant injuries.
At his prime Valeron was almost unstoppable – drifting between the lines slowly, but always in space to play quick one-twos and through-balls, encouraging Depor’s wingers into attack. He belongs to that ‘old school’ generation of number tens like Juan Riquelme and Rui Costa who languidly created and allowed others to get the glory – Valeron never scored more than four in a La Liga season. As far back as 1998, Atletico teammate Kiko described Valeron as an “endangered species”, and Valeron was well aware of his perilous situation. “With my qualities, surviving in the modern game is complicated,” he said 15 years ago. “The game is becoming a lot more physical and tactical.” Especially, of course, when his manager was Arrigo Sacchi.
Whereas many predicted physicality would rule this era, there has instead been a shift towards technique, and Valeron has been overtaken by players he greatly admires. “You can always go on improving, growing and learning,” he says. “That’s what I try to do, mainly watching the Spanish players because we have the best in the world playing my position.”
While Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta have been winning European Cups, Valeron has been battling against relegation. Interviews with the shy, retiring playmaker (who speaks with a nervous, high-pitched voice) are somewhat sad – he admits that his body is too weak for the challenge, but cash-strapped Depor have no alternative.
When they were relegated two seasons ago, as tears streamed down the faces of supporters, Valeron wandered around the Riazor pitch looking heartbroken, begging for forgiveness. He had planned to retire that summer, but stayed on to help Depor back to the top division. Promotion meant so much to him. “It’s the greatest thing that has ever happened in my life,” he said. “The promotion is so satisfying; I could not go without returning the team to the Primera Division.”
Unfortunately, it looks as if Depor will return to the Segunda. Currently bottom of the league, in the next few weeks they’ll face 19th-placed Celta, then 18th-placed Mallorca and 17th-placed Zaragoza, but even three consecutive wins might not be enough. Increasing financial worries means that Depor are unlikely to bounce back again, and Valeron won’t move to another La Liga club. We’re approaching the last ten games of Valeron’s top-level career, and Saturday was his final appearance at a major football ground.
“I know that I’m on the final straight of my career but I try to enjoy every moment,” he says. His humility and shyness is reminiscent of Paul Scholes, another midfielder revered at Barcelona. “When I ask for a photo or an autograph I’m embarrassed because I’m shy. I am no more important than a bricklayer by being a footballer.”
If you know anything about Valeron’s personality, you can guess his dilemma once he’s finished playing. He wants to return to his hometown, Arguineguín, a quiet fishing village on Gran Canaria. Ludicrously, for a settlement with a population of around 2500, Valeron isn’t even its most famous footballer, thanks to World Cup winner David Silva, 11 years younger. Valeron remembers Silva’s father playing for the local side when he was starting out as a junior.
But he also wants to help Depor. In 2010 he signed a five year contract, intending to stop playing within that period and take an administrative role. “The club is proud to convert the image of Valeron into the image of the club,” said Deportivo President Augusto César Lendoiro.
How do you sum up Valeron’s contribution to football? Ultimately, he’ll retire with just one major trophy – when Depor gatecrashed Real Madrid’s Centenary party with a Copa Del Rey win in 2002 – and three relegations. But Valeron was more than that. In his recent coaching stint at Nottingham Forest, ex-Atletico striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was asked by colleagues about his most talented teammate. He didn’t say Dennis Bergkamp, or Gianfranco Zola, or Juan Sebastian Veron. He said Valeron.
Adored by teammates and idolised by neutrals, Valeron will fade from view with a typical lack of fuss – but he should be remembered as a fantastic professional who was, briefly, the greatest footballer around[/quote]
Bumped for CM. great article
Derivative on a theme. A Manager who had it but mysteriosly lost it
[SIZE=6]The rise and fall of Sven-Goran Eriksson[/SIZE]
June 5, 2013
By Tom Sweetman
[U]Sven-Goran Eriksson was appointed boss of Chinese outfit Guangzhou R&F on Tuesday[/U]. Yes, that is the same coach who was paid millions to become the first foreign manager of England, and who had much success across Europe prior to his Three Lions appointment.
http://soccernet-assets.espn.go.com/design05/images/2013/0605/svengoranerikssonlazio_275x155.jpg
PA PhotosSven-Goran Eriksson lifted a number of trophies at Lazio, including the Serie A title
If you have had your head buried in the sand for the past seven years, you would be forgiven for thinking just what exactly a man with such a distinguished CV is doing at a club sitting just two spots off the Chinese Super League’s relegation zone.
In reality, however, this one-time A-list manager has slipped down into the lower echelons of the game’s coaches-for-hire list. Moreover, due to both a poor track record in the latter half of his career, combined with some strange and often bewildering decisions, Sven has assumed the position of the butt of many of football’s jokes.
1977-2001
Forced to retire as a footballer at 27 in 1975, Eriksson landed his first managerial role two years later, taking charge of Degerfors IF. He showed his potential from the off, gaining promotion to Sweden’s Division Two within just a year, before earning himself a move to IFK Goteborg in 1979. It was there he first truly made a name for himself, winning the Swedish Cup in his maiden season before wrapping up a treble of Swedish league, cup and UEFA Cup in 1982.
