Since you seem to be the expert on Monaco's attendance situation why don't you enlighten us on the situation? Drag us out of our ignorance and into the light of day. Does it have something to do with everyone leaves the Monarchy during the summer to escape those Stupid American tourists?
Well, Prince Albert and his entourage are currently in Mongolia. That's a significant percentage of the country, I'd imagine!
I don't think you'd appreciate it if you were reminded in every Tim Howard thread just how shit Everton are.
That's not what happened here. Sportboy333 took a simple observation about crowd size, or the lack thereof, and treated it as if it somebody had taken a shot at the team.
Hyper-sensitive whining probably isn't going to help your cause. This is probably about the best way to increase in the number of attendance jokes.
yes, makes me want to say "aaww poor guy got his feeling hurt because we made fun of the attendance awww" ...yes even though i think thats more people we get here for a chivas usa game damit
If he's competing with Menez it will be difficult. He's a talented player that was wanted by Roma and Inter this summer. I really want to see Freddy succeed and wish they'd find a way to integrate both onto the pitch at the same time.
From what I understand, Menez was all but gone before he had an injury that put the kibosh on any possible transfers. Now that he seems to be fully fit a winter move may still be in the cards, which could open up space for Freddy if he shows well.
This thread is about Adu, not focused on Monaco. For people who follow Adu, it's kind of amusing that since he fled MLS to go to the big time, he is now playing for a club with such crappy ambience. Sorry if that hurts.
Well he was dispossessed once on the dribble. However, I think it's a bit unfair to try to judge the quality of a performance of a player like Freddy based on just 6 or 7 minutes. Whether good or bad. When you have a player like Freddy, or any other flair player, they need to be given enough time to work their way into the game. Freddy can play poor football for 75 minutes and then produce a moment of sheer brilliance that makes up for everything else and then some. I know we've all seen those moments before, and I just hope Monaco will be the club that gives him the opportunity to shine.
Actually, it seemed that he was trying to stay well within himself during the time he was on the pitch. A touch here, a step there - no head-down dribbles into the teeth of the defense. Easy does it. For now.
no, when you've got a young player whose new to the club and the league, it's completely unheard of to have your first appearance be as a sub at the end of a game. ridiculous. i've never seen that before in my life.
Well, I have to support Nice because of family ties, so I feel free to make Monaco attendance jokes. But you're point is well taken.
I can see I can't leave you guys unsupervised for very long, can I? Where to begin? Many of my posts are half-humorous and half-serious at the same time. If all you get is the humor, maybe you are missing the point. But then again, don't strain yourself looking too hard - as often as not there is no underlying point, just comedic gold. ********** Someone could write a book about Adu and his coaches, already, even though he's just 19. I don't really want to talk about Nowak - in either of his iterations, DCU or Olympic team coach - except to make sure everyone has seen this interesting bit from Grant Wahl's Q&A with Sunil Gulati ... http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/olympics/2008/writers/grant_wahl/08/15/soccer.qanda/ .... Gulati: ... So I've read things that Dax [McCarty] should have played and Robbie [Rogers] shouldn't have played, and why did Jozy [Altidore] play less or play more, or whatever. I talk about those things with Peter to understand his logic. I certainly asked him why he chose to pull Freddy [Adu] off in game two. SI.com: What did Nowak say? Gulati: That's for you to ask Peter. I wanted to understand it. ... .... ********** Good luck getting that answer, Grant ... But it's really Adu's last season at Benfica that concerns me. He went through a whole series of coaches - I lost count - whose names I can't remember. The season started with a certain amount of promise, because although he didn't (seem to) get much playing time, he played pretty effectively when he did get time. And not just in the Adu-fanboy way - "Did you see him nutmeg that guy?" - but in a pretty impressive goals/minute average. To me, Adu was a standout in his limited playing time on a pretty unimpressive team. Unfortunately, I was wrong, apparently. New coaches arrived one-by-one, coaches who couldn't even read the team's stat sheet and add two plus two. What was Adu's problem? Not Portuguese? Couldn't speak Portuguese? Partied too much? Didn't party enough? Didn't train hard? Didn't follow instructions? Smiled too often? Who knows? What I know is that by season's end Adu's playing time shrank literally to zero, but not due to injury, form or fitness (as far as we know). There was much speculation about whether some quirky clause in his contract might have been holding him back, but I don't think anyone ever came on this board and offered a plausible explanation for not playing him at all. ********** Why is Benfica relevant today? First, Adu is still Benfica's - he just at Monaco on loan. Who knows what his contract looks like and what quirky clauses it might still contain. Second, although he's just arrived, Adu comes in with the particular blessing of the team's director, de Bontin. If de Bontin takes on the Gulati (micromanaging) role, Adu could find himself caught in the middle, so let's hope dB takes a step back and lets his coach coach without interference. Unless said coach refuses to play Adu, in which case all bets are off. I am not blowing another season watching Adu get insubstantial minutes. If you want me to keep posting in Adu's game-day threads, he's got to play. It's as simple as that.
I'm just worried that Monaco's coach and fans seem to think of Adu as de Bontin's merketing ploy, instead of respecting him as a player in his own right. I don't want any lingering resentment to lower his playing time. On the other hand, it's way too early to judge after one game.
In deference to the consensus opinion of our expert panel, I will wait one more game before passing final judgment.
What fans? Freddy managed to handle the 14 million registered Benfica fans just fine and without many problems. I think he can handle the dozen or so true Monaco supporters. I'd be more worried about the coach. But given Gomes connections to Benfica and his comments on Adu all should be fine. Like you said, though, its way too early to judge anything.