Remember Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Fernando Morientes, Eidur Gudjohnsen, and Hernan Crespo, till recently fixtures in a Premiership club? Great players who ran up against Abramovich’s billions, Sir Alex’s foul temper, and Rafa Benitez’s lack of confidence.
Gudjohnsen and Crespo had no place in Jose Mourinho’s high powered offense featuring Drogba, Essien, Mikel, Kalou, Shevchenko, and Ballack. RVN ran afoul of Sir Alex and had some nasty spats with wonderboy and Sir Alex favourite Cristiano Ronaldo, and Morientes could not cut the mustard at Anfield, remaining a scoreless wonder. Benitez ran out of patience.
So what have they been doing since being transfered to their new clubs? More of the same? Not really, they in fact, have been thriving, much more so then the transfer wonderkids Andrei Shevchenko, Michael Ballack, Salomon Kalou, and Dirk Kuyt, who were going to light a fire in the Premiership.
Morientes who could not buy himself him a goal while in Liverpool in the last season already has four for Valencia in UEFA Cup matches. Valencia is just behind Barca and Real in the La Liga standings and is on top of their UEFA table leading Roma. Morientes is just behind Drogba for top scorer in the European competition.
In the Serie, Crespo has gotten the ball rolling with friend and Inter Milan team mate Adriano, when they beat AC Milan with Crespo opening Inter’s account. Crespo already has 3 goals in 5 matches for Inter, leading them to the top of the Serie.
RVN played a big part in Real’s, 2-0 victory over Barcelona with his goal. He has scored 4 goals in 8 matches. Real is keeping it close with Barcelona in the La Liga standings.
Gudjohnsen has had some big moments scoring for Barcelona and today he made his former club, Chelsea pay with a goal following a great cross by Ronaldinho. It was left to Drogba in injury time to score the equalizer. Barcelona has had it tough this year in La Liga but Gudjohnsen has done his bit to see that they cling to the top.
Not bad for players, jettisoned from their clubs in some cases unceremoniously, as in RVN’s instance with Sir Alex, who treated him very poorly. Or Gudjohnsen becoming sidelined with the introduction of Essien, Drogba, and Makelele.
Man Utd and Chelsea may not miss them as they are doing well in the Premiership as well as in European championships but these players have proven to be impact players for their new clubs. More importantly, they are in a position to play their former clubs in the future for possibly, the championship. For RVN, there may not be a sweeter moment, than slotting the ball past Van Der Saar to give Real victory over Man Utd and see Sir Alex’s face turn purple.