Michu value

Miguel Pérez Cuesta, known to the Premier League as Michu, coolly took his tally to thirteen goals for the season this weekend and the Spaniard is fast becoming the signing of the season.

The £2 million summer signing for Swansea City is only four gaols shy of matching his remarkable tally from last season, hitting seventeen goals for relegation threatened Rayo Vallecano, which made him the top scoring Spanish midfielder in La Liga in 2012.

2011/2012 was Michu’s only experience of the top flight in Spanish football, but his goal-scoring exploits for Swansea have banished any fears that last year was a flash in the pan. Aged 26, his chance in the premier divisions has come relatively late, and despite scoring seventeen last season he only hit double figures on one other occasion, in a nine year spell in and around Spain’s second tier.

Players who make their breakthrough late are often more appreciative of where they have come from and Michu’s languidness and composure around the pitch are indicative of a man who has a great understanding of the game.

His brace against Arsenal was a lesson in finishing and composure. The first was a beautifully shaped left foot finish, before seeming to take too long when played in but the Asturias native was the coolest man in the pitch as Arsenal players came back at him, only to roll it past a flailing Wojciech Szczęsny.

If many Arsenal fans were still in the Emirates to observe Michu’s second celebration they would have noticed the 26-year-old drop to his knees and performing a dual rendition of his trademark ear flick. Penned to silence Granada fans who booed Michu after missing a penalty in 2010, Michu responded with a penalty of his own for Vallecano in 2011 and was ready with his riposte.

Michu seems to glide around the football pitch, much like Dimitar Berbatov, never seemingly in full sprint, but incredibly efficient with his movement and seemingly in the right position to finish of Swansea attacks.

Signed as a replacement for Gylfi Sigurdsson, Mich started the season playing just behind Danny Graham, though over the course of the season Swansea’s number 9 has been deployed as the forward, responding with a remarkable return of goals.

That Michu has no caps for Spain will come as a surprise to casual observers in England. These are likely to be the same observers who took no interest in Miguel Pérez Cuesta when he was touted round Europe over the summer.

Rayo Vallecano was financially destitute and needed to cash in on their best player over the summer. Michu was rumoured to have been offered to every club in the Premier League club for a fee of £2 million and after a return of thirteen goals in sixteen matches, Swansea will be fending off Champions League clubs in the January transfer window.

Managers are quick to bemoan that there is a lack of value in the transfer market, especially on English players. The fees spent on Andy Carroll, Adam Johnson, Jordan Henderson and company are enough to make managers think twice before signing any player, but Michu proves that the financial clout of the English game dominates all but the big two in Spain.

The television revenues that the English Premier League accrue allow English sides to pay wages that are far better than La Liga sides. A side like Stoke are financially flush compared to Serie A and La Liga and the depressing truth for football purists, is that they could buy the best player from a Valencia or Fiorentina.

Michu was far from a gamble, anyone with an internet connection could tell you that there is a better than good chance that the top-scoring midfielder in the world’s then second best league, would do well in the Premier League.*

Interest is inevitable after his start to the season, but Michu declared he is happy at Swansea for the foreseeable future, and being the focal point of a Michael Laudrup side is an enjoyable role.

Michu is also a man of principle. He turned down a move to Sporting Gijon, then in the Primera Division, because he is a boyhood Real Oviedo fan and the two clubs are fierce rivals from Northern Spain. Swansea will struggle to keep hold of Michu for much longer, but he is not the kind of player to force through a move.

At £2 million the Spaniard is undoubtedly the signing of this season and is proof that there is value in an age of financial doping in football.  

(Would just like to point out I had Michu in my Fantasy Football team from week one. I should be a manager.)

Golden era for Spain?

Malaga's best player, Cazorla, is expected to leave this summer

All two La Liga fixtures were announced last week, with the first El Clasico taking place on 7th October at Camp Nou before Madrid host Barcelona on March 3rd.

