Mascherano The Prostitute
So the 31st of August is fast approaching and a lot of players & agents are hanging around outside European stadiums showing a bit of leg, so they can get a move & make an extra buck. It is prostitution at the highest financial level.
Now the biggest gigolo of them all has been Javier Mascherano. For the second successive summer Mascherano has touted his ability to the bigger Spanish & Italian sides looking for an escape route from Liverpool. He hasn’t just handed in a transfer request like any respectable player.
He started off last summer telling everyone & anyone who would listen that it was his dream to play for Barcelona. He harped on every other day last summer until he finally realised that a move wasn’t on the cards. In January, when the transfer window reopened he told the world that his head was turned by all the talk of a move to Barca, well a lot of the talk was coming from you & your agent Javier.
So then in the summer surely the Argentine captain would be fully concentrated on the World Cup? Well no, as soon as Rafa Benitez had cashed in his leavers cheque from Liverpool & succeeded Mourinho at Inter, Mascherano was telling us all of his fantastic relationship with Rafa & he would be delighted to follow him to Milan. Ok very well Javier but can I please point out you tried everything you could to split from Rafa only a summer earlier.
So why was he now pimping himself out to Inter rather than Barca the club of his dreams?
Well that is because he like the rest of us knew Barca’s first choice was Cesc Fabregas. As things were slowing down & the season was fast approaching Javier decided to let the public know that his family could not settle in England but the public wont be too sympathetic to someone picking up a weekly wage of between £65k to £85k.
So Arsene Wenger told Fabregas he was staying at Arsenal & Cesc then had to tell the world. One person happy to hear the news was Javier who once again told of his dirty Barca dreams. Well then Barca decided they wanted to do business with Mascherano.
All fine, a bit seedy but if Barcelona want the player then they can bid for him & see what Liverpool want for the player. Well there first bid of around £16m was turned down by the Anfield club. But instead on letting negotiations run a fit & proper course Javier Mascherano decided to not play for Liverpool against Manchester City. Virtually forcing Liverpool’s hand as they agreed to let him leave for £20m.
Now his departure will leave a bitter taste in the mouths of many Liverpool fans. He has totally undermined new boss Roy Hodgson, by first of all not answering Hodgsons post World Cup phone calls & then by telling him that he would not play against City. He let down fans who supported him ever since Liverpool took him from a disastrous time at West Ham. He let down teammates when they needed him to help them beat Top 4 rivals City & causing friction in the dressing room.
But should Liverpool fans be crying over his departure?
No. I have never seen the fuss about Mascherano. To me he is a poor mans Rino Gattuso. He is a pest who likes to break up play & build up play. But he isn’t the worlds best passer, not very quick & the least said about his shooting the better. Between them Lucas & Poulsen should have enough about them to replace Mascherano but the club still need to replace Xabi Alonso who was a far superior player, maybe the deal to bring in Raul Meireles from Porto will fill that void.
As for Javier himself, the grass isn’t always greener, you may struggle to get into a midfield with players like Xavi, Iniesta, Keita & Busquets. Plus expect Cesc Fabregas to also get his dream move to Barca next summer.
Mascherano has not been the only player to be acting like a money grabber this summer as N’Zogbia, Robinho, Jelavic & Begovic have all been at it too. Lads just show the fans & people who pay your wages more respect. If you want to leave hand in a transfer request! Simple.
Posted on August 27th, 2010 by scott
Filed under: Article
I agree, never seen the fuss made about him. He is an anti-football type player, and not a great passer. With £20m, they can do much better. Not all the Liverpool players are muppets, I reckon Hodgson can get much more from them just by trusting them and playing them in position. Meireles may be good too. good ridance to Mascherano
Yip I totally agree with you. Plus Mascherano will be on the bench more often than not with Barca this season.
I actually think it’s quite a good bit of business by Barca. Ditiching the dodgey Yaya Touré for a cool £24m to Man City and getting in one of the world’s best holding midfielders for £20m. That’s £4m profit and a better player on your books, well in my opinion anyway.
But I guess time well tell whether it works out.
One of the world’s best holding midfielders?
He provides little & won’t get ahead of Xavi, Iniesta or Busquets. Toure is younger, fitter, quicker and can get a few goals. Plus Cesc will be at Barca next year. £20m for a sub is a lot of money.
Who else in the world is a better defensive midfielder?
I like Essien and Busquets, but I don’t think they are as good at bossing the midfield and breaking up opposition play as Mascherano.
I think you’ll see at lot more of him at Barca in the next couple of years than you think. They obviously see something in him to pay that amount of money. He’ll shore up the midfield and help protect the Barca defence. Barca will get their goals from other players on the park, they don’t need their holding midfielder to get forward and score goals – plenty others in the team will do that!
I don’t think he’s as good as Graeme Souness, Roy Keane or Gattuso in their prime, but he’s still one of the best defensive midfielders in the world just now. He wouldn’t have just signed for Barca for £20m otherwise.
Players I would have ahead of him are Busquets, Cambiasso, De Jong, Fletcher, Lassana Diarra, Khedira, Essien, Diaby & Toulalan too name a few.
Plus I would say Jack Rodwell could be a world class player in the future.
Ok I have 1 name to throw at you when you say they would not pay that much and not play him… Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Where is he now??
Ibrahimovic signed for Barca last year on the back of his impressive goals tally in Serie A. He actually played 30 games last season for Barca (despite a couple of injuries) and scored around 15 goals.
