INTRO
On June 30th 2019, Spain U21’s faced Germany U21’s in the battle to conquer Europe. Del Fuentes Boys aim to restore the hubris of a better Spain, an opportunity to declare what is to become of the next generation who aspire to be the new great dominators of possession. A title once owned solely by the Spanish.
THE SPANISH WAY
The ball still moves relative to the network of triangles supporting the player in possession. Unless Vallejo can make a vertical pass by breaking a line forward into Fabian , Vallejo – like any of the universally trained operators in the ideology of tiki-taka – will wait, and funnel the ball wide or backwards, intentionally, to draw out opponents and then progress the ball higher once space has emerged and opportunities are formed through numerical advantages in the counter. As you watch the 4-3-3 morph into varying sub-shapes like the 2-3-5 to the even more suffocating 3-1-3-3, the tempo remains metronomic. This beautiful dance between the ball and the players. Back to front, through the channels, into the half spaces, outside to in, there is precision and interplay in every mini zone and a web of connections that exceeds telepathy that feels almost sacred. The Gods in the sky, moving red figurines on a board, marshalling 11 men to keep the connectivity , conducting La Roja from above. The ball still breaths with the regular rhythm of slow, slow, slow, fast fast fast, slow, slow, slow, just like it did in 2013, the last time they had lifted the trophy.
A HISTORY OF SUCCESS
That team had an illustrious cast. Isco, Thiago Alcantara with the support cast of De Gea Sergio Canales to name a fewl. The great midfielders of Spain are known for their deft touch and groove on the ball, Thiago & Isco paid tribute to that notion in irresistibly eye-pleasing fashion. Often times the U-21 Championship seems to have the quality of being the perfect exhibition for the elite clubs to pluck talent from, for the talented and often obvious outstanding candidates, its an opportunity for silverware through nationalistic service in the early embers of pre-season, against a pool of inexperienced opponents who still remain in a developmental phase compared to the young but seasoned pros. The stars of the Spanish elites usually excel and have this competition as their springboard to international success.
Just like in 2013 when Isco and Thiago shone, two Real Madrid talents in Dani Ceballos & Jesus Vallejo were here to lead their team to victory. Jesus Vallejo; the well-groomed, cleanly shaved 6ft soldier of defenders, certain graduates of the game just embody the characteristics of the position they play. All that was natural to him felt right to flourish as a battleaxe centre half. Plucked from Zaragoza at 19 as the team’s captain, he joined the Los Blancos to shadow in the dark arts of who else but Sergio Ramos. Then there is Dani Ceballos. The two domestic giants sparked bidding wars over the signature of this talent when he was in Betis, with Barcelona falling short to Real Madrid, it was a period where Spanish talent seemed to gravitate to the Bernabeu. He shone in the 2017 U 21s and stated “ It was time to be Champions’ ‘ before the Final vs Germany in 2019. There was an air of seniority between them, that felt a necessity to be the delivery of glory for their nation. Formula 1’s Fernando Alonso sent a video message to Vallejo, the inspiration to deliver Spanish success was a serious matter. The Spanish Pride needed to be restored, England had dominated Europe domestically, there was an air of humiliation after that night at Anfield for Barcelona, and specific to this competition, the tradition in Spain is ‘always, always to win this competition.
It validates the land of all the academics that share the national language of expressive technical football. This competition’s sucesses simply proves their ethos right. On a personal level, this trophy is the propeller in the careers Ceballos & Vallejo both need. Real Madrid players they are, first team figures they are not, likely departures they are close to being. Of the many who fly and fail at the test of succeeding in the rotating squads of Florentino Perez, this campaign may give them the confidence to look elsewhere with a new ambition. And deliver they did, beating Germany 2-1 with a fabulous – fabulous left-footed strike from Fabian. Spain had won and a new chapter had taken place for many of the La Furia players.
As the tournament scouting prophecy predicts, those who feature may be noticed, and those who star – become signed. Just like the last successful Spain campaign in 2013, where Thiago’s halfway volley goal in the hat trick performance in the final was the seal of approval Bayern needed to sign him for 23 million Euros. Regionally in Spain, Madrid took advantage too. Bringing in Illaremendi and Carvajal join the Ancellotiis men, joining the other three Spain U21 players in Morata, Nacho and Isco.
