Village Idiot

Regarding Cesc, had Arsenal been more successful I reckon he'd not been as desperate to come here. When he left Arsenal were miles ahead of us. Anyhow, the tragedy of Wenger is that when the Invincibles were dismantled (and I think that generally he made the good call in letting the likes of Henry/Pires etc... go at the time he did), he banked everything on a group of players that five years down the road have left the club (Nasri, Clichy, Adebayor, Fàbregas...), so now he's back to square one with the added pressure of years of not winning anything. Now, I am going to make a little exercise. Schestnut Sagna Touré Vermaelen Clichy Song Wilshere Nasri Fàbregas Adebayor RVP Would have this been a trophy-winning side? That's the sort of team that Arsenal would be lining up if Wenger had been able to hold on the players that back in 2006 he devised as the substitutes to the Invincibles (give or take the Eboues, Bendters, Djourous and Diabys)

'Penaldo' ffs Is it me or has Sewelly turned heel lately? Love him, mind.

There was a video interview Cronaldo shot for UEFA ahead of the cl group stage draw where he - VERY begrudgingly - admitted that Messi was better than him.

Incidentally Messi is just 13 goals away of becoming our all time top goalscorer, at age 24. Nuts. And say what you will, Messi brings much more stuff to the football pitch than Cronaldo. I can easily see him dropping into a playmaker/Zidane-ish role and still be ridiculously good when he ages and loses athleticism.

Just saw that Guidetti was sent off in the weekend for taking his shirt off during a goal celebration, while he was already on a yellow. Gotta be thick

In a lot of ways he reminds me of Cruyff, somebody that got a great thing going but has been unable to evolve and adapt with the times after his successful cycle tapered off, in no small part due to subborness to surrender some of his principles. Watching Arsenal play nowadays always strikes me how tactically naive they are in some phases of play, even chaotic. Closing down, in particular, they are particularly bad at (a lot of the squad lacks the workrate to do it - or are ordered not to do it -, plus they tend to lose a lot of shape when they haphazardly go at it). Nowadays football is tactically more stringent than it used to be 10 years ago, and he has never wanted to bring that kind of order to his side because I think he does believe it goes against the freedom of his flair players and he didn't need it back in the time when Henry, Pires and Bergkamp just tore stuff up.

What a great night of football yesterday. We may not win the league this year, but as long as I can go to Camp Nou and see spectacles such as that, I will leave the stadium with a big smile on my face. Long it may continue. What can I say? I am a lucky bastard. I called my mom today and thanked her for not marrying an Espanyol fan. She answered that she didn't want her children to lead miserable lives. Anyway, regarding Xavi scoring so much this year, he's been saying that with the introduction of Cesc he finds himself swapping positions with him a lot, and thus getting into scoring positions more often than he used to do. And I don't know if Messi is the best ever, to be frank I always find those comparisons pretty hard to do. I certainly wasn't around when Pelé played, and can only go off highlight reels, adding to the fact of how hard is to compare even contemporary footballers with different styles and positions. What can I say about Messi compared to Maradona (who I did see play), is how incredibly consistent Messi is compared to him. When Maradona was Maradona he was ridiculously unstoppable, but he wasn't always Maradona. Messi seems to always be Messi. Games big or small, he almost always does something that I could watch over and over. Anyway, I look forward having children and telling them how I watched him play. God, I hated it when dad would go on and on about Kubala and now I will be able to do the same.

Banega out for season in one of the most stupid injuries ever: ran over by his own car as he forgot to put the brake when he was refueling at a gas station. No luck for him this season, barely kicked a ball.

I think Villa will stay one more season, and that probably be it. I could have seen us selling him if he kept his downward slide, but after the injury I just can't see it happening. Anyhow, he wasn't having a good season in front of goal, but people really underrate his off the ball game, and the acres of space he created with his runs (I think it's not coincidental that Messi's not-so-good run has coincided with Villa's injury). I think that with Alexis showing an unexpected clinicality in front of goal, and with Cesc scoring so much from midfield we are actually covered with goals (if everybody keeps fit!). Again, I'd love to have somebody like RvP at the club, and he would certainly be a plus, but I don't think he's a realistic signing with the personnel we have. He wouldn't come on cheap wages.

