Cabral’s acquisition was one even Paolo Di Canio was thrilled by. A player of Champions League pedigree, he played well when given early spells of action but was abruptly dropped. Then he may as well have disappeared from Wearside, never to return. Now, Gus Poyet has made some utterly mystifying comments of his own without getting close to explaining why Cabral cannot get into a team he claims to have to pick from threadbare resources. Can Pete Sixsmith get to the bottom of it? …
There is a famous cartoon character from the First World War called Old Bill.
Drawn by a front line officer, Bruce Bairnsfather, Old Bill was a phlegmatic character who always looked for the best in what was a pretty grim existence.
The best known cartoon shows Bill in a shell hole up to his neck in muck and bullets (thank you Arthur Haynes for that line), with his companion, Alf, complaining.
Bill’s response to this is: “Well, if you know a better shell hole, you go and find it.”
I am sure that Adison Tavares Varela, better known as Cabral has never heard of Old Bill, but his situation at Sunderland is slightly akin to that of the walrus moustachioed stoic so admired by those in the front line 100 years ago.
Like Old Bill, he finds himself in a difficult situation. Despite winning 5 Swiss Super League and three Swiss Cup medals, he finds himself in a shell hole at Sunderland which he cannot get out of.
As shell holes go, it is a fairly comfortable one and there are only verbal bullets being fired at him but he seems incapable of finding a resting place for his footballing talents.
Genoa borrowed him last season and said “Thanks, but no thanks”, there were stories that he was looking for a loan move to the Championship – Blackpool were mentioned at one stage – and the Russian transfer window will soon be open.
But why would he want to leave Sunderland? He has a three-year contract, will be on good money and has excellent training facilities and, presumably, a good life style.
What he has not got is regular first team football.
He played in last season’s opener, that desperately disappointing 1-0 defeat to Fulham, and since then has not been seen. Di Canio dumped him very quickly and Gus Poyet has not exactly embraced him or even given him an opportunity to impress.
He was on the bench at Southampton and appears to be on the fringe of a team that is struggling, but what are we to make of the manager’s rather enigmatic conversation about him with Chris Young of the Sunderland Echo?
“He’s a great lad and a great professional,” suggests that Poyet likes his personality and his attitude. “He has asked to play for the Reserves” ditto.
But then he says “I’m making the decisions and he is not playing” and suggesting that even if he is asking to play for the 21s, “that doesn’t mean that he is going to play“ (presumably for the first team).
On the couple of occasions I have seen him, he has worked hard and is a kind of father figure for the youngsters in the Under 21 squad. When Leicester City’s Hamza Choudhury clattered into Charis Mavrias, Cabral was straight in there grabbing the perpetrator warmly by the throat and telling him in no uncertain terms that he should be a little more careful in the future.
He can play football, but whether the hurly-burly of the Premier League is for him, who knows. Gus is reluctant to use him and that may well continue until the next transfer window opens and some club somewhere in the world can be persuaded by his agent to take him on.
Whether his next shell hole will be as comfortable as the one he is in at Cleadon remains to be seen.
And don’t get me on about Danny Graham!!!
Vote for Salut! Sunderland in the Football Blogging Awards: see https://safc.blog/2014/09/football-blogging-awards-make-your-yes-vote-count-for-salut-sunderland/for details
Its the same player that was seen as a man of the match contender in that game against fulham. We lost but had over 20 shots on goal and they had one shot and scored. He is also the same player who was in the basle team that beat the likes of man u. Altidore scores a goal in the cup and is dropped the next game and on the fringes. Diakité keeps a clean sheet in defence against everton and then told we dont need him. El hadji ba is loaned to bastia with the option to buy and he is a player with great potential. We never hold onto players. As normal, remember djibril cisse scored 11 goals for us in 39 games (some of them games as a substitute) and we didnt take the option to buy him and he actually wanted to stay. Its a badly run club.
Without doubt, he’s damaged goods in one sense or another.
Being that we won’t use him despite the desperate straights we’re currently in, and since no other organization will touch him with a ten foot bargepole, he’ll probably sit his contract out. He’s about as wanted as a case of Ebola.
It’s completely mystifying, with the manager’s comments seemingly full of contradictions. Still with our midfield dominating games and snuffing out all threat from our opponents, it’s understandable why Cabral can’t get a look in.
Finding himself so far down the pecking order in a pool of unbridled talent must be very difficult for the lad. I doubt he’d have come to us knowing that he was going to have to get past such luminaries as the likes of Bridcutt and Buckley to get a game.
Maybe he shot the sheriff as well as Ellis Shorts dog!
It’s baffling isn’t it? And if the squad IS so threadbare howsabout giving Watmore a chance?
……and Mavrias.
Honestly , why not give Cabral a chance and while we’re at it , what has Altiodore shown in he’s many opportunity’s that prevents Danny Graham from even getting a chance ? Baffles me .