Adios, Conejo and, um, Maxi Lopez
By: Isaiah | July 10th, 2007
Well, Javier Saviola has moved over to Real Madrid in a move that will certainly not be met with as much bile as Luis Figo’s move once was. It’s a shame to see such a talented striker go, but he was obviously not a part of Rijkaard’s plans, especially not with the new addition of Thierry Henry and Eidur Gudjohnsen remaining at the club.
What to say about such player? Really, there’s little to say, other than that he is brilliant. Over his time at Barcelona, he scored 68 goals in a total of 157 games. This past season he scored 10 goals in 24 appearances, though 5 of those goals were in the Copa del Rey against smaller sides. Despite this fact, he obviously has what it takes to deserve at least a rotational place at Barcelona, but the team made a financial decision, offloading his large contract, probably in order to make more room for their new signings. After all, Henry did not come cheaply.
Still, I am not happy with this move. It probably does make financial sense, but it just seems that there has to be a reason behind all of that, some personal disagreement that pushed Saviola out the door. I’ve never read anything suggesting a bust-up with Rijkaard, but how could there not have been anything? Such a talented striker (just look at his numbers and you can see that he was a serious factor in getting Sevilla their first UEFA Cup title).
Not that I think he’ll have a good time at Real Madrid, behind just as many strikers, but perhaps Bernd Schuster, in his pursuit of beautiful football, will include El Conejo in the ranks of starters a little more often than Barcelona did. One can only hope, for his sake, but as I wish nothing but the worst on Real Madrid, I hope Schuster forgets the little guy a lot.
Maxi Lopez has also affectively left the club after a season-long loan at Mallorca, where, according to Soccernet, he scored 4 goals in 30 games (1 game, 1 goal in the Copa del Rey). He has gone to Sporting Lisbon, who have an option on getting him permanently at the end of next season. I don’t actually care about this part of the news because Maxi was never actually any good for us, though, to be fair to him, he’s been behind a lot of world class strikers since he arrived. Proving yourself with Samuel Eto’o, Javier Saviola, and Eidur Gudjohnsen above you in the pecking order is basically impossible, so his move is understandable from everyone’s point of view.
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Tags: Barcelona, Frank Rijkaard, Javier Saviola, Maxi Lopez, Real Madrid, Thierry Henry, Transfers-Transfer RumorsSubscribe
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Javier Saviola once again let greed get in the way of his career. He’s a good player, undoubtedly, but he hasn’t fit into our system in recent years and only stayed to pick up his massive wages that he refused to cut back. Even the move to Madrid most likely is about the money, he might not even start for them when he could have moved to Italy where I felt he would have thrived. I’d wish him luck but even if he didn’t do what Figo did he still double crossed the fans he claimed to care about and for that I lost all respect I had for him.
The good thing that can come out of this is that Soldado might be annoyed into moving away from Madrid. Soldado has the potential to be better than Saviola who has peaked and, will never quite be the great player he was expected to be.
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I forgot to add he was the legacy of a dark time in our club’s history and despite always scoring a decent amount of goals it was the two seasons he was on loan that brought us trophies. Maxi Lopez has won more with us than El Conejo.
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Newcomer here, and delighted to find this forum . I come to praise Saviola as well as bury him (his memory, at any rate). I think he was hard done by at Barca, especially last season, when he should have been played more often. Certainly he was much more effective up front than that overweight Icelander. Still and all, it was time for him to go. If he couldn’t get into the first team last year, then he never will.
I agree that he’s unlikely to get too many starts at Madrid, but it might just be our luck that he ends up scoring the decisive goal in the next Superclassico — don’t you hate when that happens?
Now, here’s keeping our fingers crossed on Gabi Milito. I see that his Mom wants him to come to Barca — give the woman a … well, whatever she wants!!
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Nolan: Astute as always; it is about the money, but when you think about it, who can really blame him? Sure, none of us make that much money (I’m waiting for Bob to start handing out the big-time contracts any day, though), but were we ever in the position of being allowed to play a sport for, say, $5million a year, who among us would say “Why no, I’m not that valuable.” Hell, I personally wouldn’t mind sitting on Real Madrid’s bench all season (with an FCB undershirt on!) and being paid some ludicrous sum of money. Or about $50k a year. I’m waiting for your call, Calderon.
Bobby G: Welcome. I’m always happy to have another reader. It was time for him to go, but I don’t agree because he couldn’t break into the first team. That was Rijkaard’s choice, which was, in my opinion, based on something other than Conejo’s talent. No, he is not a 20+ goal-a-season guy, but he’s certainly worth about 15 if given the opportunity. Gudjohnsen, for his part, scored fewer goals this past season than Conejo, though more in tournaments/leagues that mattered (5 in La Liga, same as Saviola, but 3 in the Champions League, in which Saviola only got one appearance, as well as 1 in the Copa del Rey). Anyway, he left for financial reasons and I wish him the best, though not in the Clasico. That is time when there are no good merengues.
Indeed, Gabi Milito would be a great addition. I’m getting hotter and hotter on him as I watch the Copa America, which has also provided a resurgence of sorts for Marquez. Still not up to his prior abilities, but no matter, he’s not a disaster.
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“Javier Saviola has moved over to Real Madrid in a move that will certainly not be met with as much bile as Luis Figo’s move once was.”
I don’t know about that, having seen some of the bile that’s been aimed at Saviola for refusing to leave at the start of 06-07.
Actually, I’m surprised you’re taking the news so well. I’m certainly not, and I actually like him quite a bit. I’ve also written at length about why he’s been ousted, but basically Txiki hates his guts and there’s the ‘enormous wages carried over from the Gaspart era’ thing.
As for Maxi, I’ll always remember him fondly for that game against Chelsea.
(Gabi Milito would be brilliant. Hopefully that deal will be done soon.)
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Linda: I can’t imagine people actually still care enough about Saviola to throw a pig’s head at him. But yeah, if takes the field again, he’ll be booed and hated and perhaps a few things will be thrown at him (The Offside does not condone violence!). And I think I’m taking the news well because I have previously ranted about him getting a chance in the squad and, probably most importantly, I don’t believe he’ll do anything but warm the bench in Madrid.
And Milito is ours. Yay.
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