Is it Santa time?

After that thrilling 4-4 draw against the Gunners, it is getting clearer that the Kop won’t have it this year…Andrei Arshavin has scored fantastic four to keep Liverpool neck-to-neck with Manchester United and desperate Rafa will have his entire work undone…Can Santa help him?

Santa’s little helpers, Blackburn Rovers are having a dreadful year and a 27-year-old Paraguayan star has already announced he will leave at the end of the running season. Roque Santa Cruz has made it clear to Blackburn officials that he is in need of a bigger, more ambitious club and before transfer window closes, his bags will be packed and he will be ready to go to some major outfit. Still, does this player really deserve a chance in one of the hot shot clubs?

Being first noticed by German greatest, Bayern Munich, Roque has signed a deal in 1999, but didn’t play much since the series of injuries prevented him from making an impact. Regardless of that Germany loved this pretty-face boy, he even featured in a rock song with a local band which apparently left a deeper trail than his playing abilities. Blackburn Rovers signed the towering striker in 2007 and, unlike in Germany, he made an instant impact on the public scoring against Middlesborough only few seconds after coming on for injured Benny McCarthy. It might’ve been a lucky strike for the lad, but he still had a pretty successful campaign until again injuries didn’t catch upon him…

It is interesting, and it only happens in England, how big teams can be so delusional when it comes to assessing players…and it happens over and over again. When England lost to Croatia on home grounds I bet that 90% of people couldn’t find that country on the map, but still, Croatian players became an instant hit on the island. Eduardo, Corluka, Modric and before that Kranjcar were brought without hesitating. Do you people have scouting systems? Same thing now, English outfits have never seen this boy until he came to Rovers and after his debut goal and somewhat successful season they were instantly prepared to throw heaps of money to see him in their squad. Blackburn have turned down a number of offers (another silly thing to do) for the Paraguayan in January, locked his price on £25 million hoping to cash in on him, but we will see about that…

Santa Cruz’s career has been plagued by injuries, he has undergone a serious knee surgery recently and is currently recovering from it, but high chances are he will not kick ball again this season. It doesn’t matter though, desperate times, desperate measures, and reckless people are still willing to take a risk with him.

Rafa Benitez has apparently devised a plan to pair up two similar players, Torres and Cruz, to make a winning combo, but not likely. Like Torres, he is tall player and like Torrres, he is good in air, good with picking up balls, but two of those will certainly make a crowd in rivals’ box. And while female fans will be more than glad to welcome another pretty face in the team, I honestly doubt it would help Rafa in achieving his goal. He has made a mistake with Keane, spent a great deal of money in vain, one would think he will have learnt from his mistakes, but I guess we will have to wait just a little bit to find out…

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