Madrid have also been linked with him... but why would they want him for? He's great, but Higuaín can't almost get a game nowadays, struggle to think where he'd fit. I think he'd be great for us, but with Villa-Pedro-Alexis-Messi vying for 3 places (plus the odd game for Iniesta/Barça B kids), I think that would be too many heavyweights competing upfront, impossible to keep them all happy. Then again, this season we have resorted to play two fullbacks as forwards... To be frank, I don't know him enough to see if he could move to another English club. Otherwise I'd say Chelsea after they get rid of Torres.

Anyhow, Hleb has ended up at Krylia Sovetov. Almost feel sorry for him (but not, he's probably earnt in 4 years more than I'll do in my lifetime).

There are lots of rumors, but I wouldn't give much credibility to most of the names thrown around. We will most certainly go for a LB, but that Bale link is probably unrealistic, Alba looks a more probable target. A lot of newspapers are linking us with RVP (and I'm certain he will leave Arsenal), but I don't see them selling to us or us going for another striker next season. We have also been linked with a few CBs (Puyol isn't getting any younger), mainly Thiago Silva. But Milan are on a good thing, I can't see them selling. It's also been strongly hinted that we will sign a 3rd goalkeeper (a youth prospect), since we don't have any good young one that could challenge Valdés in the future. According to most reports, we dipped into next summer's transfer budget in order to sign both Cesc and Alexis Sánchez, so I really don't expect major transfers. I'd say we'll go for a LB a CB and leave the rest as it is. Personally I don't think we need much more if everybody kept reasonably fit.

Ah Chanturia. He was highly thought of, but he was here only on loan from his Georgian club and we have a pretty stringent policy regarding transfer fees for young players, so we couldn't reach a deal with them. Nice to see he is blooming in Holland. He looked really talented, if only a bit selfish (but that's not uncommon at that age).

He's just not that good, in my opinion. Mind, he looked like the next best thing when he was 16-18 and playing youth football, but never quite adjusted to playing with the grown-ups. Plus he has been ill-advised (hello Pini Zahavi!). It was fine if he chose to leave us, but going to a team that would never offer him first-team football just because they were loaded was just a bad idea.

I can bet there's a lot of laughing at that boy on that Sunderland board you quote on here. Fair play to him, by the way. It's not like he hurt anybody and made the point across.

Seeing the other symbols, it is obvious that the board didn't approve of this bit.

Good loan for him actually, was afraid he was going to get lost in the shuffle unless he moved on quick. He isn't that young. Joining ManCity always struck to me as a terrible idea.

Been rumored for a while. I just wish he stopped taking those money jobs (same with Rijkaard).

Obviously wasn't commentating on Spanish football in the 80's when the league was full of talentless thugs like Andoni Goikoetxea. I'd love to show a modern Barca bandwagoner one of their games from back then and watch them wince. The reason why Maradona left barca. Not really, he left due to disagreements with the president (same guy that would sell Ronaldo 10 years later).

Obviously wasn't commentating on Spanish football in the 80's when the league was full of talentless thugs like Andoni Goikoetxea. I'd love to show a modern Barca bandwagoner one of their games from back then and watch them wince. Eh? If you are talking about me I have been watching Barça play since it was cool to wear 6 feet wide shoulderpads. And we certainly were better than Stoke. Heck, I think we played some excellent football under Venables for example, even if certainly different than Cruyff's brand. At the time English clubs were the most successful in Europe and La Liga tried to imitate that style... Real Sociedad and Athletic Club were - by tradition - the closest clubs to English football and they were very successful in the 80s. Anyway that Athletic Club side was much more than Goikoetxea and his tackles. Dani, Urtubi and particularly Sarabia were all excellent footballers.

Lovely stuff from Atlético yesterday, Simeone really has brought the belief back to that side, probably the only thing they needed (their squad is possibly the best they have had in ages). A Spanish commentator on Stoke "it's the least talented side I have ever commented on, and I used to work in regional (our conference)".

Spanish telly just ran a 5-minute piece on Rory fucking Delap. This sole fact has ruined my day already.

Wow, I was aware people have been underrating Milan a lot after our game against San Siro, they are a much more energetic and intense side than they are given credit for. Still wasn't expecting such a heavy ass-raping of Arsenal. Ibra was brilliant, even Robinho turned up magnificiently. A Spanish commentator said that it's the first time Milan get out of the first knockout stage after they last won the CL. Is that true?

That's beyond vile.

its not really an idea though is it? just time zones i thought, cant be kicking off at midnight in russia D'oh, for some reason thought that Moscow was just GMT+2. Makes sense then. Thought UEFA was just scheduling games at different times to maximise viewership. Damn commies, always ruining things.