18 jan 2011

Chelsea - Why Pienaar?

Chelsea has made many transfers the last couple of years that I never understood.

Primarily comes Tal Ben Haim, who started getting noticed in a similar situation like now when Chelsea had some defenders injured and needed to stack the squad in that department. He did not come in January then to José`s annoyance, but arrived in Summer and stayed unnoticed for a season.

Steve Sidwell was another transfer I did not get either. Both came cheap, even on free transfers did they not? Pizarro I did see the interest in, but he did not really work out for us due to injuries and problems adapting to the Premier League. (and bit because he did not have enough quality to muscle himself in the attacking line-up). We also had Boulahrouz and a couple of others. None really given time or patience to grow into Chelsea and hence proving to be bad transfers!

In that light I rarely have ever seen the lure of buying in January. I do fully share Alex Ferguson`s viewpoint on January transfers, and he has it despite bringing in players like Vidic and Evra in January. None of them had a great start at United, which simply underwrites the difficulty in coming from another league, another club even with other training methods, other languages, other ways to work between management and players.

I am sure there are January transfers that have made a difference, none just comes to mind. They are mainly panic buys! In some cases a find is made, but rarely in short-term relations.

Carlo Ancelotti seemed to have the same opinion and showed no interest last year in January. This year however the injury situation and his reluctance in trusting Jeffrey Bruma and Bosingwa (and van Aanholt to a lesser degree) made him making noises about the possibility of a January player coming in, into the defence. But he strongly pointed out that it was only for defence and only if the rehabilition of Alex`s knee would not work out.

So the rumour mill for once had a purpose. And instead of the Aguero`s, the Pato`s, the Neymar`s and even the big one, Kaka to Chelsea was put on the back burner for a while. All the papers focused on a defender to Chelsea.

Phil Jones was the first victim. His severe knee injury soon ruled him out even from the most irresponsible tabloid`s speculations. Gary Cahill became the big challenge for the red tops to bring to Chelsea but Coyle and Bolton slapped a £20+ million price tag on him.

Resurfacing, inevitably, the David Luiz from Benfica-rumour and it is still alive and kicking despite that time has run on. Only 12 more days now to get the signing.

There seems to be a huge difference in evaluations. Chelsea willing to pay around a whopping £17m for the player and Benfica asking for up to £24 million. Tuesday all the red tops were in agreement, Chelsea will up their bid for Luiz.
Despite the fact that Alex`s rehabilitation seems to be fully on schedule and he will return to match fitness early to mid-February. Ivanovic is also interested in staying according to his manager (he has about 1.5 year left on the contract), but the manager also throws a stick into the wheel by emphasising that Iva wants to play CB instead of RB where most see him today. I do, as I think and statistics totally prove the point that Alex and JT is the best CB pairing. Just look at the number of clean sheet games they have between them compared to other constellations.

But finally I am getting to the point.

Up popped the rumour that actually seems to have been more than a rumour, that Chelsea went all out for the soon out of contract midfielder (!) Steven Pienaar from Everton. A player I consider decent enough for a mid-table Premier League team, but only squad material for Chelsea (or even Tottenham where he seems to be heading, which might open up for a Kranjcar exit from the N17-club). Also Pienaar comes with a reputation of being somewhat a disturbance in the Everton squad. The club wanted to keep him, but it was obvious that it was a Joe Cole situation.

Everton wanted to keep Pienaar but not at the cost of upsetting the wage structure at the club. Pienaar is said to have asked for £70,000 a week in wages. A huge wage for a player of his class. (Even if Joe Cole managed to shake Liverpool down for more money, but then he is English and we all know how inflation hits as soon as the player is domestic). For Pienaar also a transfer fee around at least £3,5 to £5 million was to be paid.

Chelsea made an offer for Pienaar that Everton accepted, which has been confirmed by David Moyes. Tottenham`s first offer was not accepted despite Pienaar making it obvious that he was more interested in going there. But why? Was Carlo involved in this or was it totally the board and Gourlay`s deal?

Pienaar also refused the personal terms Chelsea offered. My guess is that Chelsea wisely enough did not offer him a wage above £50-£55, maybe £60,000 a week. Chelsea has a wage problem which was the main reason for the Summer clearance of high-cost wage contracts this Summer. So why add to it now?!

Pienaar is to me also not at all the right age for an (immediate) impact player to bring to Chelsea. That should be someone circa 24-26 years of age. Pienaar is 29 in March.

So Tuesday afternoon it seems that Tottenham upped their offer to Everton and the deal seems to be Pienaar to Everton to compete with van der Vaart, Bale, Modric, Kranjcar , Palacios, Lennon and several others in their midfield. He will strengthen their midfield options, but I do not see him being a starter at Tottenham either.

So why was Chelsea ever interested in Pienaar? I can not get it. Tim Cahill I can absolutely see, Jack Rodwell I can see why Chelsea should show interest in. Even Fellaini if we stick with pure Everton players, but Pienaar? The main attration seemed to be the fact that he soon is out of a contract.

Does that mean that Chelsea now target cheap players? Instead of targetting players we need? Now or for the future. I like Benayoun a lot, but the question could be asked already then.

To me Pienaar might have been a back-up until Benayoun can play again in Aprl or so! No more.

And add to this; Steven Pienaar is an African player. Chelsea is already today a club very vulnerable every two years in December and January because of the African Cup. We lose players like Drogba and Essien every time, plus Mikel and Kalou. Do we really need another player that goes AWOL every other mid-season? No other top club in Europe loses as many players to the African Cup already. Plus the injury risk, remember Essien!

Did Chelsea not think about that?!

No, I can not understand the interest in Pienaar. I honestly can not understand the interest in paying stupid sums for defenders either.

If, and it is a big if, Chelsea has to buy players in January the first three considerations to me would be:

1/ Can they make an immediate impact at the club and adapt without problem to the league at once? (Few can, but the best odds I would give to players coming from Bundesliga, absolutely not latin leagues).

2/ Is the cost reasonable or are we being held ransom because the thinness of our squad right now? (£20 plus million for a defender is an example of ransom cost to me).

3/ Chelsea should in that case throw big money on proven quality

And add a 4/ Or should Chelsea buy for the future?

Many very interesting players have been mentioned, plus the usual boring suspects this January. The ones that caught my interest are all more for the future; Neven Subotic the American-Serbian defender from Dortmund (will not transfer in January), Ganso (the exciting Brazilian midfielder), Lukaku (the very promising young Belgian forward), Alexis Sanchez from Udinese another exciting young (and small ) player to mention four interesting names.

Luiz, surely a capable player but the cost for a player that will take his time to adapt to the PL? I say no. Gary Cahill, proven PL-quality, but not worth that much or?

Football Manager is a newspaper invention built on buying and selling players. Reality is not the same and the first victim in reality is this; a player is not necessarily a great fit for any club just because he does well where he is right now. Absolutely not immediately and as we seen here at Vital, recently our fans are hardly known for their patience….

Nemanja Vidic is again this year probably the best defender in the PL, he took almost a year before he even showed that kind of promise many years ago! He was pretty awful last year…. Drogba took his time, as did Malouda, even Lampard took his time to become Lampard.

Players are human beings, not computergenerated personalities. One might remember that when thinking buying is the only option. I still think it is much more important for our present players and squad to find their confidence again, than spending. But what do I know, I do not tinker with Playstation