Tests today have confirmed that Victor Valdés has torn muscle fibre in his right calf and will be sidelined for approximately six weeks. Valdés will miss the games with Granada, Ajax, Athletic Club, Celtic, Villarreal and Getafe. His target will be to return against Elche on Jan 5.
With a lot of talk about signing new goalkeepers, this will be a good chance for José Manuel Pinto to demonstrate his abilities. Pinto celebrated his 38th birthday earlier this month so there will obviously be a question over whether his age is catching up with him. However, since signing for Barça in 2008, the Andalusian keeper has improved with each season and a good run in the team now could earn him a place in next season’s squad.
There is a fair argument to sign two keepers for next season, and the idea of bringing in both Marc-André Ter Stegen and Pepe Reina to battle for the first-team place doesn’t seem a bad option. However, Pinto has done a very good job as our second keeper, despite the odd moment of madness, and if he can show he has lost none of his agility then he deserves the chance to continue for another season.
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Very bad news for Valdes, who was in the form of his life, let’s hope this injury doesn’t disrupt his season and he can go on till the end of the season at the same level, cos’ Tata clearly owes him a lot of the comfort he was awarded due to the excellent results of our team. That said, I’ve always supported Pinto who has been an excellent back-up. The problem of having two excellent goalkeepers fighting for a place is that it can disrupt the harmony of the team, whereas Pinto, who has always performed well (despite a few “moments of madness” as Nic states) knows exactly his place in the team and acts accordingly. That’s invaluable.
In other news, I was glad to see that Messi praised Ronaldo for his performance with Portugal. Some noise coming from the Messi camp denigrating Ronaldo or the stupid performance from Blatter annoyed me a lot. This kind of behaviour will only exacerbate Ronaldo’s motivation to prove to the world that he is the best, and truth be told, I think he deserves the Ballon d’or for his year and particularly his last highly impressive performances. He certainly is annoying, but you never hear him say bad things about his teammates, his managers or other players, he’s very professional and I don’t think it’s right to laugh at him or to undervalue his performances just because he takes care of his hair.
Blahhh… That proved hard to type, though 😉 Messi is clearly the best of the two, but only if he plays at his best level, which hasn’t always been the case this year due to injuries, and Ribéry might have won everything this year, but that didn’t prove enough for Xavi or Iniesta to win it in 2010…
Any reports on Bartra’s first experience with the national team?
🙂 Hey Fredegar, it’s true it’s not easy to praise R*naldo but he’s been in sensational form this year. On the Ballon d’Or, did you see how FIFA switched the voting deadline? While it might seem fair to allow voting until the last possible minute, to change things like this at the last moment is well out of order. Last week the bookies had Ribery as odds-on 8/11 favourite with R*naldo at 3/1 and Messi at 5/1, since FIFA moved the goalposts R*naldo is now 2/5 favourite with Ribery at 3/1 and Messi at 8/1. Scandalous!
Yeah, I’ve seen that of course. Must say I found it stupid to close the votes before the play-off as these were among the most important games played this year, but to change the rules the very day the vote was supposed to be closed is far more stupid and doesn’t reflect well on FIFA. The end of the Blatter regime can’t come soon enough, and I say that as a Swiss! It’s not as if they didn’t know for a month that three of the main contenders would be involved FFS!
I tend to lean towards the ‘bring in 2 keepers’ camp. I know Pinto is a wonderful team man but he’s no Pat Jennings or Peter Shilton IMO and I don’t think he can perform at the required level (which is required for a Barca No 1) for an extended duration. Our No 2 keeper should also be someone who is still top class, knows the club really well (like Reina) and is ready to step in when required and guide our relatively inexperienced No 1 because its not going to be an easy ride for Ter Stegen or whoever else we bring in. However, I’ve been proved wrong before so lets see how Pinto reacts in the current situation.