Alves snubs Seville for the second time
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Your support makes all the difference.Daniel Alves, who was the subject of interest from Chelsea and Real Madrid throughout the summer, has not joined up with his Seville team-mates for their trip to Greece for today's Champions League tie with AEK Athens, according to the club's president Jose Maria Del Nido.
Alves, who on Friday criticised Del Nido after failing to secure a lucrative move away from the Andalusian club – having attempted to engineer it all summer – was on Sunday named in a 24-man squad for the third qualifying round second-leg tie in Athens. The squad is also the same one for Friday's Uefa Super Cup encounter with Milan in Monaco.
However, Del Nido said the Brazilian full-back was not among the travelling party which left Spain for the Greek capital on Monday morning. "Daniel Alves, in a total lack of respect to his team-mates and the club, has refused to travel with the club that pays him. The public will now know the professionalism of the aforementioned player," Del Nido said.
Real and Chelsea were the clubs thought to be leading the chase for Alves' services this summer, but no team was able to meet Seville's valuation of the player, which Spanish press is reporting to be around ¿42m (£28m). The 24-year-old Alves missed the first leg of the Champions League tie with AEK, which Seville won 2-0, and was also absent from Saturday's 4-1 victory over Getafe on the opening day of the Spanish season.
Alves' team-mate, the midfielder Antonio Puerta, is still in a critical condition after collapsing and losing consciousness during his side's match against Getafe at the weekend. He remains in intensive care "with assisted ventilation and under sedation after a prolonged cardiac arrest", doctors at a Seville told a news conference yesterday.
"The arrest has been caused by repeated incidents of serious ventricular arrhythmia. These are being controlled. The patient's situation is critical as a result of the consequences of the cardiac arrest, including some effects on the brain. Also, after a cardiac arrest as prolonged as this it is too early to give a prognosis or to venture possible after-effects."
The 22-year-old Spanish international collapsed after jogging back towards his own goal 35 minutes into the game. Team-mates and medical staff rushed to his side and acted to prevent him from swallowing his tongue as he lost consciousness. Puerta was able to walk from the pitch but doctors said that he collapsed for a second time in the changing-rooms and had to be given cardiac resuscitation before being taken to hospital.
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