Julio Baptista - Not Quite So Beastly
Monday, 15 October 07, 11:28 AM · Comments(11)
Julio Baptista arrived at Arsenal in the summer of 2006 - a year too late, but still able to excite the fans. Along with the signing of Gallas, he helped to snowball the fans' expectations to gargantuan proportions that would quickly dissipate into disappointment. Gallas was mostly injured and under-par, and Baptista was an almighty, almighty flop.
He arrived with this tag and reputation of being "The Beast" - a goal-scoring powerhouse that could barge past anyone and thump in the goals. Well. He wasn't.
Apart from one storming performance against Liverpool where he scored 4 goals in our 6-3 Carling Cup win at Anfield, he was awful. And to be honest, that game was such an anomaly that I can't believe it even happened. Not only did we go to Anfield and score 6 goals, but Baptista scored 4 (and missed a penalty, which isn't surprising), Aliadiere scored the first and setup 3 more, and ALEX SONG SCORED. Freakish.
He really did seem like a nice earnest lad who gave his best, and to his credit he ended the season with 10 goals (although 6 of those were in 2 Carling Cup games), but he was rubbish - a big lumbering cow more than any sort of fearsome beast, his missed chances deprived us of so many wins.
And why am I suddenly bringing up "The Beast" all of a sudden? Because a quote I came across today from Ryan Babel only serves to confirm what we all suspected... that despite his bulk, incredible muscle percentage and density, and ninja-turtle like exterior, he was just a great big softie:
"A big body doesn't mean you're strong. I understand from Robin van Persie at Arsenal that Julio Baptista isn't strong at all, even though he's a massive guy." - Ryan Babel
Not strong at all... hilarious stuff really, considering that his size and strenth were one of the few things still going in his favour. But I think we all knew what the real deal was when
PSV's frail looking Chinese left-back Sun Xiang comprehensively barged Baptista to the ground in a soft little shoulder-to-shoulder encounter.
Not to say that he's a bad player though, he isn't - his performances for Sevilla were oustanding, and he showed in flashes at the Copa America how good he can be. The problem is that he's just very limited. He's not mobile, not that quick or strong, and needs too much time and space. He was found out in fast pace of the Premiership, and especially so in Arsenal's quick passing-and-moving system.
The other problem with Baptista, is that he thinks he's better than he is. We've all heard the stories about how clumsy he was in his Sao Paulo days, and how the fans used to laugh and call him a clown, but did you know that they also used to call him "Zidane"? Not out of any recognition of his oustanding abilities, but rather the lack thereof, and his continual attempts to try tricks and skills that he was so far from mastering, that they often ended in complete embarassment.
Good luck to him, and here's some highlights from his one "good game" for Arsenal:
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I agree. I am a Barcelona fan and I hate Real Madrid, but even I know how much talent Baptista has.
I'm not suprised by this post, thought. It's made by an Arsenal fan. I like the team, but the fans are the most delusional sons of bitches you can ever meet. These morons actually think they're
little Arsenal is ranked in the top 10. HA!
Shows how arrogant and pompous they are.
4 or 5 good games and now suddenly Baptista is amazing? You kids are hilarious!
i agree SM that is funny. Its funny how being under used makes people think you are less than amazing
4 or 5 games? Watch some more La Liga, genius. He's been the one of the best players in the league since he moved from Arsenal.
I guess my stereotype of you Arsenal idiots turned out to be true. And you call US kids??!! Nice one.......
One of the best players in the league huh?
Real Madrid have already played 23 games this season, and Baptista has started only 5 of them.
In fact they've already played 15 games in La Liga,
and Baptista started only 4 of those.
So if that's enough for him to be one of the best players in the league this year in your opinion, then your opinion is highly questionable... so maybe
you're the delusional SOB then huh? ;)
In any case I don't argue that he does well in La Liga - the way he was at Sevilla, I don't think there's been a player that in-form in Spain
since.
But you can't argue with the facts that he couldn't cut it at a higher level, and that he was crap in England. And that was the point of this.
I don't know what your whole stereotype
thing was about, but most of what you said doesn't make much sense anyways.
11 Comments · Add yours
I know he didn't have a great season with Arsenal but with Sevilla he was "The Beast". When he was playing for Sevilla, Mister Wegner want him but he decided to go to Real Madrid, too bad for him
because a year later he was short time Gunner. I AGREE WITH YOU SM, GREAT POST!
Well i guess you are really clowning yourself now as Julio Baptista, yes Julio Baptista was the man of the match in the El Grand Classico between Barca and Real.
Shows how much BS this article
is. You crticise him so much but yet you failt to realise some players take more time to adapt to England, your prime example should be Henry.
Now delete this post if you have any sort of
pride.