AS Monaco thread [R]

[SportBoy333]

I thought the Tiago deal would be a loan deal only. I want him on loan until the end of season and to see if he can impress. He probably would agree to be lent to another team to play for 5 months to try to prove to the Portuguese manager he can play in Euro 08. If he stays in Italy and doesnt play he doesnt show or prove anything.

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

It would be loan, but Tiago is earning I think over 50,000 Euros a week at Juve, though. Juve would want us to pick that wage bill up if we're to have him, I believe.

Considering that Sambou appears as if he has some ways to go before becoming a dominant defender (though I'd already take him over Modesto), I am starting to think getting help in defense is much more important than in midfield, though Leko can't play as he did today if he wants to continue to start.

[SportBoy333]

Yes defense is more important. If Tiago continues to sit on the bench and be unhappy then I will be satisfied if they wait until the summer to get him.

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

http://www.mercato365.com/article_213320_AS-Rome-Monaco-songe-%c3%a0-Barusso.shtml

Apparently I missed this when it came out, but we are linked to various central midfielders, the majority of them defensive, though the one I'm certainly interested in is this Barusso of Roma. According to what I've read and seen a little actually for myself, he's a very physically strong midfielder with a hard shot, as well as a good attitude. Being a Ghanaian, he's obviously been compared to Essien, and while that would obviously be a stretch considering the Chelsea man is of the best players in the world, I'd take "Essien B" over the central midfielders we have at the moment.

He may not be as good a player as Tiago, but he would come cheaper on a loan (which is what I'm hearing the proposal is, as Roma aren't selling him at the moment), while certainly adding some muscle to our midfield.

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

We may not be getting Tiago, but apparently we are getting another Juve player in Sergio Almirón, who was pretty good with Empoli a season ago. The interesting thing here is that Olympiakos have also apparently agreed to a loan deal with Juve, but the source I'm reading, based in France, has him coming here.

Needless to say, his signing would be a big plus. He is a less aggressive though much better offensive version of Bernardi. It's hard to compare him with Bernardi though because they're not exactly the same type of player, though one could think Ricardo wants one Argentinian to replace the other in the lineup.

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

Ricardo has selected the 18 available against Lorient, with Gakpé, Monsoreau and Diego Pérez out with injury.

Roma, Ruffier - Modesto, Sambou, Adriano, Berthod, Cufré, Muratori, Bolivar - Meriem, Bernardi, Nenê, J.Leko, M.Martin - Bakar, Menez, Pino, Piquionne

No word on the lineup yet, but it's confirmed that Bakar will start after his aforementioned hat-trick in midweek.

Nothing less than a victory will do, and I expect one.

[SportBoy333]

Looks like Pino will play a lot more now.

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

He did pretty well in the Coupe de France match. I don't think we'll miss Koller, though I think we should have sold Piquionne since his value is high. I thought we definitely had to add guys, though hey, we have an opportunity to get into Europe with this team. Hopefully we do get Almirón or someone.

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

Well, we did what we were supposed to today, beating cellar dwellers Metz 4-1 in Lorraine. Even though the majority of our goals were scored off of defensive errors on the part of Metz, Ménez, Gakpé, and Nenê all had starring roles. Everyone else was decent to pretty good as well. The one good thing we have going for us thus far in the second half of the season is that our offensive guys are clicking. To be more precise, in each game we've had, someone on offense steps it up a notch. Ideally, what'd be even better would be to have all of them clicking at once, but for now, we'll take individual efforts if we keep winning. We have Sochaux in Louis II midweek on Wednesday, which is another we should expect to win.

Other important things from this match:

Jérémy Ménez showed today that when asked to, he can carry the load on his own up front as the lone attacker, allowing Nenê to come in on the left.

Why hasn't Bolívar been in the lineup? He's been solid since coming back to starting.

Leko is pretty useless these days. He is not having a good season compared to previous ones.

Metz fans were classy, cheers and claps were heard as Ménez departed the field after a Man of the Match effort.

[guignol]

http://www.cahiersdufootball.net/images2/2008_01/presidents_notes.jpg

i don't really deserve a say, but at one point i did consider ASM my favorite team, and i have always been vexed by the poor performance of the "other prince"... now l'équipe has rated him 19th of the 20 presidents in L1. any comments?

[SportBoy333]

http://www.cahiersdufootball.net/images2/2008_01/presidents_notes.jpg

i don't really deserve a say, but at one point i did consider ASM my favorite team, and i have always been vexed by the poor performance of the "other prince"... now l'équipe has rated him 19th of the 20 presidents in L1. any comments?

What did they base it on ? What were the full rankings ? If you or someone else could translate that article it would help a lot.

[guignol]

it was in the paper edition so i only have the full list picked up elsewhere (RCL board actually)

Classement président Ligue 1
1- Jean-Michel Aulas "Lyon" 18/20 mention très bien
2- Jean-Claude Hamel "Auxerre" 16/20 mention bien
3- Michel Seydoux "Lille" 15/20
4- Jacques Rousselot "Nancy" 14/20
... Jean-Louis Triaud "Bordeaux" 14/20 mention assez bien
6- Henri Legarda "Le Mans" 13/20
... Francis Decourrière "VAFC" 13/20
... Alain Le Roch "Lorient" 13/20
9- Gervais Martel "RCL" 12/20
... Olivier Sadran "Toulouse" 12/20
... Jean-Claude Pléssis "Sochaux" 12/20 mention passable
12- Jean-François Fortin "Caen" 11/20
... Philippe Ginestet "Strasbourg" 11/20
... Maurice Cohen "Nice" 11/20
15- Carlo Molinari "Metz" 10/20 session de rattapage
16- Pape Diouf "Marseille" 9/20
... Bernard Caiazzo "St-Etienne" 9/20
18- Alain Cayzac "Paris" 8/20 recalés
19- Michel Pastor "monaco" 7/20
20- Roland Romeyer "St-Etienne" 6/20

the grades are X/20 just like they give students here and the "mentions" are like first honors, second honors, hon. mention, etc.

the last 3 flunked and the second to last 3 have to go to summer school... sorry, that's the best i can do.

