The Midfield

RAÚL GARCÍA
CAMACHO
MOTTA
MANICHE
CLEBER SANTANA
MIGUEL
SIMAO
MAXI
REYES
LUIS GARCÍA
ASSUNCAO

I read recently that Maniche is trying to ‘patch things up’ with Aguirre, his teammates, and club officials for his wreckless behaviour that led to his loan spell last season. Of course, we all know why he is humbling himself: He’s not attracting worthwhile offers!

I am motivated to return to work. I want to be at my best physical form so that I can have a good season.

Can we trust that he won’t act out again? I’m not so sure. Do we even need his services? He’s not in top shape at the moment and we do have Camacho, Assunção, and Motta as holding midfield options.

Meanwhile, we have less than a month before the season starts and an even shorter amount of time before Champions qualifiers begin…I worry that we still have not signed a decent playmaker.

What’s more, we still have Cléber in our ranks– I thought he would have been one of the first to make his way out of the club. I read a rumour that the club received offers for him, but nothing became of that.

Anything missing?

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Catching Up Entry

Lots of players on international duty for EURO and WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS.

Ujfaluši played a full 90 minutes for the Czech Republic’s opening game against Switzerland.

Simão played 83 minutes for Portugal against Turkey.

Seitaridis & Heitinga have games this coming week. Speaking of Seitaridis, I do recall reading that the Greek might leave the club this summer.

Meanwhile, Kun & Maxi continue have played two friendlies so far, all warm-up for Argentina’s World Cup qualifiers.

Forlán will serve international duty for Uruguay in their World Cup qualifiers.

I hope that they all return fully fit by the start of 08/09…

RUMOURS GALORE

Too many to list, but here are a few.

According to some (albeit dubious) sources, we’re linked with Recreativo’s Sinama, Zaragoza’s Oliviera (on loan?), Getafe’s Uche,  and Paulo Assunçao.

Am I the only one completely underwhelmed by these players?

Then there are the rumours involving Lucho González & Luca Cigarini, which are total rubbish as well.

Meanwhile, the English press claims Newcastle have offered us 10 million euros for Reyes. Of course, even if that was true, Reyes has said many times that he hates England. Another rubbish rumour.

All the while, black-listed Maniche has declared that he will not return to the club if Aguirre continues as manager. Of course, that means he won’t be returning. Good riddance, I say.

Some good news is that ALEX QUILLO, Atleti youth product, has signed a professional contract with the club until 2010.

INJURY NEWS
Motta will hopefully be back to full fitness by the start of the season, having recovered from that persistent knee injury. It’s a shame he’s so injury-riddled because he truly is an excellent player when fit.

New entry will be up later on today (Monday).

Thoughts on the 07/08 Season

It’s been another rollercoaster of a season, hasn’t it? Lots of highs, lots of lows, and I’m glad it’s all over because my nerves are shot…

Let’s have a look at our pre-season objectives:

-Be crowned Liga Champions. (too many dropped points)

-Win the UEFA Cup. (dumped out at the hands of rubbish Bolton)

-Win the Copa del Rey. (dumped out at the hands of rubbish Valencia)

-Qualify for Champions League football.

Well, at least we accomplished one of our goals. It’s already paid off in terms of 08/09 signings: we’ve secured the services of John Heitinga and, although it hasn’t been officially confirmed, Tomáš Ujfaluši looks like he’ll be our next signing.

Speaking of transfers, I choose SIMAO as our best signing of the 07/08 season:

Worst signing of 07/08? I choose the always-injured THIAGO MOTTA.

Yes, I’d rank him as worse than Cléber and Reyes. Had he been fit, we would not have had to use Cléber so frequently. In truth, though, all three of these players were nonsensical signings.

Consistently good players this season: Raúl García & Agüero.

I’d give the industrious award to Forlán. He continually put forth a lot of effort. He can be frustrating at times when he misses absolute sitters, but he creates plenty of goal-scoring opportunities for Kun and other players.

Worst players? I’m torn on this. For me, it’s a threeway tie between Eller, Pablo,  & Pernía. Pablo, I think, takes the cake because of his disastrous own goals. WILL SOMEONE PLEASE SHOW THIS RUBBISH THE EXIT? PLEASE?

Who had a disappointing season? I choose Maxi. Not a bad season, but most definitely not a good one. There were far too many times where I felt that he should’ve been removed from the pitch. He had a horrible tendency of disappearing for long portions of some games.

