Juan Roman Riquelme

[airdrieunited]

I was wondering if anyone can give me the background to why Riquelme has fallen out of favour at Villareal?

He's one of my favourite players and I can't believe such a great talent is being wasted!

[~zero_signal~]

I've read a few different sources, mainly newspapers, to find out more about this. From what I know, Manuel Pellegrini (Villarreal Manager) and Riquelme don't really have a positive professional relationship.

The deterioration of this relationship began in 2005, most probably in November of that year, when Argentina was to play an international friendly in Qatar. Riquelme and Juan Pablo Sorin wanted to play 2 games on that same week, the international friendly in Qatar and the weekend fixture against Real Zaragoza. Pellegrini wouldn't allow this, probably because he wanted a list of fresh players to play against Real Zaragoza, and since Riquelme and Sorin chose to play the international friendly, Pellegrini did not select them for the weekend's fixture. Both players were angry at this decision, particularly (from what I've read) Sorin.

The following year in 2006, Pellegrini decided to get rid of a few players at the club. One of the players he got rid of was Sorin. The decision wasn't based on the aforesaid incident. Pellegrini believed that he didn't need Sorin's services, much the same way as Alex Ferguson didn't really need Heinze. This doesn't make them 'bad' players by any means, since both players left to play elsewhere in competitive leagues (Sorin plays at Hamburg SV, and Heinze at Real Madrid). At the time, Riquelme wasn't happy with Pellegrini's decision to let Sorin go and publicly voiced his opinion on this, saying that Pellegrini needed to show more 'backbone', believing that the Villarreal board influenced the Manager's decision. Pellegrini came out and said that Riquelme only had to worry about his football.

There were also reports that Riquelme wanted to be treated differently from the rest. He demanded that he have his own parking spot outside Villarreal's stadium, a request that was granted. Some assistant coaches and players noticed how his attitude was different from that of the rest of the players. He didn't attend voluntary practice sessions with most of the squad, and during tactical sessions at the club, which consisted of Pellegrini and his staff mainly discussing tactics, he would sometimes go through the sessions with headphones on by listening to his mp3/mp4 player. At the end of 2006, Pellegrini gave his players a few days break during the Christmas holidays and they were to return on the 29th of December. The players were fine with this, but Riquelme wanted a break until the 2nd of January. Pellegrini, said 'no' to this as he obviously couldn't exclude Riquelme from a rule that all other players had to respect. It was from this point on that Riquelme did not speak to Pellegrini. The Villarreal board gave Pellegrini their full support.

Since then, Riquelme mentioned his desire to return to Boca Juniors, with a few conditions, such as not having to play the FIFA Club WC. I'm not to sure what he intends to do with his future. He might go to another Spanish club, but nothing's certain at the moment.

[COMEGATOS]

Pellegrini doesn't like him cause he's argentinian, period.

[~zero_signal~]

Pellegrini doesn't like him cause he's argentinian, period.

If that were true, then why did Pellegrini always insist on bringing Argentinian players to Villarreal?

[~zero_signal~]

There are players from a number of different nationalities at Villarreal. The Argentinian ones, besides Riquelme, are Gonzalo Rodriguez and Fabricio Fuentes. Moreover, Pellegrini coached two clubs in Argentina before going to Villarreal: San Lorenzo (2001-2002) and River Plate (2002-2003).

[COMEGATOS]

Hahaha I was joking!! :Pound: