Afonso Alves to Boro….

By: chris | January 30th, 2008

….That is, as soon as he goes through The Dreaded Work Permit Appeal Process, which is the second most dreaded thing in English football behind The Dreaded Metatarsal Injury. Boro are confident that his “international status” get him through clean as a whistle, but one never knows with those British laws.

I’m not sure if this could be characterized as a “day we’ve been waiting for”, but it’s damn sure an intriguing one. The goal scoring phenomenon that is Afonso Alves is already in England, and took in Boro’s game versus Wigan today. If you don’t remember his name, the goal scoring totals from the last two years should provide an accurate explanation:

07/08: 9gp, 11 goals
06/07: 31gp, 34 goals

(* - 7 of this year’s 11 came in one game.)

Suffice it to say, he knows how to score a goal or two. The interesting part will be to see if he can do it in a league which isn’t the Eredivisie or Swedish Allsvenskan. There will be many skeptics (many many), due to the insane goal totals some clubs rack up in the defensively deficient Eredivisie. Heerenveen has scored 56 goals in 22 games, which ranks second to Ajax’s 57, and has scored 4+ goals on 8 different occasions this year. (Including the 9-0 win over Heracles which saw Alves score a lucky 7.)

Of course, Heerenveen has been known to produce a decent striker or two for a small(ish) Dutch club. Ruud van Nistelrooy, Klaas Jan Huntelaar, Jon Dahl Tomasson, and Giorgios Samaras all came through the club during the beginning stages of their careers relatively recently. Alves may be another Ruud, or he may be another Samaras (who is still really young, so nothing definitive yet).

Alves will cost Boro a pretty penny, a reported £12million, which will go down as far and away their biggest transfer splash ever. The previous high was £8m+ for Massimo Maccarone back in 2002, which went well. They’ll be using the entire sum they just picked for the hugely talented, ever injured Jonny Woodgate, and some places are even reporting they sold Jonjon to open up enough funds to grab the Brazilian.

Anywho, often times the impact of a new signing can be somewhat blurry or subjective, but this one’s crystal clear. Alaves is coming to England to do one thing and one thing only: score goals. You’ll need look no further than the scoresheet to give this signing a thumbs up or thumbs down.