Argentine NT: News, Stats & Players [R]

Football Manager wonderkid Maxi Romero with a 93rd minute goal to keep PSV at the top of the Dutch league standings

Con este gol en el último minuto, el ex #Velez Maxi Romero le dio la victoria por 2-1 al #PSV sobre el #Emmen en la #Eredivisie 🇳🇱
pic.twitter.com/CqRXqm70GK

— Primero Vélez Radio (@PrimeroVelez_) September 19, 2020

Nice header... and he had barely came in off the bench moments before, in the 89th minute.

This was his first official appearance for PSV since returning over the break from his loan with Velez. If I'm not mistaken, this was also his first official goal in the Eredivisie, as during his first stint in Holland (2018-19) he played almost exclusively for their reserve team. Hopefully he keeps it up..

 

Gaich on a similar note... he has been seeing nothing but bench in Russia. Over the 8 games CSKA have played this season, he has accumulated a little over 100 minutes and no goals. In the last 3 games he didn't even come in as a sub. Things aren't looking good for him and this may just ruin his NT chances...

Speaking of subs, what the hell happened to Lanzini? I know it's still early in the season, but he hasn't featured yet for West Ham in the Premier League... I saw that he played midweek vs. Charlton, but they were using mostly subs since it was Carabao Cup.

 

I was glad when negotiations with Club Brugge for his transfer fell apart as I felt he needed to go to a more competitive tournament than the Belgian League, but then he ended up going to CSKA and that was even worse...

He was settling in nicely in San Lorenzo pre-COVID... shame he chose to divert his career the way he did. Being that he was linked to teams from Serie A, Bundesliga, La Liga, etc. (albeit without official offers), he should have just ridden it out and continued developing in Boedo until another offer came by now or in a future transfer window.

Of course we also need to consider San Lorenzo's needs and how they probably pressured him into accepting the offer given the dire economic situation all the clubs in the country are facing... but the destination wasn't ideal and the offer wasn't necessarily that great either (~8M euros).

 

That difference in posture from European clubs when it comes to negotiating with Brazilian and Argentine sides always irked me...

Real Madrid bought Vinicius Jr. from Flamengo for €46M when he had made just one appearance in their first team.. Neymar, on the other hand, was already more accomplished when he left Santos, but Barcelona paid €80M+ for his services... there's no way River, Boca, or Independiente would sell a player for nearly that much, no matter how good they were.

Lucas Paqueta and Lucas Moura also left their Brazilian sides for more than €40M, and there's a handful of other players that were sold in the mid-€30M region.

Toro, although as you say would have gone for more if he was coming from a Corinthians or a Palmeiras, overall was a very impressive sale for Argentine standards... but even then he was the exception more than the norm. Look at Nico Dominguez going to Italy for $9M, Gio Simeone joining Genoa for €3M, Pezzella joining Betis for a mere €3M after being laureled with achievements in River, etc.

Or look at our current NT squad... Udinese paid Racing €3M for De Paul.... Tagliafico joined Ajax for $5M.... Musso joined Udinese for $4.5M... Emi Martinez went from Independiente to Arsenal for $500,000... Velez got $4M for Otamendi... Saravia from Racing to Porto for $4M.... Atletico paid €2.5M for Nehuen Perez!!

It's quite sad how badly our teams get screwed on the negotiating tables, even moreso when considering the polarity with European-Brazilian transactions. Unfortunately, it's only going to get worse now with the devaluating peso and the significant impact the suspension of the Superliga has had on Argentine teams.

 

Simeone with another Serie A goal, this time vs. Sassuolo

El ex delantero de #River Giovanni Simeone anotó este gol en el empate de Cagliari y Sassuolo por la primera fecha de la Serie A. https://t.co/uf2LNP847w

— RiverMundi (@MundiRiver) September 20, 2020

That makes it 7 goals in 14 games since the return of Italian football in June... Not bad..

 

Carlos Fernando Valenzuela (from the U23 NT) with his first European goal, scoring for Famalicao in his second Liga NOS appearance:



21-year-old Argentine Joaquín Pereyra replaced him in the same match, making his official debut in the Portuguese league. Never heard of him tbh, but it appears he's a left-footed attacking midfielder who joined the Portuguese side on loan over the break from Rosario Central.

In other news, Leverkusen tied 1-1 vs. RB Leipzig on Saturday for the second round of the Bundesliga, and both Alario and Palacios saw the entire thing from the bench. When it appeared Pipa was finally going to start getting minutes with the exits of Volland and Havertz over the break, the damn Germans went on to splurge €26.5M on Patrik Schick later in September and now Alario is back to square one as a sub..... he should have just gone with his original plan to move on loan to another team. What a shame....

As for Palacios, yeah, yeah, "they're settling him in slowly until he adapts" and yada yada, but 17-year-old Wirtz has been starting in midfield the last 4-5 Bayer games, so that doesn't speak too well of his stature within the German side.

While on the topic of the Bundesliga, 20-year-old Mateo Klimowicz (son of former player Diego) scored his first goal in the German top tier after gaining promotion with Stuttgart last season:

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I cracked up when I saw Jorge Jesus's reaction to Otamendi's signing:

"If I have a choice, I want Rúben [laughs]. But if I have to have Otamendi, I'm satisfied."