Blogging in a Black Hole

By: Greg | July 22nd, 2008

The title says it all. I decide it’s a great idea to come back in March of this year and hit ya’ll off with a lil’ sumthin sumthin Portuguese, only to be foiled by an early Portuguese exit from the Euro and a summer with somewhat minor transfers (at the moment, the jury is obviously still out until the season gets rolling) and very little as far as substantial news.

The only way I think I can handle this dearth of items to speak about is to do a somewhat stream of consciousness type of post where I just throw a topic against the wall and go for it. So, here it goes…

The Ricardo Quaresma to Inter Saga – The Inter Milan rumors are heating up again as Quaresma is in and out of Porto’s preseason activities. Porto without Quaresma means that they’ll win every second or third match 2-0 or 2-1 instead of 3-1 or 3-0. Inter with Quaresma is surplus to attacking requirements in my opinion, especially with the recent addition of Mancini from Roma. It depends on the time of day that you ask me about this, but I think this is a HUGE mistake on Quaresma’s part. If there’s any position on the pitch that Jose Mourinho is fickle about and inconsistent with, it’s the outside midfielder. Ask the likes of Joe Cole and Arjen Robben if they weren’t frustrated by the lack of a consistent role in Mourinho’s scheme. The Special One tends to favor a team that’s built around a creative attacking central midfielder (see Deco at Porto and Lampard at Chelsea) as well as a strong central defense (see Ricardo Carvalho at both clubs). For these reasons, I’m not 100% sure that Inter’s the best bet for Ricky Q. I can’t wait to see the pouting he’s going to be doing on the sidelines if he doesn’t get the burn he thinks he deserves. Anyone remember the Barcelona experiment?

Sporting 1 - 3 Sunderland (Preseason Friendly) – See the parenthesis for how I feel about this match.

Sporting Portuguese Midfield Duo Transfer Chatter Relatively Quiet – Heading towards the end of last season, Portuguese internationals Miguel Veloso and João Moutinho were sure to be on their way out of Sporting this summer. Veloso was being linked with Arsenal relatively consistently and Moutinho with a host of English suitors, including Everton most recently and loudly. However, the “DEAL IMMINENT” bullshit we’ve been throwing at the end of every sentence involving their fellow countryman Ricky Quaresma hasn’t made its way to the end of any transfer blurbs involving the two Lions midfielders. In spite of the additions Sporting have made over the summer themselves, losing one or both of these Chops would put a damper on Sporting’s chances of getting in the way of a fourth consecutive Porto league championship.

Benfica loan Adu to AS Monaco — If he stands to get more burn, then all parties involved have a positive result. Freddy’s effectiveness for the États-Unis d’Amérique national team is going to be directly proportional to meaningful playing time abroad.

Hopefully things will heat up as the season nears and the transfer deadline comes to a close. Otherwise this summer will go down as one of the most pooptastic ever in terms of big moves and blogworthy items in Portuguese football.