We didn't even make a formal offer, just an inquiry. Fact is we wanted a left footed CB.

http://www.spox.com/de/sport/fussball/bundesliga/1409/News/mehdi-benatia-wollte-beim-as-rom-bleiben-serie-a-bayern-muenchen-javi-martinez.html

Hapless_Hans wrote:

Fußball wrote:
Seems like Benatia wasn't available.


Bayern simply got lucky with the timing of the Martinez injury.

sure, if that's what you choose to tell yourself to make you feel better

What do you mean? I've wanted Benatia badly so followed his transfer saga the entire summer. Except for the very beginning, before the transfer window had even opened, before Lucho was even appointed, except for 1 MD cover in March (!), there was barely any mentioning of Benatia in any Barca related sources. A little bit of news when the player himself gave that interview where he mentioned "Barca, Bayern and City" as possible destinations but that was basically it.

The most concrete destination for Benatia seemed to be City but Roma's sporting director (?) claimed that Benatia's left foot alone is worth € 61M (hereby mocking City a bit as City's rumoured FFP limit was rumoured to be € 60M). Which indicates that he really wasn't available as well as City paying € 40M+ for Mangala afterwards. So Roma could have gotten some serious cash for Benatia from City if they wanted to actually sell him back then.

The entire summer Barca chased Marquinhos as the "big profile" target and PSG's president confirmed a € 40M+ bid a few days ago which is in accordance with all the rumours day in day out the entire summer. There was absolutely nothing like it for Benatia and certainly no chance that we were going to sign 2 big money defenders like Marquinhos AND Benatia at the same time.

Bayern were the ones "fortunate" enough to have Martinez injured in the last week of the transfer window when every other club had already bought defenders. What the Roma president is saying fits perfectly with the rumours the entire summer.

No, I absolutely agree that timing played a big role how the transfer went down, and have written so before (also in this thread http://www.goallegacy.net/t36435-why-has-barca-failed-to-land-a-world-class-defender#1293184 ).

What I don't buy is that he wasn't available before, only that he wasn't available at that price, or maybe not at a price the teams interested in him thought reasonable.

Even if the Roma president now claims they were 'deceived' by Benatia, thought they had an extension agreement and therefore 'wanted him gone' once they found out he had been 'lying' etc, it's easy to see that's a way to spin so they look better, since they embarrassed themselves earlier with the price they claimed and then couldn't get.

But Benatia himself was flirting with a transfer all summer, we all read his public statements, so for them to claim they were surprised he wanted out is a bit ridiculous.

But as you say, probably your board weren't interested enough in him to pay a lot, especially if Marquinhos was your first target.

Let us not move too quickly to rate Benatia. I have actually watched the player twice in my life (apart from the Serie A highlights). But I have question marks over him.

Best defender in a league where a 37 year old Luca Toni is the top scorer? Hardly an achievement. He could well be a one season wonder that Bayern ended up spending twice than what Roma paid for him only a year ago.

And he is 27. Where was he all these years?

At Udinese for 3 years and before that France. His situation can be compared to Cahill cant it?

Cahill was at Bolton for 4 years (before that crap English sides) and it was hard to gauge how good he was. He went to Chelsea while he is flawed and no well beater, he is a good player and shown himself good enough for Chelsea.

Benatia could be the same,except better qualities.

Yes, Luca Toni is the top scorer...but are centerbacks only defending strikers? There role is alot bigger than that.

There are and have been really good Italian league CB's in recent years.

danyjr wrote:Let us not move too quickly to rate Benatia. I have actually watched the player twice in my life (apart from the Serie A highlights). But I have question marks over him.

Best defender in a league where a 37 year old Luca Toni is the top scorer? Hardly an achievement. He could well be a one season wonder that Bayern ended up spending twice than what Roma paid for him only a year ago.

And he is 27. Where was he all these years?

Udinese have been consistently punching above their weight. Just becuase no one was looking it doesn't mean he was not playing well.

I don't know whether he was good at Udinese or not but there is not a single mention of his name in this forum pre Roma signing. Not saying this forum is the basis of how good a player can be (it isn't) but even in every day football talk his name rarely got mentioned outside of Serie A prior to Giallorossi move. Tim Cahill is a rare exception playing in a superior league and whether Benatia can be another example, I don't know. What I know however is that a player blooming at the age of 27 is not a common thing. My point is people willing to dish out €40 million or more for a one season wonder should perhaps think a bit more.

Again I'm not saying he is a bad defender but I think the hype around him was illogical. When I mentioned Luca Toni as the top scorer of Serie A, it was only to represent the quality of Serie A which is unfortunately on a sad decline.

