World Football Thread XIX: Capello to the Rescue!

[Maquiladora]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/t/tottenham_hotspur/7476574.stm

Tottenham have agreed a deal with PSV Eindhoven to sign goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes, subject to personal terms, a medical and a work permit.

Another good signing for us IMO, plus now we can offload Robinson to Villa

How do you rate Gomes, Locutus?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
Did you see my link about Jack Wilshire?

Oh, and I think you have to be USAian to call us Limeys. Make up yer own word, cloggies.

You can be Canadian as well to use the term, if Wikipedia is to be believed.

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
Did you see my link about Jack Wilshire?

Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything? Two minutes of footage of a player who looks fairly talented based on two minutes of footage We got a few hundred players in youth academies over here of whom the same could be said, some of them turn into Bergkamps and Van Nistelrooijs, some of them are never heard from again...

Originally posted by Maquiladora
Another good signing for us IMO, plus now we can offload Robinson to Villa

How do you rate Gomes, Locutus?

You kidding me? Probably in the top 10 of best goalies in the world, if not then definitely top 15. I don't know why he's going to a relatively small club like Tottenham -- the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, Inter, Real Madrid, etc must be smoking something that they haven't picked him up yet (over here it was pretty much considered a done deal even 2-3 years ago that he'd eventually move on to Chelsea, I don't know what went wrong there). Enjoy him while you can, because he'll probably move up fast...

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by Locutus

You kidding me?

Oh I knew he was good - he did knock us out of the UEFA Cup. I just wanted some thoughts from someone who sees him more often.

The consensus on other forums I visit is that he can be too eccentric sometimes (he is Brazilian after all), maybe that's what put off the bigger clubs paying any kind of higher fee for him. That and a lot of big clubs already have top keepers. AFAIK Arsenal were also watching him this season.

From what I've seen of him he his quality though and commands his area well, something Robinson never did.

[Locutus]

He's a bit eccentric on the pitch in the way that some of the best goalies in the history of the game have been eccentric, not (real-)Ronaldo-eccentric in that he doesn't show up for 3 months without explanation, then reappears 20kg overweight with a new-found coke-addiction. He may have gotten into trouble with the PSV chairman for calling him out on his utter incompetence, but IMO there's no question who was in the wrong there (i.e. not Gomes). He's very professional and a team leader off the pitch as well as on, he'll be a real asset for the Spurs (or any other team for that matter).

He's better than the goalies of most of the teams I mentioned, excluding maybe Casillas (but when did that ever stop Real from picking up a good player if they saw one?) He was scouted for PSV by Piet de Visser in the first place (Abramovich's top advisor), which is why he was always destined to go to Chelsea next. It's baffling to me why they're not picking him up. I guess they may want to keep Cech for now but he's getting old and that's starting to affect his performance, and teams like Chelsea generally don't put up with that for too long. They'll need to replace him sooner rather than later, but if they have to buy Gomes from the Spurs in a year he'll be that much more expensive (though I guess that's not really an issue for Abramovich )

Aside from that, the real problem is probably that most decision makers in football have a background as field players and as such are about as qualified to judge the talents of goalkeepers as they are with quarterbacks. A lot of great goalkeeping talent goes to waste because of it. I mean, it's a f*cking disgrace that Van der Sar had to spend 4 whole seasons with Fulham before ManU realised that the solution for their goalie woes was right under their nose all this time...

[Maquiladora]

Thanks Loc

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Locutus
some of them turn into Bergkamps and Van Nistelrooijs

Putting those together in the same sentence like that is a terrible sin IMO. One one hand, there is the horse-faced, diving, goal-hanging ****, and on the other hand - is God.

[LordShiva]

Come, now, Bergkamp's not that horse-faced.

[Cort Haus]

[LordShiva]

Domenech keeps his job

http://eurosport.yahoo.com/09072008/58/euro-2008-angry-trezeguet-quits-france.html

[CerberusIV]

And Trezeguet jumps ship

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/internationals/7498146.stm

[LordShiva]

That's what my linki says, too

[siron]

[Krill]

Drunk, stoned, or thrown his back?

[LordShiva]

Drunki