I’ve come across some hypocritical managers in my time but new Inter Milan boss Rafael Benitez really does take the biscuit, or in his case the whole pack. It wasn’t long ago when Barcelona announced their concrete interest in signing Liverpool’s combative midfielder, Javier Macherano, only for Benitez to halt the Catalans’ pursuit by stamping an audcaious £50MIL price tag on the Argentine skipper. Mascherano’s qualities have always been well publicised through his high profile peformances for Liverpool, who were often playing at the highest level during his three-year spell with the Reds, and the defensive-midfielder has built up a formidable reputation as being one of the most destructive midfielders in the modern era; although whether any defensive-midfielder is actually worth the quoted £50MIL is up for debate.
A year later, during a period where Liverpool Football Club were going through one of their driest spells in terms of form, Mascherano’s value has suddenly dropped catastrophically, this despite Rafa being at the helm as the Reds endured their worst domestic and European campaign for years. Supposedly, in the eyes of a deluded Benitez anyway, Mascherano was no longer worth the original and ridiculous price quoted by Benitez of £50MIL, but now somewhere in the region of a misely £12MIL; reportedly what Inter MIlan offered for a player which had made 95 appearances for Liverpool since joining from West Ham and had become a fan favourite. If I was Liverpool I would have sent them a video message of Rafa’s interview twelve months earlier when he claimed Mascherano was worth half-a-hundred-million with the words ‘You were saying…’. Instead, Liverpool let Roy Hodgson go to town on the club by laughing hysterical at their offer, claiming it must have been some sort of joke – although Rafael Benitez being the brunt of a rare Roy Hodgson gaf maybe punishment enough, as well as the fact Barcelona actually stepped up with a serious offer with Mascherano later snapping up the opportunity to join the reigning Spanish champions instead of jumping ship to Benitez’s shaky Inter ship, with the Spaniard already losing his grasp on the UEFA Super Cup with a 2-0 loss in Monaco to Atletico Madrid.
The English Premier League has been underway for several weeks now, the German Bundesliga for a couple and the French, well, does anyone really care? The Italian Serie A and the Spanish La Liga only recently sprung into life, with Genoa kicking off the new Serie A season with a 1-0 win away at Udinese, and Athletico Bilbao mirroring Genoa’s start with a victory in Hercules by the same scoreline.
On Sunday, the day after the curtain raisers, the big guns begin their domestic campaigns, everyone that is Inter Milan who can still be found licking their wounds following their 2-0 defeat in Friday’s UEFA Super Cup to Atletico Madrid, who too won’t feature until next weekend. However, the likes of AC MIlan and Juventus, Barcelona and Real Madrid, will all be in action in a day where everyone involved will be desperate to begin the new season with a bang.
Real Mallorca V Real Madrid: Sunday, 29th August – 20:00 GMT (Sky Sports 1)
We begin with the team which missed out on the Primera crown last term by three points, Real Madrid. Pipped to the post by Barcelona, the Galacticos will want to start as they mean to go on by winning their opener. Of course, the introduction of Jose Mourinho as manager has undoubtedly led to Madrid receive plenty of support from punters in all competitions, but the La Liga is right at the top of their list of priorities this season, along with the UEFA Champions League. The latter competition especially is where Mourinho has shown his true talent as manager, lifting the prestigious and most sought after trophy in Europe aloft on two seperate occasions, doing so with FC Porto and more recently with Inter Milan, though he did fail to capture the trophy with Chelsea.
Mourinho’s summer captures included Benfica’s rising star, Angel Di Maria, Chelsea’s Ricardo Carvalho, whom played under the Portuguese maestro when with Chelsea, Pedro leon from Parma, a player Racing Santander had high hopes for in Sergio Canales; one of the stars in the recent U19 European Championships with Spain, and two players which shone for Germany during the summer FIFA World Cup in South Africa; Sami Khedira & Mesut Ozil.
Former Galacticos manager Mauricio Pellegrini had already brought together a host of accomplished stars but failed to get the best out of them. Mourinho has inherited the Argentine’s rich wealth of stars but has crucially injected some of his own unqiue style and feel by signing a host of stars to his liking, which means there is no excuse for failure should Real Madrid underachieve under Mourinho as the team did under Pellegrini.
The Special One begins his reign as Real Madrid manager officially in Mallorca, at venue where they won so convincingly last season when a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick was complimented by Gonzalo Higuain’s last strike in a 4-1 win. The home encounter also went the way of Madrid by a 2-0 scoreline, which leads us to beleive that with Mourinho bringing in his reinforcements over the summer and bolstring a squad which already boasted an embarrassment of riches, that there will only be two results; a Real Madrid victory and a hefty one at that.
We are all anticipating Mourinho selecting several debutants for Sunday’s clash against a team which finished an impressive fifth in La Liga last term, but the gulf in class between the two was 34 points, and the gap is expected to rise this season. That sizeable gap in quality should be apparent in tomorrow’s game although there’s little value to be had in Madrid’s quote of 1.44 with Boylesports. In fact, it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise in the world to see Madrid begin with a stutter, considering the liklihood of Mourinho fielding a mixture of players new and old, but the fact Mourinho hasn’t really reinforced a defence which was certainly suspect last season does lead us to believe that Mallorca may be in with a shout of at least getting on the scoresheet. After all, this is a home fixture for them, a game they are expected to do some attacking in despite the class of the players standing at the other end of the pitch.
Iker Casillas has so often been touted as one of the best goalkeepers in the world and on occasions he’s proven pundits right, but he’s not as reliable as he used to be, not the shot-stopper of old, and was so suspect for Spain during South Africa that some were even hinting at the possiblity of Casillas paving way for Pepe Reina, although they were more like whispers. Even so, Casillas isn’t being shown in his best light right now and with the Madrid defence looking far from world-class nor inpentrable, we think there is more than just a sniff of value in Mallorca spoiling Madrid’s chances of beginning the campaign with a clean sheet.
Real Mallorca are 1.57 with PaddyPower to get on the scoresheet tomorrow and spoil an immaculate start for Iker Casillas, but with Madrid almost certain to score at some stage considering Mourinho has a wealth of attacking options, you may as well take Coral‘s odds of 1.83 on Both Teams to Score.
Serie A Picks:
Fiorentina – Napoli (Both Teams to Score – YES) – 1.80 Bet365
Parma to BEAT Brescia at home – 1.83 WilliamHill
La Liga Picks:
Real Zaragoza to WIN at Deportivo La Coruna – 3.75 WIlliamHill
Espanyol to BEAT Getafe – 2.20 SkyBet