Bottom line is he's not worse than Mathieu let alone Vermaelen, less injury-prone than the latter and younger than both. I somewhat agree that there are slight question marks regarding Serie ZzzZzzzZ these days. Not only because the best he's directly facing are scrubs like Higuain, Llorente and Co. but overall the teams are lacking pace and most teams have adopted the 3/5 man defense bullcrap. Would certainly be a culture shock for Benatia coming to Barca and playing against speedsters like Ronaldo and Bale in Barca's high defensive line. Nonetheless I've watched him and he stands out individually. Tall, physical, aggressive, good on the ball, decently quick.

Anyway, let's hope Serie ZzzzzZZz made him look like that and he's actually crap. Hans, we still friends?

danyjr wrote:I don't know whether he was good at Udinese or not but there is not a single mention of his name in this forum pre Roma signing. Not saying this forum is the basis of how good a player can be (it isn't) but even in every day football talk his name rarely got mentioned outside of Serie A prior to Giallorossi move. Tim Cahill is a rare exception playing in a superior league and whether Benatia can be another example, I don't know. What I know however is that a player blooming at the age of 27 is not a common thing. My point is people willing to dish out €40 million or more for a one season wonder should perhaps think a bit more.

Again I'm not saying he is a bad defender but I think the hype around him was illogical. When I mentioned Luca Toni as the top scorer of Serie A, it was only to represent the quality of Serie A which is unfortunately on a sad decline.

Well alot of people didnt speak of alot of players that turned out to be really really good. I mean, Rakitic is 26..where was he before?

Why is he a one season wonder though? Because you didnt watch him all the seasons except one? That doesnt make much sense to me.

I get what your saying, but I dont think dishing out 40m for him is worse than doing almost the same for Matheui and Vermaelen combined. In fact, it would be a whole heck better even if he isnt as good as advertised.

I think this thing about Toni scored in Serie A old 37 = Serie A scrub is a superficial opinion anyway . You  can't generalise in this way . Otherwise why did Forlan flop? and are we sure Torres will rape Serie A following this matter?
I haven't problems to admit difficult moment of Serie A, but many do it   even worse than it is really  anyway.
Toni is just  high 2 metres and he has sense of goal. You never lose the sense of goals but of course if you are so high  you can "manage " better the decline because you must not run and you can wait the ball in area and hitting the head. Where Toni is still a maestro. He scored basically always in this way.
or maybe danyir is also schocked by last WC played by Palacio , but he got injured in that friendly match before of WC, he played as injured the WC  and infact he is  Still injured ffs

About Benatia.
TBH most Romanisti thought that passing by Marquinhos to Benatia was a downgrade.
Benatia was legit in Udinese of course, but this is not often an indicative thing.
Many players in Udinese look better than they are really , because the team is organized, Guidolin is good to hid flaws in his game system , and they have also journalists ready to hype them (Criscitello of Sportitalia works for Udinese too ) .
For this reason fans are used to be prudent about players who come from Udinese.
Isla is a recent example of player revealed as scrub outside Udinese.
So all " hype" Benatia now, but just a year ago he was accepted normally, almost with indifference, rated as good , but not as a top.
And infact last year, old 27, he played his first season as top defender.


. Before of this season I have always rated Benatia not as a top defender , but simply as a defender very good , this season was so relevant that Roma fans fell in love immediately for him comparing him even to Samuel ( Samuel is not just a legend for Inter fans, but also for Roma fans being " the wall " of Scudetto 2001 ) .
I don't  change ideas for a season anyway .
My idea on Benatia is that he was not an incredible defender, he is very good  I mean he would not be so rated 10 yeas ago , basically his "hype" derived from current scrub generation of defender, a generation where defenders as David Luiz forget to be paid for defending, and not acting as midfielders box to box .

Benatia reminds us that defenders must mainly defend, with diligence and good consistency, and this is gold in this moment.

Very informative post. Rob.

Fuss
I add a thing , Gervinho played only a match very very well with Gunners, in that play off CL  Udinese-Arsenal 1-2, basically the most important match played by Udinese in last years , where he raped Mehdi Benatia . This as further demonstration that he was always  good  , but few rated him as top before of 2013 2014.

Fußball wrote:
Anyway, let's hope Serie ZzzzzZZz made him look like that and he's actually crap. Hans, we still friends?

what did I do that you question my friendship
is it because I didn't write a part for you in my Kroos morality play?
I promise you'll feature centrally in the next one about Pep!

Anyway I don't even expect so much from Benatia, all he needs to be is a good backup - obviously I don't think he can better Boateng and Badstuber, that would be too much to ask.

Hapless_Hans wrote:

Fußball wrote:
Anyway, let's hope Serie ZzzzzZZz made him look like that and he's actually crap. Hans, we still friends?

what did I do that you question my friendship
is it because I didn't write a part for you in my Kroos morality play?
I promise you'll feature centrally in the next one about Pep!

Bookmarked so I can cancel our friendship subscription if you lie to me.