Source: Telegraph
Signing Ricardo Quaresma could be masterstroke for Chelsea
On Monday morning, Inter Milan left Ricardo Quaresma, the Portugal winger, out of their Champions League squad. A mooted swap with Tottenham for Jermaine Jenas never materialised and, instead, with just 30 minutes until the deadline, Chelsea acquired him on loan. [LNB]Luiz Felipe Scolari, the Chelsea manager, had insisted less than 24 hours previously that he saw no reason to add to his squad. So what tempted him to change his mind? [LNB]Quaresma's track record since his £14 million move from Porto to Inter, requisitioned by Jose Mourinho, hardly justifies his arrival. [LNB]Voted the worst signing of the season by fans and chronically short of confidence, he can now add Inter to Barcelona in his list of abortive attempts to succeed at big clubs. [LNB]Mourinho admitted on Monday that his countryman had found it difficult to cope with all the criticism and was at a loss to explain his poor displays at the San Siro. [LNB]To many, with his slicked-back hair and tendency to over-elaboration, Quaresma is Cristiano Ronaldo without the end product. Scolari, who worked with him for six years as Portugal manager, knows better. [LNB]He may have struggled at Barcelona, but he shone at Porto, where his coach Jesualdo Ferreira treated him with kid gloves. [LNB]He is a bag of tricks, famed for his trivela – crossing with the outside of his boot – and rabona – hitting the ball by wrapping his right foot around his left. On his day, he is magical, unpredictable and every bit as talented as Ronaldo. [LNB]Sadly, there is a down side, the reason Mourinho farmed him out and Rafael Benitez twice spurned the chance to take him to Liverpool. Quaresma does not work. [LNB]Both the former Chelsea manager and the current Liverpool manager demand that their wingers never shirk defensive duties. This is where Ronaldo and Quaresma, two years his senior, differ. [LNB]Sir Alex Ferguson harnessed Ronaldo's energy. Quaresma remains true to his first nickname, 'Mustang'. He runs free. [LNB]But another workhorse is what Chelsea do not need, and that is why the loan move has all the hallmarks of a masterstroke. On a good day, Quaresma could transform those games at Stamford Bridge where Chelsea are frustrated by a massed defence into routs. [LNB]If Scolari can elicit the best out of his former protege, Chelsea could yet return to the title race. If not, he returns to Inter at the end of the season. It is a win-win situation. [LNB]Sadly absent from such issues are the team who were supposed to sweep all before them in January, Manchester City. [LNB]For all their oil billions, they failed to hijack the Arshavin deal or lodge a bid for Keane. They still have not signed a central defender. [LNB]Money, it turns out, is a double-edged sword. They paid over the odds for Nigel de Jong (£18 million) and Craig Bellamy (£14 million), and even signing Wayne Bridge, a reserve full-back from Chelsea, set them back £12 million. [LNB]They refused to be held over a barrel for Roque Santa Cruz. They were humiliated by Kaka. [LNB]Mark Hughes, the City manager, and his chief executive, Garry Cook, have both been at pains to point out their successes in this window, but the reality is much less optimistic. [LNB]Their reinforcements will be enough to ensure there is no relegation battle at the world's richest club and may even take them into Europe. But what of the future? [LNB]The club insist no signing will be made who does not fit into their long-term vision. But those players they did land give the lie to that claim. [LNB]What do Bellamy and Bridge have in common? They have both been proven not good enough for the highest level. De Jong and Shay Given? Fine players, no doubt, but both overlooked by Arsene Wenger when he had the chance to sign them. [LNB]How do you break into the top four with a squad of their cast-offs, has-beens and never-will-bes, as no less an authority than City devotee Liam Gallagher once put it? The simple answer? You don't. [LNB]Cigano finds new home... [LNB]A part-Romany heritage has earned Ricardo Quaresma, 25, the nickname 'Cigano' – Portuguese for gypsy. [LNB]He graduated from Sporting Lisbon's academy and after helping win a league and cup double, joined Barcelona in 2003. Fell out with coach Frank Rijkaard, and joined Porto in 2004, where his style was compared to Cristiano Ronaldo. Signed for Inter Milan in Sept 2008 but confidence evaporated when he lost support of the fans. [LNB]...and joins the Portu-geezers [LNB]Chelsea's Portuguese contingent Ricardo Carvalho, Jose Bosingwa, Deco, Hilario, Paulo Ferreira. [LNB]And the the other Portuguese-speakers Luiz Felipe Scolari, Alex, Juliano Belletti, Carlos De Silva Mineiro. [LNB]
