Sport without Spin » Marcel Desailly http://www.sportwithoutspin.com Rumour-busting, chat-spotting, plain-talking sport Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:49:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 en hourly 1 The voice of the expert: Desailly on Ribery and United http://www.sportwithoutspin.com/2009/06/22/the-voice-of-the-expert-desailly-on-ribery-and-united/ http://www.sportwithoutspin.com/2009/06/22/the-voice-of-the-expert-desailly-on-ribery-and-united/#comments Mon, 22 Jun 2009 08:44:41 +0000 Sport without Spin http://www.sportwithoutspin.com/?p=1928 Desailly sweats a bit - Photo William Bedzrah CCANC

Desailly sweats a bit - Photo William Bedzrah CCANC

Since United aren’t talking about Franck Ribery - at least in public - it’s making it a bit difficult for newspapers to find fresh angles on any prospective transfer other than to say that Ribery is rated as one of the best players in attacking midfield in the world, and that he would make a fine addition to any side. Fortunately, the Daily Star can shed new light on the story - they’ve obtained some quotes from Marcel Desailly all about the possible deal:

MARCEL DESAILLY has told Manchester United to pay whatever it takes to sign Franck Ribery – even if it costs them £150m.

If you open with a statement that big, what follows is bound to be excellent, frankly.

Bayern Munich have already turned down three £30m bids for Ribery, who is wanted by United, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Chelsea.

Former Chelsea defender Desailly insists his fellow Frenchman is the man United need.

He said: “I would put him in the top two wingers in the world. It’s Cristiano Ronaldo and then straight away after, it’s Ribery.”
 
So Cristiano Ronaldo is the best winger in the world, Marcel? Even it’s only by a hair’s breadth from Ribery? Interesting. Since the former is going to set Real Madrid back £80m, it might appear ever-so-slightly profligate to spend almost twice that on a player who’s nearly as good as him. And older. Could you clarify that please?

Desailly, speaking in his role as an ambassador for the Castrol Index – which tracks the performances of players in international football – added: “We are talking about talent here and there’s no price on that.
 
Good shameless piece of plugging the Castrol Index - can see absolutely no reason why that is relevant to the story, and it’s hardly as if the Daily Star are simply rigorous about explaining to its audience the origin of every single quote. “There’s no price on talent” - brilliant. There is a price on talent, though, isn’t there? It’s called a transfer fee. And you can either afford it or you can’t. Not that that stops the Frenchman:

“If tomorrow you are going to pay £150m for a player, it would not be a problem because football is continuing to grow worldwide.”
 
Good argument, probably - football is continuing to grow, so spending over three times what the world record transfer fee was merely a month ago in a time of financial downturn for a player who is, by your own admission, not the world’s best, represents problem-free business? Someone get that man a job at Setanta; he’ll fix everything. We’re currently getting all our savings together and asking Marcel to invest them for us in football.
 
And now that we’ve arrived to the end of the article, a question remains. Since his quotes don’t mention Sir Alex Ferguson, Old Trafford, the Red Devils or any such key phrases, in what way has he “told Manchester United” to pay whatever it takes? Surely if he was speaking to an English audience, you’d say it was more likely he’d want Chelsea to do it, given his ties to the club? And who says it was a British audience anyway, given that he was in South Africa working for French television in amongst all his work for Castrol? In interviews on the weekend, he’s professed a desire to go into management in the future - any chairman might want to have a frank chat about budgets.
 

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