Anyone watch the Man City-Chelsea game last night (or early this morning)? Although my football brain told me that despite Robinho’s capture it was still going to be a no contest, it still intrigued me to see how the match would unfold, as they could potentially be the two biggest clubs in England, financially anyway, in the near future.
And what a funny game it was. The star attraction was of course the rubber legged Robinho, and he didn’t disappoint. Or course, I’m not talking about his on field performance, I wasn’t expecting much out of someone who just joined the team last week. He still has some way to go till he justifies his British record 32 million pound transfer fee. I was more interested in whether or not he can make more of a fool of himself.
In this age of mercenary footballers, I think Robbie takes the prize. Despite having a fantastic year on the pitch last season, feelings were soured when former employers Real Madrid stepped up their pursuit of Ronaldo over the summer. Taking this as a personal dig at him, Robinho moaned and whinged all summer, telling everyone – especially Roman Abramovich – that his dream was to be reunited with former Brazil and current Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari. He even went as far as to hold a personal conference reminding everyone of his desire to leave, just minutes prior to Madrid’s season opener - a game which he was meant to be in the starting eleven for!
Needless to say, his actions forced his departure from the Spanish champions, but City threw a spanner in the works when the Abu Dahbi group took them over and within hours had tabled a record bid for the Brazilian. This caught Chelsea off guard, and gave City the chance to throw absurd amounts of money, rumoured to be in the region of 200,000 pounds per week, at Robinho to make him the first piece of their very, very expensive puzzle.
It's funny how a truckload of money can make you change your mind, suddenly the Chelsea dream doesn't look rich enough. When answering questions in a mid week press conference, Robinho nonchalantly commented on how lucky it was that Chelsea came in with a last minute bid for him. When a journo asks him if he meant City and not Chelsea, Robinho merely shrugs in a "Chelsea? City? Whatever…" sort of way.
That being said, it only took him 12 minutes to score his first Premier League goal, even if it was off a deflection. But his celebrations was what really fired me up, when he started kissing his badge… Three days ago he didn’t even remember which team he was playing for, and now he’s kissing the team badge?! Please show some respect. The badge kissing celebration is saved for those who actually love the club that they play for, who are willing to bleed and die for the colours. It makes sense when someone like John Terry kisses his badge, he’s been at Stamford Bridge since the youth team. He’s earned the right. Robinho kissing the badge is an insult to the notion of loyalty. Or maybe he was kissing it because he's getting royalties off every #10 City replica shirt sold.
But perhaps the biggest enigma of the game was when Robbie swapped shirts with Chelsea playmaker Deco… at half time?! Not really sure what that was about, the only reason I could think of was that he really, really wanted to wear a Chelsea shirt.
Well, at least he can afford to go buy one.
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