Wesley Sneijder joins Galatasaray from Inter Milan

Holland star Wesley Sneijder has permanently joined Turkish Super Lig giants Galatasaray.  The deal, reportedly for a fee of around €10 million, should be a snip for a player who at 28 years of age isn’t just still in his prime, but eminently capable of being one of the top five footballers in the world.

Sneijder’s time at Inter Milan had run its course.  His lavish wages – and perhaps his abrasive nature – didn’t fit with club President Massimo Moratti’s schemes for a leaner Internazionale; the result was his exile from the club in September for refusing a contract which would scale his wages back by a seven-figure sum.

Galatasaray’s fans went bonkers at Sneijder’s presentation, as well they might: the player is a precocious talent and is dressed entirely with the arrogance that often accompanies the artisan.

While the fact Sneijder was sold is interesting in itself, his impact on his new club will be well worth watching. While they are a quality team, Galatasaray are headlined by familiar names – Altintop, Riera, Melo, Elmander – rather than superstars.  It will be Sneijder (who will fit in slightly forward of Felipe Melo and behind Turkey striker Burak Yilmaz), Hamit Altintop and then then everyone else.  “The Smurf” will be called on to provide not only provide his trademark passing, but also a sense of the spectacular and confidence that Galatasaray are capable of beating anyone.

That he has moved reinforces again the nomadic nature of football.  While player movement has always been a fixture of the sport –Sneijder himself has moved emigrated three times – the number of truly great players who have changed club colours over the past five years is amazing. 

Scanning the Guardian’s recent list of the 100 best players in the world reveals that within that hundred, there have been 49 transfers since the conclusion of the most recent World Cup.  Twelve of these involve players listed as being in the Guardian’s Top 30.  Of those same 49, nineteen occurred before or during the current season.

Player movement is great.  It allows for a renewed interest not often seen in sports with salary caps, and provides for hope when perhaps the previous season there was none.  Even though Galatasaray are currently perched atop the Super Lig table, the addition of a world-class player like Wesley Sneijder gives their fans reason for excitement (and to set off flares) at the hope of further challenging Europe’s best teams.

What happened to Holland?

Courtesy: thearmchairpundits.com

The Netherlands whimpered one final time, threw up their hands and now stumble away from Northern Europe. Three losses in a tough group has left the Dutch with fractured egos, a burnished reputation and questions as to the continued viability of employing manager Bert van Marwijk. Eviction from the tournament was always a possibility, especially in a group in which they were drawn against three other top-ten teams. However, the manner of their dismissal should be cause for extreme conern.

A constant tone of discontent undermined the tenuous harmonies of South Africa, goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg played all three matches despite poor play and two quality replacements, the Dutch defence showed as much resilience as a wet rolling paper and key players like Robin van Persie and Wesley Sneijder showed only a fraction of their full qualities.

Should he have any hope of retaining his position, van Marwijk will have to talk very hard – and potentially very quickly – to justify his creation: a dysfunctional iteration of the Dutch national team. Under his watch, Holland have displayed sublime talent, occasional violent streaks and a penchant for restlessness.

Any hopes of the Oranje making the same impact as in the 2010 World Cup was improbable almost as soon as the tournament began. Starting left-back Erik Pieters withdrew because of injury, while central defender Joris Mathijsen appeared unable to recover from an injury suffered playing for his club side. Despite a strong qualification campaign, Dutch achievements from two years ago appeared an effort of overachievement.

Guus Hiddink leaves Turkey: He's just not that into you

Guus Hiddink's reign as manager of Turkey has ended with nary a whimper. His tenure faded ignominiously into the Black and Aegean Seas: Turkey received 3-0 losses in both legs of the Euro 2012 qualification playoffs from a journeyman Croatia side. He's now a free agent and joins Carlo Ancelotti as the biggest - and most marketable - free agent in his profession.

It would surprise no-one were he to return to Chelsea in a Director's role, creating with Andre Villas-Boas a management "Dream Team". Rumours of him taking over as manager, however, are greatly overstated.

It was always likely Hiddink would depart the Bosphorus nation should Turkey fail to qualify. This is in part due to his meandering nature and wandering eye; also because it became apparent nearly from the start that this partnership wasn't nearly as affectionate as past flings with Russia, Chelsea, PSV, Australia and South Korea. Fittingly, in his last home match, he was booed by Turkish crowds.

