Wednesday 19 January 2011

Darren Bent: money well spent?


Gerard Houllier walks into Randy Lerner’s office.
“I need a new striker.” he announces.
“Get bent!” Lerner responds promptly. The rest, as they say, is history.
When I first heard of Villa’s approach for Darren Bent, I’ll be the very first to admit, I baulked at the price the club were willing to pay to seal his services. It’s largely testament to how overpriced the “home-grown” players of the Premier League have become over recent years, with teams such as Tottenham shelling out as much as 15 million for David Bentley, a player, who at the time, had made just 7 international appearances and has now been forced to seek a move elsewhere in order to see more first team football. It seems somewhat absurd for a club to be shelling out such a vast amount of money when they could quite easily pick up a player of a similar calibre from abroad. For example, a player such as Dortmund’s Paraguayan striker Lucas Barrios would surely command a significantly smaller fee, while providing quality of a similar, if not superior, level to Bent’s.
If I have one glaring criticism of Martin O’Neill’s 4 year reign at Aston Villa, it would be his perceived reluctance to scour the rest of the continent for potential signings, rather than wasting millions on the likes of Steve Sidwell, Habib Beye, Wayne Routledge, Nicky Shorey, Marlon Harewood, and Nigel Reo-Coker, players whose impact at the club has been virtually non-existent.

However, one also has to consider the other side of the argument. Firstly, Bent is a proven goal scorer in the Premier League, with a record in recent years that is bettered only by Drogba and Rooney, that being 81 goals since 2005, at the rate of 1 every 178 minutes. Furthermore, Bent shouldn’t have any problems settling into life at Villa that a player coming from abroad might experience, being used to the style and pace of the league and not having the difficulty of being forced to learn a new language or adapt to a different culture. Bent is a player who seemingly fits the mould of the striker Houllier is looking for, a powerful and pacey frontman, whose all-round game makes him a real headache for opposing defenders. Of course, this role is one that could just as easily have been filled by John Carew, but that’s another story for another time…
One clear criticism of Bent’s game from talking to Sunderland supporters may well be his ‘Berbatov-esque’ finishing, the fact that he misses too many easy chances in front of goal. It’s a fair argument against such an extravagant signing, but Bent is the type of player who seemingly always finds himself in the right place at the right time and, as such, is able to conjure up enough opportunities that will see his name on the score sheet by the end of 90 minutes. Certainly, Bent will need those players around him to feed him chances, but with the likes of creative talent such as Ashley Young and Stewart Downing already in Villa’s starting line-up, I am fairly confident he will enjoy success during his time at the club.

In the days surrounding the news of Villa’s bid, the likes of twitter and various message boards were abound with people voicing their shock at the fee involved, quoting figures such as the €15 million paid by Inter for Real Madrid’s Wesley Sneijder, or £8 million Harry Redknapp parted with in order to bring Rafael van der Vaart to White Hart Lane, all in order to highlight the extent to which Villa were overpaying for the Sunderland striker. As fun as it may be for one to dive into the history books and resurface with such examples, these people clearly aren’t considering the many influencing factors which prompt such deals, such as the selling club’s willingness to part with the player in question, or the buying club’s level of need to bring in fresh talent. Proven goal scorers always move on for vastly inflated fees, while those in good form, such as Bent, are always going to command a higher fee than those players who have found themselves frozen out of the first team at their club, as was the case with Sneijder and van der Vaart at Real Madrid. One journalist even brought up the figure of £19 million paid by Manchester United for Ruud van Nistelrooy’s services in 2001, but they’re clearly forgetting how much people questioned that deal at the time it was announced, as well as the inflation of transfer fees in recent years and the fact that the Dutchman had only proven himself in Eredivisie and was coming off two major knee injuries. In no way was it considered a bargain at the time. Additionally, the 24 million that has been quoted by various media sources includes possible future incentive payments, dependent on the likes of international appearances and Premier League goals. By my understanding, as of this moment, Villa have paid Sunderland a fee of £18 million for Bent, only 1.5 million more than Tottenham paid Charlton for him, back in 2007.

