Daylight snobbery costing Del Nido dear
There’s nothing Sevilla president José María Del Nido likes more than congratulating himself. Apart, that is, from polishing his bald head to a pristine shine, pulling on one of those rich-man’s blue shirts with a white collar, knotting a silk tie in a double Windsor beneath an 18-carat gold tie-pin, and strutting about like the most important man in buy canada goose jacket in canada the world.
Arrogant simply doesn’t do him justice, which is rather appropriate really because Del Nido doesn’t do justice either. He was, after all like it, Jesús Gil’s lawyer and now represents best canada goose coat for women aged Flamenco singer and vacuous gossip-mag mainstay Isabel Pantoja and her moustachioed boyfriend Julián Muñoz – Gil’s successor as Mayor of Marbella, an apprentice who learnt from the master so well that he too nipped off with millions of pounds of council cash without winding up in the slammer.
As stuck up as a brush-wielding six-year-old in an eighteenth-century chimney, Del Nido insists: “I am neither humble, nor do I want to be.” An active former (and, quite probably, current) member of the far-right Fuerza Nueva whose office still boasts a Francoist flag, he is the classic Andalucían snob – last season he declared himself the “second most important man in Seville, after the Pope”.
And what better way to prove it than through Sevilla Football Club, an institution that has long represented the richer half of the city? Especially when its centenary provides the perfect platform to bang on about how clever you are and how great your team is. When average price for a canada goose jacket it provides the chance to insist upon having your flag hanging from the town hall balcony, to demand medals of honour, and to hold loads of events – quality ones, you understand, not the kind of vulgar, working-class dross Betis fans would enjoy.
What better way, indeed. Only your team had canada goose coat 0f better be good and you’d better get it right, or you’re going to look stupid, which for a man who went to university, you know is a bit unfortunate.
Alas, that’s exactly what has happened. For, quite apart from a Real Madrid style self-adulating centenary being a laugh for a club that’s won one league title in its history and not collected a single trophy since 1948, things have gone horribly pear-shaped – rather like Pantoja, in fact.
Towards the end canada goose coat – hybridge lite of last season, with Sevilla third, Del Nido gloated: “It is fantastic for Andalucía to have a team in the Champions League for the first time ever.” The centenary would be played out on a stage fit for a King. Or a Del Nido. Only, two weeks can i wash my canada goose coat later Sevilla had blown it and, to make matters worse, their scrubberish neighbours were the ones that zoomed past laughing their heads off. “He’s right,” giggled Betis president Manuel Ruiz de Lopera. “It is fantastic for Andalucía to have a team in the Champions League for the first time ever.”
Del Nido swore (swore as in vowed, that is; not swore as in said bollocks – he’d never be so uncouth) that this season would be different and so far he’s right: it’s turning out even worse. On Sunday night, Sevilla were defeated 2-1 by surprise leaders Celta de Vigo and find themselves down in fifteenth, a single point from the relegation zone, having scored just three goals. Their performance, admitted coach Juande Ramos, was “disastrous”.
All of which would be bad enough, can you dry clean a canada goose coat but when much of it is your own fault, and the fans know so, it’s even harder to take. “People said I was a big mouth, but they have to admit that I have managed this club brilliantly, cancelling out the 42m euros debt we had when I arrived [five years ago], while also building a competitive team with various players who are worth millions,” Del Nido boasts, thumping himself on the chest.
That much is true (ish: suspicions remain about José Antonio Reyes, for whom Arsenal say they paid less than Del Nido claimed to have received and for Sergio Ramos, for whom Madrid officially paid the 27m euros buy-out clause, even anyone has got canada goose buy canada goose jacket australia coat though they privately insist that they paid nowhere near that). But the footballing cost could buy a canada goose jacket be as big as the cost to Del Nido’s credibility after he claimed that he wouldn’t sell any of his standard-bearers in a centenary year only to wave good-bye to Julio Baptista and Sergio Ramos.
The Beast scored fifty goals in two seasons and brought in 20m euros but Sevilla have done little to replace him – not least because Del Nido has started going over the head of extremely successful sporting director Monchi. Not only has he released coach Joaquín Caparrós and replaced him with a former Betis manager (much to the amusement of Ruiz de Lopera), he has also undermined Sevilla’s traditional foundations: Sevilla’s youth team, forever presented as the best in Spain, has remained virtually untapped this year – only Jesús Navas has played regularly – and those veterans who imposed character on the team have become marginalized.
Monchi built carefully and made a huge profit. Del Nido has splashed much of that wad on quick fixes that have fixed nothing, pushing for bigger names with bigger wages: former Valencia keeper Andres Palop, who’s even played every game, earns more than Iker Casillas. But while there’s still plenty of time, so far it’s not working. As the new players settle, Sevilla lack personality, a system, and real quality.
They also desperately lack goals. Javier Saviola could easily score fifteen or twenty once he gets a decent run but the other new strikers inspire less confidence. Luis Fabiano may have a superb record in Brazil but has failed on his previous two trips to Europe, scoring just four league goals at Porto and Rennes, while Freddie Kanouté this weekend helpfully pointed out: “I’ve never been the kind of player to get twenty goals a season.”
Which is of course true – not that Del Nido appreciated the remark, having just proudly announced: “We’re going to challenge for the title this year because what we’ve bought is goals.”
Results:
Valencia 2 – 1 Real Sociedad Zaragoza 1 – 1 Depor Espanyol 1 – 2 Villarreal Atlético 0 – 1 Getafe Betis 1 – 4 Barcelona Alavés 0 – 3 Real Madrid [Club shop closed on match days. Genius] Mallorca 1 – 4 Málaga Osasuna 2 – 0 Cádiz Athletic 0 – 0 Racing Celta 2 – 1 Sevilla
