Player transfer poll: Negredo

For many fans, the summer transfer season, with all the speculation, new faces, and excitement it can bring, offers almost as much drama and intrigue as the regular season. Historically this has not been the case at Sevilla, where the story is usually about who’s leaving rather than who’s arriving. This season is unfortunately not much different: while the biggest arrival to the first team at the end of the summer will probably be last year’s acquisition Bryan Rabello, at this point the list of possible departures is staggering and a bit frightening: Navas, Negredo, Kondogbia…the list goes on and seems to include every key player. So the question seems not to be if we’ll sell, but whom, and for how much.

To that end, I thought it’d be interesting to get a feel around these parts for how much everyone thinks the club ought to sell some of its biggest stars. Today we start with Negredo, and throughout the next couple of weeks we’ll follow up with other key players. Now, obviously it’d be great if we could sell all of our players for eleventy billion dollars each, and buy a Messi cloning factory with the proceeds (just kidding; have you seen what happens to Messi’s attacking teammates? One Messi per team, guys). This is a poll about the actual amount, bounded by actual reality, you’d be willing to sell these players. So click an option, and share your reasoning in the comments, or suggest who we should buy to replace him, or how you feel about selling him at all…whatever your thoughts.

Sevilla – Sociedad Match Preview

It’s sort of hard to know what to make of Sevilla’s position in the table right now. Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited that we’re (kind of, sort of) in European places, and I hope we can stay. But while Málaga seems pretty likely to remain disqualified from European play this season, somehow it’s hard to feel like we’re really that close. Probably that has something to do with our final three games: today vs Real Sociedad (tied for 4th place on 59 points), the following week away at [who care because we never win away games], and then wrapping up the season with Valencia, the other team tied for the last Champions League spot with 59 points. So…yeah. It’s going to be a very tough road just to keep 8th place, let alone move up to 7th place where we wouldn’t have to await a court’s decision in June to know if we’d play or not.

Fortunately for us, Getafe (currently tied with Sevilla on points) hosts Valencia today, and will host Rayo (still with a hope of playing in Europe), so there’s a decent chance that a win today would buy Sevilla a bit of space in that last European spot. Which, again, we’re going to need since we don’t really have an easy match from here on out.

Missing today will be Fazio who was injured last week, but Reyes (also injured in that game) will be back. Perotti, who was subbed off in what I was guessing was going to be another 6 month injury last week, is back among the active players and is expected to start. In addition we’ll have both Kondo and Medel, so our midfield we’ll be as stable as we can hope.

I think we’ve said this before about La Real, but I really do hope they do well, and I’d be very happy to see them make Champions next year. It’s just…I don’t wish them any success on this particular day. VAMOOOOOOOOOOOO

The Way Forward (Sevilla’s Future?)

Once again, Messioronaldo has written up some of his excellent thoughts and made a great mid-week post for you all to enjoy. Be sure to join in the conversation in the comments, and if you’d like to write for Monchi’s Men, don’t hesitate to contact us.

This is complicated, very complicated. I’m glad it’s not my problem.

Tricky Problem 1

We are going to be scrapping for every point until the end of the season so there won’t be much time for experimentation. Emery will get his chance to experiment during the pre-season and that could be a giant stride forward for the team.

But he’ll need to know who’s going and who’s coming (and we’re not sure of Monchi’s future)

Celta and Mallorca are heading to the second division, the third place will be fought between Deportivo, Zaragoza and Granada. From these clubs we have Antonio Luna (Mallorca) and Javi Varas (Celta) on loan. Luna was born in Mallorca so he might be content there in the second division. If Javi Varas returns it will upset Julian who is expecting to be the second goalkeeper so Varas moved on for cash.

We also have Alexis Ruano on loan to Getafe, Bernardo Espinosa (Sporting Gijon) and Luis Alberto (Barcelona). Alexis will not return, I’m sure. There was a disagreement with the club and he accused them of favouring Martin Caceres because of a clause with his agents.

Bernardo might be a useful backup for centre defence, but strangely he’s only played 16 games for Sporting. Even if Botía and Fazio stay we need another central defender. I’m quite sure that Barca will not pay 4 million for Luis Alberto, so if the deal is not renegotiated he will return to Sevilla. (That would mean he stays or is used in a player exchange deal).

Tricky Problem 2

It seems that Beto is the only player that will surely start next season with Sevilla.

We have the following players in limbo: Stefanovic, Babá, Campaña, Del Moral, Trochowski, Cala, Botía and Rabello.

The Rabello situation must be top priority. Sell Stefanovic, Cala, Del Moral, Babá and Campaña. With Botía, I’m still trying to understand that very strange contract but I know it’s worked against him this year, when he doesn’t play Sevilla save money. But saying that, I have no idea what to do with Botía.