For the first time in the decade since he ascended from "coach" to "miracle worker", he's criticised his former employers on departure, saying Turkish youth development pathways weren't of sufficient standard for consistent performance at international level.

It marked the second time that Hiddink leaves Turkey without adding to his reputation: in 1991 he was dismissed from Fenerbahçe with a win rate of only 40%. In seventeen games with the Ay Yıldızlılar, he compiled an patchy seven wins, five draws and five losses (41.18%). Both numbers stand well below his career win percentage of 56.52.

Questions are now being asked if the Dutchman's magic has worn thin. His last two jobs have finished unsatisfactorily with Russia and Turkey enduring qualification playoff defeats. Even understanding the "Fool me once, fool me twice" mindset, this analysis is premature and, at worst, a little mean-spirited. As in most break-ups, both parties eventually realised they were just wrong for each other in the first place.

Looking at his greatest achievements (with the exception of his first stint at PSV), Hiddink and his teams have performed best when unfancied and under little pressure. It should be the first rule of football - never bet against a Guus Hiddink team.

Over the last decade, he coaxed a Euro 2008 semi-final berth out of Russia when outsiders didn't know what to expect. When expectations rose after players like Arshavin and Pavlyuchenko got moves to high-profile clubs, the squad underperformed and went down to Slovenia in a winner-takes-all bout over two legs for a place at the 2010 World Cup.

At Chelsea, he was recruited to salvage the season after Luis Felipe Scolari's dismissal. With minimal pressure - it was a temporary appointment and everyone was aware the title had long gone - he once again attained maximal results.

His quotes on masterminding a gritty, but not overly talented Australia to the second round of the 2006 Cup could define his coaching career: "Our goal is the second round. Why not?" Fourth place in 2002 with then-tiny South Korea was nigh-on miraculous. By fostering belief in his players, Guus Hiddink has spent the past decade getting the best out of underdogs with reasonable expectations.

After a stupendous Euro 2008, both Turkey and Russia had reason to be ambitious in expectation. However, this was followed by failure to qualify for South Africa despite quality players and enviable home-field advantages. It should have worked - but didn't. No-one manages expectation like Hiddink - so when it becomes rampant, his work becomes more difficult and less masterly in its execution.

We'll see Guus Hiddink again soon. Rumours persist of a 22 million pound offer to manage Anzhi Makhachkala. If he cares to protect his Lama-like coaching reputation, he won't take that job. It's too glitzy, too dangerous and just not his type.

Spain's Second XI worthy of top 10 ranking

While watching David Silva and Spain dismantle a dogged and compact Scotland on Wednesday, it struck me: this was hardly Spain's best outfit and they were dominating.

Silva cemented his bona fides as one of the top half-dozen players in world football and Spain, with a team featuring second-choice players like Thiago Alcantara, Jordi Alba and Santi Cazorla, passed Scotland into an uneasy submission. The Scots, bless 'em, tried hard but the Spaniards seemed at times to be playing not just another game, but on another plane.

The players who didn't feature on Tuesday - Torres, Casillas, Xabi Alonso, Iniesta, Mata - mean it's now apparent that Spain's second XI could be one of the world's ten best international outfits. They are helped by a healthy youth league and a relative dearth of great opposition: realistically, only the Netherlands and Germany are able to hold a candle to the Spaniards. Brazil and Argentina today only resemble their most terrifying best.

courtesy: sparklingchelsea.wordpress.com

The FIFA world rankings (hardly the greatest indicator, but the only one we've got) suggest the world's top ten sides are Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Uruguay, Portugal, Italy, Brazil, England, Croatia and Argentina.

In living up to their position description as confusing and nonsensical, the FIFA rankings have Croatia ranked ninth and Greece sitting in eleventh position. This is in spite of both squads finding themselves in the same qualifying group for Euro 2012; a group from which Greece qualified and Croatia now face a tricky playoff tie with Turkey.

We can, however, suggest this is a fairly accurate representation of the best teams in world football.

Were Spain's Second XI to feature in the FIFA rankings, they'd come up against three great teams (Germany, the Netherlands and Uruguay), two inconsistent ones (the other South Americans) and four eminently beatable squads, each with major weaknesses. Apart from perhaps a perceived weakness in central defence, Spain II play a similar brand of football to their first-choice brethren, have pace in abundance and, as they showed on Tuesday, discipline.

