Filed under: Barclays Premiership | Tags: barton, bellamy, Chelsea, Gerrard, Liverpool, Manchester City, Robinho
When the Brazilian footballing superstar Robinho left Manchester City’s training camp in Tenerife during January without team permission, he said at the time that he had gone back to Brazil because of a “family matter”. His spokesman at the time also failed to shed any clarity on the situation, saying just that it was unfortunate that a negative light had been cast on Robinho’s actions.
Well what a surprise when Robinho was arrested by Manchester police this week on allegation of “sexual assault”. The date of the alleged actions are placed just 8 days before Robinho’s unannounced departure back to Brazil. Seems a bit of a coincidence if you ask me.
What is it about professional footballers that seem to make them a magnet for criminal controversy? Stephen Gerrard is still facing charges of actual bodily assault and affray after an incident in a Southport nightclub at the end of December. Gerrard is due to appear in court again in March. And we all know about other footballers who have felt the long arm of the law on their shoulder. Back in 2004 West Brom player Lee Hughes was jailed for six years for causing death by dangerous driving when a 56 year old man was killed after his car was hit by Hughes’ Mercedes.Plymouth goalkeeper Luke McCormick was jailed for 7 years 4 months for killing two young boys in a vehicle collision and Joey Barton was jailed for six months last may after being involved in an attack outside a McDonalds in Liverpool. Welsh captain Craig Bellamy has twice been involved in events that attracted the attention of the police in 2002 and 2006.
Back to the current Robinho affair. I can’t honestly see him playing next season with Manchester City. I’d suggest that he’ll either end up at Chelsea, where he originally wanted to play before the City deal was concluded or he’ll leave the UK for either Italy or back to Spain.
Filed under: Barclays Premiership | Tags: AC Milan, Arsenal, Barcelona, Drogba, Henry, Kaka, Manchester City, Manchester United, Robinho, Ronaldo
The breakdown of Manchester City’s negotiations to sign Kaka from AC Milan, followed by the unexplained departure of Brazilian striker Robinho from City’s training camp in Tenerife could be indications of signs of unrest amongst the top foreign strikers in the English game.
The failure to sign Kaka was not unexpected, after all he has been linked with unsuccessful transfer negotiations in the past, most notably the £50m attempt by Real Madrid to lure him away from AC Milan in 2006, but the hold the Premier League has on the world’s top players seems to be waning.
Arsenal lost Thierry Henry to Barcelona in the summer of 2007 and there have been numerous rumours about Christiano Ronaldo leaving Manchester United, including last summer to Real Madrid. Even as recently as yesterday Ronaldo was required to restate his allegiance to Manchester United, but we all know that saying you are happy at a club can mean nothing when an attractive offer, both financially and in football status comes along. I’m expecting one or two big name foreign strikers to succumb to the lure of the Spanish or Italian game before the season is over and Drogba may be first to go.
