Kanouté to AC Milan, Why we all hate Real Madrid, and More

By: Anthony | March 26th, 2009

In the city of Sevilla we’re quite used to gossip, after all, we do have some of the best players in Europe. It’s nothing new to see our star players being linked to some of Europe’s giants and this week is no different.

A couple days ago Italian newspaper Gazetta dello Sport claimed that AC Milan will make a bid for our prized possession and leading goal scorer Frédéric Kanouté.

Big Fredi has scored 58 goals in 119 appearances in the Rojiblanco, impressive by any league’s standards. He’s been our most consistent (bar Navas) performer all season and has 15 goals thus far in all competitions. I never took Kanouté as a player who would leave but his recent stand out performances have obviously caught the eye of one of Europe’s “biggest” clubs. Fredi is signed until the end of 2010 but by the way he’s talking, he may be gone sooner rather than later.

“Seeing my name linked to Milan is a fantastic sensation. I always said that I adore Sevilla, the life quality is fantastic, I love this place and I’m extremely well here, but you never know.

“I have 31 years [behind me] so who knows, but these rumours about Milan are fantastic.

“We are talking about one of the biggest clubs with so many marvellous players that when you think about the chances you would have during a game, you can only dream. However, let’s wait until the end of the season.”

I have the utmost respect for the man and think he’s an all around class act so for him to move on and succeed would leave me nothing short of happy. Of course this is a business though and if he does move on we better be getting something substantial in return.

Personally I could see Kanouté going to AC in a few years, not because he’s incapable now but let’s face it, AC Milan is like a retirement home (bar Kaka) and 31 years of age isn’t quite retirement.

Enzo Maresca Latest
Our strongest player at the beginning of this season but has since failed to impress Jiménez and as a result has seen his minutes on the pitch basically disappear. He was such an influential player earlier this year that he signed a new contract keeping him in Nervión until 2011 but because of his lack of playing time rumours have surfaced in Italy and Spain about Enzo returning to his native country to play for Inter Milan.

These rumours have since been squashed by Maresca’s agent saying that he hasn’t been contacted by any other teams. Not only that but his agent also said that he will not be returning to Italy anytime soon nor will he probably ever play for Inter.

Real Mandril and their Money
Everyone knows that our sporting director Rámon Rodriguez, better known as “Monchi” is the best in the business discovering talents such as Dani Alves, Julio Baptista, Seydou Keita, and Fredi Kanouté. Apparently the Real Mierda board is quite impressed with his work (how can you not be?!) and want to recruit him to their board.

Let’s assess this situation here… Now of course Real has much more financial status as a club than we do and Monchi would work wonders in the capital but would he get the same respect he does in Nervión? Probably not.

Look at how Real treats their coaches and management, it’s an absolute disgrace. Capello, Schuster and I’m sure one wrong move will knock Juande out of the picture as well, if you want to lose your job after a couple of months, go to Real. Monchi has a good relationship with President del Nido and personally I don’t think he would make the same mistake Juande Ramos did by leaving the club who made him what he is.

Swedish star heading to Sevilla?
Apparently us and Bayern München sent scouts to FC Gronigen’s Eredivise match this past weekend against Roda to check the ability of Swedish defender Andreas Granqvist.

Andreas joined Gronigen from Wigan last summer and has since played in 27 league matches, scoring 3 goals, quite impressive for a defender. His recent success has also earned him a call up to the Swedish national squad.

Apparently the Swede can pay either in the centre back or right back positions and Monchi is looking to find a replacement to fill the void left by Dani Alves because Mosquera and Konko are too unreliable and inconsistent.

It’s no surprise that we’ve been involved in all these rumours, I guess as you become one of Europe’s larger teams these are the sort of things you have to deal with. For our sake I hope del Nido doesn’t get greedy and take the money in regards to Monchi and Kanouté, both would be a huge blow to our club and future aspirations.