Imminent departure of Newcastle flop is best for both parties
Posted by JamesB in Newcastle | 4 May 2007
Before I bumped in to an article from the Chronicle the other day about £9.5m man Albert Luque his existence had completely escaped my memory. It did however make me reflect on what an unsuccessful acquisition he has been, what went wrong and indeed why it went wrong for both player and club.
I'll be pleased to get shot of him in the summer regardless of how embaressing the loss we make on him is. The situation is not going to repair itself and we may as well just cut our losses for the good of our wage bill and whatever may be left of his career. It's a pretty gutting scenario for the fans; for a player who's reputation and price tag brought such high expectations to have as little impact as he has made me feel slightly bitter.
As for why he failed, I often hear fans blaming Roeder (as with many other things), the reason being 'Luque has not been given a fair chance.' Well to an extent they may have a point - the amount of starts he has been given has indeed been very limited and late cameos as a substitute never give a fair reflection of a player. However, these fans must remember that Roeder sees Luque in training every day, and to me the manager seems very doubtful about the player's commitment to the cause.
He wouldn't be the only one either. From what little we have seen of him, most fans should have recognised a distinct lack of effort on the pitch. Little chasing down, getting stuck in, and readiness to win the ball back has made the Spaniard look very much like a luxury player. In some cases of course luxury players are acceptable, but sadly the costs of Albert Luque loafing around outweigh the gains we get from him (of which there are very little). The much talked about left boot of Luque has done little to impress me, suggestions of having pace and being up to the physical side are laughable, and although he has occasionally shown an eye for goal it is rare that I have seen him getting in to the right positions to use that.
For me, position has been a problem as well. I think he would be most effective playing on the left side off of a lone striker, in a 4-3-3 formation. Other signings, injuries and a lack of effectiveness stopped Roeder using this formation shortly after he took over, leaving Luque only left wing and up front to compete for. He doesn't have the pace of the trickery to get up and down the wing, and gets out-muscled by big centre backs when playing up front. I suppose we will never know if he could have been effective in a different formation, but playing 4-4-2 has certainly worked against him.
Another reason, and perhaps by now more of an excuse, could be the injury he sustained against Man Utd. I have sympathy with anyone who suffers from that sort of luck, but at the end of the day sportsmen have to overcome injury and come back just as determined to perform. For me he's never shown a desire to win a place back in the team and has always looked to blame someone, or something else for not being included, so I don't accept this as a reason for failure over such a long period of time.
As I said before, the time has definitely come for Shepherd to swallow his pride and to get the Spaniard off the books. Luque's attitude isn't about to change, he would have a mountain to climb to convince Roeder he was worthy of pulling on the black and white shirt, not to mention the fans. Overall a shame, but in no way can Souness or Shepherd be held responsible; at the time there wasn't a single fan I spoke to that was against the signing. On the subject of Freddy Shepherd, I doubt he will be quick to pay for scouts' flights to Spain any time soon...
Comments
Good riddance to bad rubbish and I hope there's at least another 6 or 7 follow him out of the door.
It was unbelievable the amount of discussion that he caused. The first time I saw him, I had given my verdict that we had bought ourselves a dud. Shame, some people raved about him like he is the Spanish Ronaldinho and all that.
Many say that we should play him cause he doesn't cost us points like, say, Titus does. I'll tell you, he cost us £10 million.
And why he should give a toss - considering Roeder won't play him - is because he is paid more per week than the average citizen gets per year.
He's a disgrace, both as a footballer and a person.
I don't believe there's a single player in the Newcastle squad, let alone first team that has performed anywhere near their potential under Glenn Roeder. I may well be the only one, but i would love to see a manager come in who is a strong motivator, man manager and tactician and see what he can get out of Luque and the rest of the team, just to satisfy my curiosity. Luque was class at Deportivo and i refuse to believe you become a 'bad' player overnight.
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