Transfer roundup:
By: Christoffer |
2 Comments
There are a lot rumours down on the Cote D’Azur as Guy Lacombe wants to start get rid of all the players he doesn’t have in his plans and instead bringing in some new faces. That has led to the signing of Djimi Traore and soon possibly also some other players. So here is a round-up of the incoming and outgoing transfer rumours.
In:
Steve Savidan: The rumours are saying that he could sign with us anyday. The only thing preventing the transfer from happening has been his price-tag, but according to various sources, they are very close to an agreement that should be just about 4,5 million €. So Savidan should be able to join Les Monegasques here in the upcoming days. That is almost for sure! He will be a great mentor for all our youngsters on the team.
Mathieu Coutadeur: A lot of rumours are saying that he has made his choice about his future destination, and according to various sources it is said that it is Monaco! He should have agreed to a contract worth of 3 years, but the price of him has yet to be worked out. Hopefully it can be done in the next days so he can join the team as soon as possible.
Andriy Schevchenko: Well this is just a rumour about us offering him a 3 year deal, but I just don’t see it happening with us about to sign Steve Savidan. The rumours of him coming to Monaco has been on and off, but quite frankly I don’t want him here in Monaco. He has lost his form and his salary demands will be huge. So don’t count on this happening, but still funny to think that such a big player have been rumoured to us.
Out:
Jerko Leko: Leko isn’t in Lacombe’s plans for our future, and according to a lot of sources(Skysports) he could join Wolverhampton as soon as this week! The price have been worked out between the clubs and it should be just around 2 million €. So the clean up in our squad has indeed begun.
Patrick Müller: He is old, and not in our plans and if we are not able to sell him, he will be released. He is one of many players on the transfer list in Monaco, and he should be gone very soon!
So some nice players could come to Monaco. I am most excited about the rumours of Coutadeur and I really hope it is true. He passes the ball great and gets all the players on the team involved in the attack, and I believe that with him passing the ball to our wings Mollo and Pino we will have a nice midfield here in the upcoming season.
That is all for this time. I will be back with the next transfer roundup.
Category: Monaco Team News
Savigol is ours
By: Richard | 1 Comment
It’s not quite official yet, but according to the player’s agent, Steve Savidan will
wear the diagonal shirt next year. The lack of a reliable number 9 was obviously a problem for us–Savigol scored 14 times for a relegation side, while our leading scorer last year was Licata with only 6 goals. He does turn 31 later this week, but we only need a short-term answer while we wait for Pino, Nimani, etc. to fully develop. With the money madness at places like Real Madrid and Manchester City, 12-15 goals a year in a major European league for only 4 million Euros is shrewd business.
And if that weren’t enough, the Shevchenko fantasy refuses to die. Last week, both club president Keller and coach Lacombe laughed off the speculation bringing Andrei to Monaco, but today L’Equipe says that a 3-year contract has been offered. To be honest, my attitude to this is still, ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’.
Category: Monaco Team NewsOut with the new and in with the old
By: Richard | 3 Comments
It’s been a little while since I posted and some things have changed. First and foremost, Monaco have a new coach–Guy Lacombe, who was the head man at Rennes. I can’t pretend to know much about him, but a sizable portion of Monaco fans feel he could be the right man to mold our young talent.
Speaking of young talent, last year’s leading scorer Licata jumped ship for Auxerre. Not really a surprise as Alexandre admitted he was likely to leave if Ricardo did not stay on.
Monaco’s first capture of the transfer market is not a particularly exciting one. Premiership journeyman Djimi Traore has joined the team on a two-year deal. Obviously the ex-Scouser is not the man to lead us into a Champions League spot, but he could be a useful role player for Lacombe.
Much more thrilling is the rumors surrounding AS Monaco’s targets in attack. Word has it that the wife of a certain down-on-his-luck Ukranian striker (see above) is pressing her man to move to the south of France to live the caviar life. Let’s hope Mrs. Shevchenko wears the pants in the family. Yes, I know he’s been rubbish for awhile now, but Andriy is still only 32 and surely it must be worth a gamble to see if he can revitalize himself against Ligue 1 defenses. I drool at the prospect of him playing alongside Pino.
Failing that, the other candidates are Steve Savidan from relegated Caen or the second coming of Jan Koller in the form of Nikola Zigic. I’d much rather have Savidan, but I have the feeling one of the big 4 in France will get him first.
The pre-season schedule has been announced, with the most interesting match being a match away to FC Porto. Stay tuned…
Category: Monaco Team NewsFreddy Adieu
By: Richard | 9 Comments
Lots of news since I last posted. Lets get right to the thing that will interest most people who stop by here: Freddy Adu is going back to Benfica after failing to do anything of note in his time at the Stade Louis II. Some will say he never got a fair chance and others will shrug and say he couldn’t force himself into a team full of unproven young talent.
