Edivaldo or Del Piero?

Edivaldo's medical today (credit: OS)

Although it feels like a mid-season break right now, we're actually slightly less than halfway through the campaign and it feels a little premature to stage a repeat of my hits and misses feature of last season so let's wait a while longer for that.

Further down the line at the end of the season fans will no doubt be thinking over performances of (right now) newcomers Chol and Edivaldo. Personally I have a good feeling about both of these players and, in fact, every new signing we've made this season. That's why I'm so relieved that Del Piero did not sign.

Mai maa, dee mai?

While many fans observed that "He's a real professional", I still think the arrival of the great Juve legend stood to do more damage than good. Sure, it would have raised the profile of the club, sold more shirts and got people excited again, just as Robbie Fowler did. But then it could also have upset the balance of the team, encouraged complacency in the player himself and cause problems off the pitch. None of this is to say that Del Piero is that type of person to cause this damage, I'm sure he isn't, it's simply a dangerously possible outcome of  a Thai team signing someone of his calibre at his age.

Edivaldo

Instead we have Edivaldo, a largely unknown yet somehow exciting addition to the squad. Tony commented on my previous blog pointing out the forward's scoring record is rather low for his position. However, what I've seen and been told leads me to believe that he'll be a real danger at this level.

Combine Edivaldo with the possible debut of Berkant (two years after he signed!), the final run of Teerasil, highly-rated DRNK forward Chol and Mario and Adnan behind them and it's hard not to imagine a few goal-fests coming up. These are hungry, talented players who still have something to prove. These are players a club like MTU need to progress to the next level. I can fully understand Thai fans getting excited at the prospect of big name players, but isn't the prospect of watching talented, ambitious and motivated younger players attack the opposition defence the most exciting idea of all?

The season is a long, long way from done but whatever happens from now on, Muangthong United deserve real credit for the way we've struggled to correct the many mistakes both on and off the pitch of last season. In a future article I'll analyse the key factors of the club's revival.