BillyShears said:
Do you think Elano was an inconsistent performer over the course of last season?
I thought he started better than anyone could imagine and that always left a marker for him for the rest of the season to perform, if he didn't perform like he did against Newcastle and M'Boro then people would (and have) said he wasn't playing well when that couldn't be more further than the truth. When winter came, his form did drop (and when i say drop i don't mean from good to bad i mean from world class to good) which you could understand with a new forign lad coming into argubly the best league in the world. Teams found him out and he had to adjust to his game, he has never experienced what he has so far in England, it takes time for players to get used to it. Ronaldo, Drogba and Adebayor all experienced problems in their first season and were wrongly written off, now look at them (i am not saying he will be as good as they are)
It is no coincidence that are form dropped when Elano was having a few problems, he carried us for that first half of the season and if we did not have him we would not of finished 9th. For a player who experienced his first season in England, a record of 10 goals, 10 assists and involved in 38% of our goals was very very impressive.
So to answer your question, inconsistent? Depends how you look at it. In some games he was which can be expected but overall i don't think he was, i think he was like Sven - the victim of his own early success.
There was never this uproar when Sven dropped Elano...but I digress. A couple of points on the above - I can concede it must be incredibly frustrating for Elano, but he's a proper sulky bastard. He would NEVER get away with shit like that in a top four club. It's the nature of football that supporters argue the toss of team selection, in my experience, it's dangerous for team spirit when players start going to the press...now, on the subject of Hughes refusing to speak to Elano. That's just garbage my friend. Very few top class managers give explanations to every player they drop. They just fucking don't do it. If a player has a problem, he goes and knocks on the manager's door. Which is exactly what Elano should have done...
The point in blue - what did Cristiano Ronaldo do this summer then? He was worse than Elano. Gallas just slagged the team off and is now back playing tonight after just one game punishment. Drogba last season said he was going, didn't want to stay at Chelsea any longer. All three disrespected their clubs, all Elano did was say he respected the manager but did not understand why he was not playing.
The point in red - That is not garbage at all, i heard it from two separate people and then i heard it on here, that is the way he operates and did do at Blackburn.
The point in green - sorry mate but that is just bollocks, can you imagine Ferguson dropping Rooney from the side and not explaining why, just ignoring him, no chance. That is bad man management. If you are dropping a player then you explain to them why you are dropping them and what they need to do to get back in the side. If you just drop a player without explaining why then that is very bad man management.
Liverpool are one of the best teams in Europe and were bidding upwards of 15 million for Barry last summer. IMO, nobody will pay over 10 million for Elano. Not that you can judge much by a price tag, I must admit. But you see my point.
They are one of the top teams in europe and were so a few years ago when they bought Jermaine Pennant, just because a top club buys you does not mean you are one of the better players, just like if you are a top player in a club that is not one of the best does not mean you are not up there with those at the top clubs. Elano is a Brazilian international who is starting for them at the minute, there will be many top clubs all around europe wanting his services.
There seems to be a huge misconception that I think Elano is shit when that is patently not the case. Over-rated, yes. Inconsistent, yes. But not shit - not by a long stretch. Is he a better footballer than Vassel, undoubtedly yes. Does he work harder than Vassel - no. Is he more mobile than Vassel, no. I think we have in Robinho, SWP, and Ireland, three of the best attacking players in the premiership. I have no problem with Elano playing second fiddle to them (which is actually what he's doing)..
If he was playing second fiddle to those three players then this thread would not of gone past page 2 because that is acceptable. What isn't acceptable is playing a player like Vassell ahead of Elano which no matter what anyone says is what is happening. If Hughes thinks that Elano is not strong enougth to be in that middle three then put him on the right, you cannot say that Vassell does a better job than Elano would on the right hand side? Elano can sit on that right hand side and dictate the game and create, Vassell cannot, all he does is work up and down and we he has the ball he isn't effective.
I am not the kind of person who is on here every other week going "ooh, I have a mate, who's mate is the gardener at Carrington and I have insider knowledge". Normally if I say I know something, it turns out to be true. I'm telling you that he is becoming a bad influence in the dressing room. He has a real attitude problem for some reason. It may well stem from him not being played, but the reality is that he is not doing what footballers should do when they get dropped ie. working hard in training and taking their chances on the pitch.
He made the ultimately stupid decision to try and destabilize the manager the week he was going to see the owners. This didn't go down too well with not only the management, but a raft of first team players.
More or less everyone will know a mate of a mate who knows something that is going on at the club, just like you have heard he is a bad influence i have heard from two separate people and on here that you have to go through Mark Bowen to speak to Hughes, that is why there was an altercation in the players lounge after the Spurs match and is why Elano went to the press after that game to ask why he wasn't being played. You cannot run a football team like that. Brazilians are tempermental and disruptive, it's in their blood. Just like Robinho was disruptive and tempermental by calling his own press conference at Madrid saying he wanted to go. It is what they are like.