Our coach Ricardo will also not be back next season, and the search for a replacement has begun in earnest. Early candidates include former Rennes coach Guy Lacombe and also Paul LeGuen, who should need no introduction.
Our form has been indifferent, which is typical of any team hopelessly stuck in mid-table with new ownership and a lame-duck manager. We face PSG in the season finale and we usually play our best football against the big clubs (we defeated the Parisians the first time we met this year). However, there will hardly be enough men to fill out a teamsheet–we are deprived of Licata, Muratori, Mollo, Gakpe, Adriano, Gosso, Bakar, Sagbo, Alonso and Haruna through injury or suspension. Maybe Freddy will get a chance to play one last time before departing…
P.S.: congrats to Barcelona. they had to win, as they outnumbered Man Utd in former Monaco players 3-1. karma.
Category: Monaco Team NewsA challenge to everyone reading this
By: Richard | 8 Comments
I was bored and started thinking about the great players who have worn the Monaco shirt in the past, and it made me think: ‘a lot of these guys are still playing. I could make a team out of former Monaco players that would be 10x better than our current roster. Then, after I made it, I thought: can any fan make a better team out of former players?’ Now, the only condition is: all players must still be playing in an active league somewhere. It might be easier to do this for the Barcelonas and Juventuses of the world, but I think the former Monaco XI could win the Europa League maybe, if I can find a reserve goalkeeper somewhere…
Goalkeeper
——————-
Stephane PORATO (Xerez-Spain)
(ok, admittedly this is a weak point. what can I do, Barthez is retired.)
Defenders
——————-
MAICON (Inter Milan)
Rafael MARQUEZ (Barcelona)
Sebastien SQUILLACI (Lyon)
Patrice EVRA (Manchester United)
Midfielders
——————
Yaya TOURE (Barcelona)
John Arne RIISE (AS Roma)
Marcelo GALLARDO (River Plate)
Ludovic GIULY (Paris Saint-Germain)
Forwards
——————
David TREZEGUET (Juventus)
Thierry HENRY (Barcelona)
Manager: Arsene WENGER (Arsenal)
bench: Christian Panucci (AS Roma), Gael Givet (Blackburn), Hugo Ibarra (Boca Juniors), Jerome Rothen (PSG), Jeremy Menez (AS Roma), Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal), Marco Di Vaio (Bologna)
Can any of you make a better team of active former players from your favorite club? post yours below, I’d love to see what you come up with…
Category: Monaco Team NewsLet’s catch up…
By: Richard | Add Comments
OK, so right after I promised to post more often to see l’ASM through a tough relegation scare, I don’t post for a month. What can I say in my defense? Well, I was out of the country for some of the time. Also, the team actually started playing well, and being the superstitious fool I am, I thought I might break the string of good results if I made a boastful post.
First, they drew 2-2 with Lyon. Then, they thumped Rennes 3-1 and won 1-0 at Le Mans. This virtually ended any relegation worries and for the most part ended Monaco’s season as far as meaningful games. They are 10 points clear of the drop zone with 4 games to play, but they are also hopelessly out of reach of European football. So, nothing to play for, eh?…
Well, let’s look to the future, shall we? No issue is hotter than the fate of coach Ricardo. When I last posted, I would have told you he is a dead duck, but Monaco’s form in April has earned him support in some circles. It seems that some of the players have a ‘If he goes, I go” mentality regarding Ricardo, notably leading scorer Licata, who has been linked with Auxerre.
Speaking of Auxerre, they ended Monaco’s purple patch on Saturday, winning 1-0 at the Stade Louis II. It was exactly the kind of abject and indifferent display that had people calling for Ricardo’s head before April. Will the new owners pull the plug on him? Four matches left, and the last two are vs. Bordeaux and PSG. Stay tuned…
Category: Monaco Team NewsQuitters
By: Richard | 2 Comments
Monaco surrendered their place in the Coupe de France yesterday in the meekest of fashions, losing 2-0 at Grenoble. Every time I think this season has reached its lowest point, Ricardo’s boys invent a new way to underwhelm me. It was astonishing, I have never seen such indifference on a football pitch before. I’ve watched the Faroe Islands play the big boys in Euro qualifiers several times. They were completely overmatched, but they tried to compete. I don’t mean to take anything away from Grenoble (lord knows they beat us earlier in the season in what many fans considered to be the low point of the campaign), but we went a goal down to a very lightly-regarded team and had no reaction. None. Pino tried to play a little, but everyone else was sleepwalking through this match. Pokrivac, Muller, Perez, Mongongu, Lolo….