Surprise mid-season addition to the squad: the promising young Ignacio Camacho. The future is bright.

Anything else to add? Any memorable moments that stick out in your mind? Any forgettable moments you want to dredge up?

[These are the players I’d like to see shown the exit now: Pablo, Pernía, Cléber, Eller, Zé Castro, Reyes, & Mista. They’re all dead weight and have proven to be good for nothing.]

And, no, I’m not happy that Aguirre will stay with the club for another season. He has proven time and time again that he is NOT a tactical genius.

Jornada 34: Getafe v Atlético de Madrid

The Other Madrid Derbi.

#4 Atleti 54

…

#13 Getafe 41

STARTING 11: Leo Franco; Antonio López, Pablo, Perea, Pernía; Camacho, Raúl García, Maxi, Luis García; Forlán and Agüero.

SUBS: Abbiati, Zé Castro, Seitaridis, Cléber, Jurado, Miguel, Mista.

This lineup frightens me a little bit, I won’t lie. Will they do enough to get the job done? I would’ve preferred to see Miguel in the starting 11 than Luis, but that’s just me.

Anyway, Zé Castro, Mista, & Jurado return to the bench.

And Motta, Simao, & Reyes are unselected due to injury.

Getafe’s squad list: Pato, Ustari, Contra, Cata Díaz, Belenguer, Licht, David Cortés, Tena, Mario Cotelo, Gavilán, De la Red, Sousa, Casquero, Pablo Hernández, Granero, Manu, Albín & Kepa.

Getafe’s Recent five results:
3-1 away loss against Levante.
0-0 home draw against Zaragoza.
0-0 away draw against Barcelona.
0-2 home loss against Osasuna.
1-0 away loss against Athletic.

Dreadful run of form at the moment, which surprises me a bit because they were doing so well until they were dumped out of the UEFA Cup and Copa del Rey.

PREVIOUS GETAFE V ATLETI FIXTURE RESULTS
06/07 season: 1-4 win for us.
05/06 season: 0-3 win for us.
04/05 season: 1-1 draw.
03/04 season: Getafe were in the 2nd division.
02/03 season: Getafe were in the 2nd division.

Not a bad record at their stadium, but this is a tricky fixture considering how desperate they are to pick up 3 points. That said, we seriously cannot afford to lose or draw– only a few points separate us from Racing and Sevilla. A loss would drop us to #5.

Let’s just win! I don’t care how we do it…let’s just leave there with 3 points.

Meanwhile, Maxi is still with a move out of the club (Juventus & Liverpool monitoring his situation), but President Cerezo has said he is staying put…

Lucho Gonzalez is rumoured to be one of our summer targets as is Hilario Navarro, goalkeeper of Racing Club…

Anything missing? Share!

Jornada 28: Atlético de Madrid 3 Levante 0

Three goals scored, we’re still in Champions– a good day at the office for Atleti.

Abbiati; Antonio López, Pablo, Perea, Pernía; Cléber Santana, Raúl García (Ignacio Camacho 56’), Luis García (Miguel 62’), Simão (Jurado 83’); Forlán & Kun Agüero.

GOALS
24′ Simão header
38′ Forlán, assist Simão.
52′ Forlán

Great build-up to the goals, but the finishing for two of the three was downright ugly. Still, a goal is a goal is a goal and that is all that matters.

Injured list is still short: Valera, Maxi, and Motta.

Speaking of which, Motta‘s surgery was a ‘success’ and he will now begin the recuperation process. We can only hope that he has an equally successful recuperation before the start of the 08/09 season- that way we can offload him.

Here are a couple questions that were asked to Ignacio Camacho during his interview on AS (my translation):

 

How do you feel after that tremendous ovation that the supporters gave you on Sunday?
How am I supposed to feel! I play amongst top players and then the supporters react like that– well, it makes one very happy. The supporters are responding, they want players from the cantera…

 

The supporters whistled at Cleber because he played instead of you…
I have to keep myself out of that. The people’s opinion is one thing, what the manager says is another […] Yesterday [Cleber] had a great game.

 

Supporters’ abuse towards Pablo and Cleber has escalated to the point where even Aguirre has mentioned in press talks, claiming it ‘unjust’ treatment. Hell, you can hear it on TV!

