Robinho - Good As Gone?

By: Steve | July 15th, 2008

Hala Madrid! What up, Madridistas? I feel like I need to throw in a post here and there to take some of the heat from Corey, who’s been doing a ridiculously fantastic job blogging here. I just don’t know how you find the time to do it.

Anyway, as a follow up to Corey’s last post about the Robinho situation, I give you this Guardian article. Here’s a snippet:

Real Madrid were last night considering a bid which sources at the Bernabéu claim is worth €60m (£48m) for the Brazilian playmaker Robinho after the Chelsea chief executive, Peter Kenyon, called Madrid’s sporting director, Predrag Mijatovic, to increase a €40m offer first tabled last Friday.
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Chelsea’s renewed bid came in the wake of a tense meeting at the Bernabéu yesterday morning in which Robinho, flanked by his agent Wagner Ribeiro, told Mijatovic face to face of his desire to leave Madrid and play under Scolari.
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Robinho has been irritated by Real’s attempt to use him as a makeweight in their move for the Old Trafford winger, while the club has refused to offer a contract extension.
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“Madrid have failed to value him as he deserves,” Ribeiro said, “and I do not like the fact that they tried to include him in the Ronaldo deal. Money is not the problem for us now. What matters for Robinho is to leave the club and play for Scolari at Chelsea.”
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Although Robinho’s absence from the club’s Portuguese get-together yesterday was attributed to his insistence on playing at the Beijing Olympics, that is an honour he would forgo to complete his move to Chelsea.

Well, that sounds like, to me, that Robinho has made up his mind to go and has told Calderon and Mijatovic about it. Something we basically wanted CRon to do but hasn’t.

So we’re potentially left with egg on our face, if CRon doesn’t press his situation and Robinho does. Of course, Calderon’s assertion that “you can’t buy what someone isn’t selling” could still hold for Robinho, but would you want to have him on the squad now?

In this situation, Man U is holding all the cards. First, they don’t want to get rid of CRon, but losing him and having Chelsea get Robinho? Hell no. Sir Alex would probably rather retire than have that happen, so chances are, if Robinho isn’t going to Man U in a deal for CRon, the Portuguese superstar isn’t coming to Madrid.

And if CRon isn’t coming to Madrid, could Robinho still go to Chelsea? It’s possible, maybe even probable at this point (though i’d hate it not least because I only got a Robinho shirt back in April). We already play a lopsided system, with Robben and Robinho both best on the left, and no real right winger (something Balboa could’ve done - wait, he’s in Portugal), and Robben would be worth starting for the half-season he’s healthy. His work with Sneijder in the Euro tournament was hypnotic.

Anyway, from where I stand (sit… at work, though in my defense, it’s lunchtime), Real is in for a world of hurt, one way or another. Their only way out now is to get CRon.