Inside Scoop on Liverpool Bound Jovanovic

Alec Cordolcini





“Sometimes you want to kiss him, sometimes you want to kill him”. That’s how Standard Liege captain Steven Defour described Milan Jovanovic, the Serbian forward who will join Liverpool on a free transfer this summer. Jovanovic isn’t the easiest character, neither for team-mates nor opponents. A son of the Balkan war, the Serbian knows what he wants and how to get it. “I have character”, he declared upon his arrival at the Standard Liege training ground, “and I am here to become a top player”.

While such a phrase might be typical for a newly signed player, Jovanovic was soon to prove his brash statement right. Just four years after signing, he is leaving the Belgian Jupiler League for the Premier League, and his time in the Walloon region – the predominantly French-speaking southern area of the country – has been outstanding.

Jovanovic has picked up two consecutive league titles with Standard; he was elected Belgian Footballer of the Year for the 2007/08 season (the award is organised by the Belgian Football Association and Sport Foot magazine), and Best Footballer of the Jupiler League for 2009 (also known as the Gouden Schoen award, a prize given by a selection of the Belgian press and football personalities); the Serb also became his country’s top scorer during qualifying for the 2010 World Cup with four goals. All in all it’s no wonder Jovanovic quickly became one of the most desired players in Europe.

When Jovanovic landed in Liege in the summer of 2006, the Serb was almost ready to hang up his boots. The former Vojvodina Novi Sad man had suffered a series of injuries, leading to long spells on the sidelines, and restricting him to just 12 games in four season, with Shakhtar Donetsk and Lokomotiv Moscow, picking up the Russian league with the latter.

At Standard, Jovanovic was soon introduced to the club doctor, Dr Popovic, who helped him to find the right level of physical fitness, enough to allow him to undertake a trial. The Reds were on the lookout for someone to replace top scorer Mohammed Tchité, who had just been sold to Anderlecht. Jovanovic impressed instantly in his first friendly appearance, particularly for his speed and coolness in front of goal. But while Jovanovic was gaining fans, Standard were losing. The club had suffered a poor start to the Belgian league season, picking up just two points from four games, and exiting the Champions League in the third qualifying round, falling to Steaua Bucharest. It wasn’t good enough, and Dutch coach Johan Boskamp was sacked.

The Serbian striker could have been forgiven for feeling unsure of his future with Standard, but he need not have worried. Technical director Michel Preud’Homme stepped into the breach, and signed Jovanovic to a permanent deal immediately. Not just that, but the new boy began to replace the established Milan Rapaic on the left wing. Soon though Jovanovic was on the move again, up front to fill in for the injured Igor De Camargo. In his first season in Liege, Jovanovic scored 14 goals and quickly became a fan favourite. The Standard support labelled him the “snake” for his quick movement.

In the 2007/08 season, the Reds won their first Belgian league title in 25 years, boasting at one point a record of 31 games unbeaten. Standard were also one of the youngest teams in the whole Jupiler League. The man born on 18th April 1981 in Bajina Basta – a town in the western mountains of Serbia close to the Bosnian border – played a key part, scoring 16 goals in 30 games, his best season so far.

The golden age of Standard seemed to have begun and carried on into the next season when a second Belgian title was picked up, via two tense, nervy playoff matches with Anderlecht, drawn 1-1 and won 1-0. Europe was also impressed with the Reds. Although Standard exited the Champions League in the third qualifying round, going out cruelly to Liverpool through a Dirk Kuyt header in extra-time at Anfield, they made real progress in the UEFA Cup. Liverpool’s Merseyside rivals Everton were beaten (2-1), Spanish giants Sevilla (1-0), Partizan Belgrade (1-0) and Sampdoria (3-0). Jovanovic himself was just pipped to the Gouden Schoen by team-mate Axel Witsel, the youngster standing out as another precocious talent, but the Serb had still bagged 12 goals in a successful campaign.

