Indeed, it would appear that our former Brazilian- he of free kick lore- has entered the fracas with a few thinly veiled jabs in our direction. More, after the jump:
Happy as a clam
So this isn't really news, at least as far as I'm concerned, but someone felt the need to report it. Correction, ESPNSoccernet deemed it salacious enough to print, and so here we are. There are but three salient quotes to dissect and here they are:
"I feel better at PSG than I did at Chelsea. Chelsea's squad had a lot of big names - and that entails a lot of egoism"
"Nobody at PSG feels more important than the others. We're at the start of a big adventure and we're all pulling in the same direction."
"The French first division is a very defensive-minded and difficult league, it is often tougher than in England, where certain teams feel beaten before the start when they play Manchester United or Chelsea."
There you have it. Is he taking a parting shot or two at the players who effectively ran Andre Villas Boas out of town? Naturally. I think we all know which players in particular he's referencing- but I wonder more on why at this time he'd elect to go on a mini-rant. His performances thus far under Carlo in Paris have been a mixed bag- a few good games followed by a few poor ones. That's a common practice though, so I'm not suggesting he's using this to deflect attention from himself. If anything, I see this as more of a move on his part to remind everyone that he was a part of the squad when the wheels appeared to come off- and here's his rationale.
Again, nothing that we didn't already know. Even if our systemic problems are being effectively masked under Roberto's regime, the fact remains that Alex is not wrong in his comments. That he chose to air them in such a fashion is something I don't necessarily enjoy reading, particularly from an ex-squad member that we used to laud on a regular basis. But again, free speech and whatnot, it's his prerogative to vent however he desires.
Stay tuned for a Benfica preview that will likely be more revelatory then Alex's month-old quotes. Carefree.