What I think? Let the abuse continue- these players’ times as colchoneros is running out anyway. Why should supporters pretend they appreciate their presence on the team? They’ve proven to be rubbish time and time and time again.

Anyway, here’s our next five fixtures:
-away to Sevilla
-away to Villarreal
-home to Almeria
-away to Real Valladolid
-home to Real Betis

Anything missing? A lot I’m sure!

Back from the dead.

When Atleti lose, it demotivates me…a lot. All I want to do is sing their praises here, but when they lose against the likes of Zaragoza in such a disgraceful manner, it’s, well, discouraging…to the point where I can’t even bring myself to blog about the mayhem.

Hence, the blog-laziness.

/rant over.

Moving on…

INJURY LIST
It’s short. Motta is still in the USA recuperating from his latest knee operation while Valera continues to recuperate from the knock he picked up against Zaragoza.

Maxi left the latest training session early because he had a bit of pain…precautionary decision.

Seitaridis has been participating in training sessions after nearly three months out with injury. Same goes for Leo Franco, but I doubt the Argentine will play much.  Should Abbiati continue on as 1st choice keeper or should Leo Franco reclaim his spot? I’d stick with Abbiati at this point.

RUMOUR GOOD NEWS!
Word is we’re looking for a club for Reyes, easily the worst signing of 07/08. …12 million euros down the drain, but thank goodness he’ll be shown the exit at the end of the season.

Anyway, next up? #20 Levante at home…

…be back with an entry on that.

Anything missing? Share.

Midweek Hodgepodge/Talking Points

A bit of a busy few days for me recently- I apologise for the lack of entries and commenting on other blogs. I hope to get back to my normal routine soon enough.

KUN TALK OF THE TOWN

Ever since his performance against Barcelona, the press have been gushing about him- and rightly so. KUN is world-class and arguably one of the best strikers we’ve ever had at the club.

Meanwhile, Maradona on our defence after the Barcelona game:
“How did I see my ‘son-in-law’ against Barcelona? When Ronaldinho scored early on, I thought Barça were going to run all over them, but then Sergio awakened…He showed his quality and began to make life hard for Milito and Puyol…However, of course, the Atletico defence is like that of Flandria, but in the end everything went well.”

OK, I know what you’re thinking: Who cares what Maradona thinks. I normally don’t pay much mind to his press talks, but this is Atleti-related so I had to include it.

INJURY UPDATE NEWS
Leo Franco has officially recovered from his injury. He’s back to full training with the squad. I don’t expect him to play right away, but his return to 100% match fitness means the eventual end of Falcón’s time as second choice goalkeeper. I wonder, then, What will become of the promising young goalkeeper this summer– Will we keep him? Or…?

Seitaridis is nearing the end of his recuperation and is expected to re-join the team during training sessions soon.

Simão seems to have picked up a slight knock and trained lightly recently– nothing severe, thankfully.

Motta? Well, he’ll be out for the rest of the season. It’s a shame we didn’t sign him on a pay-as-you-play contract during the pre-season…

OUR NEXT FIVE FIXTURES
Zaragoza v Atlético
Atlético v Levante 
Sevilla v Atlético
Villarreal v Atlético
Atlético v Almeria

Not a bad schedule, all things considered. Sevilla & Villarreal away will be the toughest of the bunch.

Simão on the rest of the season:
“All of the twelve games left are important, and we must start with a win against Zaragoza, who are having a difficult time at the moment, but have a lot of quality and do not deserve to be in the position they currently occupy. It will be a difficult encounter, but we come into it in good spirits and must continue a positive run.”

RUMOUR-MILL ON FIRE
Fiorentina’s Czech defender Ujfalusi has once again been linked to us.

AS also reports that we might be ‘fishing’ for talent at Liverpool this summer: Benitez, Xabi, and Reina. Xabi, in particular, appears to be a player that has fallen our of favour at Liverpool. Reina’s father played for Atleti many years ago, so he would be more than welcome to the club.

Anything missing?

Moving forward…hodgepodge entry

Firstly, I just want to say it’s snowing A LOT over here.

Just a brief summary of things after yesterday’s disaster: Aguirre & just about every player interviewed by the press have said the same thing– that we will concentrate on securing a Champions spot. If we don’t, we stand the chance of losing our best players over the summer, namely Agüero, and we’ll fail to attract quality talent to replace the current rubbish.

Do we have what it takes? I honestly don’t know.

