A hurricane called Isabel and a Real Madrid and a Barcelona supporter agreeing on something. Is the world really coming to an end?
It would be when we were agreeing on something... But the world isnt comming to an end, it will be when a Belgium and a Dutchie could even agree on something. Still I hope Anderlecht kicks some cocky French.
I missed Travis' post, Im sleep deprived That's right, Gaspart gambled on LvG and practically showed Rivo the exit door, his contract was huge (US$ 7 million per season) and there you have 2 perfect reasons to let him go on a free, I agree about the "most productive player" tag but not in his last season with us. Exactly! that proves my point, Rivo didnt want to miss the WC due to injury and he even missed key matches in the last stretch of the season (2nd Superclasico Madrid-Barca come to mind) I think he was way too unprofesional since he sidelined himself, sometimes even without being injured.
He was let go because he didn't want to play for Van Gaal. He left, Barça stank thanks to Van Gaal and Van Gaal was fired. Milan picked him up because, well, why the f*** not? But he never really fit into their plans anyways. He's far from over.
I think it would be a great move actually. The Dutch league has the kind of football he likes to play. And in terms of salary, that would be no problem at all. Rivaldo was quoted after one of the Brazil games as saying if he didnt get first tem soon at Milan, he would even be willing to accept a contract from a brazilian club. Considering brazilian clubs cannot pay more then $50 K a month , im sure ajax wouldn't have a problem with that.
van Gaal coming over is a detail, not a minor one, but still a detail. If he was even remotely as good for Barça in his last 2 seasons like some would say, there is no way the club would have let him go, moreso without getting some money for him. You're not going to let a great player go, even though you'd like him to stay, without getting some moolah from the deal are you? (see Makelele ) His play for the team did not deserve his high salary, so he was considered too expensive and dead weight by the club, not just by van Gaal. Again, he left on a free transfer while he still had a contract with Barça, a sign that a club wants to get rid of a player as fast as possible, if I ever saw one.
As stated by someone earlier, Ajax is not the type of team to by talent. They create talent. Regardless of the type of soccer he prefers to play, this is the way it is.
We agree on it being a detail.....but it was more then minor, there were a number or reasons Barca was willing to part with Rivaldo. Mario mentioned that he sat out games which he could have played, but others including wanting a more playmaking and less scoring AM to distribute to Kluivert and Saviola. The idea was Riquelme could be this player. Obviously we found out how this worked as well. But the bottom line is that Barca keeps Rivaldo if Van Gaal doesn't come back, he was the straw that broke the camel's back. Until Van Gaal was named manager Barca hadn't shown any interest in getting rid of Rivaldo if I remember correctly. But everything would have boiled over, probably in the press, if Rivaldo had stayed, so he left. He wasn't dead weight. But Barca was backed into a corner. The rest of the world knew Rivaldo would never play for Van Gaal (he is quoted as saying as much) so Rivaldo's value plummeted, eventually to zero. Theoretically they could have got a fee from Tottenham, but they would have never met Rivaldo's wages, so the transfer would have collapsed. So Barca was left with no choice but to unload Rivaldo to anyone who could meet his wage demands, and that list was significantly lower then was reported, there was quite a difference of teams interested in Rivaldo and teams willing to pay Rivaldo what AC Milan is paying him. Basically, Rivaldo is the perfect player for a mid-table team in a major league, preferably one who is attacking challanged (actually Blackburn comes to mind, Rivaldo isn't worse of a ball hog then Cole and has far more quality). The catch-22 of course, is that no club mid-table can afford to gamble on an aging superstar, and no team who can afford his wages is willing to let him be the complete focus of the squad. But I'd say this conversation has gotten far enough off track. Basically, this isn't a fit for Ajax or Rivaldo. But it is my belief, that with motivation and interest (which he lost towards then end of his Barca stay), Rivaldo can be the same dominant player that carried Barca throughout the mid-90's and he showed it in the WC. An interesting sidenote, the day I fell in love with this sport was the game in which Rivaldo fired a hat-trick in a 3-2 victory (over Valencia perhaps?) to give Barca a spot in the CL for the next season. I think he scored the last goal late in the game, perhaps from a bike? And the emotion in the stadium showed me what was missing from American sports.....
This might all be true, but it still doesn't mean that Rivaldo isn't great! All that means is that Barca management is even more clueless than Real Madrid's! This was confirmed after Barca hovered in mid-table all of last season!
I agree. No way would Ajax be able to meet his wage demands even if Rivaldo was willing to go with 1/2 of what he's earning right now.
I was away, went to Nicaragua... Travis does have not one but several points, and bluedaddy, that WAS a bicycle! that sent us 4th and to UCL!
So they think they can win w/o him? LEts see... they proved last year they can win WITH him and couldn't score when he didn't play.
I seem to recall Rivaldo playing more at the beginning of last season than he did toward the end! Isn't that the case? Although I admit I didn't really watch them towards the end of the season (too boring). Anyway, compare AC Milan's performance in CL and serie A at the beginning of the season to the end. The team was a shadow of their former selves! Went from scoring 4,5 and even 6 goals/game routinely and crushing everybody they played, to scoring 0 and 1 goals/game and losing to Empoli!
Rivaldo might have played those games but he did absolutely nothing in them besides assisting on Serginho's goal against Inter. Milan's poor form in Serie A had nothing to do with Rivaldo not playing, although he did play alot of games in Serie A towards the end of the season and he did nothing in those games. Milan couldn't beat the minnows. That is why they didn't win in Italy. In contrast they played well against the big boys. Rivaldo had many chances last year to impress and he didn't. To be fair Tomasson should have played more than Rivaldo did. Everytime Tomasson played he did something in the game. Whereas Rivaldo would just run around and occasionally slow down the attack by holding onto the ball too long.
just for the record... 2002-2003 rivaldo 7g in 24 matches, not quite to his usual stuff, but hardly "nothing" JDT 7g in about the same amount of appearances, though fewer starts
I don't think anyone in here who thinks Rivaldo had a good year last year has a brain in there head. Bocafan, you singlehandedly prove natural selection wrong. Here's a hint, the conclusion to your opinions should come AFTER you've examined the facts. You should not, in any circumstance, formulate your own little truths based on biases beforehand. Go away.
Wow. . . you're a dork. Did I spell it correctly? Edit: On second thought, that was pretty funny. Ha. Well done.
Stats are pretty meaningless (especially for non-strikers). This is soccer, not baseball. And, in this thread, I don't think anyone said Rivaldo had a good year last season (outside of the World Cup), so your comment is irrelevant and out of place... I heard rumours that Rivaldo was going to start yesterday, but it didn't happen apparently... good result Milan. lol