Is Robinho Really that Wrong in Joining Manchester City over Chelsea?

Much has been made of Robinho’s decision to sign for Manchester City for a British transfer fee record of £32.5m with numerous criticisms being made of the Brazilian star but is his decision to join the Citizens that strange really?

Brazilian legend Pele claimed the player needed “counselling” whilst Chelsea’s summer signing Deco had this to say, “To leave Madrid to go to Chelsea is OK, but I have my doubts with respect to City”.

“We will have to ask Robinho what happened. It’s not normal either to change Real for City only for the money.”

The former Barcelona star added: “Robinho has the standing to play in a team which aspire to titles.”

With such mounting criticism that the Brazilian international only joined City for money sacrificing the chance of silverware and the opportunity to win the World Player of the Year title he so craves. Let’s look at the facts.

The 24-year-old played for Real Madrid for 3 seasons and played a key role in last season’s Primera Liga triumph after scoring 11 goals in 32 league appearances for the club (27 starts). The majority of these appearances were made from a wide-left position where he finally begun to show the form his potential had always promised. However, as soon as it became clear that the club were willing to sacrifice the player in an attempt to sign Cristiano Ronaldo he became disillusioned.

Now, footballers are generally confidence driven and some more than others have a need to be loved. In this case, the young Brazilian was given a clear indication he was not a key figure at the club. Therefore, it should be of no surprise from that point he wanted out. Ok, few players express a desire to leave the biggest club in the world but in some ways the fact the player was not happy to be a bit-part player in a team of stars is commendable.

Joining Chelsea would have been a like for like move, he would have been joining a successful team packed with world class stars where his future in the line-up whatever his price-tag would hardly have been assured. However, his move to Man City whether a surprise or not is perhaps the best move he could have made. He now is the star attraction of an incredibly ambitious club, he is the focal point of everyone’s interest at Eastlands. He has the chance to do what Diego Maradona did when he joined Napoli in the mid 80’s and transformed a club starved of success into a footballing superpower.

If anything, a club like City should be the boost of ego the temperamental Brazilian needs and may also allow the player to perform in a position where he begun his career sparking interest from the likes of Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham. When Robinho burst onto the scene at Santos in his homeland he played in a far more attacking role which led to an impressive scoring rate of 44 goals in 104 League appearances. Mark Hughes already has excellent wingers at the club in the shape of both Martin Petrov and Shaun Wright-Phillips so may be tempted to use Robinho as a 2nd striker behind his compatriot Jo as one area of the team that needs strengthening is up front.

If Robinho can produce the magic we know he is capable of then he could well become the catalyst of this new-look City side that can afford to buy the very best in the world and will surely grow to become one of the League’s and perhaps Europe’s superpowers if their new owners get their way. Thus, the talented Brazilian can launch an attack from the Blue side of Manchester on silverware which few would have thought possible literally weeks ago. Therefore, for me, Robinho has made the perfect decision in the long run both for his own personal glory and for the worldwide acclaim he craves as Manchester City are definitely the club everyone is talking about.

Written by Christian Goodbrand

Tags: Arsenal, Brazil, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Premier League, Real Madrid, Robinho, Tottenham

This entry was posted on Monday, September 8th, 2008 at 09:50 and is filed under Features, Home Features, Transfer News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.