Breaking news: Cassano off to Sampdoria!
By: Steve | August 13th, 2007
As much as it pains me to use it as a news source, Goal.com is reporting that a long-rumoured deal to move Italian striker Antonio Cassano from Real Madrid to Sampdoria has finally concluded. The malcontent was eager to leave the Spanish capital, and the club are quite happy to see the back of him as well.
He arrived from Roma in January 2005 having fell out of favour there and on the Italian national team, but due to his youth and the change of scenery, it was expected that he would quickly regain his form that made him a fearsome young attacker. With the arrival of his former coach in Fabio Capello in the summer of 2006, expectations were high, but Cassano failed to live up to them, forcing Capello to relegate him to the end of the bench.
The deal illustrates just how far he’s fallen at Madrid: despite the loan agreement, Los Merengues are still paying two-thirds of his salary, and Sampdoria picking up only one-third, or 1.4 million euros. The technical staff must have decided that paying the chubby forward to leave was better than having his black cloud hanging over the team.
Despite the move, the team is not without other attacking options, with incumbents Raúl, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Robinho and Gonzalo Higuain and new additions Javier Saviola, Roberto Soldado (back after last year’s loan to Osasuna), and youth team callup Alberto Bueno. Yet another example of addition by subtraction. Ciao, ciccione!
Category: Team News
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Comments
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I was so excited when he came. I thought he’ll flourish under Capello. It’s a shame he’s leaving with his name in the bad books of the fans.
I still feel we’re short on strikers. Robinho doesn’t score as many as he does for Brazil. Higuain is a good substitue, thats it. Hopefully Saviola should regain his form. An injury to RVN, we’re looking thin. We should try and save RVN for CL and give Soldado as many chances as possible.
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Haran: I didn’t think Cassano would be a star, but I also didn’t think he’d be this bad either. Makes you wonder why people still think Adriano is still worth a big transfer, no? Same type of striker, weight issues, etc…
I don’t think we’re that short on strikers, though Robinho doesn’t normally play as a traditional striker. He’s been used on the left wing as a foil for Raul, and he’s made some good runs in from there. Higuain did pretty well in the last 10 matches of last season, and filled in quite well when Ruud went down in the last match. I do agree that Soldado needs more PT though, that guy has a great nose for goal.
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Soldado will get his chances, but they will come off the bench to start. But two years ago he scored a couple off the bench, its what kept him in the first team. RVN will be out but between Soldado and Saviola we should be alright, lets hope Raul is able to bang in the goals again. Also, Sneijder should bring goals from midfield, he had 20 last year.
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Marca claimed today that Real are looking at loaning out Soldado as well as he might not get the playing time he wants; I think this would be a mistake. As per Corey’s post, he will get his chances to shine and maybe displace some of the others. Even RVN is not guaranteed a starting place: he does go through periods of goal droughts.
On Cassano: good riddance, wish they’d sold him (even at a loss) rather than loaned him. Let’s hope we’re not in the same position next year after paying out nearly 3 million euros on his salary this season.
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Thats right Gonzalo, loaning Soldado out would be a mistake.
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