Real start as slight favourites to defend their title at 4/5 and Barcelona are virtually at odds on as well, they are available to win La Liga at 6/5

Then comes a band of three teams in the betting; Malaga, Valancia and Atletico Madrid. You’ll struggle to find odds under 100/1 on any other team winning La Liga in 2012-2013 with Atletico and Malaga both on 104/1, with Valencia further back at 123/1. (with Betfair)

However none of these teams looks closer to mounting a challenge to the top two; Malaga have transfer listed their best player in Santi Cazorla due to financial issues, Valencia sold their best player to Barca for the princely €13 million and Atletico have yet to beat Real Madrid this century.

Malaga were the subject of a multi-million euro takeover by Qatari investors and despite investing over €50 million into the club they could only finish fourth, 42 points behind winners Real. To exacerbate matters Santi Cazorla and Isco, widely regarded as their two best players, have both been transfer listed in a dispute that relates to unpaid wages.

Valencia lost converted left-winger Jordi Alba for just €13 million, which looks like daylight robbery if United end up paying as much for Leighton Baines, and despite adding Fernando Gago and Sergio Canales in midfield they look short in attack. Roberto Soldado is one of only two recognised strikers in their squad and he was a cast-off from Real Madrid B (Castilla).

Bilbao under Bielsa are the purists favourite, with Guardiola apparently suggesting the Argentinian's name to the Barcelona board when he decided to step down, and are likely to be plundered this summer. The only other contender (baring a Levante miracle like last season) are Madrids working-class neighbours Atletico. If they can keep Falcao and adequately replace the outgoing Diego, then they look a great price to finish ‘best-of-the-rest’ at 7/2. 

International success for Spain has increased the gap between the top two and the rest of la Liga, and most football fans in Spain also support one of the two super-clubs as well as their local side.

The two giants are first and second favourites to lift the Champions League at Wembley next year, and with television revenue not negotiated evenly by all the clubs this financial imbalance shows little sign of abating.


Barcelona and Madrid negotiate their own TV rights separately from the rest of La Liga, so clubs with existing popularity and appeal can essentially charge whatever they like. There is no instant financial reward for pushing and finishing higher up the table like the PL. Without changes to this process Spanish football could soon turn into a tiki-taka monopoly.


EURO 2008 Final - Spanish starting XI (six club teams represented)

Casillas (Madrid)

Ramos (Madrid), Marchena (Valencia), Puyol (Barca), Capdevila (Villereal)

Iniesta (Barca), Xavi (Barca), Senna (Villereal), Fabregas (Arsenal), Silva (Valencia)

Torres (Liverpool)

EURO 2012 Final - Spanish starting XI (three club teams represented)

Casillas (Madrid)

Arbeloa (Madrid), Pique (Barcelona), Ramos (Madrid), Alba (Barca)

Iniesta (Barca), Xavi (Barca), Alonso (Madrid), Busquets (Barca), Fabregas (Barca), Silva (Man City)

The Spanish team that started the Euro 2012 final featured just one player outside of the Barcelona and Real Madrid elite (Man City's Silva), indicating just how much the two giants now dominate Spanish football domestically.

Where next for Messi and Barca?

The 'greatest club team on the planet' were dumped out of the Champions League this week with Guardiola also stepping down leaving his tika-taka disciples in the hands of his assistant Tito Vilanova. 

Guardiola revealed in an emotional press conference that he had been having doubts about his role at Barcelona since October and that the la Masia graduate was applauded off the stage by his employers and current players reveals the level of admiration the man will forever enjoy at Barca.

Despite the clubs success over the last four years the head coach role at Barcelona is one of the most pressurised roles in club football. We think football is king in England, but the fervour Barcelona and Real Madrid inspire in Spain surpasses it, the dual club dominance only rackets up the pressure at these two great institutions.

Sadly for football purists Guardiola decided to leave the club, indicating that he found it difficult to keep motivating the players and that he himself had burnt out. The timing of the announcement is puzzling as Barcelona still have the Copa del Rey final to compete for in May, and may have been influenced by the raw exit they suffered mid-week and the Real defeat at the weekend.

