I don't really rate Pavlyuchenko. He's an average talent at best. But one Russian forward who I'm really impressed with is Pogrebnyak.
this is from the "Re: Kim Dong Jin at Zenit St. Petersburg 2008/09" couple of months before the Euros. I expected these two to make their mark in Euro 2008, and as you all seen Arshavin did, but Pogrebnyak missed out in participating due to an injury just before the start, think it was during a friendly against Serbia, remember feeling sorry for him. I also expected both to be sought after by other European teams, with a lot of offers on their door step, whether or not they performed in the Euros, solely on their merit as players for Zenit. But of course not. Pogrebnyak still at Zenit and perhaps that shows how tournaments like the Euros and WC are still far more important for being noticed than playing in a league considered a notch below, or just not well known enough. Although you have to say you would have thought scouts would have been drooling over Pogrebnyak for his performance in the UEFA Cup, although he did miss out in the final. Also the Russian Premier League cant be that unknown a territory for these scouts. Still the money is good at Zenit and they are in the CL as champions of the UEFA Cup, also won the Super whatever thingy in which he scored in against ManU, and Russian Premeir league is a good league in its own right. Maybe he needs a better offer than he has received to lure him away. Arshavin, thanks to in large part one fantastic game, against the Dutch in the Euros seemed to have the world at his feet and it was thought he could be going virtually to any club he wanted and even his dream team Barca (ruomours of Barca approach was straight after the Dutch match but before the SF against Spain, you go and figure). But in the end it all came to nothing. Pavlyuchenko, on the other hand had a good Euro, scored with the head, scored with the right, scored with the left, all great goals especially the one with the left IIRCC. He didnt set his eyes too high like Arshavin, instead he set it just low, low enough for him to look down upon from his tall height...Spurs. Yes, Spurs sounds about the right level for him, and if Spurs use him well and allows him to play to his strengths, that is serve him the ball in to the 18 yard, he will then find the target, he will do better for Spurs than Berbatov did. At least hes got some pace.
Barca's interest in Arshavin has been ongoing since Zenit's UEFA Cup final match against Rangers. It was actually the former manager Frank Rijkaard who wanted him at first. I'd love to see him in blaugrana. He'd be deadly with Messi on the wings.
Pavlyuchenko= Mr. Sitter Arshavin= reminds me of Schweinsteiger, good in some games, anonymous on others Tymoschuk is a good player.
Tymoschuk = dirty worker in midfield Arshavin = the ace of the team Pogrebnyak = the closer And now they've added Danny into the mix. He's another exciting player. I wish I can see Zenit play more often. Pretty unfortunate for Kim Dong-jin, tho. He lost his starting spot while he was away from the team playing in the Olympics. Hopefully he can win it back.
ah yes Frank Rijkaard. but i was referring to reports of a formal offer. as for Kim Dong-jin, i do think he can win it back if he returns to his pre injury form he had with Zenit. Those were some matches he played for them, truly integrated into the team, a lot of 1-2s and passing and his role being quite pivotal.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/t/tottenham_hotspur/7640928.stm Ramos stays calm over job future Is Spurs ready for another change in manager? if so do they have enough money left to buy new players the new manager wants this January? when they had Jol they were threatening to create the Big 5 in the Premiership, but they werent happy with just being 5th once they got used to it. Now look at where they are.
Anyone else amazed by Zlatan? Holy SHIT Josie M is turning this guy inside and out and just juicing Z.I. for everything he's worth. Loving the magic over at AC.
http://www.goal.com/en/articolo.aspx?contenutoid=931842 Ramos is gone .. replaced by Redknapp of all people. The likes of Mancini and Rijkaard were available iirc, but they go and pay 5M in compensation for Redknapp Nice gig for Ramos, 12M for getting sacked
You know that somewhere in Germany...Dortmund to be exact...there is a Korean "LeftBack" who is having a good chuckle to himself. Not to mention a big balding Dutchman in Hamburg.
If Lee had decided to stay at T'ham, I would have been proven right. Bale and Assou-Ekotto have both played like rubbish, and Gilberto has hardly even played.
It's funny how destiny works. In a way, Lee was unlucky that Ramos was Jol's replacement. But now it seems Lee is enjoying time in Germany and not regretting one bit about his life in the EPL. And Ramos? I don't even want to start about him.
We don't know what events transpired between Lee and Ramos. Lee was saying even before the end of the last season that he thinks he will be moving elsewhere, so probably Ramos decided he didn't want to play Lee any more, if that is the case. Of course, Ramos was already benching Lee before that, but I think much of that was due to Lee's not having recovered his peak conditioning after his injury layoff. When Lee appeared in the Champions League match against PSV, it was the worst that I'd seen Lee ever play. But anyway, I was right that Ramos wasn't untouchable, whereas many thought he was.
Ramos was overrated because of his brief successful stint with Sevilla. Two UEFA cups in two years seems to have made him the equivalent to Rafa Benitiez which in my mind is laughable seeing how Rafa won the league with Valencia and has also bagged a Champions' League title. What Phil Ball (the best football correspondent and an authority on Spanish football in my opinion) points out is that prior to that stint at Sevilla, Ramos was at ten clubs in ten years. How he treated Lee is not an issue with me. There are always going to be managers who don't play Korean footballers. That's part and parcel with the game. We tend to be very focused on our footballers that we sometimes fail to see that managers just view them as players that can either do what they want or they can't. But the Carling Cup (or whatever the League Cup is called now) that Tottenham won was a misleading indicator of what was to come. I think it speaks volumes that the first match in the post-Ramos era results in a win for new manager Harry Redknapp. Any club that sells Jermaine Defoe, Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov without finding any suitable replacement (other rumors of Arshavin) is doomed to failure. And not holding those at the helm responsible would be a gross act of irresponsibility. Now the fight for Tottenham is to survive relegation. The last time I remember Spurs fighting relegation was Jurgen Klinsmann's second stint under another abysmal failure of a coach, Christian Gross (who is still f**king up at FC Basle when they got railroaded by Barça this past week). Good times rolling at White Hart Lane.