Good News in Nervión

By: Anthony | March 2nd, 2009

Everything has seemed to be going right for us over these past three weeks and it doesn’t look like that is about to change anytime soon.

We have won three straight league matches and showed the same form that made us previously look invincible near the beginning of this season. Our top striker, Kanouté had a slight dip in form but now is showing exactly why he has scored over 80 goals for the club in less than four years in Nervión.

We’ve also had several young breakthrough performances from Sevilla Atlético boys José Carlos, Pukki, and most the most impressive Diego Perotti which emphasizes the strength of the cantera and definitely shows just how promising our future is looking.

Yesterday though, straight out of Nervión, came some of the best news us Sevillistas have heard in a very long time.

Both Luis Fabiano and Koné will be returning from their rather lengthy spell on the sidelines with re-occurring knee problems. We’ve lacked goals all season and last week when Chevantón was pronounced out for the season with a fractured foot bone that once again shortened our options up top so the return of these two men will a huge boost to the team, especially Kanouté who hasn’t had a consistent strike partner for most of this season.

Anyone who read my early posts during the pre-season last year would know that I’m not a huge fan of Koné but during the pre-season he heavily impressed me to say the least which made me anxious to see if he could take that form and show it where it really counts – La Liga.

Unfortunately on international duty he tore a ligament behind his kneecap and as a result as been sidelined since the beginning of the season. Luis Fabiano on the other hand has just had minor reoccurring knee problems and because he was constantly being rushed back to play it never truly healed. However, after over a month off, Sevilla team doctor Adolfo Muñoz thinks the Brazilian International is more than ready to play again.

Also back is French Capped defender and one of our anchormen, Julian Escudé. The defender has returned to full training after a back injury that he picked up about a month ago and has been out ever since.

Three vital players back to near-full fitness and will most likely be included in the lineup for Wednesday’s Copa del Rey clash in San Mamés against Athletic Bilbao.

Other News:
Saturday’s man of the match, Frédéric Kanouté has come out openly and said that he expects us to win this extremely important second leg of the Copa.

“It should be a very different game, with other players, but we are confident. We play everything with our maximum, like we have demonstrated today. They might change their players on Wednesday, they might have a different mentality, but so do we. We want to make it to the final and we will be there.”

I usually hate cockiness and arrogance but there isn’t really much cockiness about him, just sheer confidence. And why not? If he can repeat his Saturday form I don’t doubt for one second that we’ll be in the final.

Reports out of Russia today are saying that defending UEFA Cup champions Zenit St. Petersburg are weighing up and offer for our Serbian International defender Ivica Dragutinovic. The versatile defender hasn’t been a favourite under Manolo Jiménez like he was under Juande Ramos and is believed to be unhappy with his lack of opportunities since Fernando Navarro arrived from Mallorca in the summer. “Drago” is under contract until 2011 and has a buyout clause of €20m which seems highly overpriced but thats a classic Sevilla, Del Nido and Monchi trademark. Set the buyout clause ridiculously high so the rich clubs can put their money where their mouth is. LOVE IT. Zenit however are no poor European club by any means, they are actually in fact one of the richest, being sponsored by oil giants Gazprom, €20m would be like pocket change for them. To me this all seems like a good deal except one thing – Russian clubs are a bitch to negotiate with. Look at what happened with Arshavin’s proposed move to Tottenham last summer and eventually his move to their north London rivals Arsenal even took quite the negotiating to seal the deal. Not only have English clubs had problems with Russian negotiations but we ourselves in Nervión had major difficulties buying Kerzhakov three years back when Ramos was in charge. Eventually we realized that the Kanouté/Fabiano partnership was too good to crack for any other striker and ended up selling him back a season and a half later therefore meaning we went through a huge hassle for nothing but none the less, you get what I’m saying. The Russian transfer window closes on March 13th so they will have submit an offer sometime during these next two weeks and maybe they’ll get desperate and pay the full thing. We could definitely use that €20m to patch up a few cracks in the squad.