Sell Campaña? yes, sorry. I see a reasonably good player but I’m still waiting to see a ‘great’ Jose Campaña.
Trochowski, when he recovers, will need to learn football again. Not all of it, but he will need to integrate his ‘new leg’. If it functions OK he might still have to adjust style and posture. When he starts to kick a ball again, it will just be the start of another long phase of recuperation.

Tricky Problem 3

The budget is negative, we cannot buy anyone without selling one or more players. The eternal problem is that the market is a jigsaw puzzle, one player has to move to release the money to buy another. Much of the negotiation is ‘who blinks first’, trying to get the best deal at the last moment. How does that affect the pre-season planning? The manager ends up with an unknown asset and loses a top player.
If there are offers for Navas, Kondogbia and Negreo, which one(s) do we sell? My choice will surprise you. Navas. And I would also sell Reyes, Manu Del Moral and Rakitic. Why? Because the ‘gearbox’ mechanism between midfield and forward line still does not function. Rakitic, although he has the quality, makes too many unforced errors.

Tricky Problem 4

Who do we buy?
Over to you, I don’t know, but I would like three or four Brazilians, similar to Alves, Adriano, Fabiano and Renato (they weren’t expensive).

Malaga – Sevilla Match Comments

Sevilla has two away games left this season: Sunday’s trip to Málaga, and a visit to Pamplona in two weeks to take on Osasuna. It’s strange to say, given Málaga’s generally strong performances this year, but the match with our Andalucían rivals may be our best chance to double our away wins for the year. Málaga had to play Real Madrid at mid-week to free up time for the Copa del Rey, so Sevilla faces a side that lost 2–6 at home while playing 70 minutes with 1 man ejected, and 20 with 2. So Málaga will be without two players (Sergio Sánchez (haha) and Martín Demichelis), and they just played a mid-week game, and they just lost by a wide margin. Is there anything else you need, Emery? Would you like this all delivered on a silver platter?

Meanwhile, on the table, Sevilla are in 9th place, one point from that final presumed ticket to Europe. An away win would give even the biggest doubters among us a pretty credible hope that Sevilla could actually play in Europe next year. A loss would make it hard for even the truest of believers to keep holding out hope. With four matches to go, it’s time for Sevilla to decide how they’ll write the ending of this story.

Sevilla – Espanyol Match Comments

For the entire time I’ve been writing match previews for this site, one of the first things I usually do is check to see where our opponent is on the table, how many points they have, their recent form, etc. As I prepared to write about our match with Espanyol, I thought to myself that it seemed like they’d had a generally poor season. I looked on the table to see if my perceptions bore out in their current position, and sure enough, they’re in 11th place, with 43 points. Pretty bad, but not, I guess, that atypical for Espanyol, a team I more or less associate with consistent mediocrity. “Poor Espanyol, they don’t suck exactly but they’re never great. Sucks to be a sucky mid-table team!”

I thought all of that in the .2 seconds before I saw Sevilla tied with them in the table.

So, could we win this game? Sure. Should we? I don’t know…look at the stats and it’s hard to argue we’re not this team’s equal. Of course if you look at the squad list, you’d think this would be an easy 3 points at home. But you know better than that, because you’ve seen all of these players, these players with great reputations or the constant siren song of potential and future promise, you’ve seen them all season. You know. You know that they’re capable of wonderful things, but all too often you see them underperform, underwhelm. So you, like me, are probably not feeling super confident, and maybe not even especially hopeful. I haven’t checked recently, but I think it’s still mathematically possible to get a European spot. The truth is mathematics is a poor barometer for this team, because math doesn’t have a way to account for indifferent suckitude, although I think Desartes was working on an algorithm for this before he died of pneumonia.

Without that knowledge, though, we’ll have to learn our grim future one crappy game at a time. Best of luck, fellow Sevillista travelers.

Valladolid – Sevilla Match Comments

Welp.

The stats keep rolling in and they continue to not flatter Sevilla. We’ve now won fewer away matches than any other team in Primera and fewer away matches than any team in Segunda. Just let that sink in for a while…

Sevilla – Atletico Match Comments

Is there a team outside the city of Sevilla that as loathed as Atletico? After the big two, there wasn’t much debate as to who the most decorated and successful team in Spain was for most of the 00’s—Sevilla was pretty consistently great, won trophies, and had world class players all over the pitch. But just as Sevilla began to see an end to their cycle, Atleti experienced a pretty significant uptick. Sure, they’ve had to employ all sorts of basically illegal money wrangling and insane debt to get there and attempt to maintain it, but there’s no denying the quality of their players, their squad, and the season they’ve put together this year. So they’re a worthy foe, even if they do have a confirmed asshat on their team.

So it should be a good game, a game Sevilla probably needs more than Atleti does (a win for Sevilla ties them on points for 8th, any result for Atletico leaves them just as unlikely to catch 2nd or fall to 4th). Here’s hoping the good guys come away with a win.

Vamos, am I right?