Giovani dos Santos

Re: Dos Santos

He demanded a pay rise, which didn´t seem reasonable, where other players like Bojan were playing better than him and didn´t say anything. It wasn´t only him that got booed the whole team did, but yes I admit the fans were a bit harsh, but that´s why Márquez said in his interview that being a football player you should be able to handle the pressure.

Re: Dos Santos

No gio got singled out by the crowd.

And márquez is 29 years old and captain of his country. Gio was 18 at the time and it was his first real season in the first team. The whole "if u are a footballer u should be able to handle the pressure" is a poor excuse because footballers are trained to play football. I dont remember them having pressure-handling sessions on the training ground. And let alone if u are 18. At that age u only should have to concentrate on playing football. I understand why the crowd were unhappy with his (read: his agent's) demands...and there really was no way he was gonna stay at the club while he was associated with zahavi. But gio himself got alot of unfair stick. Zahavi has him under his thumb.

Re: Dos Santos

Bojan was 17, and when Messi got promoted he was 17 or 18. Not saying he had to take the pressure, he wasn't performing well, so demanding a pay rise is really stupid. That's the only thing I didn't like about him.

Re: Dos Santos

I didn`t like his attitude. Although that statement has holes in it as we really can`t know for sure what was going on between him and the club. He did show some glimpses of his talent in the last few matches for FC Barcelona. Who knows what would have happened had he stayed. He`s not doing very well now and thats the sad reality.

Re: Dos Santos

Its so unfortuante how many agents are taking advantage of the naivity young players. I understand that agents are needed in football, but while some are very good, others totally exploit every young player and every loophole in the system. Like u say, gio was a great prospect.

Re: Dos Santos

Can someone tell me why he left us? Because of agent? Or some other issues perhaps?

Re: Dos Santos

I dont know the exact ins and outs (only the club, the player and his associates will know that)...but from what i gather his camp was asking for more money than the club were prepared to pay.

The thing is this isnt a small problem. Nowadays young players aren't paid salaries/transfer fees in context. Its all about their potential. I mean..one transfer i always look at it michael carrick from spurs to man utd. The guy was decent when he moved, but not worth £19mil. However both clubs knew his potential, and so man utd had to fork out the money. Its the same with gio. The money his camp was asking for probably didnt reflect his current ability with respect to the rest of the players in the team. However because he has alot of potential, they were asking for a higher salary.

Younger players are becoming more and more crucial for big clubs. The likes of man utd, arsenal and barcelona have shown how important players in their late teens and very early twenties can be to the club. And how alot more resources are putting into helping them grow. So the stock of young players has gone up drastically. This is also helped (or hindered...whichever way u look at it) by the internet..where youtube etc can give players alot of exposure.

Re: Dos Santos

Thanks for the info maz.

Seems like money is indeed the issue. I think his agent is partly to blame. Like you have mentioned maz, some agents are taking advantage of young players to obtain more money.

Re: Dos Santos

He really impressed me in pre-season, especially the Gamper against Inter he was magical. Then throughout the season he was really useless, proof for that is he did'nt score a single league goal until that last match when he scored a hat-trick. He played attacking midfielder in that match, maybe that's the key?

Re: Dos Santos

You're absolutely right Evil. He probably played at his favourite spot where he could produce something for the team. But I'd prefer to versatile players like Messi and Iniesta.

Re: Dos Santos

Evil said:

He really impressed me in pre-season, especially the Gamper against Inter he was magical. Then throughout the season he was really useless, proof for that is he did'nt score a single league goal until that last match when he scored a hat-trick. He played attacking midfielder in that match, maybe that's the key?

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He definitely wasnt useless. Let alone "really useless". He was like a pit bull. I remember one game (baring in mind this was when we were in an absolute slump and every player was just playing matches to get their pay check) and the ball was going out for a goal kick to the opposition. Every player on the pitch thought it was going out for a goal kick (the defender was jogging by it waiting for it to go out of play) but gio chased it down, hustled the defender and won the ball. As soon as he did that all the fcb players around him seemed to have a new lease of life. Gio injected some real determination into his teammates. About 2 or 3 mins later we scored.

Re: Dos Santos

and that makes him a great player ? Don't get me wrong maz, he did have a burst of energy, ofcourse he did, when your 18 and the coach gives you a chance ofcourse your going to run your ass off, but let the stats do the talking:

League Appearances - 28
Goals - 3
Assists - 4

Keep in mind all the 3 goals came in the last match only.

Plus 5 other appearances in the Cup with no goals or assists. I'm not blaming him or anything dude, other than Messi, Toure, and maybe Xavi, our whole squad weren't playing that well last season. It wasn't only Dos Santos, just accept the fact that he wasn't good that's all I'm saying

Re: Dos Santos

It`s tough to emerge in a losing team. If it wasn`t for his manager, I`d welcome his stay. Many of todays best footballers were going through bad patches as youngsters. Just look at Bojan now. Probably our worst player this season but we need to be patient...

Re: Dos Santos

Evil said:

I'm not blaming him or anything dude, other than Messi, Toure, and maybe Xavi, our whole squad weren't playing that well last season.

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Iniesta??

LOL going from playing in the best team in Europe to playing for Ipswich