Using Spain's favoured 4-2-3-1, the second furia roja would probably include: Valdes; Alba, Jose Enrique, Alvaro Arbeloa and Raul Albiol; Thiago, Javi Martinez, Cesc Fabregas, Santi Cazorla and Pedro; and Fernando Llorente.

Wow.

The argument could be made that this team also features some of the best players dozen players in Spain. In this lineup Pedro plays for the "magoos", yet started in their World Cup triumph last year - superseded by Mata and Silva. Valdes' recent success in head-to-head battles with Casillas now invites, rather than discourages, comparison between the two. Fabregas is shuttled out of the Spain midfield (as with club) by players comfortably in the World's top five. Spain has played better recently when Llorente - rather than Torres - has led the line.

This club may even trouble the the vaunted Spain first team. The Spain Second XI are, on paper, a better team than Croatia, Portugal and even Italy. Place Spain v2.0 in any one of the Euro 2012 qualifying groups (and back them with suitable squad depth) and they at least make the playoffs from each. It's probably also the case that they'd slice England to pieces also.

The simile used most with Spain (and Barcelona) is "death by one thousand cuts". Perhaps a more appropriate metaphor may be that Spanish football is at present drowning the rest of the football world - inexorably, constrictingly and (given their outstanding Euro U-21 campaign) shows no signs of receding. All that is certain is the next wave of Spanish attacks could well overwhelm a struggling Scot, Lithuanian or even Oranje. After decades of torment, La Furia Roja is certainly making up for lost time.

While going back-to-back-to-back at major tournaments is so difficult that it's spoke of in grail-like reverence, the smart money for next year's Euros is on a three-peat - perhaps simply because the difficulty of staying focused for such a period is balanced by the failure of chief rivals Germany and the Netherlands to bridge the gaping talent gap.

van Marwijk sets a laudable precedent

With his decision not to select Nigel De Jong for the Netherlands two Euro 2012 qualifiers this week against Moldova & Sweden, coach Bert van Marwijk has made a call which should be roundly applauded all over the football world.

Nigel de Jong is not a hack. Nor is he a thug. Unfortunately however, he has approached the latter title with his performances over recent months. His high-kick to Xabi Alonso in the World Cup notwithstanding, de Jong has been the subject of scrutiny for his tackles throughout this Premier League season, with the heat intensifying since this weekend's leg-breaking challenge on new Newcastle Golden Boy Hatem Ben Arfa. Although the tackle was innocuous enough at the time, it left Ben Arfa with not one broken bone in his lower leg but two, and his crumpled form lies alongside those others de Jong has injured during his time in England; names like Alonso and Stuart Holden.

Over recent years we've seen a number of defenders receive death threats due to either the injudiciousness or unluckiness of their tackles – Martin Taylor and Ryan Shawcross spring readily to mind – but rarely does the punishment, which in England maxes out at a three game ban, fit the offense. “He's not that type of player” is often trotted out when one player is injured by the tackle of another. I haven't honestly seen enough of de Jong to say whether he is suffers from bad technique, bad judgement or bad luck, but with repeat offenses a player moves catgories from “not that guy” to “not him again”. The issue here however is not whether the Man City midfielder is evil, misguided or even unlucky. It's that his national team coach van Marwijk has chosen not to select him as punishment for his indiscretions.

When Holland's manager said in the media he couldn't select a player who has committed such acts, he must be balancing two trains of thought. First, he is certainly thinking about the results of his team. The publicity de Jong has received due to these unfortunate leg-breaking incidents is sure to be remembered by any referee he happens to cross. Should the big fella even blink incorrectly he risks immediate and harsh sanctions, potentially leaving the Netherlands down a man against big group rivals Sweden. Better to leave him out for this International Break, let the furore simmer down and select him next time.

Second though, BVM must be thinking of the big picture. The job of creating and guiding a team philosophy is solely that of the manager. It is his selection of both playing and back-room personnel that indicate the personality of a team and he's the one who both lays down and enforces standards. By van Marwijk refusing to select a player who has form for injurious challenges it sends a message both to Nigel de Jong and the rest of the football world that malarkey of this kind is not to be tolerated – should you tackle poorly, there will be ramifications. He should be congratulated for taking such a stand. It's unlikely his decision will be emulated by other managers as they may not have either the replacement talent at their disposal, nor the job security to be able to omit one of their most productive players. The man in charge making statements about the players he will or will not select is a very clear message, and loud enough that it should be heard all over the football world.