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There was celebration across the Land of Toon yesterday over the surprise signing of Rennes and former French U-21 star Sylvain Marveaux, a gifted and versatile forward-leaning midfielder who's been linked in the past with Manchester United and Chelsea and who until last Thursday had been in the process of transferring to Liverpool. When something happened. Reports are the something was a failed medical, which Marveaux aggressively denied to the French sports daily L'Equipe: "It disgusts me a bit to read things like that because I know it could affect the rest of my career. You can give me a medical today and you'll see there's no problem."
We don't know exactly what happened to put Liverpool off Marveaux. But I know this: groin and hamstring pulls are the bastard god and bitch goddess of chronic sports injuries. And I, personally, would be chicken to sign a player who at age 25 had already lost most of a season to each.
"Groin" and "hamstring" are sports colloquialisms for neighboring sets of muscles and tendons in the upper leg. Many if not most athletes, even weekend athletes, will pull them at some point; I pulled a groin playing hockey in my younger day and I can still call to mind the searing pain. I took the injury to my orthopedist, who was the team doctor for the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks. He said there was nothing to do except rest it and hope it didn't happen again soon, because once it becomes chronic it's hard to stop. The same sentiment was echoed later by a major-league baseball trainer when I asked about a player who seemingly couldn't run hard from home to first without popping something. Some guys just have tight or weak muscles there, he said, gravely and off the record.
Marveaux may well have passed his medicals at Liverpool and Newcastle. Provided the injuries are healed, susceptibility to further problems might not show up in a picture or test. But an average groin or hamstring pull heals in six weeks, so we know he's already had at least two that are way worse than average, and relatively close together. It doesn't take an insider to tell this signing is a decided risk.
As with Demba Ba, the potential reward for Newcastle if Marveaux manages to stay healthy is huge, so I'm not unexcited about this acquisition. It's the sort of chance a modestly funded club like Newcastle has to take, and a lavishly funded club like Liverpool doesn't. Let's hope, though, that by the time summer ends, Newcastle United has acquired one or two difference-making players at a retail price and without obvious risk, instead of from the bargain bin.
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