Hello! van der vaart

Apart from John O’Shea, combs , certain other articles which are used  to scratch your back but generally aren’t meant to be used that way and Carlton Palmer  there are only very few things that can be termed as multipurpose. One of them is the word “Hello”. You receive a call you say “Hello” as a greeting. When you don’t hear the speaker’s voice properly you shout “Hello, Hulloh, Halo, Hallow” on the mouth piece not realising that you are the one who is not able to hear and that shouting can never improve the phone’s reception capacity or your hearing capacity. Now, I am out of ideas. So let’s go to the next paragraph.

Of all the ways in which the word Hello can be used, I hate the addressing unknown personalities as “hello”. The reason is, I am now a “hello” in my workplace. The fact that I am on a temporary assignment made my temporary colleagues realize that burdening their already burdened memories with my name would be a very bad idea. I expressed this feeling of being totally unwanted to one of my friends who said “Imagine how van der vaart would be feeling. All your worries will evaporate into oblivion.” This came at a time when i was preparing a draft for my would-have-been-if-not-for-the-dialogue post about the results of the other big four in the champions league. Now that the dialogue had been delivered let us now concentrate on van der vaart, Real Madrid’s one of the many Hellos.

Van der vaart, a player who, in a span of seven years has relegated himself from “The European talent of the year” to a “player without a squad number until recently”. Why this downfall? Has his performance levels reduced? Is he another  case of  football’s most exciting talents lost forever?  Is there still room for redemption? Let us answer these questions one by one.

Why this downfall?

Real Madrid’s boiler sized squad. May be not. I mean, if a player like Esteban Granero can make it to the first team then there is absolutely no reason why van der vaart can’t make it. He is about as versatile as the word hello. You can play him wide-left, behind the striker, as a striker as an out and out centre midfield player. So there is no way you can say that the squad depth is the prime reason for his downfall.  If you trace the reason then you just needn’t go too far back in the space-time fabric. The appointment of Juande Ramos – the Spanish Claudio Ranieri- as the caretaker manager of Real. His misconception that van der vaart can be used as an impact player led to the state that he finds himself in.

Van der vaart is one of those players who needs more than 60 minutes to show what he is capable of.  He is not pacy. He cannot create space like Aaron Lennon. Agreed he is capable of exploiting space when there are tired legs around but that is certainly not his forte. And after that ligament tear he isn’t the same dutch bullet he once was any more.

Has his performance level reduced?

Many would say yes. I beg to differ. It is improper to say one player is past it or back to form without him playing at least 10 games on the trot. And except for the Alcorcon game where Real Madrid was un-Real Madness he never had an opportunity to showcase his capability. He didn’t have a squad number let alone opportunities.

Is he another case of football’s most exciting talents lost forever?

Lost, yes! Forever, No! An injury to Kaka is probably what it takes to regain some of his lost touch. But time as always is ticking.

Is there room for redemption?

Definitely. If he moves to another club which value players, victories and more importantly money more than t-shirt marketing within the end of next year, then there is definitely room for redemption. He was linked with Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea in the premier league. Of the three Liverpool look like the one that needs him the most. I mean when he reaches his best, you might need something higher than Mt.Everest to separate Benayoun and van der vaart.  Arsenal with their even-our-stadium-announcer is more creative than Benayoun and their already humongous squad wont need him or buy him. And Chelsea, well who needs a van der vaart when there is a Kakuta.

Every time i see him on the TV or read about him, I feel very sad. After all he was the one that got me close to 30 goals a season for three seasons at Newcastle in Football manager 2008.

“ ….back then I used to be the only one. Sometimes may be Ballack . But after the arrival of Ivanovic , Deco, Kakuta etc there was some sort of Identity crisis which made me decide it was time for departure.”

-Andriy Shevchenko (Chapter 2: On being a “hello” in the book  Ukrainian’s guide to the English premier league)

“With Liverpool it’s fun. Thanks to Rafa’s squad rotation policy you can never be sure who the one is.”

-Andriy Voronin (Chapter 2: On being a “hello” in the book  Ukrainian’s guide to the English premier league)