Fabio Capello fired, Bent is better than Thierry

By: Isaiah | June 28th, 2007

The big news coming from the Spanish capital today is that Fabio Capello, who just led Real Madrid to the title, has been dismissed. This is wonderful news for everyone in La Liga and, I believe, opens the door to either Sevilla or Valencia winning the title next year. Hear me out now. I’m a Barcelona fan, obviously, but we’re not going to be the most coherent unit next season because of all the added pressures and new faces (as of right now: Henry, Toure, Abidal). Not to mention that Gio is gone and we’ll probably lose a couple of other players before this already-insane transfer season is over.

With this latest move, Real Madrid are condemning themselves to a rebuilding process that will most likely last the same length of time it did under Capello, but I doubt they’ll have the same run of form at the end, the same “heart-attack-inducing” ability they had this season, which means that as Barcelona “stumbles” and the merengues are in another “crisis,” there will be a large window of opportunity for Valencia and Sevilla. That both clubs are probably going to lose major players or fail to find good reinforcements is a matter of normalcy in a system that doesn’t advocate longevity a clubs, but they are keeping their squads intact for the most part. Perhaps Dani Alves will move somewhere, but it looks like Kanoute is sticking around to have a go at the Champions League while down in Valencia they’re adding some defenders and whatnot to replace those who are leaving. Ayala is a tough one to replace, but certainly they’ll still challenge for La Liga, though European glory is almost definitely out of their reach. (For a full roundup of what’s going on at the Mestalla, please look in on our friendly neighbor Cesar at the Valencia Offside).

As for the other part of the headline, it turns out that Spurs are offering £17m ($34m) for Darren Bent. Charlton would be idiotic not to take this since the going rate for Thierry Henry is somewhere in the same range (about £16.5m, or $33m). So, since he’s more expensive, obviously Darren Bent is one of the premier strikers in the world. I just thought I’d be the 75,000th person to point that out.

This situation brings up the eternal question about England’s inflated internal transfer fees. Would you really trust Bent with your future above Henry? I know that Bent is about 7 years his junior and has good potential (with Charlton he’s scored 31 goals in 68 games, which is a 0.456goals/game ratio as compared to Henry’s considerably higher 0.685, though he had a slightly diminished 10 goals in 17 games or 0.588g/g), but paying $30m+ for a player who hardly seems as talented is crazy. What next, Sheva for $60m? Oh wait.