Another massive transfer window. Deadline deals, transfer requests and another Red wanting to join Chelsea. Fernando Torres part 2? Well, not exactly. Not as far as I am concerned.
January was a different story. We were coming out of the dark times, not out of them yet. We needed support from the players to pull us out of there. We needed the stars, who we idolized, to stick with us, support us. Not turn their backs on us. We wanted them to believe in the project. But someone got cold feet. He was worried about his age and he wanted to play 6 or 8 mid-week games in a year more. So be it. We know how well that turned out.
Raul is different case. He wasn’t an assured starter after our summer signings. Our squad is at it’s strongest in quite sometime now. He was never assured of his preferred CAM role and now with Bellamy and Henderson coming in, and Kuyt still giving Energizer bunnies the complex, Raul’s stay would have been mostly on the bench if not in the stands. Raul is another 29-30 year old who, may be, desires to play a few Champions League games. He wasn’t getting them here this year. Next year, chances for him to make the squad would be slimmer than they would have been this year (he would have been older and other who would have started before him most of the games and would have helped us qualify would have confirmed their position in the pecking order). Although he did quite a lot for us last year, but this season the above scenario looks similar to that of Joe Cole’s. Well, in that case, we should have sold Raul to a club similar to Lille, read: smaller? But, haven’t we? If a player, in search of first team football, has to go to another club, what would it say about the other club?
If we were to finish below Chelsea this year, I would be very very disappointed!
Raul, your pinger against Wolves was one of the better memories of last year. You were with us when we were having the worst of our times and one of those who stood out. Thank you and farewell!