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Whether or not there is any substance in The Independent running a story this morning that Chelsea are still intent on signing the brilliant Robson de Souza, better known and dreaded by defenders as Robinho, remains to be seen.
What grates above all else though, is the assumption and declaration that City fans have ‘yet to be convinced’ about Robinho. Stunning nonsense.
The lad is absolutely adored in Manchester and having scored 7 goals in 11 League and Cup appearances and setting himself an ambitious 30 goal target for the season in the process, has already answered the experts who said he would struggle in English Football.
The article concerned cites all sorts of agent wrangling, figures and suggestions but carries no quotes.
Astonishingly, the ‘what iffing’ even goes as far as to suggest that Chelsea might offer Nicolas Anelka who has been a revelation at Stamford Bridge in part exchange.
– Apparantly, Anelka has ‘failed to convince’ as well. Good grief.
I sincerely hope that this copy that will no doubt be churned out in turn by other sources is nothing more than the usual tired paper talk that we’ve come to expect from ‘The Street of Shame,’* but you never know…
…if somebody at Chelsea has made the decision to feed this story to the press, then it certainly sends out a signal that their hierarchy were deeply rattled by Manchester City’s signing of one of the world’s finest players.
Not only that, it would also underline an astonishing arrogance that they are used to getting what they want in the end. I suggest that His Highness Sheikh Mansour and his cool for cats advisers will have other ideas.
Meanwhile, Mark Hughes enthused after Robinho’s superb strike against FC Twente in the UEFA Cup:
‘We had some great opportunities, and Robinho could have had a hat-trick. But we were grateful for the strike for the second goal. He has fantastic ability to manoeuvre the ball in those tight areas.
‘He is one of the best players I have seen in that position to be able to manipulate the ball and create things inside the box.
‘Because of his ability, players know they cannot dive in on him in those areas – because he can deflect the ball from them in an instant. Robbie’s one of the best players I’ve seen.’
*‘The Street of Shame’ copyright Private Eye