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

In terms of Aguirre, it appears that the club are set to keep him until the end of the season: “I have this job until 30-June. My contract will continue until then.”

Is this the best decision for the club? Again, I honestly don’t know. I hate Aguirre and await the day that he, Gil, Cerezo, and Pitarch are out of the club.

In terms of players:

Motta is on his way to Colorado to see the highly-rated Doctor Richard Steadman…this means, of course, that he won’t play for the rest of the season. Seriously, why did it take him this long into his injury-riddled career to visit this doctor? This is something he should have done two years ago. What an absolute waste of a player.

SUSPENDED for this Sunday’s away game to Osasuna: Agüero, Pablo & Raúl García.

Recuperated from their respective injuries: Simão, Zé Castro & Valera.

Still injured:  Motta, Seitaridis & Leo Franco.

For anyone unfamiliar with Sergio‘s “¿Hasta cuando?” comment (in the below entry), here’s a video with an origin of it (with English subtitles):

There’s a strong, ever-growing movement of Atleti supporters who want to force Gil & Cerezo out of the club.

 

Pause for Hodgepodge

For one very <brief> moment, let’s get our minds away from the string of poor results…

The UEFA commitee have confirmed that Raúl García will serve a suspension for our next UEFA game against Bolton Wanderers. I guess this can be viewed as a sort of a mixed blessing, in a way. On one hand, the Spaniard is such an important, almost irreplaceable player for us; on the other hand, he has played many minutes this season, at one point almost non-stop. The suspension would allow Miguel to receive more playing time in this game, which is a good thing.

MOVING ON…There’s an article on AS that talks about how poorly we’ve played since Maniche’s departure to Inter Milan.

In 13 games, Aguirre has tested six different midfield pairings:
R. García-Cléber (5 times)
R. García-Motta (3)
Maxi-Cléber (1)
Motta-Cléber (2)
Jurado-Cléber (1)
R. García-Jurado (1)

We have yet to see a Motta-Miguel midfield.

MOVING ON….Some international duty coming up for a few players (Pablo, Raúl García, Forlán, Perea– I think that’s it).

And, in closing, Fernando at Sentimiento Atletico asked his blog readers today:

“Win the UEFA Cup or secure a Champions spot in Liga? If given the choice, which do you prefer?”

Four reasons for the UEFA Cup: 1) 12 years since our last silverware triumph; 2) Atleti have never won the UEFA Cup; 3)Secure a spot in next season’s competition; and 4)Pride and Happiness for Atleti’s long-suffering supporters.

Thoughts?

Pitarch’s Press Talk

 

Our rubbish sporting director spoke to the press…Here are a few statements he made:

On Aguirre’s Future:
“The continuity of Javier is guaranteed until his contract with the team ends and it will probably be extended by a year…If he qualifies the team for Europe, he will have a year added to the contract.”

In terms of their working relationship:
“Our relationship is good both professionally and personally. Javier Aguirre is the best coach for Atlético.”

He claims the media has created an “artificial crisis”…

On the winter transfer window:

He also claims that Aguirre is not disappointed with the players he has signed for the team. This, I call bullshit.

“Tiago could today have been player of Atlético Madrid, but it was only possible if we equalled the money teams like Tottenham were offering for a permanent transfer. We did not want that, we wanted a loan arrangement.”

This I believe– Spurs wanted to buy Tiago from Juve, which appealed to them more than our loan proposal.

On Summer signings:
He said the club are interested in Johnny Heitinga and Tomáš Ujfaluši, although he did not confirm that ‘talks’ have officially begun.

“They are two players that Aguirre knows… we like them but that does not mean that we have contracts with them or that talks will be forthcoming.”

I like Heitinga. 24 year old Ajax centre-back & right-back and Dutch international. From what I’ve seen, he’s a very solid player.

Tomáš Ujfaluši. I don’t know much about him, except that he has been linked with many clubs. 29 year old Fiorentina & Czech defender (centre-back & right-back).

In terms of Maniche:
He assured the press that there is no problem with Aguirre on Maniche’s departure (bullshit?). With the return of Motta & Miguel from long-term injuries, he said the club decided there was no need to sign a new player.

On Eller, Diego Costa & Cleber:
“You can criticise the signing of Eller, Diego Costa, or Cleber, but I feel totally happy about them…”

When asked about the progression of the team:
“I will not say anything, that’s the job of the manager…”