ROBINHO

By dixon9
September 4 2008

This morning’s edition of Marca in Spain reports that Robinho spoke out yesterday on why he didn’t or couldn’t sign for Chelsea. The Player also defended his decision over deciding to put pen to paper for Mark Hughes’s new Man City revolution and hit back over strong criticism from national legend Pele who claimed the player needs counselling.

“What influenced the fight between Real Madrid and Chelsea was the advertising of my shirt before an agreement had been reached and the fact that Chelsea weren’t prepared to meet the transfer value Real Madrid expected.”

“Manchester City came in with an offer in the 45^th minute of the second half that was good for me and Real Madrid accepted.”

Robinho went on to explain that Chelsea and Real Madrid being rivals in the Champions League constantly threw a negative light over any possible deal between the two clubs.

The Brazilian international reiterated that he was offended at Real Madrid being prepared to use him as make-weight in the Ronaldo deal and there was no way he wanted to stay at a club that didn’t make any effort to make him stay - something they only did once the Ronaldo transfer had collapsed.

On a perhaps bizarre note, Robinho also claims that Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon was “desperate” NOT to sign a replacement for him whilst Chelsea were waiting to finalise the transfer although in fairness some other quarters of the Spanish media do say that Calderon was determined not to sell Robinho to Chelsea at any cost.

Calderon had claimed that Robinho was crying at meetings over the no-go decision to let him go to Chelsea but the player denies this although admits that he did so when he was told he would not be allowed to play for his country in the Olympics.

Pele has come out and claimed that Chelsea are better off without Robinho: 

"Chelsea are lucky. This boy needs some serious counselling. In my view he has been badly advised.” 

Robinho responded as follows: 

“If Pele had been in the same situation as I then perhaps he would have done the same.  It’s easy to criticise from the outside”

Robinho didn’t however make any reply to strong criticism from Santos president, Marcelo Teixeira who said: 

"This is one of the most disgraceful episodes in Brazilian football... He is a player who is an idol to children... But he has not acted like one."

Jose Fernandos, Santos manager also waded in with an even stronger broadside: 

"We are ashamed at having produced such a player." 

The player has also come in for some criticism for not signing for a club that is playing in the Champions League or among the favourites for the title. 

“Many don’t believe that Manchester City is a primary club but I feel the opposite. The project is only just beginning and we will be fighting for titles.” 

He then went on to compare City to Chelsea: 

“4 years ago Chelsea were just like City today.” 

Well, personally I don’t begrudge City their new found wealth – in fact I welcome it and I’ve always thought of them as an old sleeping giant, but to say we were just like City were 4 years ago is just plain wrong.  In the decade before Abramovich took over we had won FA, League and Cup Winners Cups – in fact more silverware than Villa, Spurs, Everton and Newcastle combined – we had also not been out the top 6 for a few years – City, in contrast, hadn’t won anything for 32 years.

Still, congratulations to City but have we dodged a bullett?  Only time will tell...