Moutinho Tries the Crying Game, Boavista Officially Sent Down

By: Greg | July 28th, 2008

After using this space sparingly to pitch a bitch about how the Portuguese Liga has been Le Suck on the news front all summer, finally something concrete and commentable (that’s right, wordsmith in tha hizzouse) came out this past weekend. Let’s walk the transfer wire tightrope, shall we?

Sporting Captain Gets a Manny Ramirez-esque “Injury” And Cries Out For a Transfer — As Sporting geared up for their mostly meaningless 2-0 preseason pseudo-derby win over Benfica this past weekend, João Moutinho’s press conference crybaby act after the Blackburn match still resonated through. Players and coaches alike fielded questions from a stunned media who witnessed Moutinho resoundingly declare “I want out!” After Everton had a 11.8 million pound (that’s a big bitch!) bid rejected, Moutinho showed his frustration with the negotiations and went all hissy fit on the club.

I can’t stand when players pull shit like this. The beauty of this negotiation is that the “team’s”(Everton) agent and the player’s agent are the same guy, Pini Zahavi. Why do clubs have agents? Can’t players deal directly with the club rather than have thirteen different middlemen? And isn’t there some sort of conflicting interest hurricane going on when a players’ agent also represents an entire club? How do you prevent tapping up in that situation? Maybe I’m a bit undereducated when it comes to the nature of European sport dealings, but this is a concept that’s quite foreign in the land of “soccer” and diplomacy.

Moutinho’s buy-out clause in the contract he signed JUST LAST YEAR (short sighted about your future much, João?) is nearly triple the amount that Everton have offered as a transfer fee. In spite of this mess, I’d bet on Moutinho’s agent negotiating a higher transfer fee with, err, umm, himself, and having Moutinho rather unceremoniously headed to Everton by the end of the week. It’s a sad set of circumstances since Moutinho, as captain, has grown into a sort of iconic figure at Sporting. I completely understand that the inevitability of a successful player going abroad always looms in the Portuguese League, but he could have probably served himself better by doing this pouting behind closed doors. This method of acting like a baby never flies well with anyone. Unless you’re a baby, of course. Then you can have the strategically placed candy bar next to the check out lane. It all makes me wish I had the burden of being tied to a contract where I play a game for tens of thousands of currency a week. Where would I put it all?

Boavista’s Vista Not So Boa — The league came out today and decided for the final (actually the fifth officially “final” time) that Boavista’s actions and involvement in the Golden Whistle bribery scandal were severe enough that relegation to the next division down is proper punishment. Paços de Ferreira are the big winners here, as their head is spared the chopping block and they’ll have another chance to be whipping boys in the top flight of Portuguese football.

I hope appeals aren’t allowed at this stage. This Golden Whistle scandal has to go away for fuck’s sake. I can’t take this bunk anymore. We’ve been embarrassed enough, let’s just pick up the pieces and move the hell on. Thank you.

Thank God Moutinho needed a nap and a bottle or else this week would have started off the way the last one ended: just plain shitty.