Jovanovic didn’t have to wait long for recognition however. Only 12 months in fact. For on 13th January 2010, at the Casino Kursaal of Oostende the jury spoke the Serb’s name, Jovanovic becoming the fourth Standard Liege player to be voted Jupiler League Player of the Year in the previous five years, a clear indication of the Walloon club’s growing domination of Belgian football.

The future wasn’t quite as bright though as the signs had suggested, and in the first half of the 2009/10 season, Standard’s empire began to crumble. An outgoing coach – Laszlo Boloni, who had taken over from Preud’Homme in the summer of 2008 – a mid-table struggle in the Jupiler League, and dressing room bust-ups: “In the last months I was isolated from the rest of the group”, said Jovanovic, who has still managed 12 goals at the time of writing. Nevertheless, the time had come to go, and Liverpool was his choice.

Jovanovic is a player who must be handled with care. A hard worker on the pitch – Liverpool fans may equate his effort with that displayed by Dirk Kuyt – but also someone not afraid to express his opinion. The Serb had problems of some sort with almost every established player at Standard. There were bust-ups with Sergio Conceicao and Marouane Fellaini, while he collided twice with Axel Witsel over penalty taking duties. Dieumerci Mbokani was given a taste of his anger during a match against Roeselare, and coach Boloni was on the receiving end of a dispute about tactics: Jovanovic prefers to play as a striker in a 4-4-2 system, instead of as a left winger in a 4-3-3.

On 30th August, 2009, Jovanovic’s club colleague Witsel broke Marcin Wasilewski’s leg after a dangerous challenge as Standard met Anderlecht – he would later be banned for eight matches. The Serbian striker was the only one in the changing room who didn’t stand behind his team-mate. “It was the most dangerous tackle I ever saw”, he declared.

In January, Jovanovic didn’t travel to Oostende to collect his Gouden Schoen, Standard forbade the Serbian as they were boycotting Het Laaste Nieuws, the organisers of the poll. The newspaper had compared Axel Witsel with Kim De Gelder, the 20-year-old mass murderer who had painted his face in the style of The Joker from Batman, and killed two baby boys and their carer at the “Fabeltjesland” crèche in Dendermonde, putting them together on their list of most obnoxious men of 2009. Jovanovic declared through, “I don’t care about the boycott. It’s just Standard’s political decision. I am not their prostitute and I don’t need any Gouden Schoen to tell me how good I am. Statistics prove it.”

While Jovanovic is sure of his own class, there remain question marks over how he will adjust to life with Liverpool next season. One former Red who made the move from Belgium to England, Ronny Rosenthal has given his thoughts. The Israeli international, who played for FC Brugge, Standard Liege and Liverpool amongst others was clear why the English side have moved for the Serbian. “At the moment Liverpool doesn’t have enough money to buy top players”, explained Rosenthal, “that’s why their targets are footballers like Milan Jovanovic: Not the best but a good one.”

Rosenthal also believes however that Jovanovic is in for a shock when he, like the Israeli once did, swaps Belgium for England. “He will surely have a chance of playing, but he must understand that the Premier League is a world apart. He will play against defenders five times as quick and five times as strong as Belgian ones. At Standard he was a star, at Liverpool he will be just a member of the team”. The league title winner with Liverpool does though believe Jovanovic can cope, “He’s mentally strong and has a good working attitude. I don’t think there will be any problem if he is sometimes on the bench. I expect to see him on the left side of the pitch, opening up spaces with his movement and quickness.”

There is no doubt Milan Jovanovic is talented, and Standard will be sad to see him go. But whether the Serbian has made the right choice in heading to England still remains to be seen. Rosenthal is not so sure, “I know there were many clubs linked with him. For example, Milan, and maybe Serie A would have been the best choice for a player like Jovanovic. In the Premier League everybody runs and runs. But I can understand him. He chose the best championship in the world.”