Bar Thiago, 2013 was the victory for the regional clubs. It is 2011 though, where the players outside of La Liga to the English shores. It was the Premier leagues turn to talent poaching. Daniel De Gea joined United to succeed Van Der Sar. Thiago was approached but could not agree to a deal due to united stalling. Then there was the star man Juan who Joined Chelsea.
The talent of the tournament, crusader of diminutive excellence and the Spanish apostille of the global union of low centre of gravity number 10s & 8s: Juan Mata. Messi paved the way but many made a reputable name for themselves. There was a renaissance occurring.
Across the continent in Ukraine you had Bernard with delightful feet and weaving ability, then to Germany, Mario Goetze, the talent of their generation who had just signed for Bayern Munich for £40 Million. Down to Italy was the cartoonishly small Giovinco, bald yet baby-faced with eyes of Atlantis blue, he was the most talented tight spaced dribbler Italy had seen since Del Piero and amongst the most brute conventional defenders in Europe, he like Coutinho, Carzola and Shinji Kagawa – made a game within a game, every time we dance on the pitch, we play great escape amongst giants. It was truly a mini-revolution.
A HISTORY OF SUCCESS
Fast forward to 2017, let us continue with the Story. Dani Ceballos’s talents wait no longer and he joins Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal on a season-long loan. Often it is forgotten the factors that contribute to players’ signatures, but the great relationship between the two clubs ( Antonio Reyes, Baptista, Mesut Ozil) plus the Spanish contingent in Coach Unai Emery (who personally called Ceballos).
Move No.2, Jesus Vallejo joins Nuno Esperito at Wolves for a season loan. The club familiar with receiving talent from across Europe managed to pull off a coup in this deal. An ‘Excellent’ acquisition according to Dermot Corrigan, he, like many of the Spanish football experts was impressed and expected this to be the move that cements his role in not only Real Madrid’s future XI but Spain’s first team too.
And then, there was another, one more move, one more La Liga to Premier league export, not a loan but a signing – a mega one at that, From yellow to maroon Pablo Fornals signed a five-year contract with West Ham.
The Summer of 2019 saw the three U21 European Champions were ready to test themselves against the attritional war on talent that is unique to the EPL, The combating of English Endurance.
Vallejo is case study one. A spell so brief, 13 words and under is enough to summarise the spell of Jesus Vallejo In the words of Nuno Esperito in January “ He was a great talent, but it clearly, CLEARLY didn’t work out”.
After only two Premier League starts and no appearance since October, Vallejo returned to Spain where Real Madrid couldn’t host his talents for not a minute longer and was immediately farmed out to Granada. That word, talent – its usage in a sentence stands above most other words. When cast upon someone we – as the listener, become secretly amazed. The word rains mystery around them, a mystery and intrigue of questions and all round fascination.
“ He is special for being so blessed, how did he be so lucky to have this gift?“
“ what is his talent, I’ve been told that he has it, so it must be there?”
“ Why does his talent become my obsession, what is it I am feeling?”
All questions we pose to ourselves are faced in the moment of engaging in the discussion of the individual who has the T word anointed on to them. And yet, so it may be true, so it may be the case that the years at Zaragoza to all the Spanish youth ranks performances, even up to his triumph for the Spain U21 are all testament to the works of the agents, coaches, scouts and the man himself that equate to him being ‘talented’.
But in this game of 1%, the ingredients to a successful transfer and the bonus of talent almost always sit underneath the universal law of football: unpredictability. We will come back to this after Case study two.
After joining the premier league, Vallejo’s career had a steep downward trajectory. Ceballos graph was more of a zig zag starting glouriously with a debut for the ages. Playing in Central Midifled in a 4 -2 -3 -1 against Burnley at the Emirates, he was electric. A dribbling 8, a lover of the half spaces and an entertainer with making the simple pass more exciting than the emirates had been accustomed to, he emulated the Arsenal spirit of flair and high technical appreciation. He increased the tempo, facilitated play with progressive passes, delayed intentionally to draw in two players and skip past them with invention and pure grace – he became everything and more that we saw at the European championships. Then the baptism of fire arrived. Anfield. Emery played a 4-3-1-2 Diamond with Ceballos in the front of a midfield of Xhaka, Guendozi & Joe Willock. An abomination of a midfield for a duel with Anfield outfit. The 3-1 scoreline was respectable, but they had bludgeoned the gooners.
