Cold Gettin Dumb
Active member
- Jan 31, 2013
- 462
So, If we have missed out then it is a shame, but if you step back and take off your blue and white tinted specs for a moment and look at this situation from Jonathan Calleri's point of view, it's not all that surprising. The lad is 22 and is the best young player at Boca Juniors, the biggest club in South American football. From most reports it seems he is being eased out by Boca because they need the cash. So now he must take the daunting step of emigrating, potentially to a country where he doesn't speak the language. Not an easy thing to do I'm sure.
On top of this is all the talk of Champions league winners Chelsea and Inter Milan showing an interest and then some club from the second tier in England.
I guess Paul Winstanley and the club have done all they can to sell the clubs potential to him and point to the likes of Rihad Mahrez and Odion Ighalo as examples of players who joined Championship clubs, got playing time and flourished rather than stagnated, sat on the bench at bigger clubs. Both of these guys gained experience in English football and got promoted to the Premier League and both now look like getting massive moves to teams like Arsenal and Manchester United, where they will likely be first team starters.
Luis Suarez, easily the best striker in the world on current form, didn't just move to a European giant when he came across the Atlantic. He bided his time at Groningen in Holland, before Ajax came calling and the rest is history.
So although I'm disappointed that the club didn't get their man, I'm genuinely more optimistic about the clubs future because for me, the biggest part in all this is that Brighton is now competing for the best young talent South America has to offer. This saga will be looked back upon as a watershed moment in our recent history, as the moment we began seriously bidding against the likes of 3 times European cup winners Inter Milan and did so with a better than average chance of success.
And to the Calleri's I say, We may not be the biggest club in world football, but as Luis Suarez has proved, biggest isn't always best when you are starting out in Europe. If you had come to Brighton to help us win promotion, then I'm sure we would have loved you from day one like the superstar you might one day become and you wouldn't have regretted it for a second.
Articulated perfectly there Mr Winstanley, or is that you Tony?
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