In your boardroom, stirring things up

By Emerald Gao
Written on February 19, 2007

Sid Lowe's column this week has to do with Valencia, and why, despite all of the internal squabblings at the club, they are still title contenders. The opening crescendo of players' eccentricities is charming, actually, and worth a read even if you don't know squat about the club. But moving on. At one point, he writes:

And much as the new sporting director Amadeo Carboni is about as popular as a paediatrician on a housing estate, he has built an impressive squad. The best in Spain, in fact, with the majority of those who won two league titles, plus David Villa, Raúl Albiol, Luis Miguel, Edu, Fernando Morientes, Asier Del Horno, Joaquín Sánchez, and David Silva.

I think you give too much credit to Carboni. He was still a player up until the end of last season, and his signing record as sporting director consists of Morientes, Del Horno, Joaquin, and Tavano. Joaquin has rarely been inspiring since his incorporation to the team (when Angulo emerges as a clear first choice for the starting spot at right wing, you know there's something lacking), Del Horno has only started recovering from the knee injury that he left Chelsea with, and Tavano has been shipped back to Rome. Only Morientes has shown satisfactory results, and that was always expected of him upon his return to friendlier territory.

In addition, he has stalled on resigning important players like Ayala (you could say that the Villarreal deal has been a year in the making, given last summer's contract extension debacle), Cañizares (who has only recently gotten his contract extension), and most recently, Albelda (Carboni claims that the club cannot afford to pay his wages, which is ridiculous when we're talking about the captain and undisputed spine of the team).

And it's not only the team and the coach who are upset with Carboni -- I can't speak for all Valencia fans everywhere, but a lot of them have expressed concern at some of his actions. Power plays, you could call them. For example, storming into the locker room during the match against Athletic Bilbao earlier in the season, listening in on the tactical discussions for no apparent reason. I could make jokes all day about Carboni taking one too many balls to the cranium in all his years of service, but although his playing record for the club remains distinguished, a lot of fans have expressed concern over his abilities as sporting director.

I personally feel that Valencia were too hasty in appointing the ex-player to a bureaucratic position, but it probabaly seemed like a logical choice for the suits at the time. I obviously can't know for sure, as I wasn't in the room when the decision was made, but I see what everyone else sees -- an ex-player who can't get along with his former manager and teammates, struggling to maintain his image at the club.

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