Why Adebayor? Why not Morata?

Santiago Segurola, one of my favourite sports writers in Spain and one of the few voices of reason at Marca has written a piece titled "¿Por qué Adebayor? ¿Por qué no Morata?"(why Adebayor?Why not Morata?) after the Spain-Serbia U19 Euro game in which the Spanish youngster and Real Madrid Castilla player Alvaro Morata scored a hat-trick.
It is a great piece highlighting the growing debate in some sections of Spanish fans in general and Real Madrid fans in particular. The debate between buying players vs promoting and nurturing the youngsters from the clubs' youth teams (or canteras). He takes the example of Alvaro Morata and how his progress could be stunted abruptly because Jose Mourinho would rather have Adebayor on his bench as the 3rd or 4th option in a system that only employs one centre-forward than use that roster spot to nurture and grow Morata.

Here is a slightly adapted english version of Segurola's article in Marca.


The triumph of the Spanish U21 side at the Euros last month followed by the brilliant start of the U19 side at the Euros in the past week seriously begs the question as to why, Spanish youth players are not rated as highly has some of the foreign imports signed by both big and small clubs alike in Spanish league. In yesterday's game against Serbia U19, Morata had a hat-trick in addition to stellar performances from Deulofeu and Sarabia. While it is a fact that the Serbia U19 side is weak defensively, it doesn't hide the fact that the Spain U19 is is a well rounded side with quality players at every position.

Spanish national team coach Vicente Del Bosque expressed similar concerns recently that he sees a certain level of disdain towards the young Spanish players in the transfer market. There is a lot of truth in what he said because Spanish football is going through a purple patch and has at its disposal a lot of highly talented players at all levels and age groups. A lot of these players at U19, U21 and even a few at U17 have the craft for playing in the Primera Division. These players deserve chances to play in top flight to improve and mature. On the positive side of the story there are the cases of Sarabia, who will play in Getafe and the U17 phenom, Isco Alarcon who moved from Valencia to Málaga in search of first team action. However there are a lot many like Morata, Dani Carvajal, Ruben Pardo etc.. who aren't as lucky. They are losing out to players with equal or sometimes lesser credentials in the transfer market due to its peculiar and nebulous nature and the power of the agents.

Morata's case speaks volumes about the current situation. In a perfect world he would be promoted to the Real Madrid first team and nurtured carefully by managing his playing time and giving opportunities to learn from playing with some of the best in the game. At 18 he is still green but his skills as a centre-forward are indisputable. He is a rare combination of an eye for the goal and a great ability with the ball. Most teams would be crazy to blood him into the first team but Real Madrid seems to have consigned to the third division Castilla, where the risk of him stagnating and even fall into bad habits technically and tactically is very high.

Mourinho recently said that he is one forward short in a team that has Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo Higuain. He hinted at a possible return of Adebayor to fill the gap, while the Neymar saga gets resolved. This puts Morata in a very delicate situation. Although he has renewed his contract with the club, he has no realistic chance of breaking into the first team. Sarabia has worked around this problem with a move to Getafe, a move that reminds of Callejón, De la Red and Parejo, wonderful players who weren't given the same amount of chances as many foreign midfielders who were clearly inferior to them were given. Starting with the likes of Thomas Gravesen the list is long and disappointing for the young promises of Real Madrid.

No one seems to be betting big on the talented youngsters in various Spanish youth sides. It is not difficult to imagine how these same players would be treated if they belonged to Germany, France or Serbia. These would have been the crowning jewels of the transfer market, and rightly so because they are excellent players.

Does Morata have a chance at Real Madrid? How important is Adebayor as the 3rd option because his return will effectively rule out opportunities for Morata with the senior side. Morata has some qualities that would make any coach happy. But he needs someone to trust him and gives him the opportunities in the right competition for him to progress and not fall into mediocrity or bad habits.Real Madrid does not seem to offer this possibility. Neither was it offered it to Sarabia, and surely not to Carvajal. In the meantime, the team continues to sign foreign players for spots 17 to 25 on the roster, while the Spanish youngsters who demonstrate that they are among the very best in Europe are being neglected.