Someone Check Harry Redknapp’s Head
By: Inara | June 20th, 2007
I woke up this morning to see a charming goggle alert about how Fredi Kanoute might be persuaded to play for Portsmouth (I know, Kanoute is at Sevilla, but he used to play for Lyon, so he sort of falls under my jurisdiction).
Dude. If Portsmouth is too small for Alou Diarra, wtf is Harry Redknapp thinking he can convince Kanoute, currently one of the world’s best strikers, to move there?
Sevilla>>>>my high school girl’s soccer team>>>>Portsmouth.
It’s bad enough that Carlos Tevez is still at West Ham. Kanoute does not need to be added to the list of misplaced talent.
I’m sure many top European clubs would buy Kanoute out of pity before such a transfer travesty occurred.
Category: Transfers
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So I guess this means Diarra is not on his way out yet? well two diarras in the squad wouldnt hurt. Inara, i posted a roster list in on of your previous threads, check it out, its full of youth teamers, which i think is Perrins doing and im happy about it.
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That’s not the real first-team roster. In actuality, we only have about a handful of youth teamers on it.
http://www.olweb.fr/index.php?lng=fr&pid=201001
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Excerpt from goal.com:
Portuguese international Tiago is all set to bolster Juventus’ midfield ahead of next season, according to a Lyon official.“We can all but officially reveal that Tiago will join Juventus,” said Lyon general manager Marino Faccioli.
He went on to disclose that only some last remaining T’s and I’s needed to be crossed and dotted, respectively, before all parties were ready to sign the deal.
The Turin giants have been actively looking for reinforcements in midfield ahead of their Serie A campaign, after Emreson and Vieira left for Real Madrid and Inter Milan respectively.
They lost out of Torsten Frings earlier in the season, and a month into the transfer season, had yet to find their man.
That, however, is set to change this week.
AC Milan were also reported to be interested in the 26-year-old midfield-allrounder, who has gone from strength to strength since joining Lyon from Chelsea in 2005.
Tiago is gone everyone, yet another central midfielder we have made great and they have left us.
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Portsmoouth isn’t actually all that terrible, they just picked up Sully Muntari and Niko Krancjar is going to be pretty good. Oh, and there owners has big bank. I believe his exact vision is something like “we’re looking to be the new Chelsea.” In other words, “come get your cash.” I think they could vault into the top 4 fairly soon.
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Allez, that roster has not been updated since February. Belhadj was added recently and thats it. It is not the most up to date roster available.
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I’ll check out the roster. Actually, for my next post, I’ll go over the players OL have available so we can discuss them in more detail.
Chris, Pompey has the potential to be great. Just like Newcastle and Aston Villa. But no player of Kanoute’s quality is going to leave an established, successful club like Sevilla for a possibly successful club like Portsmouth (unless the player is close to retirement).
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I saw a rumor today that said if Portsmouth couldn’t get Diarra, they were going after Makelele. Which I find kind of sad. He’d actually get more fame and exposure in MLS, and I think go out on a higher note.
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It has been updated and all the new signings are on that list. Get your facts straight.
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Yeah, but Sevilla doesn’t have the persuasion (see: $$$$$$) of Portsmouth because they’ll do what they always do: buy up good talent at cheap prices (i.e. Daniel Alves, Julio Baptista) and then sell it along with their top young talent (i.e. Sergio Ramos, JA Reyes) and make a profit only to watch it disappear. Sevilla has peaked unless they start keeping the talent around – which doesn’t seem likely.
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Chris ? Do you mean Sevilla is the OL of the ligua ?
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I agree, Sevilla is in no position to keep their most talented players. Kanoute and Daniel Alves will not be hanging around for long. However, that doesn’t mean they’ll head to a lower-midtable side no matter how much money is on the table. Even if the clubs agree, the players simply won’t.
Jo, I think Lyon is in a slightly better position than Sevilla only because we have Aulas as a president, and also, because Lyon has first dibs on the best players in France, whereas in La Liga, it’s not as easy to sign talented players for cheap.
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Yes, that’s right. Though the last season of Sevilla make me really respect them.
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I mean in terms of recruiting and retaining players. On a sporting level, I think they have the advantage because they play in La Liga.
And to win the UEFA Cup two years in a row is no mean feat, especially when you think of other clubs who crashed out of the competition in recent years. But the real test is to see how they’ll do in the CL (I think they’ll do well).
