Real to Cassano: Here’s Your Hat, What’s Your Hurry?

By: Martha | December 26th, 2006

Cassano bike My grandfather used to wander through the room, handing out coats during family events when he wanted to go to bed. Suddenly, mid-conversation, you’d find your coat and gloves sitting in your lap, with grandpa firmly ushering you to your feet. So, if you just replace the grandpa in this story with Fabio Capello and the family member with Antonio Cassano, you’ve got a good idea of what’s going on at Real Madrid right now. The team have a slew of strikers (including Reyes, Robinho, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Raul and Ronaldo) completing for just a few spots, and at this point the volatile little Italian is just dead weight. Barring mass food-poisoning, he’s unlikely to figure in Capello’s team and the club are so eager to get rid of Cassano’s attitude and salary they’re reportedly willing to let him go for just €4 million now, or for free when his contract runs out this summer.

Though press reports are suggesting that the striker actually wants to return to Roma, that seems laughably unlikely. Playing with just Totti up front, the team are not only winning but (apart from Montella’s periodic whining) getting along well — why bring in a guy who can’t be around a club without causing some sort of trouble? Particularly when he doesn’t like Totti, a man everyone at Roma would surely rather die than unsettle. Because Cassano is a big name, Milan are also inevitably involved in the rumors about where he’ll end up. Give that team’s recent good run, though, and the fact that the scoring drought seems to have ended, Milan may finally have the confidence not to indulge in a massive buying spree over the next few weeks. Or at least to spend on defenders, not strikers. Really, it seems there’s a good chance Cassano will spend the second half of the season sitting on his as in Madrid, gnashing his teeth at the injustice.
It’s hard to believe that a player as young (he’s still only 24, if you can believe that) and as talented as Cassano isn’t being instantly snatched up when he’s available for such a (relatively) small fee. But the guy is such an epic pain in the ass, and so unpredictable on the pitch that good clubs are actually starting to think they’re better off without him, even if it means playing with an undermanned strike force. And yeah, it’s sort of sad. But, since there’s no one for Cassano to blame but himself, it’s hard to cry too many tears for the spoiled little bastard.