By Myles Palmer
I would love to know what Arsene Wenger thinks of Zidane’s £46 million transfer to Real Madrid.
But Arsene is a really polite guy who respects his opponents and hopes they will respect him, so we may never know.
I’m not as polite as Arsene,so I’ll tell you what I think of yesterday’s world record-breaking deal.
I reckon it is utterly ridiculous machismo by Real President Florentino Perez.
We all know the Latin character is based on pride. And megalomaniac football presidents love nothing more than star-collecting and boasting and posing.
Real Madrid will need three balls next season : one for Roberto Carlos, one for Figo and one for Zidane.
They need a centre forward and a centreback and another anchorman alongside Helguera. They don’t need another playmaker.They don’t need Zidane.
In fact, I would go so far as to say that Real Madrid are the only club in the world who DON’T need Zidane.
Their axis is Figo-Raul, who are big mates, partners, and they need to build carefully and imaginatively round Figo and Raul.Figo had 17 assists last season.
They need Vieira more than they need Zidane. They cannot get him, but they need him.
Yes, Zidane is a great footballer and he has a Spanish wife and he’s done five years in Turin and now he wants to play in Spain. Fine.
He played in two Champions League finals for Juve, losing both – and he badly wants to win the one big medal that has eluded him so far.
If you’ve won France 98, and Euro 2000, and been World Player of the Year twice, it must be very annoying and very disappointing not to have won the Champions League.
But Zidane is not a prolific goalscorer like Rivaldo.
He scored on his debut for France, coming on when they were 2-0 down against Czech Republic and scoring twice.He also scored two headers against Brazil to win the World Cup in 1998.
But in 1999-2000 he only scored four goals in Serie A while Shevchenko scored 24 for Milan in his first season.
Last season Zidane scored six goals in Serie A while Shevchenko again scored 24.
Juve’s Serie A goalscorers last season were Trezeguet(14), Inzaghi (11), Del Piero(9), Zidane(6) and Tudor(6).
In my book, if Zidane is worth £48 million, Shevchenko and Rivaldo are worth £150 million.
It’s important to remember that Juventus are a defensive team and Real Madrid are an attacking team.Real concede more, so they need to score more.
A change of scene will definitely remotivate Zizou, but I wonder whether his arrival might unbalance the team, both tactically and psychologically.
I really hope Arsenal play Real Madrid in the Champions League because I think the bottom line in football is goals, and I believe Francis Jeffers will score more goals than Zidane.
Jeffers is not as gifted, not as experienced, not as confident, but he is fast and he gets in the box and he will be surrounded by players who can give him good passes.
I have this gut feeling that Jeffers will be a deadly finisher. He will not run offside all the time like Anelka and Henry, so that alone will double or treble his chances of scoring.
Jeffers is like a left-footed Ian Rush, but of course he is not as strong and durable as Rush. Nobody is as strong and durable as Rushie – he was bionic.
On Zidane, don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking Zidane’s talent. He is unique. He is absolutely unique. I have never seen ANYBODY play football like him.
Five years ago they used to say in France that Zidane had the body of a bear and the mind of a fox.I would agree with that assessment. You very rarely see anybody as powerful as him who is as skilful and inventive as him.
He can hold you off in tight positions and he has phenomenal peripheral vision, so he can make telling passes while his head seems to be down and when you have guided him into dead positions where he should not be able to hurt you.
But he can still hurt you – that is the genius of the man.He can create a lot of openings, a lot of goals.
Bottom line, it’s a team game and Florentino Perez is not qualified to build a team.He should leave that to his coach, Del Bosque.
The Champions League will probably be won by the best balanced team. The team ethic may be stronger at Juventus, Manchester United and Roma than it is at Real Madrid. It maye be stronger at Arsenal than it is at Real Madrid.We shall see.
It is entirely possible that if Real do not meet Arsenal, they will meet Juventus, whose defence is newly reinforced by Thuram and Buffon.
That WOULD be interesting !
10th July 2001.