Article & Journal Resources

Grantley Bernard

THE spirit and legend of Helbert Frederico Carreiro da Silva lives on. Make no mistake.

That is because the ghost of Fred, as the Brazilian attacking midfielder is better known, has hovered over Melbourne Victory throughout its poor A-League season and not many, especially fans and critics, have been prepared to exorcise it.

Such is the power of that lingering ghost that it has spawned an imposter. A man purporting to be Fred's brother has been contacting the media and the club claiming Victory is going to sign him and that Melbourne erred badly in its negotiations with Fred.

Using the name Tiago, the man has been exposed as not even a relative of Fred, who has three younger brothers, none of whom live in Melbourne.

It is another outrageous example of the legend of Fred, which may have grown so large that his departure for DC United in the US Major League Soccer is considered the one and only reason for Victory's slump.

That Victory has gone from a premiership-championship double to fighting to avoid the wooden spoon is due to more than Fred not being in the navy blue shirt he wore for 20 of 24 games last season.

Those reasons have been well-documented, with injuries and suspensions major factors in Melbourne's struggle this year.

But was all that down to hard-running Fred and his four goals and nine assists, four of which were supplied to Archie Thompson during the 6-0 grand final thrashing of Adelaide United?

Can it simply be said that because Fred has gone, Thompson and fellow striker Danny Allsopp are nowhere near last season's combined 27 goals or that captain Kevin Muscat has not been as clinically effective in midfield?

What might be hurting Victory most is the perception it did not try hard enough to keep Fred -- that he was allowed to leave because club officials did not add a little extra cash to his contract.

If Fred was so eager to stay, as he publicly stated, why did he not take up the new offer that was put on the table in November and rejected in March?

The bottom line is, Fred thought that after his good season Victory would offer him an enormous contract to stay.

With the A-League's salary cap and Thompson as Victory's marquee player who is paid outside the cap, that was never going to happen.

So with DC United offering a deal said to be at least $350,000 per season plus a car and a house, it cannot have been too difficult a decision. Especially after Fred and his Brazil-based agent Marcio Bittencourt declined an offer from an A-League rival to make Fred its marquee player for 2008.

It is worth revisiting a post on the Victory internet forum from Bittencourt, which read in part: "I indicated to (Victory football operations manager) Gary Cole that the offer had to be higher and he worked hard to make the offer better, which he did, but unfortunately with A-league salary cap restrictions, they could not go higher.

"When an official proposal came finally from an American club and a Brazilian (first) division club, they were two to three times more than Victory.

"Fred is 28-years-old, and had to make a decision based on his future and his family's. It was too hard for him to refuse."

The memory of Fred carving up Adelaide United like a Christmas turkey in the grand final is one for all Victory fans to cherish.

Keep the memory, but it is time for the ghost of Fred to be released.