Speculation season: Here is my best 11
Frank de Boer
What you need to know:
My team coach would be Frank de Boer and I speculate that his favoured formation would be 4-2-1-3.
Because of the ever increasing ease with which we access electronic media we are on an overdose of information about football and practically everything else. But when the game is in recess like it is now, there is a tendency to suffer withdrawal symptoms not very different from those suffered by other addicts.
And I have started to suspect that transfer speculation that is rife in this period is the quick fix served up by media houses to keep us hooked.
I mean stories pop up by the minute about who is going where, or if they will go at all. How that should be more interesting than the fact that the World Cup kicks off in five days, or that Belgium could actually win it, I don’t know.
Nonetheless we are encouraged and on a daily, to believe or debate whether Luis Suarez’ destiny lies in Madrid or if Yaya Toure takes his birthday cakes so seriously he is willing to walk out on a six-figure weekly wage contract.
Everything passes, is it not what speculation is all about? The truth is bent and lies are dressed up as fact. So I have been looking at all players linked with someone and thinking while we all are at it and in true spirit of this so called silly season why don’t I come up with a ‘speculation- eleven’
My team coach would be Frank de Boer and I speculate that his favoured formation would be 4-2-1-3. And this is how the team would line up. In goal would be Victor Valdes with a back four of Bacary Sagna, Mats Hummels, Diego Godin and Filipe Luis.
Shinji Kagawa would be employed as a withdrawn playmaker, enabling attacking midfielders Cesc Fabregas and Angel D’Maria to drift inwards and not only wreak havoc in the central attacking area but also create room for storming wingbacks.
I would also protect Kagawa with two holding midfielders in Toni Kroos and Kevin Strootman permitting them to interchange when moving forward to aid an attack formation with Edison Cavani as its focal point. My substitutes would be Pepe Reina, Rio Ferdinand, Joleon Lescot, Fabio Coentrao, Chicharito, Romelu Lukaku, Yaya Toure and his own personal baker!
The team appears to be too diminutive in attack. The bench also has a couple of creaky legs, while Yaya will probably not appreciate being seated there even if it has a pastry stand. But before you speculate about my sanity, please come up with your own fantasy team and let us talk.
I actually believe this team would compete decently anywhere in Europe. It would probably measure up favourably in Spain, Italy and Germany and I dare say would win the league in England.
I am not sure though that the fair-play and anti-monopoly trade commissions would allow it in Scotland and France.
Trouble though is that this team is just a figment of my imagination and I doubt that an Arab Sheik, even if they normally seat on an entire nation’s wealth, would be generous or mad enough to buy a club, pay off all contracts and then negotiate for all these new guys. But you never know. Speculation is speculation and too much information makes a fool of us all.