Eriksson’s stunning managerial rise in Sweden, inside just five years, led to a switch to Benfica. Remarkably, he nearly achieved the same treble feat as at Goteborg that season, winning the Portuguese Liga and cup, only to lose out in the UEFA Cup final. Another Liga title in 1984 confirmed his managerial pedigree on the European stage, and that summer Roma came calling.
The Swede picked up a Coppa Italia at the Giallorossi in 1986, before a trophyless stint at Fiorentina was followed by a return to Benfica, which brought with it a European Cup runners-up medal in 1990 and another Liga title in 1991.
Eriksson then headed back to Italy, this time taking the reins of Sampdoria, claiming another Coppa Italia in 1994, before moving on in 1997 to the side where he would become most successful, Lazio.
By the time England came knocking in 2001, Eriksson had added a Serie A title, two more Coppa Italias, two Italian Supercoppas, the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup and UEFA Super Cup to his name - albeit aided by the significant millions of club president Sergio Cragnotti. Nonetheless, such a back catalogue of trophies made him the Football Association’s first choice. What Eriksson did not know at the time, was that they would be his last taste of silverware.
England
If now-everyone’s-favourite Swede were to have retired at this point, he would be remembered as a successful manager who picked up winners medals everywhere he turned. While his spell as England boss would go on to be a respectable one, it was the manner in which he carried out his business and how he started to accept mediocrity that set the tone for the rest of his career.
Under Eriksson over the next five years, England became more than competent but yet never exceeded expectations, with three consecutive quarter-final finishes at the 2002 World Cup, Euro 2004 and the 2006 World Cup.
From a side that produced one of the nation’s finest hours, beating Germany 5-1 in 2001, to a team that, despite exiting the World Cup 2006 quarter-final to Portugal on penalties with ten men, had struggled past the likes of Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago and Ecuador en route; and with the so-called ‘Golden Generation’. Little progress was made.
The ironic thing is, many England fans would probably settle for Sven’s safe hands right now, with Roy Hodgson’s team facing a tough task to book their place at next year’s World Cup. The Swede never had a problem with that side of things, winning 19, drawing four and losing just one - to Northern Ireland - of his 24 qualifiers at the Three Lions helm.
http://soccernet-assets.espn.go.com/design05/images/2013/0605/svengoranerikssonenglandappointment2001_205x285.jpg
PA PhotosSven-Goran Eriksson was appointed England manager in 2001
Eriksson lost much respect from people for his off-field antics, which would go a long way to laying the foundations for the almost-comical character we see before us today. Whether it was his affair with TV presenter and compatriot Ulrika Jonsson, his fling with FA employee Faria Alam or his [U]infamous ‘Fake Sheikh’ dealings[/U], he often made the headlines for the wrong reasons. Something that seems unimaginable with the dignified Hodgson.
Eriksson was effectively asked to step aside from the England job in 2006 due to the Sheikh saga, setting the wheels in motion for the rest of his career, and ultimately proving to be something he would never recover from.
Manchester City
In 2007, no-longer-everyone’s-favourite Swede took charge of Manchester City: a club in transition and on their way to winning the Premier League title five years later. Backed by the millions of former prime minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra, Eriksson brought in a number of exciting players, such as Elano and Martin Petrov. Sadly, in a sign of things to come, he was gone the following summer, despite having qualified for the UEFA Cup through the Fair Play League, achieved the club’s joint-highest Premier League points total and become the first City manager to have won both league derby games against Manchester United since 1970. A ninth-place finish was ultimately not enough for Shinawatra, who told Eriksson he was “not the right man for the job”.
Mexico
After the stresses of managing a club like City and following the orders of such a demanding boss as Shinawatra, Eriksson decided to return to the international fold in 2008 with Mexico. Just the odd few matches every couple of months, and only expected to qualify for the upcoming World Cup - which he could do with his eyes closed, remember. What could possibly go wrong? Most things, is the answer. The Swede was sacked just ten months into the job, following a run of one win from seven competitive matches, leaving the nation in grave danger of missing out on qualification.
Notts County
You are reading that correctly. Just three years after having been manager of England, Eriksson was now trying out a director of football role at League Two outfit Notts County. A Middle Eastern consortium took over the club with a five-year plan to take County into the Premier League. Along with the Swede, a number of new signings arrived, including Sol Campbell and Kasper Schmeichel. Unfortunately, the new backers soon pulled out, and by February 2010, seven months after his arrival, Eriksson too had grown tired of the experiment. He did at least outlast Campbell, who decided to jump ship the previous September, one month in.
Ivory Coast
http://soccernet-assets.espn.go.com/design05/images/2013/0605/svengoranerikssonthailandstadium_275x155.jpg
GettyImagesSven-Goran Eriksson has headed to the Far East for work most recently
After the disaster that was the director of football role at Notts County, Eriksson decided he was probably best off becoming a national team manager once again. With Ivory Coast already qualified for the World Cup 2010, he did not have to worry about a Mexico-style situation. It was feet-up time, and the quarter-finals would surely soon appear from around the corner. The Elephants, however, failed to make it past the group stage, although they did have to face Brazil and Portugal. Still, the Swede was reportedly paid £270,000 for three months’ work.