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I’m not arguing Portsmouth is a step up or anything, my argument is the power of the almighty dollar or pound or euro. The Portsmouth owners have made no bones about the fact that they will pay big and pay often for good players to come in there. They only finished two points out of a UEFA Cup spot last year and they’re improving dramatically. I just don’t think Frederic Kanoute moving there is so far-fetched.
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That’s true, and there are some players who will go for money (like Ribery, who left CL play with Marseille for UEFA Cup Bayern). And Mario Melchiot, who left UEFA Cup bound Rennes for relegation fighting Wigan.
But Portsmouth isn’t that rich, as say West Ham or Newcastle. They are a wealthy EPL side, but not a club that can pay over the odds for players and have jacked up salaries. And believe it or not, their finances are not any better than Lyon’s (and so I’m assuming Sevilla’s, which don’t have Lyon’s tax burden).
I guess what I was trying to say is that Kanoute isn’t a mercenary like Ribery, Melchiot, and Boa Morte. There are some players whose paycheck isn’t the sole deciding factor, or surely rich teams like Galatasaray and West Ham would have all the best players, and it would not be an embarrassment to play for Qatar.
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Forget UEFA bound Rennes, Melchiot turned down Roma and Lazio (both CL bound) because Wigan “wanted him more.” That’s code for “they gave me more money.”
I know that Kanoute isn’t mercenary per say, but for a lot of people the new owners, new cash, new signings and rapid improvement would be enough to convince themselves “it’s not about the money.” They were on absolute fire to start last year but tailed off quite a bit. If they could maintain that it would be hugely appealing.
Maybe it’s me, I just really like what they’re doing in Pompey. Especially Muntari, Krancjar, and Taylor. The new owner seems to be focusing more on injecting very talented youth as opposed to the “retreads” they had previously comprised the team of. If I was being courted by them I would be very interested in their future. As it turns out I’m not, unfortunately.
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I used to like Melchiot until he transferred to Wigan (he said that helping Wigan stay afloat was more of a challenge). Melchiot is talented, lots of energy, etc. But he is on the wrong side of 30, and I guess he’s thinking of his financial future more than anything at this point. At least SWP is making lots of money sitting on the bench for Chelsea. Easier to stomach, I suppose.
Krancjar is class, and I think for a while, Lyon contemplated making an offer for him. And having Muntari strengthens Redknapp’s side more. If they can grab onto a UEFA Cup spot next year, I’ll take them more seriously. But they are a few years off from challenging the hegemony of the top four. Only Spurs have a decent chance of getting that fourth place spot – at the expense of Arsenal, most likely.
But I think it would be career suicide for a guy who was close to being a Golden Boot winner himself. If he has bigger clubs eating out of his hand (and Kanoute does), why would he forsake that challenge for one of smaller proportions? Surely helping Liverpool to their first EPL title in nearly two decades can’t be less meaningful than helping Pompey get a UEFA cup spot. And Kanoute hardly qualifies as the youth Redknapp is looking for – he’s 29.
To be clear, I admire Pompey a lot, as well as any side that is pursuing an ambitious project to improve. They remind of Lyon ten years back, and Lille and Toulouse right now (though Pompey are richer).
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I guess part of it is Kanoute has never struck be as “big club” material. Sure, he’s got talent, but he isn’t consistent enough on a yearly basis to where a big club would feel comfortable enough to shell out big bank for him (not that they won’t). Maybe he’ll be a rare case of hitting his stride at 30, but football players have incredibly short primes compared to other sports and he likely doesn’t have 5-6 years of top notch form in front of him. That’s why a place like Pompey seems right for him to me. Of course he could score another 20+ next year and make me look like a fool. But I don’t see a team like Liverpool, Chelsea, Real or Barca shelling out big money when could could revert back to previous production levels and would likely spend most of the time on the bench. Though that would probably give him plenty of time to play for Mali on the weekends.
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Yeah I think Liverpool will be the ones who will drop out of the top 4 this year. Benitez will struggle like usual with the EPL season, and his lack of clout in the transfer market means more Craig Bellamy’s and Jermaine Pennants will be coming in. Fernando Torres is rumored to be headed there, but I dont really car, he scores 10 at the most a season, he has platued to an extreme degree. Benitez is a decent tactical manager, although like Ged, incredibly dour and defensive, he looks to stiffle the opponent before imposing themselves on the play, which really doesnt work in England because most of the teams just run at you with all they got. MU is a perfect example, Sir Alex simply plays his game no matter who the opponent and then its a matter of who gets the ithcy trigger finger and decides to clam up tactically first. Chelsea and Liverpool to me are incredibly boring teams with no flair and little in intent of attack. This has nothing todo with france of course, so i will end there.
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