Picking Up The Pieces Of The Robinho Transfer Debacle

In one of the biggest transfer shocks of recent times, Manchester City have nabbed Robinho for a British record fee of £32.5 million, when for most of the summer the Brazilian seemed certain to be pitching up in the blue of Chelsea.

But a turning point in negotiations appeared to come when Real Madrid issued a statement criticising Chelsea’s pursuit of the winger, which Chelsea immediately hit back at. Such posturing by Madrid was hypocrisy of the highest order, but it appears that is when they decide not to sell to Chelsea, no matter how much the club offered, as a point of principle.

The incident over the shirt sales was a big mistake on the part of Chelsea, but I don’t think that incident alone lead Madrid to refuse to sell to Chelsea. This combined with Real’s view that Chelsea had conducted themselves in an unscrupulous manner in attempting to sign the Brazilian. The statement Real Madrid released on their website on Sunday read:

"Real Madrid CF deeply regrets the behaviour of Chelsea FC Board Members who, despite knowing Real Madrid's negative to transfer the player, have continued to make gestures and announcements that reached their peak with the selling of Robinho Chelsea shirts through the club's official website. All this has complicated the situation further and confused the public."

Of course, if Real Madrid are looking for sympathy, they’re barking up the wrong tree completely. It is a shocking example of double standards after the way the club pursued both Arjen Robben and Cristiano Ronaldo. Every day you opened a newspaper, it seemed someone from the club was commenting on Ronaldo. Chelsea talked about Robinho yes, but when Peter Kenyon and Bruce Buck spoke recently of their confidence at getting a deal done, it was known by everyone that Chelsea were interested in Robinho and had made two bids. The news hardly came as a shock.

Moral quarrels aside, it is time for the club to move on and focus on the season ahead. As I wrote yesterday, Chelsea’s failure to capture Robinho could provide Luiz Felipe Scolari with some headaches during the season. Florent Malouda, Salomon Kalou and Joe Cole have all struggled for form recently, and Didier Drogba is only just beginning on his road to recovery after a knee injury.

Surveying the transfer, one gets the impression that Chelsea put all of their eggs into one basket and staked a successful transfer window on getting Robinho. While it may seem easy to blame Peter Kenyon for this, both him and Scolari must shoulder some of the blame.

Robinho was one of the player’s selected by Scolari as a target when he took over at the club. As Scolari said on the eve of Chelsea’s game against Tottenham last weekend, concluding the transfer was up to Kenyon. However, once Real decided they didn’t want to sell to Chelsea, there was not much Kenyon could have done to have changed their minds.

Chelsea have placed the blame at the feet of ‘external suppliers’ for the shirts debacle, so it’s hard to implicate Kenyon in that. As I mentioned above, what Kenyon said about Robinho was nothing too shocking, everyone had known Chelsea were in for him ages ago.

Scolari’s lack of a back up option could be a faux pas on his part, or a sign that he believes the squad he currently possesses is more than able of challenging for trophies. While I hold such a view, I have a nagging feeling that when it really comes down to it, we could come up short.

Manchester City fans are of course over the moon with the deal, but their joy should be tempered a bit. Yes, Robinho is a fantastic player, but is he really worth over £30 million? He might not adapt to the physicality of the Premier League and turn out to be an expensive flop.

It is hard not to feel a sense of de ja vu in all of this. The events at Middle Eastlands (as some City fans have already dubbed their stadium) yesterday remind me of the shock signings by West Ham of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano on deadline day in 2006. All the talk then was of West Ham challenging for a UEFA Cup place, and even the Big Four. Mascherano hardly played a game and Tevez was off at the end of the season to Manchester United.

Both of them used West Ham as a stepping stone, and Robinho may do the same with Manchester City.