This was a league cup quarter-final match when all of the L1 powerhouses had already been eliminated. You would think that might motivate a team of young and (supposedly) hungry players looking to make names for themselves. If they don’t want to wear our shirt, they certainly aren’t doing a good job of marketing themselves to their next employers. If they think they can dog it through this season and that Lyon or some Serie A team is going to throw them a lifeboat in the summer because they’re young and have ‘potential’ (ahem), they’re crazy.
For once, Ricardo admitted reality in the post-match interview, but I don’t see how he cannot be blamed for this apathetic display.
Category: Monaco Team NewsKarma Chameleons
By: Richard | 1 Comment
AS Monaco 3 (Nimani 39, Modesto 75, Lolo 90)
Toulouse 2 (Gignac 26, Cetto 68)
Well, well, well. Stoppage time goals are in vogue this season at the Stade Louis II. I’d like to think that after Cavenaghi’s blatantly offside last-minute strike against us in the 3-4 farce v. Bordeaux, the gods of football have smiled on us with some divine intervention.
It was all TFC at the start, a Toulouse corner landed at the feet of Gignac, who blasted in from a yard away. Braaten then had a venomous shot come off the crossbar. Monaco equalized when Mollo’s free kick from the right sailed over the defense and found Nimani, who clearly mishit his shot but scored anyway. Ruffier was to blame when TFC regained the lead; he rushed off his line to clear a long ball, unfortunately Cetto beat him to it and headed softly over him and into the net. Modesto made it 2-2 with a fantastic overhead kick from Nimani’s cross, the shot went into the ground and bounced up into the roof of the net–very hard to stop. Deep into injury time, Mollo won a free kick; his shot was parried by Carrasso right onto the foot of our new Ivorian defender Igor Lolo, who poked home to give us all three points.
A fantastic result against a quality side when we were missing a host of layers through injury (add Alonso to the list, he hobbled off very early and was replaced by Gakpe). Next up: a Wednesday CdF match v. Grenoble.
Category: Monaco Team NewsThe turning point?
By: Richard | 2 Comments
AS Monaco 2 (Nimani 20, Mollo 90)
St. Etienne 2 (Payet 26, Matsui 61)
This may well be the match that saves Monaco and condemns les Verts to Ligue 2. It’s only 1 point, but the negativity surrounding Monaco in the new year has gotten so bad that it feels like a victory. Even with this draw, ASM has managed 5 points out of a possible 21 so far in 2009 in one of the softest parts of their schedule. In the 12 matches remaining, they still have to host Toulouse and travel to Lyon before ending the season with Bordeaux and PSG in successive weeks (both away). A home defeat against a relegation zone team would have been a complete disaster.
I have no idea what Ricardo is thinking leaving our leading goalscorer Licata on the bench (again!). Sometimes I think he should wear a straitjacket on the sideline. Nimani collected Park’s through ball and beat Spider-Man for the opener. The joy lasted for 5 minutes until Ilan set up Payet for the equaliser. At halftime Ricardo apparently sobered up and brought on Licata for the hopeless Gakpe. Matsui latched onto a ball on the outside of the box and beat Ruffier at the near post with an absolute screamer, L1 goal of the week candidate for sure (actually, Féret’s impossible goal for Nancy against PSG was better). I didn’t have much hope after that–despite their league standing, St.Etienne are a good side (ask Olympiakos) who beat us pretty easily earlier in the season. However, substitute starlet Mollo rolled one across Janot from the penalty spot deep into injury time and my prayers were answered. Actually, Monaco spurned a great chance to snatch all 3 points a minute later, but Nkoulou’s header just missed.
Next up: away to Ajaccio in the CdF on Wednesday. They are tied for the worst defensive record in Ligue 2. Would it be a good time to mention that l’ASM have only scored 3 goals or more 3 times this year? Then the Nice grudge match on Saturday…
Category: Monaco Team Newsde Bontin resigns
By: Richard | 4 Comments
The club’s president, Jerome de Bontin, has unexpectedly quit his post citing ‘family reasons’.
He was only at the club for less than a year.
What will this mean for the future of the club? Well, they plan to announce their new owner after a board meeting in March and promise to return l’ASM to elite status with new investment. personally, i’d be happy with a finish in the top half of the table…
Will Ricardo be the next person to leave the club? Will Freddy Adu be written off as the failed marketing experiment of an American-born club president? What about Park Chu-Young? Will we beat St. Etienne tomorrow?
Stay tuned…
Category: Monaco Team News
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