It’s been quite a journey for Jovanovic so far, from an injury hit time in Russia and the Ukraine to lighting up Belgium. Now he faces his biggest test yet. He will not be short of confidence.

http://www.insidefutbol.com/2010/02/26/ins...ovanovic/18174/

Real Madrid are the biggest club in the world. According to them. They can base this on their glorious history, their relatively glorious recent one, and pretend all the stuff in the middle doesn’t really matter.

Manchester United are also the biggest club in the world. According to them. They can base this on their slightly less glorious history, their slightly more glorious recent one, and pretend all the stuff in the middle doesn’t really matter.

AC Milan are similarly the biggest club in the world, according to Silvio Belursconi, and so on and so forth and you already get my drift on this.

What all 3 clubs – and Barcelona and a couple more to boot – have in common, is that they’ve all made lots of money off being the biggest, or one of the biggest clubs in the world of football. They’ve marketed themselves brilliantly to fans, players, investors, sponsors and any old whoshemebob who knows a thing or two about football. And good for them.

Most of all that “stuff in the middle” of Manchester United and Real Madrid’s success however, was Liverpool’s success. United like domination of the League and a greater return in the European Cup during the 70s and 80s means that Liverpool have just as much claim to the glorious history title and – even despite relatively less successful recent seasons – should still have almost as much potential appeal to the whoshemebobs as the aforementioned trio. And yet they don’t, or they certainly didn’t until recently.

Liverpool’s failure to win the league during the Premiership era is a stumbling block their marketing people can’t neglect. However as worldwide brands go, they’ve still been a hugely undervalued one. Manchester United may be sitting pretty with them “on the perch” now, but when the Premier League first took off, they were no where near. Yet on the back of their first success in ‘93, they ran with it, like a demon (or perhaps a devil) possessed, maximizing every link, every romantic connection, every possible sponsorship or Stadium expansion and every opportunity until they dwarfed Liverpool in global appeal and profit. And yet even now, as Liverpool start to take advantage themselves with Christian Purslow, their managing director, clearly aware of the mine of worldwide support and potential to tap, they still sit fairly equally in standing as football clubs historically despite United’s greater value.

Liverpool’s failure to take advantage of this potential is better assessed when compared to clubs not their equal in success. Arsenal and Chelsea for example (though Arsenal clearly the more historically grand of them) have similarly capitalized on the Premier League’s appeal by increasing their worldwide profile, support and profit dramatically since their recent era success. Great players want to play for them, sometimes regardless of where they stand in the table. Winning the Premier League certainly helped, yet still neither can boast a single European Cup triumph whilst Liverpool can boast not just a recent one, but 5 in total.

Barcelona, before 2006, had only 1 paltry success in the competition, and even that coming in the 90s. Until their league success that year they couldn’t even match Liverpool’s domestic achievement of 18 titles, even in a league historically far less competitive (only 9 teams have ever won La Liga, and only 5 more than twice). And yet they remained the more glamorous club. Famous players wanted to go to Barcelona, and still do, as they do Madrid, United, Milan and Chelsea. If Madrid are the kings of aggrandizing their history then Liverpool are the paupers. They might roll out the 18-5 banners when United come to Anfield, but they don’t parade all their replica trophies on special velvet plinths when presenting new signings. But their signings are rarely that big enough to require it anyway. Whilst Madrid can get stuffed by Liverpool themselves in the Champions League, embarrassed by Barca in their own stadium and become a Schadenfreude pleasure to rival fans the world over, they can still tempt the World Player of the Year away from a club that’s the reigning World Champions and have just reached 2 Champions League finals on the trot. Their profile supercedes their success at any given time. They can tempt the Zidanes the Kakas and Ronaldos whilst Livepool can only tempt Torres, the one and only truly global foreign star that has ever signed for Liverpool at his peak.

