Village Idiot

Benzema's trial for speeding has been set exactly the same day as the France-Spain game

Had completely blanked out of my mind that he played for you. I agree that you looked like the Clockwork Oranje in your year in the C'ship. What an awful division.

Why isnt he staying at Levante? He's doing well for them isnt he? Or is he just going to the US for the monies? Started strong, but he's declined as the season's went. Plus I'm sure the Sounders will pay more thanLevante if he goes there as a DP.

Benzema caught speeding at 216 km/h, more than 100km over the limit. Some footballers

He was over at Napoli yesterday to attend a trial for owed taxes back from his footballing days there. The reception he got from Napoli fans was huge.

Many of us will do the same on Saturday The weekend Clásico is meaningless though, this one isn't. It's still El Clásico. Guess most of us would watch it if it had started two hours later. Madrid asked for an early kick off to get more rest before the ManU game midweek. It's going to feel weird, but the game doesn't really have much importance given the league table.

Many of us will do the same on Saturday The weekend Clásico is meaningless though, this one isn't. Not too confident for some reason myself. Anyway, I'm off to the pub.

European clubs can still make transfers outside of UEFA, no? If that's the case, why don't they go get someone on loan from South America? Almost anybody'd be a better shout than Carew. UEFA won't process the registration of a player registered for another team outside the transfer windows. You can only sign unattached players.

Damnit, knew I should have searched that up before posting I guess you have a point, but a move to Olympiacos, the biggest club in Greece (at that time at least), regularly in the CL isn´t the worst for a 22 year old. Could be that he wasn´t seen as an attacking midfielder/utilised in a way that he was recognised by bigger clubs or that he simply did not develop that early. Aye, that's a good point. Don't think he's ever been utilized as far forward as he is with City, more of defensive midfielder even at Barca(?) Someone (VI, Mole, Sewelly) will have to verify that, I've not watched much Barca until the last couple seasons. He was deployed as DM with Barça. One of the reasons Guardiola ultimately benched him for Busquets is because of how much he tended to lose his position and go forward, though. He was never a good fit for that role.

Please read..... i said he was better than him last season not in general. Özil is woefully unconsistant, which is pretty ridiculous when you see his stats, but he still has to find that in his game, particularly against big sides. He's young though, and that's the kind of thing you attain with age. Benzema being so off-form is one of the reasons Madrid are so bad this year, Ronaldo can't do it all alone (even though sometimes it looks like he can). He's hugely talented and unplayable on his day, but ultimately the quintessential confidence player.

There's the presidential election over at Real Madrid this summer, Florentino won't be so daft as to sell Madrid's prize asset and fan favorite just before the vote. That said, contract runs until 2015, and it wouldn't surprise me he left in summer 2014.

Just watched Rubin - Atlético, also played in Moscow, and the stadium was hilariously empty. Even the ball boys didn't timewaste since they didn't give a f*** about Kazan

Watching Rubin - Atlético was so weird. Since Rubin play their European games in Moscow the stadium was empty (reported attendance was 1600), and it had all the feel of a closed-doors friendly. Will it be the same when you play Anji over there?

NUFC will get further in Europe than us this season /jelly.

Although I certainly wouldn't pin our defeat yesterday to Roura, that is true. Tito keeps tabs on the team and talks lineup and tactics with Roura, but it's not nearly the same as being there and watch your players train and watch the games live. I don't think the club has managed this well, we should have appointed a proper interim manager, specially now that it's clear that Tito's recovery isn't as quick as expected

Well, yesterday sucked. Milan were much better than Chelsea last year. We actually had a lot of chances in that tie and could have easily carried it on a different day. But we absolutely had nothing to show yesterday. Fair play to them, and hats off. Today sucks at work, btw, teaches me to work for a Madrid-based company

It's strange that not a single la Liga club has ever gone for him.

There's something to be said about being able to handle a big club environment. Pellegrini, for all his ability as manager, was devoured by the dressing room and club politics at Real Madrid. That's also a part of football, whether we like it or not. I don't think you could, say, put Curbishley in charge of ManU and be instantly a success. That said, Barça are pretty much managerless nowadays and walking the league (although our form has indeed declined since Vilanova left).

I agree with this, I respect Ferguson a lot in the way he's gone through the ups and downs at ManU, and been able to create winning side after winning side. I can't really think of many contemporary managers that have been able to create more than a successful cycle at the same club, once the players that provided that declined.

Wonder where he picked up that habit? Pretty sure our youth can develop into drunkards without English tutelage.

To Hatem or not to Hatem... he probably won't start just yet, will he?

There's lots of problems with using +/-1 in football. The main thing, apart from the fact that most players will complete the full game, is that the larger number of players makes it a bit iffy to make them as accountable for all phases of play as you can with hockey. Also the much lower scoring in football makes it harder to get a good enough sample. It's a fun statistic though. Must be my years living in the US but I do love yanktastic stats.

From Barça's official FB account: And the link leads you to the club's apparel store

It was Laporta who U-turned and blocked Mourinho's signing for Barça and appointed Pep instead, since he was afraid about his popularity after barely winning a motion of confidence (the only time where club politics ultimately turned out to be a positive thing). So I don't think Txiki or Soriano would be a factor there.