Recently Sergio ‘Kun’ Aguero showed City fans exactly what £38m buys you in today’s market. Although Liverpool might feel a little short changed after shelling out just shy of that figure for the infinitely less talented Andy Carroll, any player who fetches a fee of that amount should be a touch special, and special Aguero is. However, the performance, and his debut brace surely just underlined the narrow-mindedness of pundits and commentators in this country.
The diminutive Argentine has been playing at the very highest level for several seasons now, in an arguably better league than our own Premiership. So why the brash and arrogant opinions from the Sky Sports team that “a star is born”?
Any football fan worth his salt is more than aware of Aguero’s gifts. This is a man who almost single-handedly took apart Barcelona a couple of seasons back. Forgive me, but Swansea are no Barcelona, it should have been a walk in the park for Diego Maradona’s son-in-law. Do the Sky Sports team believe that we don’t watch football from beyond our shores?
Do they presume that despite their advertising of La Liga coverage, we turn off after the Sunday 4pm game’s final whistle? Many fans and followers of the beautiful game, like me, actually look forward to watching the best players on Earth live from the Iberian Peninsula. Certainly far more than Wigan vs Wolves from a half full DW Stadium.
The Premier League is far from being the be all and end all of football. Whilst people do criticise, be it rightly or wrongly, the fact that La Liga is more often than not a two horse race, it still has a huge following on these shores and it cannot be argued that the majority of the World’s top players ply their trade there. In many respects, the pundits’ narrow-minded comments following Kun’s debut could be considered even more ridiculous as it is that very broadcaster that brought Spanish football to our screens.
Much like the Italian football explosion of the nineties, we have for the past ten years or so had the pleasure of watching the Rauls and Zidanes, the Rivaldos and Ronaldinhos on our Saturday and Sunday evenings. So in many respects its down to Sky that the likes of Puyol, Pique and Pepe are household names.
Sky are going through many changes with their coverage at the moment. Since the ‘zippergate’ incident which put pay to Andy Gray and Richard Keys’ tenures at the helm of live Premiership football, it seems that the corporation are keen to dumb down their choice of presenters and pundits. Lets face it, Alan Smith is as dull a co-commentator as he was a centre forward, and the recruitment of ‘housewives favourite’ Ben Shepherd is one that is sure to cause little controversy. The most shocking in this ringing of the changes though, is the ridiculous replacement of Mark Bolton at the helm of Sky’s Spanish football coverage.
Although I’d heard rumours, turning on the Spanish Super Cup on Sunday night my jaw dropped to see the immeasurably wooden Scott Minto sat opposite old favourites Gerry Armstrong and Guillem Balague. Gone was the banter and the knowing grins, only to be replaced by dull analysis and banal chat.
Great read, Hardinho! Please leave Liverpool and Andy Carroll alone…he’s yet to reach the lofty heights of price tag, yet who are we to argue with King Kenny and his god-like insight? Let’s judge the lad after 2 years..after all, Man U have paid huge figures out and failed more than once (Veron/Berba/Hargreaves/Anderson…) so comparativs could probably have been pointed down the M62?