They may have suffered disappointment in Europe and in the race for La Liga but that should not prompt a wholesale change of approach. Vilanova's appointment will presumably see as little transition as possible; two defeats in the space of a week do not make this Barcelona squad a bad side and the Spaniard will be hoping he can build on Pep Guardiola's incredible legacy.

Arsene Wenger was one of the first coaches to express his sadness that Guardiola had stepped down, and I find myself agreeing with his own desire to have seen the youngest ever Champions League winner return next year with full trust in his philosophy and fight back.

Wenger posited : "The philosophy of Barcelona has to be bigger than winning or losing a championship. Guardiola is one of the representatives of this philosophy and made this philosophy triumph so I would have loved him, even going through a disappointing year, to stay and come back and insist with his philosophy. That would be interesting."

Guardiola knows the club inside out and would have been one of the best man to helm Barcelona towards further success without radically altering their ideology. The appointment of Vilanova is the next best thing and he has the greatest chance of replicating Guardiola's success. Both graduated at the same time from Barcelona's famed la Masia academy and the assistant has been working with Guardiola for over five years.

However, while Guardiola went on to play for and captain his beloved Barcelona side for almost a decade, Vilanova didn't quite make the grade at the Nou Camp and his playing career reached a nadir at Celta and Mallorca. Guardiola's playing experience on the biggest of stages must have shaped him as a manager and it will be interesting to see how Vilanova interprets the Barcelona ideology with his, by contrast, inferior playing career.

For a club of Barcelona's recent success and domination in Spain and continentally, to finish the season with only one major trophy, looking likely to be the Copa del Rey, is simply a disappointment when compared to their previous three seasons.

Barcelona may have already claimed the the European Super Cup, Spanish Super Cup and the World Club Championship but these competitions are not the pinnacle of a footballers career, winning these trophies will hardly go down in history.

In the space of three games Barcelona have gone from playing the best football in Europe to a season in disintegration. This is partly bound up in media hyperbole, but the Barcelona of Tuesday night looked an entirely different proposition to the swaggering unit that put seven past Bayern Leverkusen.

Tiredness can affect players mentally and physically and it looked as if the creativity that we associate with the current Barcelona side had dried up. Barcelona started Tuesday night brightly, Messi should have scored when one-on-one with Cech, before the Catalans stepped up a gear and hit a goal either side of John Terry's ridiculous red card.

However, after Messi's penalty miss the 2011 Champions League holders started to wane in confidence. Passes were sprayed wide to no great success and the Barcelona midfield did not have the confidence or mentality to play through the middle of Chelsea's back nine. Gone were the one-twos that dissected the very best of defences as Guardiola's men grew in insecurity and desperation as the match wore on. There was a real crisis of confidence and Barcelona looked as if they didn't have faith in their own system of play.

Messi seemed determined to make amends for his penalty mistake and although he forced a brilliant save from Petr Cech he failed to play in two well-placed Barcelona players in the second half.

Guardiola took objection to comments before the match that alleged that Messi was on a goal drought, of two whole games, and the 24-year-old drew another blank against Chelsea on Tuesday. Messi is clearly the focal point in the current Barca side and there have been accusations that they are overly reliant on his magic to overcome teams.

His re-positioning to a false number 10 position since Guardiola took the hot seat has coincided with the Argentinian winning three successive Ballon D'Or's and Barcelona's recent trophy surge. He hit a phenomenal 38 goals the season before Pep came in, but since becoming the orchestrator and finisher off the Barcelona brush-strokes he has finished the last three campaigns with 47, 53 and so far this year 63 goals.

Messi is still the best player in the world. His nearest competitor choked in the Champions League again on Wednesday and Messi hasn't become a worse player after three low-key performances. Barcelona simply came up against three defences that put in better performances then the Catalan offensive line and failed to break them down.

The loss of Guardiola will become more quantifiable next season, but to promote from within, from their own academy in effect, is a shrewd move and given time Vilanova may be able to forge his own Barcelona legacy. Barcelona have become more than a club, more an idealistic interpretation of football, and to make any wholesale changes on the back of two defensive master classes and two disappointing performances would be a gross mistake.