Purslow know this. As a Liverpool fan himself and a veteran of over 500 matches (apparently) he knows better than most how undervalued the brand is. In his first interview after replacing Rick Parry as the clubs managing director he stressed the need to expand the brand. Whilst United have megastores and cafes around the world Liverpool have virtually no club sanctioned businesses outside of the city itself. However the 3 way power struggle currently embroiling Anfield ends up, the need for Liverpool to start making some serious bucks off their name alone remains. But whilst the support base and potential is there, success off the field needs to be supplemented in at least a small way on it. If Liverpool really are going to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century (or even the tail end of the 20th) they need a platform to jump off. In short, like with everything else at the club, it’d really help things if they eventually won the league.

http://www.footballfancast.com/football-bl...pool-modern-age

The truth behind the latest Allardyce/Benitez feud
Ben Blackmore March 1, 2010

Those who were privy to the Anfield changing-room area after Sunday's clash between Liverpool and Blackburn will know that the 'feud' between Rafael Benitez and Sam Allardyce has been rather misrepresented.

Benitez's post-match quotes, which sarcastically mocked Allardyce's aggressive style as an example for the world of football to follow, rightly earned all the headlines. But it should be noted that the Liverpool manager did not cast the first stone, as has been portrayed by the major providers of sports news.

The privileged minority who witnessed the post-match interviews of Messrs Allardyce and Benitez will know it was the Blackburn boss who sparked tempers with a slant on Liverpool's style of football on Sunday, and it was in response to Allardyce's scarcely-veiled digs at Liverpool's discipline that a smiling Benitez suddenly found reason to frown.

Neither this, nor Allardyce's angry march into referee Alan Wiley's dressing room, were reported in the fall-out to Liverpool's 2-1 victory.

The true chain of events at Anfield began with Allardyce, fiddling with a thin piece of paper, claiming his Blackburn side had not warranted the 25 fouls and five bookings dished out by Wiley, in contrast to Liverpool's 10 fouls and solitary booking. No doubt this was the issue he later took up with Wiley in more private quarters, despite the fact Rovers had been lucky to keep both Steven N'Zonzi and Pascal Chimbonda on the pitch following acts of violent conduct.

Perhaps more amusingly, Allardyce then insinuated that Liverpool's management, players and fans had done their best throughout the 90 minutes to influence the referee's judgement. However, having spent more time lambasting the fourth official than coaching his own team, even when Michel Salgado and Nikola Kalinic had committed cynical fouls directly in front of him, Allardyce surely knew he was in the pot-kettle-black territory on this point.

Then came Benitez's turn to greet his interviewers, at which point he was immediately made aware of Allardyce's accusations. The sharp exchange of a smile for a furrowed brow by the Liverpool manager gave warning of what was to come, with the Spaniard answering what he saw as a personal attack with one of his own.

"I think it is a model for all the managers around the world, their style of football, his behaviour," Benitez said of Allardyce. "It is the perfect model for all the kids and I'm sure all parents will enjoy this model and encourage their kids to be the same. The style of football, I think, Barcelona are thinking of copying."

Rarely does one manager personally ridicule a fellow rival in such a show of disrespect. Benitez, as manager of Liverpool Football Club, should be expected to act with more grace, particularly as his side had only managed one shot on target in a very poor second half. Not something Barcelona will be rushing to copy, one would suspect.

However, this was not the first time Allardyce had questioned Benitez's ethics. The corresponding fixture last season prompted the Blackburn boss to gang up with Sir Alex Ferguson in branding Benitez arrogant, for what they conceived to be "game over" gestures following a Fernando Torres header.

The truth was that Benitez had been asking Xabi Alonso to send his free kick deep, only to see the midfielder send the ball in to the near post where Torres scored. When Alonso asked his manager why he had been shouting, Benitez gestured to say "don't worry".

Misrepresented back then and misrepresented again now. The Liverpool boss was unprofessional in his mocking of Allardyce, but he at least deserves a fair portrayal in the ongoing saga.