Well, the coaching mystery didn’t last all that long in the end. And I think we should be excited. This guy was absolutely critical in helping us turn this season around as it seemed headed straight for the toilet after the Xerez debacle. And as others have pointed out, splashing huge cash on a big name may not have been the most fiscally prudent choice given the state of our (and all of La Liga’s) balance sheet.
Now we can get on to speculating and dreaming about those 3-4 new players that Del Nido was promising.
I’ve no complaints. The team photo with the Copa Del Rey title is the wallpaper on my computer, and watching Alvarez smiling at the back is enough to convince me that he deserves this contract extension. Now with a whole summer to prepare the team, we’ll see what he’s really capable of.
And about players coming in, I think Monchi is already interested in Borja Valero, who’s reported valued at €6m.
I agree that he has definitely earned his chance…let’s hope he makes something with it.
Good. I was always in favour of him-done nothing wrong and we need the money for transfers.
I think we need a young striker who can score goals, a (dedicated) creative attacking midfielder to give us creative options down the centre as well as the wings and also a good right-back unless cala is consistent and is gonna start there in future. Anything I’ve missed?
just wanted to add to the pile of “i like this” people. good, sound decision that maybe won’t see us win la liga next year, but will help us to continue to build for the future. the stats SRH showed in the last post are really impressive, and that was what he produced with his back to the wall.
i guess you can make a strong case that given some of our aging, key players, it’s not a bad time to bring in a new perspective, but personally i’m glad we’ve got in-house talent for what very well could be a challenging transition time for the club (seeing both our forwards leave/continue to age, our keeper aging, etc).
in short, i like this signing.
The last three posts on the sevilla offside have all been done by different people……what the hell is going on?
Theo, I’ve been thinking the exact same thing! LOL
According to Goal.com we’re rumoured to be looking at Kitambala-a young Auxerre forward. French Wikipedia says via google translate that he scores goals and is clearly unwanted by Auxerre. He also has played for French junior national teams. But it does also say this about the Toulon tournament : ‘A magnificent scissors in the pool stages, a goal and an assist in the semi-final against Denmark and then lost twice in the small final allowed France to finish third’.
Gotta love Google Translate
navas topped off a great performance today against Korea with a golazo. I hate to say it, but if he plays this well all wc (and I can’t imagine why del bosque wouldn’t start him–he was the best for spain all day), it’d be hard to find a team with deep pockets who wouldn’t pay 30 mil for him.
It’s hard for us because we want Navas to perform well and show the world the class the Sevilla have. However, if he does well I think we can safely say bye to him, although the money we could force from the sale would give us money to buy some world class youngster (leave it to monchi) and strengthen our weakest positions.
Btw I just saw that goal…..ridiculous, but I think we’ll see him more as a super-sub than a starter, possibly playing more offensively than for us.
yeah theo, i got a little carried away there when i said he’d start. he seems like someone spain would send on in the 70th minute of a 0-0 game to destabilize an otherwise well-disciplined defensive side.
but watching today, spain looked like a really well-built machine that either didn’t have a map or didn’t have a driver, and navas was often the only one to provide direction and ideas from out on the wing. i’m sure they’ll sort it out in time for the cup, and of course most of the game xavi was on the bench (there’s your driver there, although they still looked a bit lost with him on the field), but if i were the coach i’d think pretty hard about finding a way to fit navas and xavi and iniesta and xabi alonso (and marchena? and silva? and fabregas?) into the same midfield. (haha, ugh i just reminded myself of the 98 world cup when the US tried to play a 3-6-1. GOOD TOURNAMENT, GUYS!!!)
Looks as if Adriano wants to play in Italy next season. He’s already been linked with a few clubs in the past, so I won’t be surprised if they reignite their interest in him. His contract expires in 2014, so we’re definitely gonna see a good deal out of this.