A Spanish Parachute for Tiago?
By: Martha | October 22nd, 2007
As you may recall, Juventus’ Tiago Mendes had a mini-meltdown last week, telling the press that he would leave Turin during the winter transfer window if Claudio Ranieri didn’t see the light and starting playing him. Despite the expected negative responses from everyone at the club, Tiago has neither taken anything back, nor claimed to have been quoted out of context; it’s safe to assume that if he has anything to say about it, he’ll be on his way as soon as possible.
Where to? When, if the Spanish press are to be believed (and, as far as I can tell, they’re about as reliable as the Italian press, so get out your grain of salt), Tiago may find himself in La Liga next, as a result of a proposed exchange between Juve and Villarreal. According to Marca, the Spanish side has approached Juventus about the possibility of swapping the unhappy Portuguese for their very own malcontented genius Juan Román Riquelme, a man Guardian columnist Sid Lowe has called a “difficult, introverted character … who needs constant reassurance and has to live entirely on his own terms.” Yeah, that’ll go over really well with Ranieri — he’s swimming in patience with selfishness and unreasonable behavior.
It may all be moot, of course, since Villarreal are today denying they’ve any interested in making such a deal, but both players sure as hell could use a change of scenery, and the Spanish team must be itching to get some value out of Riquelme.
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Riquelme has made a lot of noise about his desire to play in only a Spanish-speaking country. I can’t see him being happy in Torino, much less playing for a strict, demanding and uncompromising coach like Ranieri.
I realize that it is the type of deal that makes sense in the abstract - 2 unsettled, talented players who play in the same position. However, Tiago is a little bit younger than Riquelme, and I wouldn’t take the risk if I were Juventus.
Of course, I hate Juve’s guts so I hope they do this and it fails in a spectacular and entertaining fashion.
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Tiago was the one player at Vujentus I was terrified of this year. His exclusion couldn’t be sweeter news. And though I’m not a Mourniho fan, having him say letting go of Tiago was the biggest mistake he’d ever made says quite a deal.
I’m going to start up this rumor right now: Pizarro-Tiago swap. Juve have wanted Pizarro for 4 years now, Tiago wants out and if Pizarro continues to play this way in Spalletti’s system, he won’t get out of the stands by January. Perfect match. I suspect we might hear it, doubt it comes true.
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Juventus totally misused Tiago. He’s started one game in Serie A. How is anyone supposed to establish a string of good performances that way? And it’s not like he’s being benched for superior players. If Zanetti and Nocerino are consistantly starting ahead of him, perhaps Tiago pissed off Ranieri some other way. Like maybe Tiago called him ugly.
Anyway, there were rumors about a Tiago-Clerc swap in January, but Tiago won’t return to Lyon, he has too much pride for that, even if it means he has to go to Porto or Benfica. If I were Tiago, I’d ask my agent to discreetly talk to Valencia or Sevilla.
He needs to leave Italy now before his career hits rock bottom.
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I think Tiago would be awesome in Italy, and flourish with Juve, why he isn’t being played is a huge mystery.
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It’s another one of those life mysteries. Like why Milan keep playing Dida.
Tiago is a very intelligent and technical player, so he should do very well in Italy - in fact he preferred Italy to Spain when he was at Lyon, but I doubt Juventus will sell him to a competitor even though they themselves refuse to play him.
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That’s my instinct too, Inara — whatever he did to piss Juve off (before the latest round of bitching, I mean), they’re not stupid enough to think he’s past it, are they? I can’t imagine them handing him to a major rival, even for a very short playmaker. (Who, by the way, is on goal.com’s team of the week. Genius!)
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I saw that from the goal.com think tank, and don’t think I won’t have heaps of lauditory praise for them later in the week.
I think part of it, though, is Tiago himself admitted to not being in optimal shape when training started. That would piss off a lot of coaches and managers - especially at his price tag.
Maybe if I fax Juve a letter telling them David is in prime shape they’ll offer up Tiago?
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Tiago definitely isn’t past it. He’s only 26 and had he been playing, he’d be hitting his prime. Such a waste, and to think he turned down Milan for Juve despite being offered a higher salary at Milan!
Chris, about his physical condition, he did pass his physical with flying colors, and he’s not injury prone either though he did have some trouble with his back earlier last season. Perhaps that was aggravated?
But he was out of shape when he arrived at Juve, which is partly explained by the fact that there was nearly a three month gap in which he didn’t play competitive football. Ligue 1 ended in May but Serie A started late August.
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I think that’s your reason. They paid an assload of money for him to be in shape when he showed up at training - 3 month layoff or not. For a pro athlete there’s really no excuse unless it was caused by an injury.
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That still doesn’t make any sense. Putting aside the fact that Tiago is a professional player and wouldn’t disrespect Juve by showing up for his first practice overweight and too winded to run around the track, it seems very silly to bench your most expensive player because he wasn’t 100% match fit during pre-season training (which, as I recall, exists solely to make the players match fit). Clubs these days put up with a lot of crap from players. Tiago being out of form in his first month in a new team, new league, and new country isn’t a reason for the club to trade him off six months later for Riquelme, an older player who’s history with management is a lot more fractious than Tiago’s.
Something else must have happened between Tiago and Ranieri because even last August, Ranieri couldn’t stop with the Tiago love. Strange that the Italian media is so silent on this matter. Normally nothing is secret in Italia.
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