Makelele Leaves Chelsea (and Boulahrouz)

[treble41]

So admist all the (face it it's tabloid) talk of Kaka and whoever else moving around....Claude Makelele's silently signed with PSG in France. Great serviceman and one of the best DM's of the modern era.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=556421&sec=england&cc=5901

Oh and Chelsea have sold Khalid Boulahrouz to Stuttgart for £4million...good news for Bayern fans

 

[ShearerM4]

Makele and Boulahrouz were together?!!

Great player Makelele, arrogant w*nker though. PSG are going to have an interesting team with him, Giuly and maybe Thuram.

 

[Zakov]

Arrogant eh? Have u met Makelele in person?

Cause he doesn't seem arrogant at all, if anything he's always got a smile on face in every match i've seen him play.

 

[Keegan]

Misleading thread title... I thought Makelele and Boulahrouz were an item... PSG are building a France Old Boys team!

 

[Zakov]

Misleading thread title... I thought Makelele and Boulahrouz were an item... PSG are building a France Old Boys team!

haha, nice one. The thought of the two running off together is real mind-boggling.

 

[Sevillista]

Arrogant eh? Have u met Makelele in person?

Cause he doesn't seem arrogant at all, if anything he's always got a smile on face in every match i've seen him play.

An arrogant smile. He always butchers the opposing team, then puts a big "What? What did I do?" smile on his face and tries to make the ref happy.

 

[ShearerM4]

An arrogant smile. He always butchers the opposing team, then puts a big "What? What did I do?" smile on his face and tries to make the ref happy.

... and when someone comes anywhere near him, he has that "how dare you even touch me" attitude that I simply hate in certain footballers.

Will PSG manage a top half finish this time around then?!

 

[Zakov]

Thanks for clearing that up guys, but I don't agree fully on the "how dare you even touch me" attitude, but he does try to please the referee after committing a foul.
Didn't see much wrong, maybe because he was playing for our club and I was looking at it from that point of view.

 

[pede54]

So he's competitive. Whats wrong with that? He uses psychology too to intimidate opposing players, thats all his on field attitude is, just psychology. Off the field he's a pussycat. Thats normal for many players. Look at Keown, an absolutely nasty thug on the field with no class at all. Off the field he is quiet, articulate and the complete opposite of his alter ego on the field.

For arrogance you'd have to look elsewhere for an example of that, because Maka is one of the least arrogant high profile players I can think of.

Being tough, skillful and smart are attributes to admire not condemn, and I would think he would be gladly welcomed into any club in the World because of those attributes. I doubt that there are many fans out there who would not have been happy to see Maka playing for their club sometime during his long career.

 

[ShearerM4]

Nah, I'm not convinced

 

[Sevillista]

So he's competitive. Whats wrong with that? He uses psychology too to intimidate opposing players, thats all his on field attitude is, just psychology. Off the field he's a pussycat. Thats normal for many players. Look at Keown, an absolutely nasty thug on the field with no class at all. Off the field he is quiet, articulate and the complete opposite of his alter ego on the field.

For arrogance you'd have to look elsewhere for an example of that, because Maka is one of the least arrogant high profile players I can think of.

Being tough, skillful and smart are attributes to admire not condemn, and I would think he would be gladly welcomed into any club in the World because of those attributes. I doubt that there are many fans out there who would not have been happy to see Maka playing for their club sometime during his long career.

I have to attribute this to bias. Most of the arguments you just made are the same used to defend players who dive. Makelele strikes me as a very immature player on the pitch... tackling recklessly and never taking responsibility for his actions. You can put whatever kind of spin you want on that, and I'll admit that this kind of player does (unfortunately) help his teams out a lot, but he embodies the kind of playing style that I hate to watch.

I'm not trying to jump on Makelele here, I was just responding to a post earlier claiming he is not an arrogant player. And I am not addressing his off-field behaviour because that's irrelevent... except with teammates. Speaking of....

 

[Zakov]

well, we could talk all day about arrogant players but in the end I've seen worst than Maka, yes he does tackle badly at times and tries to get away with it by smiling towards the referee, but at the end of the day he's a great player and lets remember the positives he contributed to the game of football, instead of the negatives.

I'm sure fans from other teams will find it difficult to appreciate him as much as we(Chelsea and other clubs he's played with b4)do but lets try to be reasonable, he is at the end of his career and it won't be long before he hangs up his boots. And you have to admit, there aren't many players who redefined the position of DM like he did. It will be a loss somewhat when he does indeed retire.

 

[Arnau_V2]

i remember when he says "galacticos salarys are 5 times bigger than mine but i run 5 times more than they"

 

[Zakov]

he did have a point with that.

 

[ShearerM4]

Aye, can't bash him for saying that, that's for sure.

 

[Yossarian]

there's some truth to the criticisms that Shearer and Sevillista have expressed about 'em, but he's still one of my favorite players in my short period of following soccer earnestly. He was about as flawless as they come interms of being positionally sound and being able to read a developing play quicker than anyone else and extinguishing it in the most pitiless and remorseless way possible.


The gold standard for modern day DMs is I think Davids, and I believe that Makelele in his prime is the closest player to David's greatness when it comes to just being an intimidating destroyer with an unlimited amount of endurance.

 

[daS]

Makelele leaves Boulahrouz ? damn ! xD u must be kidding xD

 

[Dah Shinin']

One of the most consistent footballers his 5 years at Chelsea have been great he was always at his best and he left still remaining at the top. Good luck at PSG.

 

[Keegan]

If there were a dictionary definition of arrogance on a football pitch, for me that would be Alan Shearer. He would do whatever he wanted on the pitch - including fouling players, then argue with the Referee if he dared to stop play - secure in his God-given right to do as he pleased. Dennis Bergkamp wasn't far behind him, either. (and the fight continues in 5..4..3..2..)

 

[ShearerM4]

Ooooohh