Arrivederci, Rolando Bianchi

You all know my feelings towards Rolando Bianchi. After he came out in an interview with Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport back in late December and criticized all things English soccer, I wrote here about how selfish Bianchi is and how he should be on the next plane out of Manchester when the January transfer window opened. I took a lot of criticism for it but to be honest, my mind couldn't have been any more made up that Rolando Bianchi had worn out his welcome in Manchester and that interview sealed his fate at the Eastlands.

I'm glad to see the higher-ups there echo my sentiments as well, and they've shipped Bianchi to Lazio on loan with a permanent move back to Italy in the summer very likely. He had nothing positive to say about his club or soccer as a whole in England, and the fact of the matter is he wasn't producing on the field either; check the stats, you'll see what I mean.

Bianchi wanted to go back to Italy to boost his chances of playing for the national team, and he made no bones about it. I had no problem with that; every player has his individual ambitions and that's perfectly fine. As I said back in December however, it was the way he voiced his opinions that crossed the line. He made his club look bad by suggesting the team was full of alcoholics, and he had the audacity to criticize the refereeing in England when in fact, if I recall correctly, there was a major referee match-fixing scandal in his home country just a few years ago.

The bottom line is this: Bianchi didn't want to be in Manchester and City didn't want him there after that interview either, so they made a move to get rid of him and end any distractions he was bringing to the club. Both parties involved will benefit from this, particularly Manchester City, but I'm afraid Bianchi hasn't learned his lesson. City had no choice but to move him out; they could've punished him through fines or a demotion to the reserve team, but that would've just turned into an unnecessarily ugly situation. Bianchi, on the other hand, will go to Lazio and score his share of goals and maybe earn a spot on the Italian national team. Does that make him a better person and a better teammate? No chance.

African Cup of Nations Recap--Day 3

Yesterday's action in the African Cup of Nations involved Group C, and Egypt's 4-2 victory over Cameroon put the defending champions in a great position while Cameroon will now have to battle out of a hole to advance to the quarterfinals, which had to have been their minimum expectation before the tournament began.

This was a very interesting game in that three players, two for Egypt and one for Cameroon, scored two goals each. A brace from Samuel Eto'o wasn't enough for the
Indomitable Lions to overcome Egypt yesterday, who featured Middlesbrough midfielder Mohamed Shawky.

The second game of the day saw Zambia beat Sudan 3-0. That result all but eliminates Sudan but if Zambia can pull off an upset in either of their next two group matches, they'll likely advance to the next round and that would be a major coup for the south African side. A goal in the 2nd minute by James Chamanga really ended any suspense this game could have potentially had.

Once again, there are two games on tap for today with the key match being Tunisia-Senegal.