[SportBoy333]

it was in the paper edition so i only have the full list picked up elsewhere (RCL board actually)

Classement président Ligue 1
1- Jean-Michel Aulas "Lyon" 18/20 mention très bien
2- Jean-Claude Hamel "Auxerre" 16/20 mention bien
3- Michel Seydoux "Lille" 15/20
4- Jacques Rousselot "Nancy" 14/20
... Jean-Louis Triaud "Bordeaux" 14/20 mention assez bien
6- Henri Legarda "Le Mans" 13/20
... Francis Decourrière "VAFC" 13/20
... Alain Le Roch "Lorient" 13/20
9- Gervais Martel "RCL" 12/20
... Olivier Sadran "Toulouse" 12/20
... Jean-Claude Pléssis "Sochaux" 12/20 mention passable
12- Jean-François Fortin "Caen" 11/20
... Philippe Ginestet "Strasbourg" 11/20
... Maurice Cohen "Nice" 11/20
15- Carlo Molinari "Metz" 10/20 session de rattapage
16- Pape Diouf "Marseille" 9/20
... Bernard Caiazzo "St-Etienne" 9/20
18- Alain Cayzac "Paris" 8/20 recalés
19- Michel Pastor "monaco" 7/20
20- Roland Romeyer "St-Etienne" 6/20

the grades are X/20 just like they give students here and the "mentions" are like first honors, second honors, hon. mention, etc.

the last 3 flunked and the second to last 3 have to go to summer school... sorry, that's the best i can do.

Probably should have posted this in the general Ligue 1 discussion thread because it would be a better place to discuss it.

I admit that I dont know who a lot of these owners/presidents are but a few things on that list jump out at me.

Im guessing that the reason the 2 St. Etienne guys are near the bottom is because that club used to be great and now they are nothing more than just an average, mid table, non descript team.

The Auxerre boss is very high I assume because they are a small town with a small fanbase but yet they have been very competitive and a constant in Ligue 1 for many years.

No explanation needed why the PSG boss is ranked so low.

I'm surprised Sadran of Toulouse isnt much higher. Taken them from a 3rd division team to a Champions League participant in a short amount of time.

Seydoux at Lille, no surprise he is ranked high.

Pastor and Diouf near the bottom. Yeah Im guessing its because their teams are massive underachievers from where they are supposed to be.

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

I don't like Pastor, but he isn't below Diouf. Actually, I think Pastor's better than a bunch of guys ahead of him.

I don't know if Hamel deserves to be that high. After all, they're only 1 point above being relegated at the moment, and his dealings, other than the sale of Kaboul, have been getting progressively worse.

On another note, why are there 2 ASSE guys and no mention of Rennes? I actually think that guy is doing a pretty good job, especially with the academy that is continuing to develop quality guys (be it Briand, Pouplin, Wiltord, Faty, Didot, Mvuemba, Réveillère, Escudé and now Damien Le Tallec).

I'm also impressed by the presidents in Alsace (Strasbourg) and Lorraine (Nancy), who deserve to be in the top 5 IMO. Also, if things go right, a guy like Cayzac will undoubtedly climb significantly up this chart, I'd think.

[SportBoy333]

Pino was lent to a Belgium team until the end of the season. I was surprised because I though he'd play more here.

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

Actually dude the main reason is because we're about to sign Almirón, who will only have an Italian passport in June, so we have to let go of another foreigner since if not, we'd have too many, as I believe it's capped at 4.

Our 4:
Pino
Adriano
Bolívar
Pérez

I actually like Pino the best out of the 4 since I think he'll turn out to be a terrific winger/attacker, though our weaknesses are in defense, and the other 3 are defenders/defensive midfielders.

What this does mean though is that Gakpé will be starting pretty much every game on the right, and Bakar will play more too.

Anyway, we beat Sochaux today but I didn't watch it since I had class all day, not to mention it looks as if it wasn't a very good game anyway. Victory is all that counts, though, and hey, we're in a European spot again.

[hanzellmo]

Pino got loaned to Charleroi Belgian League :(

well i hope he get's more minutes there so next season he'll be a starter

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

Yeah, I'm sad about it too, though right now we have too many attacking players and not enough defensive guys. I hope that he does well in Belgium because he definitely has a lot of ability, he's fun to watch.

As much as I like Pino, I believe the best Colombian at this instance has to be Cristian Zapata, certainly one of the best defenders in the world.

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

This evening we're playing at an injury-depleted Le Mans, though that doesn't mean they aren't dangerous, as Matsui actually gave them a 1-0 lead in Louis II before Ménez became the hero in a 3-1 win for our guys. Here are the starting lineups:

AS Monaco FC:

18 Piquionne
11 Nêne - 10 Ménez - 21 Meriem -
- 23 Leko
5 Pérez
13 Muratori - 2 Monsoreau - 22 Bolívar - 12 Adriano
30 Roma


Le Mans UC:

9 Maïga
22 Matsui - 21 A. Le Tallec
17 Yebda
20 Coutadeur
33 Bouhours - 5 Cerdan - 13 Louvion - 2 Geder - 23 Calvé
16 Roche


We deifinitely should take care of business and get a win, though it won't be that easy.

[hanzellmo]

Well for me the best Colombian out there is Wason Renteria tough you have not seen his full potential yet