In all fairness, I'd probably take two young Brazilian prospects who are supposed to be the next big thing over Robinho at the moment. I love Robbie with all of my heart, but we must face facts that it just isn't happening for him in England.
There's no shame in it, Veron is a top, top player who also couldn't perform in our league. Same with Shevchenko and Crespo.
At the beginning of last season, he was a light in the darkness. The dawn that brought the new era to a reality instead of the oft-quoted figures of wealth we have. He was the concrete example of where we are going, and was used to show us fans that the Sheik wasn't another Shinawatra; he backed his promises with oodles of cash.
Since last December though, I think we can probably count the number of truly excellent games he's had on one hand. Yes, he's had a problem with the rape case, and yes, he's had injury problems. I think the majority of fans will sympathise with this, and if it was any other player, they would be given time that Robinho won't. At the risk of sounding cliched, Robinho won't be tolerated by the fans or by the new management, simply because he doesn't look like he's desperate. I've being saying for months that all he needs is a goal to break his deadlock. Today, he got one and the celebration wasn't at all what I expected. I expected him to have a huge release of frustration and run around with a huge grin on his face. In reality, he looked like he had provided an assist rather than break a 6 month long goalless streak.
Again though, this is my point. Here in England, we expect players to act a certain way. We expect players to try harder when they're in poor form. We expect players to work their socks off, to 'die for the shirt'. Robinho never fit these stereotypes and this is one of the reasons that the fans have turned on him. This isn't Robinho's fault, and this isn't our fault; it's just a culture clash. Robinho never was and will probably never be, a 'City player'. I don't just mean on ability, I mean on attitude. Our history is littered with people who have had a thimble full of ability and a barrel full of effort. Our new hero is seemingly Tevez, who has both ability and workrate in abundance. We don't mind shit players who try, we fucking hate great players who don't.
It isn't just on BM either. Walking to the stadium, I overhear many fans saying how annoyed they are with him, and there's always some loudmouths who will give it out to him at the game.
This isn't just the fans problem though. Robinho is a big boy, and some of us treat him like a child. More than any player I've ever seen, he is allowed privileges to do things (such as escape to Brazil) with almost zero repercussion with some of our fanbase. Nobody will argue that he consistently underperforms, yet everybody has a built in excuse for him. Nobody is coming forward to give Richards an excuse when he plays badly, nor Lescott when he plays badly. Those guys get ran through the mill.
If Robinho is low on confidence or motivation, it is through his own fault. He needs to realise that nobody can do it for him, he has to take it on himself to perform better. Whether that means that he has to run an extra twenty yards and dive into a tackle, then so be it. Whether that is that he needs to spend more time in training doing shooting practice, then he should do that too. Whatever he feels he needs to do to get his performance levels back, is what he should be doing. With the greatest respect to Petrov and Bellamy, there is no way on ability that these guys should be in front of Robinho. The only reason they are is down to their attitude on the pitch and the training field.
At the end of the day, regardless of how much he is paid (and this REALLY doesn't matter, people should stop quoting this as a measure of effort), Robinho is a professional footballer. This is his job, and he has being performing it badly as of late.
At the start, I said that I'd take (if possible) two future superstars in some sort of trade agreement with Robinho. This is purely because they could come over and adapt to European culture the way that Robbie never has done, without being thrust into the limelight. They could come to the club and work through our youth systems, get themselves grown into roles and then make a break at superstardom, the same way that Fabregas has over at Arsenal.
The simple fact is if this deal would be to go through, we would be trading potential for potential. In my mind, Robinho has still yet to fulfil his potential after a brief flurry at the start, and time (and fans' patience) is starting to run out.
There's no shame in it, Veron is a top, top player who also couldn't perform in our league. Same with Shevchenko and Crespo.
At the beginning of last season, he was a light in the darkness. The dawn that brought the new era to a reality instead of the oft-quoted figures of wealth we have. He was the concrete example of where we are going, and was used to show us fans that the Sheik wasn't another Shinawatra; he backed his promises with oodles of cash.
Since last December though, I think we can probably count the number of truly excellent games he's had on one hand. Yes, he's had a problem with the rape case, and yes, he's had injury problems. I think the majority of fans will sympathise with this, and if it was any other player, they would be given time that Robinho won't. At the risk of sounding cliched, Robinho won't be tolerated by the fans or by the new management, simply because he doesn't look like he's desperate. I've being saying for months that all he needs is a goal to break his deadlock. Today, he got one and the celebration wasn't at all what I expected. I expected him to have a huge release of frustration and run around with a huge grin on his face. In reality, he looked like he had provided an assist rather than break a 6 month long goalless streak.
Again though, this is my point. Here in England, we expect players to act a certain way. We expect players to try harder when they're in poor form. We expect players to work their socks off, to 'die for the shirt'. Robinho never fit these stereotypes and this is one of the reasons that the fans have turned on him. This isn't Robinho's fault, and this isn't our fault; it's just a culture clash. Robinho never was and will probably never be, a 'City player'. I don't just mean on ability, I mean on attitude. Our history is littered with people who have had a thimble full of ability and a barrel full of effort. Our new hero is seemingly Tevez, who has both ability and workrate in abundance. We don't mind shit players who try, we fucking hate great players who don't.
It isn't just on BM either. Walking to the stadium, I overhear many fans saying how annoyed they are with him, and there's always some loudmouths who will give it out to him at the game.
This isn't just the fans problem though. Robinho is a big boy, and some of us treat him like a child. More than any player I've ever seen, he is allowed privileges to do things (such as escape to Brazil) with almost zero repercussion with some of our fanbase. Nobody will argue that he consistently underperforms, yet everybody has a built in excuse for him. Nobody is coming forward to give Richards an excuse when he plays badly, nor Lescott when he plays badly. Those guys get ran through the mill.
If Robinho is low on confidence or motivation, it is through his own fault. He needs to realise that nobody can do it for him, he has to take it on himself to perform better. Whether that means that he has to run an extra twenty yards and dive into a tackle, then so be it. Whether that is that he needs to spend more time in training doing shooting practice, then he should do that too. Whatever he feels he needs to do to get his performance levels back, is what he should be doing. With the greatest respect to Petrov and Bellamy, there is no way on ability that these guys should be in front of Robinho. The only reason they are is down to their attitude on the pitch and the training field.
At the end of the day, regardless of how much he is paid (and this REALLY doesn't matter, people should stop quoting this as a measure of effort), Robinho is a professional footballer. This is his job, and he has being performing it badly as of late.
At the start, I said that I'd take (if possible) two future superstars in some sort of trade agreement with Robinho. This is purely because they could come over and adapt to European culture the way that Robbie never has done, without being thrust into the limelight. They could come to the club and work through our youth systems, get themselves grown into roles and then make a break at superstardom, the same way that Fabregas has over at Arsenal.
The simple fact is if this deal would be to go through, we would be trading potential for potential. In my mind, Robinho has still yet to fulfil his potential after a brief flurry at the start, and time (and fans' patience) is starting to run out.