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Afternoon Ticker: Laporta staying as Barca president, Atletico lands Coupet and Ajax signs Sulejmani

Joan_laporta

Just when we thought things were settling back down at the Camp Nou, word has come that Barca president Joan Laporta will not resign, despite more than 60% of supporters voting for his exit.

After two straight seasons without hardware, including last year’s meltdown and third-place finish in La Liga, Barcelona supporters decided to take a stand against club president Joan Laporta. The sufficient amount of signatures from club members were acquired to achieve a referendum on Laporta’s role in the club and 37,294 turned out to vote.

A two-thirds vote would have been required to oust Laporta, and 23,870 (60.6%) did in fact choose that yes they would like to see Laporta gone. However in this case the majority will go unheard as Laporta has vowed to stay on despite his apparent lack of popularity. Of course, this is news now as Barca are at their lowest point in years, but expect things to smooth out once the Catalan giants win a few games next term.

Coupet seals Atletico move

After more than ten years at French power Lyon, goalkeeper Gregory Coupet completed his transfer to Atletico Madrid. In what’s been a strong off-season for Atletico, the French international comes at a bargain basement price of €1.5 million ($2.35 million).

Why so cheap? It was a poorly kept secret that the 35-year-old was ready to move on to a new home and at his advanced age Coupet’s days as one of the better backstops in Europe are numbered. Although he was always the second-choice keeper for France behind Fabian Barthez, Coupet has played for one of the most successful national teams in the world and one of the most successful clubs in the world in Lyon.

They’ll need the experience at the Vicente Calderon as Atletico prepare for Champions League qualifying and their first European football in several years. Although it seems a little weird to imagine Coupet not in a Lyon uniform, I like the move for Atletico and I think they’ve found an impact player, albeit for only a year or two.

Ajax pay Dutch transfer record for Sulejmani

Another Heerenveen player is on the move and no it’s still not Michael Bradley.

19-year-old Serbian starlet Miralem Sulejmani completed a transfer to Ajax Amsterdam for a reported $24.5 million, a Dutch record. The previous record, between the same two clubs, came when Klaas-Jan Huntelaar moved to Ajax in 2005. Not bad company to be in.

Sulejmani had 15 goals and 10 assists last term for Heerenveen, helping them flirt with first place in the Eredivisie before eventually finishing fifth.

Not entirely interested in Dutch league transfers? If you read between the lines, the capture of one rising star might mean the exit of another. With a legitimate successor in place, Ajax may now be more willing to listen to a generous offer for Huntelaar.

Will Barcelona bounce back and reach an even-keel? Is Coupet the last piece to help Atletico compete in the Champions League? Does Sulejmani’s transfer mean a new home for the sought-after Huntelaar? Share your thoughts on these and any other news stories from Monday below.

Comments

  1. I stand corrected then, thanks Greg. I don’t get to watch a great deal of Eredivisie soccer and was just going on what I’d read. I do still maintain though that the Sulejmani signing makes Ajax a little less hesitant to sell Huntelaar.

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  2. I’m sure Sulejmani is a good player, But wasn’t that guy from Sweden supposed to make an impact on the team? What’s his name, Kennedy Bakircioglu? Yeah, that’s the ticket! What happened to him? Maybe Ajax should try something really radical—with their attackers, at least. Why not just bring up talent from the youth system. You know like Babel, Sneijder, Kluivert, etc. I know they do that, but not as much as the old days. It seems like Ajax just want to be a selling club now. After all the fanfare Sulejmani will probably be sold in two years. And again, I’m not too sure about Van Basten as coach.

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  3. Sulejmani is not a 4-3-3 #9 forward, and therefore is surely no Huntelaar replacement.

    Heerenveen spent last season in essentially a 4-1-3-2, with Sulejmani running off of Sibon.

    If Huntelaar does leave Ajax would need to buy a new #9.

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  4. re: Mike D

    Obviously Sulejmani is a good distributor as evidenced by his assist total, and I’m not arguing that he can play the wing as well, but I think Sulejmani played as a forward for Heerenveen for a while. I could be wrong, but I think he moved up there after Afonso Alves was sold and did a pretty good job.

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  5. Interesting move for Coupet. We’ll see how he does in La Liga, especially after dipping in form towards the end of this past season.

    I would love to see Man United land Huntelaar. I read on manutd.com that Man United “make him dream” and he’s attracted to the club because of it’s history and that Ruud van Nistelrooy was a successful player there. Hmmmm…

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  6. To clarify – I wasn’t referring to the price for Bradley being steep because of Bradley himself, but because I have a hard time believing that Monaco would be throwing that much money at a player. Ligue 1 isn’t exactly flowing in cash like the bigger European leagues. Nothing against Bradley – I think he’s a great young talent.

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  7. Caldwell – i was going to post the same thing, but some people have the USMN goggles on and only see FAULT in MB’s play… they always see the negative but rarely the positive…

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  8. How is $10 mil steep for MB? More goals for the same club (from a midfield position no less), WAY more caps on a better-ranked by any measure national team, and is just a year older than the Serb who signed for like $350 billion at Ajax. Monaco is probably a smaller club in the big picture than Ajax, granted, and may be in a worse position to lay down that kind of dough, but I really think that $10 mil is a perfectly appropriate transfer fee there.

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  9. “Monaco traditionally does a great job of signing players many of us have never heard of whom have gone on to become great players”

    The list continues: Maicon, Prso, Adebayor, Riise, Marquez, Weah, Evra, Giuly, Squillaci…. You could go on forever. Good club. They have had a tough couple years, but still a good place to play.

    They have trouble filling that stadium though.

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  10. Monaco’s chairman whom lived in the US at one time has a little bit to do with the decision to go after both players but alot of the decision is probably based on the fact that Monaco traditionally does a great job of signing players many of us have never heard of whom have gone on to become great players. A few of them include Henry, Thuram, Trezeguet. Henry and Thuram started their pro career in the Kingdom and Monaco traditionally tends to have alot of former players representing “Les Bleus”. It’s traditionally a good place for young players to blossom and who on earth would not to want to play in Stade Louis II (deux)? I’m a PSG supporter and always have had alot of respect for les Monagesques and enjoy watching them play. I hope Adu and or Bradley get to ply their trade in Ligue 1 for Monaco.

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  11. Sulejmani is a lightning fast left winger. So while he’s a phenomenal talent, he’s not a replacement for Huntelaar. He could possibly play off of Huntelaar as a support striker. He assisted on many of Michael Bradley’s goals this year. I’m not sure who I would compare him to, maybe Robben? He’s a great talent that is going to start getting a ton of attention now that he’s at Ajax.

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  12. fannation.com has pointed out that Adu was being sought after…. i just heard MB from one of the earlier posts on here….

    any possiblity to the chairman being american could possibly have “encouraged” the team to look towards the US for some up-n-coming talent??

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  13. I’ve read a few different articles out today claiming that the Monaco offer for Bradley is $10 mil. That seems a bit steep to me.

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  14. “What is this about AS monaco going after Adu and Bradley? Could this be true, likely to happen?”

    Would give me another team to play with in FIFA 08 at least.

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