Certainly, Villa’s move for Bent does smack of desperation, but let’s not forget that they’re a club in a worrying situation. On the verge of a relegation battle, after consecutive top six finishes in recent years, the team are in dire need of reinforcing a rail thin squad that has been held up by academy players since the beginning of the season. The consequences of relegation don’t bare thinking about for a club of their size and stature, and if Bent’s goals can somehow rescue Villa from this worst case scenario than the deal will almost certainly be labelled as money well spent. Of course, there is the question of what happens to Bent should Villa find themselves in the drop zone by the end of the season, as a potential England striker will unquestionably want to remain playing at the highest level rather than plying their trade in the Championship, but, as we’re only in January, that’s an issue that’s best left for discussion at a later date. For now, it seems somewhat naive to roundly suggest that Villa have overpaid for Bent, without the chance to see how his play could potentially ignite the club’s second half of the season, as Houllier no doubt hopes. The goals could well come in droves and Villa may eventually find themselves climbing up into the top half of the table before too long, in which case the doubters will be well and truly silenced. One’s thing for sure, I’d certainly rather have Darren Bent leading my club’s frontline than Sandra Redknapp.

Friday 14 January 2011

Messi: a deserved winner of the FIFA Ballon d'Or


In a World Cup year, there has seemingly been an unwritten rule in football that the player who stood out most during the course of the tournament ended the calendar year by being crowned FIFA World Player of the Year, or winning the highly coveted Ballon d’Or. In the past we’ve seen how the likes of Paolo Rossi, Zidane, and Cannavaro have won such awards on the back of outstanding World Cup campaigns, in spite of a largely forgettable club season, and when there were arguably far more deserving candidates up for nomination. That is why, in the first year since the two awards merged to form the new ‘FIFA Ballon d’Or’, it was so refreshing on Monday night to see, not one of the two Barca based Spanish players win the award, as impressive as their achievements might have been, but undoubtedly the best player in the world, Lionel Messi.
By his own lofty standards, Messi’s World Cup was, while not a complete disaster, a largely disappointing affair, one marked by a few key moments of genius but overall seen as a frustrating battle, which resulted in no goals and saw Maradona’s Argentina fall at the quarter-final stage. In previous years, this fact may have ruled Messi out of contention and swung the pendulum in favour of World Cup winners Xavi or Iniesta, but, in somewhat of a testament to the outstanding form he has enjoyed during the rest of 2010, the young Argentine still came out on top in the voting process. The World Cup after all, as historic and important as it may be, is not the be all and end all. As tempting as it may be to side with the Iniesta camp, after his winning goal in extra-time against the Dutch, or supporters of Xavi, after the integral role he has played in the success of the best club side and national team, Messi’s play for Barcelona throughout the entire year has been truly breath-taking, with 59 goals in 52 club games, including 5 hat-tricks, truly outstanding statistics.

Such has been the brilliance of Messi’s performances that there was even serious debate later on in year whether he was genuinely the greatest player ever to play the game and, while it is certainly too early to draw up those kinds of conclusions, it at the very least indicates the immense impact Messi has had on world football in 2010. Furthermore, the importance of Messi to Barcelona can be seen during his absence from the side, the team looking somewhat toothless and lacking in killer instinct whenever he has been out of the starting lineup.

While the likes of Wesley Sneijder may have achieved more in terms of their ‘medal haul’, no player has truly come to close to matching the level of Messi’s performances over 2010, who himself still has a La Liga title to show for his efforts, as well as the mantra of being the most important player in what many have now dubbed as the greatest side, on club or national level, the word has ever seen. Perhaps the one player who has come closest to matching Messi’s brilliance on the pitch, Cristiano Ronaldo, who himself has put up outstanding goal scoring numbers, has too often underperformed at crucial moments over the course of the year, the gap in class between the two largely evident during Barca’s 5-0 drubbing of Real Madrid, in which, while Messi predictably shone, both Ronaldo and his teammates found themselves totally outclassed. What’s more, Messi isn’t an egotistical maniac in the mould of Pelé, or aggressive head case like his former national coach Maradona. He’s a humble, quiet and extremely likeable individual, one who comes across as entirely normal and whom you can’t help but want to succeed. In my view, it goes without saying that the winner of the FIFA Ballon d’Or should be the best footballer in the world, not the one who has collated the most medals throughout the year, and on this occasion the voters got it right. Messi is undoubtedly a deserving winner.

