Tidbits: Varas, Negredo, Rumors

Been a while.  As a non-European, I REALLY have a tough time caring at all about international break.

But thought I’d throw this up as a place holder:

1) Negredo extended!  (did we ever even discuss that?)

2) Varas extended!

3) Negredo slow to recover from injury (subtext: why don’t we have a GD backup!?!?!)

4) Stupid rumors about other people we may be interested in: Morata… Gio, obviously…

5) Perotti is interested in becoming Spanish since Argentina is inexplicably snubbing him.

6) FINALLY a game this weekend!!!  We need to win this one.  Its one of those “here is how you blow it” type of games.  And can’t take it for granted.

7) Our defense has let in the least goals of anyone in La Liga.

Discuss.  Back to studying for me.

WTF?

seriously? our last minute moves were unloading Romaric to Espanyol for 1.5 or so million and loaning out Bernardo.

really? are they banking on Rakitic providing cover for Kanoute?  let me just say that if anything at all happens to Negredo we are in VERY serious trouble.

fine, maybe you felt that a big name like Ruiz, dos Santos, or Dempsey was out of our price range, but was there really no one who we could bring in for around 2-3 million to provide some cover and prevent a worst case scenario of starting a del Moral/Rakitic front line?

suddenly it feels hard for me to feel very confident that ownership is intent on winning let alone getting back in the CL instead of covering its losses in the very short run.  i’ll bet right now (and would love to lose this bet) that at some point before the january transfer window, this move WILL cost us points in the standings…

how can we possibly unload all of our strikers without the commitment of making sure we have someone lined up for cover?  count me as pissed off.

Dempsey?

OK.  This rumor is obviously not going to happen.  I’d put the odds at roughly 0.0000045%.

But this is an English language Sevilla blog where many of us are from the US, and to me, this is the best rumor I could imagine.  Not necessarily on a footballing level (though I think that Dempsey is a very good player) but just on a personal level.  I (admittedly) used to follow the New England Revolution and Dempsey is my favorite USMNT player.  So this would be my favorite player coming to play for my favorite team.

Could Dempsey help this team?  Yes.  He’s not a pure 9.  But he’s a good withdrawn forward who can create for himself and for others. And he can play up top, out wide, or in the middle.  He causes defenses headaches with his speed and dribbling.  He isn’t the physical presence of Negredo or Kanoute by any means, but he’s crafty and he gets on the end of all kinds of balls he has no business getting to.   Honestly though, its tough to assess him.  I think his passing, game awareness, and overall skill level could make him a great mach for La Liga and Sevilla, though I’ve mostly seen him play against CONCACAF opposition so its a bit hard to judge.  He has been consistently one of Fulham’s best players the last few years and was their leading scorer in ’10-’11.

This post really has no point.  He’s not coming here.  But seeing these rumors suddenly emerge made my heart skip a beat.  He’s valued at something like 9 million Euros…  We’ll see.  I’d be thrilled, but not necessarily for the right reasons.

Any less biased heads have an assessment?

PS. Those black/red Fulham jerseys are sweet.

PPS. Gio rumors are back a bit.  They won’t die.  But honestly, at this point, having crashed out of Europa, I’m not convinced we’re getting anyone else.

Subject Change: Hey! There’s a Match Tomorrow!

As I wrote elsewhere, I don’t in fact know enough swear words to properly capture my true sentiments about EuropaFailure-Gate.  But It makes me sick to my stomach thinking about it, so lets think about something else.

We’re playing Malaga tomorrow!  Yes we have dinged up strikers and no one appropriately suited to replace them.  But believe it or not, our lack of fit players doesn’t, in fact, affect whether or not the match will be played!  I know, this is unsettling.

But putting sarcasm aside, this is actually a VERY big match.  Its hard to know what kind of a season Malaga is going to have, but they have dropped A LOT of money on A LOT of GOOD players over the last 6 months  Cazorla, Joaquin, Toulalan, and van Nistelrooy to name just a few.  I’m not sure what kind of form they are in as a team, and maybe its a good thing then that we’re playing them so early and that we’ve played a few competitive matches already (even if we didn’t get the result we wanted).  Because, it is not outside the realm of possibility that towards the end of the season we are battling out with these guys for one of the last Champions League (or possibly Europa) spots.  It would be great to put three points between us up front on day 1.

I’m hoping that this Europa ordeal might be a blessing in disguise and that with a more singular focus on La Liga we can find more consistency and have a Valencia-esque season.  (For those who forget, Valencia totally dominated the teams they should have dominated and as a result finished comfortably third).  Or maybe we can even hang around with the big two for a while while they gallivant across Europe and worry about preen and pose for the cameras.

Anyone have any guesses on the lineup we’ll be using?  Medel starting again?  Caceres?  Strikers?  Has anyone seen/heard much more about Malaga’s play during preseason?  Any predictions for the outcome?

Let’s turn the page guys.  There isn’t really any other option.  A win (even better if it can be convincing) would go a long way in lifting the team’s morale right now.

Hardware!

The season is a success regardless of what happens from here on out!  No one can ever take away from us our proudly won Trofeo Teresa Herrera!!!!!!  YES YES YES!!!!!!  2011 winners of the Trofeo Teresa Herrera!!!!!  Grandparents kissing their grandchildren!  Pandemonium in the streets of Seville!

Honestly, (in case you couldn’t pick up on my subtle sarcasm) I find it more than a little ridiculous that pre-season games get their own trophies.  But, whatever.

I really wanted to get to post a nice smiling picture of Giovani Dos Santos holding up a Sevilla jersey, but looks like we need to continue our wait.  I’m starting to lose faith, though he hasn’t held up an Udinese jersey yet either, so there is obviously still reason for optimism.

Anyway, pre-season = over.  Did anyone see the game today?  Any observations? Sounds like it was a tale of two halves with the canteranos (please tell me I spelled that correctly) struggling in the first half, and then things getting better in the second.  Is Coke our pre-season leading scorer?  Does he get forward in general or is this a new habit of his?

Any guesses from today on what our starting lineup will be for Thursday?  In the words of Marvin Gaye: “Let’s get it on.”

Crystal Ball Flash Poll!!!

OK quick!  The season is about to start!

Answer the following:

1) Order of the top 7

2) Champs League winner

3) Europa League winner

4) Copa del Rey Winner

Did we do this elsewhere?  I forget?  We could add more Sevilla things to this, like goal scorer etc blah blah blah.  but I just wanted to toss this quick overview out first.  Anyone who wants to write a longer one, feel free.

Write your answers in the comments!

The “Other League”

Quick rant:  I hate this expression the “other league”.  And I hate that our players and coach have made winning the “other league” one of our central aspirations.  Yes, I know, there is a zero percent probability of anyone other than Barca or Real winning La Liga.  And I realize it is a key component of the narrative being pedaled (and which I buy) by Presidente Del Nido that there isn’t true competition.

But its upsetting to me that even the players and coaches acknowledge and admit defeat before a game has been played.  Again, I realize fully that it would be delusional to argue anything else, but in pre-season, to set your goal as winning the “other league” is just a bit too defeatist to me, even while it is certainly more realistic.

OK.  Whatever.  Rant over

PS. Go sign Gio and get this nonsense over with.  He is demanding to come here despite our offer being about 3 million euros less than Udinese (who say they are confident they will get him).  I like that Gio wants so bad to come…  Get on with it.

PPS. Anytime we put Jesus Navas as a topic of discussion in our posts, we get about 50 more visits.  Jesus Navas Jesus Navas Jesus Navas Jesus Navas…  Just saying….