I’m sure if Mascherano plays as many games for Barca this year he’ll be quite happy. Sure, he might get shipped out somewhere else (like Ibra to Milan) if his performances aren’t up to scratch, but he’ll still play more games for Barca this season than you think I reckon.
Thanks for reminding me about Darren Fletcher, he certainly does put in some great performances for Man Utd. Though I don’t think he has the same presence in midfield to intimidate players that Mascherano has.
The agressive style of Mascherano’s play makes him an asset to any team as he effectively bullies opposition players and adds ‘steel’ to the midfield. Keane, Souness and Gattuso all had this same ‘fear factor’ as evidenced by the amount of cards dished out to them in their careers. This is what I believe Barca have payed £20m for, not for his goals or equisite touch and passing.
Barca need someone to terrorise opposition midfielders, to break up play and protect the defence. Guardiola must think this ‘intimidation factor’ is something that Busquets is missing from his game, unless he has a plan to play both of them together in a sort of Makelele/ Viera partnership.
The other players you mentioned I don’t think are as good at doing this as Mascherano (well maybe De Jong actually). Diaby is a long way off a £20m move to Barca in my opinion and I do like Cambiasso too though I’m pretty sure he plays a more advanced role for Argentina with Mascherano playing the holding midfield role.
*paid, not ‘payed’!
Fletcher has won more than Mascherano but is hindered because he is Scottish. He works harder for the team, covers more ground, wins the ball more, is a better passer & scores more.
Mascherano scares no one! He gives away stupid fouls & picks up needless yellow cards. He moans at refs. To say he has the same ‘Fear Factor’ as Gattuso, Keane or Souness is very wide of the mark, they were/are dirty and put the foot in Javier doesn’t.
Im not saying Diaby is worth £20m I am saying he is around the same level as Mascherano who in my opinion isn’t worth £20m
So Ibra has done the Job Barca wanted from him?
Don’t worry I would not have picked you up on your spelling.
The point about Ibrahimovic isn’t about whether or not he has done a good job for Barca, but whether they would splash out tens of millions on a player and then not play him.
Ibra played 30 times last season for Barca and would have played more had it not been for injuries. Not bad for someone playing in a squad as good as Barca’s. Mascherano will have plenty of opportunities to play too. Perhaps Guardiola intends adapt his tactics to play two holding midfielders in certain matches, we shall see.
I really do think Mascherano will prove to be a decent signing for Barca. He’ll help provide a balance to the team allowing the likes of Alves, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi and David Villa the freedom to get forward and score goals. Barca need a Mascherano more than they need a Cesc Fabregas just now – they’re already well covered in that area!
Barca’s midfield was exposed quite badly in the Champions League last year against Inter, and I think this showed up Busquet’s limitations. Mourinho would have been looking to exploit that again in La Liga this year, and that’s why I think Guardiola signed Mascherano. I’ll bet Mourinho was gutted when his old side Inter didn’t sign him instead.
I think if you ask most football pundits to name the best tenacious and tough-takling holding midfielder in the world just now Javier Mascherano would be mentioned more often than not. Okay, perhaps he’s not as good as Makelele, Keane, Gattuso or Souness, but I can’t think of many others around just now who are.
It will be an interesting battle between Alonso and Mascherano in El Classico this year, hopefully a bit like the old Keane/ Viera rivalry. I look forward to seeing how Barca fare with “El Jefecito” bossing the midfield, should be interesting.
I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree on this one mate. We’ll see who’s right come the end of the season.
I was curious, so I checked out the number of cards Masch got last season. Turns out he had the worse disciplinary record in the EPL!
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/stats/playerdiscipline?league=eng.1&year=2009&seasontype=1&cc=5739
Okay, a few of them will be for stupid bookings for moaning, but plenty were also for dirty challenges that even Keano would have been proud of.
Just how I like my holding midfielders! 🙂
*worst.
Idiot.
Still not buying this tough tackling nonsense, he is stupid & clumsy. Alonso is a far superior player.
You pay all that money For Zlatan to then loan him out the next season = Failure.
He has a good goals to game ratio but had no one competing for his place. Barca have bought big & not used players before look at Petit, Hleb & Chygrnskiy.
A bad disciplinary record surley shows he can’t tackle either?
We will see but I have a feeling Busquets will still play more. Plus Inter were all defensive in the 2nd leg!
Just because Ibrahimovic didn’t work at out at Barca doesn’t mean Mascherano won’t.
And I’d guess that Souness, Gattuso, Keane were all near the top of the disciplinary charts most seasons, doesn’t mean they can’t tackle – far from it! I’d say that means they aren’t afraid of putting in a dirty challenge when needs be.
Not the type of football most fans want to see of course, but perhaps this sort of aggressive play is what is needed to be a successul defensive midfield player at the top level.
I have a lot of respect for Guardiola as a manger. Maybe the Mascherano signing won’t work out, but I can appreciate why he decided to spend as much on Mascherano as he did.
Or maybe it was just his wee pal Messi saying “sign my mate Masch or I’m off!” Haha!
Just because they paid £18m for him doesn’t mean he will play or stay.
Gattuso can’t tackle, Keane & Souness were extremely dirty, Mascherano isn’t he is stupid, slow & clumsy!
Pep is a very good coach but he doesn’t sign the players & there have been a few mistakes brought in recently.
Haha, I was just on goal.com (sorry for plugging a rival site!) and saw this article.
Covers a lot of the points in our debate: http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/3277/la-liga/2010/08/29/2093097/spanish-inquisition-barcelona-have-never-needed-a-zlatan