Leicester City
In August 2010, more Thai millions came calling: this time in the shape of a new consortium at Leicester City. Eriksson managed to guide a club bottom of the Championship to a tenth-place finish. Perhaps things were starting to look up for the luckless coach? However, following a summer of heavy investment that saw the arrivals of the likes of David Nugent and Schmeichel (again), a return of just five wins from the opening 13 games of the new season was enough to ensure the old ‘left by mutual consent’ would appear once again on the Swede’s CV.
BEC Tero Sasana, Al Nasr
From 2012 onwards, perhaps knowing that his reputation in Europe and beyond had been more than tarnished, Sven decided to up sticks to Asia, where he has been ever since.
Having tried out life as a director of football, the technical director role was next on his list, at Thailand’s BEC Tero Sasana. A new continent and a chance to start afresh, surely stability was now at the forefront of his mind. Four months later, he had moved to United Arab Emirates side Al Nasr. He had decided to stay loyal to the technical director role, in fairness.
Guangzhou R&F
After just four months in Dubai, yep you guessed it, Eriksson announced his switch to China.
“I’ve been at the club for four-and-a-half months and I have done what I was supposed to do,” he said, confirming he has a shorter life span per club than Jose Mourinho.
As a final parting shot, it would be too easy to lament the sad decline of Sven’s career; to compare trophies won pre and post 2001. Instead, outgoing Leeds chairman Ken Bates can have the last word on Eriksson, who, remember, was heavily linked with both the Manchester United and Chelsea jobs while England boss.
“We have had Sven-Goran Eriksson apply, but he won’t be coming.”
I don’t think there is any mystery to it, though, Puke. Spending his spare time shagging Ulrika Johnson and Nancy Dell’Olio and making a few million robbed him of his desire to spend his energy on winning football matches with groups of young men.
Can’t say I blame him, to be fair.
[quote=“Thrawneen, post: 781955, member: 129”]I don’t think there is any mystery to it, though, Puke. Spending his spare time shagging Ulrika Johnson and Nancy Dell’Olio and making a few million robbed him of his desire to spend his energy on winning football matches with groups of young men.
Can’t say I blame him, to be fair.[/quote]
I don’t think it is a mystery either but this is the only thread we have for players(and now managers) who were excellent and then became shit.
Lionel Messi
Gigi Lentini would have been one of the greatest of all time only for he went into a coma just as he was making his name.
Think Barcelona’s less patient play is a factor in this. You can now see Alexis been giving more freedom and starting to fulfill his potential. I wonder how long before Messi throws a strop and demands the team be played to his needs, again.
One of the dumbest posts in history.
300 or so minutes without a goal, stats speak for themselves buddy. Still, he’s most likely saving himself to lead Argentina to glory next summer and his subsequent transfer to the BPL.
Of course it’d take you to come up with that kind of reply to a whimsical post such as mine.
[quote=“myboyblue, post: 854773, member: 180”]300 or so minutes without a goal, stats speak for themselves buddy. Still, he’s most likely saving himself to lead Argentina to glory next summer and his subsequent transfer to the BPL.
Of course it’d take you to come up with that kind of reply to a whimsical post such as mine.[/quote]
You don’t really understand the word whimsical do you?
Bojan Krkic
Bullied out by Messi
Yoann Gourcuff is one of the most talented players of his generation but he has never been the player he should. He got a beautiful assist there at the weekend.
His technique and improvisation on the pitch is amazing.
[quote=“Rudi, post: 877750, member: 1052”]Yoann Gourcuff is one of the most talented players of his generation but he has never been the player he should. He got a beautiful assist there at the weekend.
His technique and improvisation on the pitch is amazing.[/quote]
Reminds me of Kaka sometimes.
Alberto Gilardino.
Not a dramatic fall but he never really became the player that he should have, in my opinion. His record still makes impressive reading, 168 goals in Serie A, World Cup and Champions League winners medals. But back in his Parma days he was probably the best striker in the league, absolutely lethal with his back to goal, great in the air, predatory movement. He got his big move to Milan and never really hit it off there, again much like his career he wasn’t a massive flop - he just failed to hit the heights he expected of him. He did well at Fiorentina but it was still 75% of the Parma Gila.
He was a player I expected to become a talisman for both Italy and one of the big Serie A sides but it never materialized. Some of his goals at Parma were extraordinary.
[quote=“myboyblue, post: 62596, member: 180”]Does “losing it” usually come following an injury of some sort with regards to this thread? Lentini is a harsh one as has been said before. Michael Owen probably had it and lost it, but was it just due to injury?
Lee Sharpe is the poster child of this thread, as would Keith Gillespie, although whether he ever really had it would be up for debate I guess.[/quote]
Non molestation order breached by Keith Gillespie- there is currently a man hunt on to arrest and bring him to justice
He’ll be down the bookies, God love him. 