Pirlo, the new Deco?
Wednesday, 24 June 09, 03:31 AM · Comments(4)
By Michael Sinnerton
Dear Chelsea, please don't sign Andrea Pirlo.
I'm fed up with Premier League clubs signing slightly over-the-hill superstars. Singings like this create two problems, firstly the player having taken a season or so to acclimatise to a new league is generally too old or out of favour and therefore branded a failure and secondly the player is generally signed two or three seasons too late and is therefore well past their prime anyway.
This has happened at Chelsea, with varying degrees, to both Deco and Andriy Shevchenko and arguably to Juan Sebastian Veron at Manchester United and Fernando Morientes at Liverpool. My main problem with the signings, as well as the fact that they often turn out to be a waste of money, is that they convince the average fan that the Premier League is all-powerful. When Deco or Pirlo fail, fans who aren't up-to-date with football in Europe mark them out as average players who have succeeded because La Liga or Serie A is ‘weaker'.
Fans point to Diego Forlan's scoring record in Spain as a sign of weaker defences but fail to acknowledge the vast improvement in Fernando Torres' ratio when moving the other way. Some players will thrive in different leagues and some will take longer to develop. Simple points but ones that are perhaps worth remembering when discussing the attributes of different players and different leagues.
Andrea Pirlo used to be one of my favourite players, but his form this season has led to some poor performances for both AC Milan and Italy with one guardian columnists describing him as the biggest disappointment of 2008.
The point of this article is not to criticise Pirlo, but to praise him as one of the best midfielders of a generation and a unique and gifted playmaker. Any move to Chelsea though could see him remembered by some as another foreigner who moved to late and by others as a player who ‘just couldn't cope with the Premier League'.
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4 Comments · Add yours
I completely agree with you. Another interesting angle is to look at it from the players' point of view. They clearly don't think the Premier League is the be-all-and-end-all. By all accounts Deco had the chance to join Chelsea with Jose but chose to go to Barca. I'm sure this isn't the first time an English club has enquired about buying Pirlo. Same with Sheva and Morientes. These guys played the bulk of their football in italy/portugal/spain and came to England for a final pay day. It's like Quatar but you can drink.
"Dear Chelsea, please don't sign Andrea Pirlo."
I agree with this 100%. Watching him play in the confederation's cup, he looked really slow. When given enough time, he's still able to play those trademark passes that has defined his career, but I have to wonder how well that would translate to the EPL, given his current string of poor performances.
He's also 30. Any money Chelsea put into him is not going to be worth it and would be better spent on signing someone young, a winger, or an attacking midfielder as an eventual replacement for Lampard. If Chelsea want a midfielder they should get someone like Moutinho, Felipe Melo, Gago, or even Van der Vaart, Sneijder, or David Silva.
Nice article. Agree with most of what you have said but don't necessarily agree with you on the forlan torres bit. I think, and I don't think i'm alone, that Torres is a better striker than Forlan. Without oversimplifying things I honestly feel the main difference is pace. It's well know that the pace and physical nature of the premier league is like no other in europe. I think Diego is slightly lacking in these areas.
Just look at the best recent premier league front men. Drogba, Anelka, Torres, Henry all have pace and physical presense. I'd place Forlan in the finisher category, a Crespo or Morientes. Good players in their own right but lacking in the physical/pace department.
Reply to Dom:
I think you're basing that on assumptions. Forlan is quick and certainly stronger than Anelka for one. He scored a ton of goals from outside the box last year, something that's not true of Crespo or Morientes in their careers. His game by game average rating has seen him among Spain's top five for four of the lat five seasons - that shows an all-round game that a 'finisher' can't match. Imagine Kris Boyd or Michael Owen being that high in the ratings - even with as many goals.