Shevchenko's Arrival: Nothing Changes
Posted by Zeno in Andriy Shevchenko, Chelsea, Premiership | 30 May 2006
Everyone’s talking about it as though it’s happened already. Yet, as far as I can tell, it’s still been several days since it was announced that “Andriy Shevchenko is less than 48 hours from Chelsea”. It’s like waiting for the Messiah, but without the Monty Python team.
I saw the clearout at Chelsea referred to, in a recent national broadsheet, as “unpitying”. With Huth allegedly going, SWP and Duff picking out new Vuitton luggage, Gudjohnsen house-hunting in Manchester and Gallas looking forward to a really good veal Milanese, there will be gaps to fill in the team. Crespo wants away – wait, no he doesn’t, oh, hang on, yes he does after all - and Carlton Cole is the subject of interest from the big cuddly Martin Jol, so an absolute minimum of 2 strikers will be needed to plug the gaps. One seems to be the Ivory Coast striker Salomon Kalou. The other might just be the Promised One. But wait a second.
After the defeat to Barcelona, there were suggestions that José had been asked to change his stripes. There were digs, reported in this very blog, that the owner wanted more input. That the policy of skilled, low-profile players bonding into a supreme unit was cutting less ice with the wealthy benefactor, and that the hiring of a few galacticos might be better in line with Roman’s vision of what a world-beating football team should be.
Well, it’s relatively easy to pick and choose when you have the sort of funds which Chelsea have access too, although (as we’ve seen) mere funds are sometimes not enough to bring the highest of profiles to your club. Of all the money spent over the last few years, the highest-profile signings (from a European point of view) are surely Hernan Crespo and Juan Veron. And neither of these has been pivotal players in Chelsea’s successes, unless you count Veron’s disastrous performance against Monaco that saw us wander tamely out of the Champions League in 2004. Terry’s and Lampard’s contract extensions, and the resurgent form of Joe Cole, have been the big news at Chelsea in the last year or two, as has the persistently outstanding form of William Gallas and the seemingly ageless Claude Makelele. We still await the spark of divine inspiration that can fall on a club: the Zola, or Bergkamp, or (if you’re willing to pay £30million) the Rooney).
And who do we get? If you could pick two galacticos who espouse the Mourinho way, you might be hard pushed to do better than Ballack and Shevchenko. Or, to put it another way, try and think of their diametric opposites. For Ballack, I nominate Kaká. Sublimely talented, with his elegant loping stride and his cultured shooting and passing, the Brasilian creator often looks as though he’d rather guest on “America’s Most Painful Midfield Accidents” than get involved in a tackle. At his worst, he strolls around the pitch like a man who’d rather not get mud flicked on his shiny Nike® Air Zoom Twist Ultra Turbo Plus 90 Killer boots. Can you see Mourinho on the line, his facial muscles twitching in apoplexy as his midfielder pulls out of a 50/50?
For the anti-Shevchenko, I nominate Zlatan Ibrahimovich. Again, it’s all style and flick, with stunning end results and rather a lot of swan-diving in between. Not that I’m suggesting Shevchenko doesn’t dive – listen, for anyone still labouring under this misapprehension, every single striker in the history of the world dives, and those of you who think this isn’t true are deluded and will only end up hating yourselves – but his game is more measured and solid than the Swede’s.
What I’m getting to, slowly, is that Mourinho is signing galacticos. How much influence the owner has over this is uncertain. But, having consciously made the decision to bring higher-profile players to the club (both aged 29, lest we forget) he’s moulding the team to his original template: studied, passing football with the emphasis on fast counter-attacking play. Shev would hold the ball up better than Drogba, but won’t have the Ivorian’s explosive pace (and never did). What he does have is the unerring ability to find the back of the net, particularly in the Champions’ League.
Next season may or may not see a procession of new, mega-famous Chelsea players turning out at the Bridge. What won’t change is the way the manager plays the game.
Comments
Spot on. Nice article.
Good move by Chelsea for getting Shevchenko, but I do blieve he'll only be able to give you guys just a couple of years at the very top level. So in my eyes over 30 GBP is a lot of Loot for a player who's turning 30 by the start of the season.
And by the way I have yet to see KING HENRY make a meal of it.
You've never seen Henry take a tumble? You must use Wenger's optometrist.