Tempo, the familiar feature of Vallejos and Ceballos Spain team, yet that same word, the tempo has an interpretation far more merciless in the Premier League. Where they used it as a mechanic to control the game with the ball, the Premier Leagues most challenging outfits used it to win games without the ball. That day at Anfield, Jordan Henderson Fabinho & Keita mobbed the skeletal gangle of a man Ceballos, his feet could not match the speed of the Merseyside jackers on that day, not at all. Ceballos in a conversation with Sid Lowe, in no short terms just illustrated how frenetic that Liverpool game was.
“I’ve never seen anything like what I saw at Anfield; I haven’t seen a team that plays better, that presses like them, the way the fans carry them along. “They take the air from you. You spend so much time defending and when you want to do something with the ball when you want to breathe, they’re back on top of you. They’re very well-drilled.”
From then on, Ceballos struggled to impose himself as he did against Burnley. He dropped the next game against Tottenham and played only partially up until the point of his unfortunate injury during a Europa vs Vitoria. Injuries have a cruel fate in football for any victim. They aggravate the pain of the collision, they extend your absence away from your team, they inflict different degrees of mental hurdles to overcome even when back to full health – but most damming of all: they create narratives in enough people’s heads at the worst of times that can often lead to decisions that bring closure exits and reputation ruined. Mikel Arteta was brought in as a New Manager. Emery, the man who gave you this opportunity has gone – Euro 2020 is on the horizon and you were on poll position to travel, but this is the blender that the Premier League is, variables at every moment. January 2020, Ceballos was close to exiting Arsenal altogether. Valencia were favourites, however, Arsenal & Real Madrid blocked the move. Madrid did not want to strengthen Valencia mid-season and Arsenal didn’t feel they could find sufficient cover within that time frame. Fast forward two months and the world is engulfed with the greatest juggernaut of all, a pandemic.
As football remained behind closed doors, the show of 11 v 11 continued – just without the baying mobs anchoring them from all pillars above in their weekly showdowns at the various English coliseums. This slowed life down – and the game down. Ceballos could breathe again. He went on to pair with Xhaka in a 3-4-3, the technical expression wasn’t as evident but a new dimension was found to his game. Grit. His ambition to go to the Euros fulled him to immerse himself in the challenges the Premier League brought. Arteta demanded intensity and Ceballos delivered. Euro 2020 was postponed, his work was ultimately in vein, but he scored the decisive goal in Arsenal 2-1 win vs Sheffield United and started in the final, defeating Frank Lampards Chelsea 2-1. A roundabout way to achieve it but a successful commendable loan spell, which earnt him another year as he was recalled once more. This second time around though was not as memorable. Arsenal had lost 7 of their opening 11 games and Ceballos was a part of a nightmare situation. His weaknesses were highlighted and the team found him more often than not a tempo ruiner. That word again. A now rotational player whose future contributions will have his debut diminished into the distant past, for what was to come would cloud his tenure.
Arsenal had just played Leeds in which Ceballos featured prominently, he with his new Real Madrid loanee teammate Martin Odegaard was in fine form together, they created moments of pure jazz – a throwback to the Wenger ages of Nasri Cesc and Rosicky. There was Ceballos, playing against a woefully open Leeds team, reinvigorating the swagger he once had. He is a player that just needs space, his leaden foot and persistence to take an exorbitant amount of touches for tasks that require so few, highlighted his lack of vision and comfort in pressurised situations. The Spanish school of pass and move only occurred to Ceballos in short spurts, never consistently – as he was excellent against Leeds, and even more so in the first half against Benfica, his tendency to delay on the ball had him caught out against Lucas Verissimo’s men and he was exposed causing Arsenal to concede and then concede again – ultimately losing the lead overall to Benfica. Not for the greatness of Bakayo Saka and Aubameyang, arsenal salvaged the game and trundled through. But the Ceballos downward trajectory was volatile and determined to take the club down with him. In the first leg against Villareal, he was sent off for two poor challenges. He had lost Arsenal in the game. European Semi-Final exit looming. They did not manage to make it to the second leg. All his goodwill from that first season was dismantled in two games. That player at the Euros 2019, was a player that simply should always be looked at with all enthusiasm tempered. We now return to the story of tournaments and talent and the final case study: Pablo Fornals.
