Dabo and Mauri

By: salvatore | March 4th, 2008

To quote an old Greek guy, “All that we do is done with an eye to something else.”

Greek Guy

If that’s true, what can we make of Ousmane Dabo?

According to Il Messagero, the recently returned Frenchman is playing on a minimum wage contract that pays him roughly 36 thousand euros for the year. That’s in pretty stark contract to the million pounds plus agreement he had with Manchester City. So what’s the deal?

Does he just love the Biancoceleste (and its penny pinching president…Vattene Lotito) so much that he’s willing to play for relative peanuts? Or is the city of Manchester just that bad? I’d love for it to be the first reason, but after having spent some time in Manchester this year, I’m guessing it’s the second.

It’s not that it’s a shit city, it’s just that if you don’t have a fondness for kebabs, curries and people blessed with the disposition of disgruntled gravediggers, it’s not for you (and I say that as a New Order and Smiths fan, someone who really wanted to like the place).

After all, look at the beating Dabo got when he was there, a punch-up imposed on him by his own teammate no less:

Dabo

Ah Manchester, so much to answer to.

Of course, all of this might just be a way for him to increase his stock come the summer transfer market.

Either way, welcome home Ousmane. The sacrifice is appreciated, even if your salary is going to rise to a not-so-paltry half a million Euros next year (should you stay, that is).

Dabo vs Merda

On the other end of the selfless spectrum sits the underachieving Stefano Mauri, who met with Lotito yesterday to complain about being dropped from the starting eleven.

If he’d been playing well lately, I’d say, yes, go over Rossi’s head Stefano and make yourself heard. But to have played as craptastic as he has this last month and still complain is pretty impressive. He’s either really selfish, delusional, or really, really pissed off by the fact that Cristian Ledesma keeps getting starts (even though he’s played exactly one good half of football since January).

I’m not sure what this will get Mauri, aside from increasing the tension around the locker room, but I’m guessing he’s hoping for some sort of stay of execution. Or, like Dabo, maybe he’s hoping for enough playing time to attract potential suitors this summer.

Just who the hell knows what goes on in people’s heads?

Rorshach