Thoughts on the Morata Transfer

By tdf, July 10, 2014

It sounds more horrid by the day. It is worthy of reasonable unease to accept that we are embracing a feeder club role to an elite club with whom historically we have enjoyed mutual respect and comparable prestige on the continental stage. Yet even harder to stomach the suggestion that the player is already set on returning to Madrid, and that he possibly has zero interest in forging a strong bond with our club, and instead sees us solely as useful for gaining experience at a decent level and encouraging the club he truly loves to bring him home in the near future and allow him to fulfill his ambitions.

Added to this is the likely story that we have beaten off the likes of the mighty wolfsburg and 2nd tier premiership force of Arsenal to offer ourselves as trainers, a creche, a stepping stone, to a player costing a major chunk of our transfer budget. It makes for deflating reading, less than toothsome consumption.

I suppose like several others, despite my understanding of our place in the new order of european football, part of my mind-set remains stuck in the first 15 years of my support for the club, a period in which Juve – not always, but often – was seen as a potential pinnacle of a player’s career. A team where you earned a place by virtue of excelling at generally lesser teams first. And now…this feels like rather than eating the cookies, we are politely consuming the crumbs. We have become a stepping stone.

What a deeply saddening sign of the times.

Still, we are surely better off focusing more keenly on the positives of our position. Three league titles on the trot. A solid defence, which I believe will be considerably strengthened (for a season, two at the most) by the arrival of Evra, the midfield includes world class talent young and old, with solid backup from marchisio and asamoah. And up top, Tevez and Llorente could improve their cohesion, Iturbe could be a very exciting transfer (though rather pricey), there remains talk of Pereyra and of course, the annual story of Pepe’s Lazarus routine.

I half hoped we would sign a potential replacement/apprentice for Pirlo. Baselli seemed interesting, but perhaps others have moved for his services. Marrone is surely heading out yet again. Appelt remains inexperienced. It seems the regista role could be phased out. Else surely we would be focusing on players to back up and learn from the bearded genius? Surely we could find a young and eager regista for a decent price around Europe?

In defence my quiet yearning continues for Bonucci to be sold on and in his place to arrive a more natural leader…such as Garay…The interest in Mustafi was positive. But what of Sorensen? Why not give him a chance during the ritiro rather than ship him out to foreign pastures? He showed such wonderful natural ability in the past. I am only mentioning the defence because Barzagli is becoming more injury prone and will miss a fair few weeks in the near future. Ogbonna deserves more opportunities and I suspect he has the makings of a top quality CB, but will he get the chance to stake a claim for the consistent first team run any player needs to fully find their form?

Of course there is Rugani to consider, yet he will be at Empoli. At least for the coming season.

Much to ponder…and little time to do so, given my present european jaunt which today launched me from amsterdam (where I watched the semi final last night and was proud to see my savage queen cheer the Argies whilst surrounded by orange) to the Mitte region of Berlin, where we will stay for a week, taking in the final amongst the natives, which should be fun. Or at least something intense to write of. My first chance in a fortnight to sit and try to catch up in depth on the most pressing global affairs and Juve matters, and I have stuck with the latter…after a pinch of the super silver haze which accompanied me here from the coffee shop in holland.