The fall of Sporting in this horrible season is not only explained from the collective perspective, but also by the drop in certain individual performances of soccer players who were making a difference in the first leg of the League. It is the case of Fran Villalbathe most imaginative footballer in the entire squad.
On Monday he returns to the Mediterranean Games in Almería. There he was in two stages, in both as a loan from the English Birmingham. He arrived in the 2020 winter market and his good work in the first few months helped him earn the opportunity to be on the squad in the following campaign, 2020-2021. But with Rubi, the former rojiblanco coach who keeps the Turki Al-Sheikh project in a position of direct promotion to the First Division, he never had that presence that the Portuguese José Gomes did give him in his beginnings.
The data confirms that the initial influence of Fran Villalba in Sporting, a player who became one of the most important in the championship; It has been diluted in the following months of competition. On matchday 13 he had participated directly in 7 goals: 4 goals and 3 assists. Meanwhile, in the next 23 his figures have been reduced significantly: just one goal and two decisive passes.
After the arrival on the bench of Pep Martí, that downhill is more pronounced: he has not scored or given any assistance for 12 days. He does not end up being as comfortable in a more direct style of play and not as combinative as the one that the team displayed with David Gallego. Although some analysts point out that the change in style is not the only reason, that it is common for the player to lower his effectiveness as the days go by. “He usually does better first laps than second laps. It is habitual in him”, confirms a renowned technician of the category. In the first round he finished with 31 shots and being a nuisance due to his ability to unbalance (46 dribbles). Today, with seven games to go until the end of the competition, he has 24 shots and less than half of the successful dribbles (20).
The growing discomfort in recent months due to the pulse between their agents (David Pirri and David Rivas) and the red and white entity does not help either. The conflict? The different interpretation of the agreement reached last summer by those same agents, Sporting and Birmingham, who had their rights. The parties then agreed on a purchase option for the Gijon entity, around half a million euros, and a salary for the footballer in his continuity as Atletico. Taking into account the level that had been exhibited in the first round, Sporting activated the purchase option.
The Gijón entity negotiated a reduction in the amount with Birmingham and took over the rights for the next four years, as reported by LA NUEVA ESPAÑA. As far as payments to the player are concerned, the club stuck to what was agreed in the summer. However, Fran Villalba’s entourage requested a review of these figures because he would earn less than half of what he earns at the English club. He would go on to earn around 300,000 euros per season. His case is expected to move for the summer. The footballer’s environment has been looking for accommodation for some time, testing several clubs. Among others, he has been in contact with Levante.
Pedro: “Rivera and Berto must learn from their mistakes”
Pedro Díaz, Sporting’s midfielder, recognizes the complicated moment that the rojiblanco dressing room is going through, after what happened in the Asturian derby. “It has been a few days personally hard”, assumes the midfielder, who was self-critical with what happened at the end of the match on the pitch of El Molinón. “What happened at the end of the game should not have been like this. There is an accumulation of tensions, but that should not be an excuse. They are mistakes that must be corrected and learned from. In the same way, the rojiblanco said that both Rivera and Berto were wrong in the final brawl with Femenías, Oviedo’s goalkeeper. “The objective is to recover them as soon as possible (they have been sanctioned for two games) and for Berto and Rivera to learn from these things. In the end we are human and the important thing is to learn from our mistakes”.
Regarding the end of the League, he commented that “we are not without goals. We have 6 finals ahead of us to finish as well as possible. Finishing well helps to better prepare the next one. Although there are no clear objectives, it is important to finish the season well. The final position in the table does not matter. We represent Sporting and it’s hard to know that we can achieve a historically negative classification”. In addition, he assumes that some critical voices believe that changes must be made: “It is normal to say that a reset is needed.”
