Bassedas Spain bound

Last updated : 12 January 2003 By Martyn Elliott

The Argentinian international is completely out of favour with Sir Bobby these days and the club is keen to off load him as soon as possible.

Bassedas himself is becoming unsettled in the reserves and earlier in the week he launched a verbal attack on Sir Bobby.

"I do not have an injury yet I am totally excluded. This is the worst moment of my career," he said.

"I am not playing but at least I am providing for my family.

"I know I am a class player, so I am calm, not playing does not make me think I am useless.

"But we are going to see about the future, I have a history in Argentinian soccer.

"I do not get a chance to speak to Robson, I do not have access to him.

"There are many players in my situation, there are even English players bought by the manager like this.

"It is because here in England they have the luxury of having lots of professionals, so they do not play them all – and in the situation I am in, you need the manager to believe in you, if not, he will forget about you and just put you out of his plans.

"It does not matter if you do well in practice or in the reserves, I can not do anything to get back in the team.

"What I did in South America has no effect on anything here, they don’t watch Argentinian football here and so an Argentine player has to come from Spain or Italy for them to know you, unless you are a goalscorer, otherwise they don’t know anybody.

"I have allowed this to go on all year, but when the season finishes I am going to speak with the manager.

"It will not be easy to solve because he might not agree to let me leave."

It is easy to understand why a footballer of Bassedas’ repute has become frustrated in the reserves and, to give him his due, he has behaved in a professional manner ever since joining the club, but from what I’ve seen he just isn’t good enough to play for a top Premiership side.