Monday, July 17, 2006

Post world cup hang over - now back to the club scene

The world cup final were over a week ago, I am still mourning the lose of Les Bleus, but I have started to recover. Now I am focused on the upcoming club seasons, as well as the Euro Qualifiers. But first the club scene.

With the demotion of Juventus, many players will flood the market - Trezeguet, Cannavaro, Camoranesi, Ibrahimovic, and Del Piero to mention a few. But the players I want to discuss are two that reinvented themselves during the world cup and showed everyone that they remain world class players:

Lilian Thuram - For the second half of the Serie A season he was relegated to bench duty. If the world cup is any indication it is clear that he still has something to bring to the pitch.

The latest rumor is to have Lilian play for 2 seasons at Barca where he would be added to an already strong central defense with Puyol and Marquez. The addition of Thuram would allow for Barca to rotate these players through the long domestic and cup season. Of course where I would really like to see him (other than PSG) would be a
t Emirates Stadium in North London. Arsenal could use such a defender. He would not be asked play every game, but he would be invaluable starting certain games, and coming in as a defensive replacement. His experience would give the young gunners someone to turn to and learn from, something Campbell was not able to provide recently. And even an older Thuram would be worlds better than Cygan!

Pat Vieira - The latest rumor has Vieira heading to Milan to play for Internazional. Which is a fine place for Patrick to ply his trade, what I could not stomach would be to see him head to Old Trafford. Rumor is that Sir Alex is looking to offer 8m pounds for the midfielder. That would ruin my day seeing him done the Red Devils kit. Having to see Arsenal face him twice a year would turn my stomach. Then again as long as Van Nistelrooy is there I cannot see Vieira agreeing to go.

Question is would Wenger welcome him back? Not sure Arsenal would explore this, with Fabergas firmly entrenched in the deep lying midfield role. But at times last season Arsenal were a bit soft, something that bringing back Vieira would remedy. Could be an interesting midfield of: Cesc, Vieira, Rosicky, and Hleb/Ljunberg. Players like Diaby would learn a tremendous amount on the training pitch from someone like Vieira.....could be interesting.

1 comment:

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