Andrei Rațiu was annoyed when he couldn’t join Fulham in the summer transfer window. Really annoyed.
Sport Witness even reported how annoyed he was by not moving to Fulham. Back at the beginning of the month, we explained how he had been left furious by the deal taking him from Rayo Vallecano collapsing.
Then we covered comments from Rayo’s president basically telling him to get over it. As he put it “that’s football”. Well, 23 days later and it seems the defender has very much gotten over it.
Turn around in attitude
AS’s print edition reports on the 28-year-old today and how he is proving to be ‘indispensable’ for the Spanish side, despite his frustrations.
Rațiu nearly departed this summer, receiving ‘juicy’ offers from Nottingham Forest and Fulham. It was the latter who finished the summer really pushing though.
They proposed paying in five instalments for the full-back rather than paying his €25m release clause. That led Rayo Vallecano to ask for €30m instead – €6m each time – leading to the deal collapsing.
Jose Mourinho praise
Rațiu was left annoyed, frustrated and disappointed but he’s done nothing but show ‘great professionalism’ since. He’s only missed the clash against Barcelona so far. That was due to the transfer saga, and the president refusing to answer his calls at the end of the window.
Since then, he’s continued to perform at a high level. He even recently earned lavish praise from Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho.
“He’s a tremendous player,” he said.
“Very attack-minded, fast, powerful, with an incredible ability to make repeated runs and cause problems down that flank; I felt it was best to shut the door on him.” Those sentiments were reportedly echoed by Real Madrid president Florentino Perez.
The full-back has ‘demonstrated his commitment’ and, is now ‘impeccable and indispensable’ to his team. That, it seems, is being seen as a demonstration of the person he is and earning praise from inside and outside Rayo Vallecano.
