"Yes! I'm in the money!!!"
Manchester City has signed David Silva, the Valencia winger and Spanish international, with a 30 million euro transfer fee.
Silva has long been a target of several Premier League teams, but Valencia has withstood for several years the selling on of one of its star players, however, the financial difficulties at the Mestalla appear to have finally forced the hand with David Villa being sold to Barcelona earlier this month and now Silva to City. Hopefully, this will put to rest all of those silly Landon Donovan rumors.
No, not those rumors, but the rumors about Manchester Dhabi being interested in purchasing the USA soccer star. There should not have been much stock put into those rumors in the first place as it was likely agent-speak to drum up interest in his client and to up the asking price. But, it got ink in lots of different places here in the states probably because editors wanted to have a Donovan story after his gutsy performances during the World Cup, plus Citeh will be doing a US tour this summer so Citeh officials probably welcomed the rumor.
Moreover, the move would make no sense for Donovan except financially, who has finally found a rich vein of consistent form that appears to have him at the top of his game. Going to richest club owners in world would certainly help his pocketbook, but it likely would have Donovan not seeing a bunch of field time.
Currently, Manchester Arabia has a plethora of attacking options on the wing, in midfield and up top–Donovan’s most likely positions. Donovan had great success in the Premier League last season during his loan spell with Everton out on the wing and would likely be where he would play for another club. But, Citeh already has Shaun Wright-Phillips, David Silva, and Adam Johnson to fill the wing slots. The latter two being young and impressive talents that would be difficult for Donovan to unseat. Additionally, Craig Bellamy has seen time out on the wings, even though he seemed to play more of a forward position this last season.
In all, Donovan would be facing another battle for pitch time and at his age and stage of his career I would imagine that is not what he wants to be doing. He wants to play, play well, and play frequently. The Manchester City lineup would not be Donovan’s best move, except for his pocketbook. Although, I think any team signing him would likely up his salary anyway.
I think he’ll probably go back to Everton. I hope he’ll come to Villa.
It’s rather sad that by the time Valencia finish their new stadium, they won’t have any talent to justify all the extra seats.
@ben: very true.
Hopefully SWP is on the way out, so that’s one less winger. With the Europa League and the Carling Cup, I could see Landon getting some games, but probably not enough to justify a long term move.
@Ryan: yeah, not league games.
Him going there would be terrible for the developement of American soccer
@Tno: Would it? Couldn’t you spin it as “American kid, works hard, toils in MLS, works harder, gets PAID”. I have to think that would attract some young people don’t you think?
@Keith
Donovan’s already suffered enough by living in Liverpool; why on earth would he ever dream of then going to dreary Birmingham?
@JT: apparently it wasn’t that dreary, he found a lass to bang.
@Ryan – no, no. Young American kids don’t want to have to ‘toil’ and ‘work hard’ before getting paid. They want to leave college and land $75k/year jobs just because they think that’s how life works. Duh. Not to mention “work hard”. What planet are you on? lol.
@Attic: I just shuddered at the thought of Lando playing wingman to Carew, Gabby, or Young (then again, playing wingman to Ashley would just mean sitting down by the laptop and explaining the concept of chatroulette)
@Mountain WAG: Ha, I see your point. My point is that an argument I’ve heard why soccer will never get the best athletes here is that it will never reward them with enough $$$, fame, and what have you, like basketball or football would. Late night star Landon Donovan going to Man City and making 6 figures a week might change that perception.
Anyone think that Silva is incredibly overrated and only gets attention because he plays with the other David? Wouldn’t be shocked if he failed to make much of an impact at City.
@ian: Yes, I agree he’s overrated.
I can’t say I’ve watched a whole lot of Valencia games, but he’s definitely been the least impressive member of Spain’s midfield over the past few years.