Wednesday 12 January 2011

Stale Solbakken: The man out to cause an upset in the Champions League








In December last year, FC Kobenhavn made history by becoming the first Danish club ever to reach the knockout stages of the Champions League, overcoming Group D opponents Rubin Kazan and Panathinaikos, to seal a well-earned tie against Chelsea in the round of last 16. While the players themselves deserve to take some credit for FCK’s historic run in Europe’s top club competition, the real lynchpin behind the side’s success has undoubtedly been none other than young Norwegian manager Stale Solbakken, who is rapidly earning a reputation as one of the continent’s top up and coming coaches. Solbakken, a former FCK player, who was capped 58 times by his country and even had a brief spell playing in England with Wimbledon, has been in charge of the Danish champions for just over five years now and during that time has quietly gone about building an impressive résumé.




In a well-documented tale, Solbakken’s playing career came to an early end in 2001, when, during a routine training session with Kobenhavn, he collapsed suddenly in the middle of the pitch, having suffered a serious heart attack, and was rushed to hospital after club doctors were unable to restart his heart. Paramedics were fortunately able to revive Solbakken in the ambulance, though only after he had been pronounced clinically dead for almost fourteen minutes. A previously undetected heart defect that had been present since childhood was determined to be the cause and Solbakken, now fitted with a pacemaker, was forced to bring a premature end to his football career at the age of 33. Not to be deterred by what others would regard as a serious handicap however, Solbakken turned his hand to the world of football management and, after a brief spell assisting Nils Johan Semb with the Norwegian national side, was given his first head coaching job with lower league side HamKam, in 2003, whom he had appeared over 100 times for as a player between 1989 and 1994. Success came immediately for Solbakken, as his side won promotion to the top-tier Tippeligaen in his first season in charge and then finished 5th in their first season back in the top flight since 1995, a feat which earned Solbakken the league’s manager of the year award. This success certainly did not go unnoticed and in December 2005 Solbakken’s former club Kobenhavn chose him as the man to replace outgoing manager Hans Backe, a move which has reaped its rewards ever since. During his five years at the helm, Solbakken has guided his team to four league titles and a Danish Cup win, as well as their first ever Champions League group appearance in 2006, where, in a tough draw that pitted them against the likes of Manchester United, Celtic, and Benfica, his side managed to string together a series of impressive displays, that included a 1-0 win away at Old Trafford. Though FCK finished bottom of their group that year, success in the Champions League was not to be far off for Solbakken’s side and this year, defying all the odds, Kobenhavn pulled off a number of remarkable performances in the group stages, including a 1-1 at home to Guardiola’s Barcelona, to join such illustrious names as Real Madrid and AC Milan in the competition’s knockout stage.

At the end of that impressive 1-1 draw against the Spanish champions back in November, Solbakken and Guardiola were involved in a heated exchange that largely personified the way the match had played out, Kobenhavn battling Barcelona with one of the most physical displays that Messi and co. had faced in recent memory. Indeed, in the wake of the match, Guardiola himself conceded that during his time as Barca manager, he had never faced a team as intense and physical as Kobenhavn, two attributes that largely embody the high-energy game that Solbakken has his team play.





Having dominated the Danish Superliga throughout his tenure, Solbakken has built a well-balanced and stable squad, one as lethal in attack as it is rock-solid defensively, capable of overpowering lesser opponents, as well as shutting out clear superior opposition. Through 19 games of the league this season, Kobenhavn have scored a remarkable 50 league goals and conceded just 15, with the team sitting 18pts ahead of their nearest rivals and, barring a shocking collapse, all but certain to seal Solbakken his 5th league title with the club. Also an intelligent and well-spoken individual, Solbakken would surely be a prime candidate for many of Europe’s top club jobs this summer were it not for the fact he has already agreed to take charge of the Norwegian national side upon the retirement of Egil Olsen, at the culmination of Norway’s qualification campaign for Euro 2012, a job which he has declared a lifelong ambition. While one has to applaud Solbakken for showing such loyalty and dedication to his country, there is also a distinct feeling of disappointment that such a talented and promising young manager is seemingly set to miss the opportunity to prove themselves in one of Europe’s top leagues, in favour of nothing more than a glorified ‘part-time’ job. Certainly, club football’s loss will be Norway’s gain, and the country can look forward to their 2014 World Cup campaign with genuine optimism. It may be a little while before we see Solbakken test himself at a top European side but, at just 42 years of age, he still has plenty of time to do so.