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It’s time bid adieu to the silly season, that wonderful time of the year when logic goes out of the window and Twitter becomes the fount of all human knowledge. As always, most bosses sat on their proverbial haunches (with the purse firmly lodged beneath it) and refused to budge for much of the summer, with the result that no buying was done until last-minute panic set in.
And the centre of activity on D-day is good old Real Madrid, where Gareth Bale was being unveiled even as the players threatened by his arrival were having medicals across Europe. The sheer nonchalance with which the exodus was approved is jaw-dropping. Most clubs would give anything to have either Mesut Ozil or Kaka, and for a club to let them go the same day, without batting an eyelid, tells you a lot about the quality Madrid are sitting on.
It can be argued that Kaka and Ozil are at different ends of their careers. Ozil is not yet 25, and his best years are possibly yet to come (as a Liverpool fan, I can only shudder). Kaka is still useful for the occasional charge, but he has at the most two years of good football left in him (as a Juventus fan, I do not view him as a threat beyond this season). Both have bagfuls of Champions League experience, although Ozil – a three-time semi-finalist with Real – hasn’t gone as far as Kaka, who won the competition twice during his previous spell with Milan. Nevertheless, he will offer a lot to Arsenal – most importantly, the winning mentality that has deserted the club over the last few years.
The Transfers
Kaka was signed (not bought) back from Real by Milan today morning. In yet another sign of how lopsided football finances have become due to the global financial downturn, the club that dominated Europe for a decade was too cash-strapped to pay the market price for one of the principal instruments of that run, so Real let him go for free.
He ‘magnanimously’ cut his salary by 2/3rds to facilitate the move to Milan. Like any good Brazilian player, Kaka hopes to find extra form in a World Cup year; in his case by returning to the place where he saw his glory days. If viewed that way, it is a tale that does tug at the proverbial heartstrings.
But not all Milanese are delighted. Kaka reportedly made a specific request that he be the highest-paid player at the club. At 4m euros/annum, he is a massive drain on a salary bill that Milan have assiduously worked to reduce for over a year. And when you pay a player sky-high wages, he has to be played regularly, which will cramp the growth of youngsters like M’Baye Niang and Andrea Petagna. With Keisuke Honda’s imminent arrival from CSKA Moscow, are Milan losing their way and succumbing to the temptation for quickfix success?
Emotions over Kaka’s return are decidedly mixed. Some look at him as the prodigal son, back to lift the club to its halcyon days; others are questioning the wisdom of buying a high-maintenance, injury-prone 31-year old who is clearly past his best, at the expense of a youth project.
Mesut Ozil
A very different, more agreeable welcome awaits his (now-former) teammate Mesut Oezil at Arsenal’s Emirate Stadium, where the arrival of Ozil is being greeted with relieved exhilaration. Despite going on about the (undeniable) moral victory in defeating a newly-beefed up Tottenham Hotspurs without spending a penny, Arsenal fans were missing their own ‘Bale at the Bernabeu’ moment. Most Gunners have been railing all summer for a new player and, at the time of going to press this morning, still wanted one badly.
So the arrival of Mesut Ozil was greeted in much the same way that a green, leafy oasis full of cold pools would be in the middle of the Sahara in June.
In short, Twitter exploded.
Gooner euphoria aside, Ozil is definitely a prize catch and I will stick my neck out to say that he is the single best midfielder to move to England this season. Of course, Erik Lamela and Christian Eriksen are fantastic attackers in their own right, but Ozil is of a different calibre. He has proven his quality in the Champions League and the World Cup, and was a consistent starter in a Real team crammed with star forwards. His vision, through balls and speed in transition makes him an excellent catch.
And yes, there was a time when I would have said the same for Kaka.
But Kaka is now past it and is not the player Milan needs. CEO Adriano Galliani justified the twin sales of Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva last season by pointing to the wage bill. He has a good squad at hand and taking Kaka back just because he was up for grabs makes no sense. It harks back to the old days of Serie A, where fiscal irresponsibility was the norm.
Ozil’s signing on the other hand is a cause for optimism, and not just in North London. Of late, the EPL‘s level has dropped a few notches. The symptoms are manifold. For one, English clubs no longer make it to the Champions League’s latter stages as often as before. For another, genuinely good players prefer to play elsewhere – the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Ribery, Vidal and Lewandowski are arguably unmatched in the EPL. While Mesut Ozil is not yet the superman many Gooners will expect, his presence definitely allows them to convincingly challenge the Manchester clubs and Chelsea for the title.
Which makes the Premier League very interesting indeed.