FORNALS AND TALENT
The Spanish players are known for their bravery in the vertical pass, but what is Ceballos to do when the passing lanes are closed, the automatisms in the movement are not shared with this current set of players and the game is played at the gust of wind that whips you like when the Formula 1 car pivots around a bend. Tournament football allows you to premeditate your moves so you can orchestrate your rhythm. Here in the Premier League though – rhythm is afforded to the few, Spanish type of rhythm especially, is only applicable to one of the few, Man cities Pep Guardiola. Where Ceballos and Vallejo once could groove to their own desired beat, Here in the Premier League, the game is full of dissonance, the patterns reflect the arrangements of the scrambled atonal and the Gods above control no more, for here is the free for all that only chaos has its say. A-Bande-Part Ceballos, alone away from the La Roja ultimately became exposed, Vallejo was uninvolved gracefully for his sake. Those same figurines, struggling. The Premier League saw their Talent, grabbed it, positioned it in centre stage, stripped it inside out, shaking it till it was empty and bare and tossed it aside asking “ What talent shrinks under the first exposure of genuine diversity?”
Fornals though did not have the illustrious start to the career Vallejo and Ceballos did. Sold to Villareal from Malaga and then brought to West Ham by his former Director of Football, Mario Hussilos who oversaw his development at Villareal B. He had a slow start to life in East London but became a player fulfilling many roles, once David Moyes took over, it just all clicked. He became part of a more robust aggressive team who could attack with quality. Him worked in wide areas with a more physical frame than he previously had at 23 when he first signed, he was direct, he could charge you down and he was aware of the threat he still posed with his feet. In season two for Fornals he became a cult favourite. Joe Cole highlighted how his game was very similar to a ‘Luis Enrique’ a name whose talent is not often associated with many West Ham footballers. But Fornals was of that ilk.
As West Ham finished 6th his second season was a major success. He for one has outlasted his two former Spanish colleagues, making it into season three. But he has improved and understood the assignment of becoming a Premier League footballer. Declan Rice, Benerhama, Jerrod Bowen, Michael Antonio and Soucek, were his teammates, together they formed a truly David Moyes outfit. As each name is read, the binding factor that links them all together in the mind is the immediate thought of power. Under Moyes, they became a force that was a match for any outfit at their home ground. Fornals capping an astonishing 52 performances, he was instrumental in the run to the Europa league Semi-Final, getting two assists in the 3-0 demolition of Lyon.
From the pool of talent at that U21 Tournament, this wasn’t the name that anybody would have predicted that would become a Premier League established star. He, still to this day has worked under the radar and received fewer plaudits than his contribution deserves, but that is okay. Because this is the way of the man who finds his talents and lets them work their purpose. Dani Ceballos and Vallejo still find themselves as Real Madrid players, Ceballos – partially more involved, featured incrementally in the Champions League winning side, even in the final against Liverpool.
But he, like Vallejo, will almost more than certainly move on this summer. Talent is there, that is without a doubt. But talent has two types, the type that Fornals carries which is malleable, it adapts to the challenges upon him and grows and excels because of the diversity. And there is the other type, the precocious type, the aesthetically pleasing type, the sure bet type, it has been raised, nurtured and garnered to the point that success is a foregone conclusion. But progress and development are not linear, the career trajectory of those that were once touted for greatness cannot be assured fulfilling that career to a reality.
Where Ceballos and Vallejo faltered, Fornals seized and found his new home. Away from the particulars of Spanish football and into the pits and battlefield of English football. Thanks to Pablo Fornals, the footballing community was given another example of the football interpretation of ‘hard work beats talent’, a more apt way of phrasing a resounding quote to summate this all ‘true talent is the ability to excel when you work your talent right’.