Village Idiot

Atlético 1-0 up at home against Rayo but they are playing like it was away at the Camp Nou or something. Manzano is such a conservative manager, a pity with the squad they have this season.

One of my favorite players when growing up, one of my first vague football memories is of him waltzing through Sarrià at the 82 WC. RIP.

And Darius Vassell might have a worse record, off the top of my mind, and surely must have 200+ PL apps.

I wonder how far down the appearance list you have to go to find a worse goal ratio for a striker. England's #9! http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Heskey.JPG

Yes, apparently we cut him because he was too short... Can't always get it right! Barca...ditching a player for being too short!? We also ditched Cuenca for being too frail. Resigned him a couple years later. He's playing well at the moment. Aye, he's playing the role that was assigned to Afellay - a more traditional winger that gives us width instead of cutting inside so much. He's surprised me a lot - the kid is supposed to have an unbelievable first touch but never had much hype on him. Is Afellay injured atm or just out of the picture? Knackered for 6 months IIRC. Yep, ACL against Milan. Poor lad. Shame, guess I missed that one completely. How do you think Sánchez is getting on? I know you're a fan from before he arrived, but what are your thoughts on him so far? I think he's brilliant, but he seems to be one of those players that appears to be skating on ice in their trainers. Always slipping over He's been injured a lot, and only started featuring regularly in the last couple weeks. I actually didn't know him much since I don't watch Serie A often, but I'm liking him. Great workrate, he's easily our most high-energy player right now and has that aura of danger around him when he runs at people, which is something we lack when Messi isn't doing the running. He gets into a lot of blind alleys, but has pulled off some crazy runs too. Still early days, since he's had 3 league starts IIRC, due to injuries. I always felt he'd be a perfect fit. On the face of it (especially if you watch his Youtube compilations) he appears to be a bit of a fancydan showboater, but he's actually a brilliant allround player. Amazing energy and workrate, good dribbler, good tackler, improving footballing brain. Not really been that prolific in the past but he does loads for the team as a whole and will create chances... perfect for when your team is built around Messi being the main source of goals. The first game he played for us was at the Bernabéu in the Supercopa. I remember how he chased a hopeless ball and ended up in a corner surrounded by Carvalho and Marcelo. I thought he would just try to eke out a corner from it, but somehow he slipped between those two, ran at the box, and managed a shot without angle that Casillas saved. That move made me a fan.

Yes, apparently we cut him because he was too short... Can't always get it right! Barca...ditching a player for being too short!? We also ditched Cuenca for being too frail. Resigned him a couple years later. He's playing well at the moment. Aye, he's playing the role that was assigned to Afellay - a more traditional winger that gives us width instead of cutting inside so much. He's surprised me a lot - the kid is supposed to have an unbelievable first touch but never had much hype on him. Is Afellay injured atm or just out of the picture? Knackered for 6 months IIRC. Yep, ACL against Milan. Poor lad. Shame, guess I missed that one completely. How do you think Sánchez is getting on? I know you're a fan from before he arrived, but what are your thoughts on him so far? I think he's brilliant, but he seems to be one of those players that appears to be skating on ice in their trainers. Always slipping over He's been injured a lot, and only started featuring regularly in the last couple weeks. I actually didn't know him much since I don't watch Serie A often, but I'm liking him. Great workrate, he's easily our most high-energy player right now and has that aura of danger around him when he runs at people, which is something we lack when Messi isn't doing the running. He gets into a lot of blind alleys, but has pulled off some crazy runs too. Still early days, since he's had 3 league starts IIRC, due to injuries. 4 goals in 7 ain't a bad return either.

Yes, apparently we cut him because he was too short... Can't always get it right! Barca...ditching a player for being too short!? We also ditched Cuenca for being too frail. Resigned him a couple years later. He's playing well at the moment. Aye, he's playing the role that was assigned to Afellay - a more traditional winger that gives us width instead of cutting inside so much. He's surprised me a lot - the kid is supposed to have an unbelievable first touch but never had much hype on him. Is Afellay injured atm or just out of the picture? Knackered for 6 months IIRC. Yep, ACL against Milan. Poor lad.

Yes, apparently we cut him because he was too short... Can't always get it right! Barca...ditching a player for being too short!? We also ditched Cuenca for being too frail. Resigned him a couple years later. He's playing well at the moment. Aye, he's playing the role that was assigned to Afellay - a more traditional winger that gives us width instead of cutting inside so much. He's surprised me a lot - the kid is supposed to have an unbelievable first touch but never had much hype on him.

Soldado's form is crazy. Del Bosque can't keep ignoring him for the NT much longer. Surely should oust Torres? Villa, Soldado, Llorente y one other... That's the big debate over here for the EC squad. Torres or Soldado. I'm torn myself, everybody expects Torres to turn good again at any moment, but we can't wait forever.

Yes, apparently we cut him because he was too short... Can't always get it right! Barca...ditching a player for being too short!? We also ditched Cuenca for being too frail. Resigned him a couple years later.

Soldado's form is crazy. Del Bosque can't keep ignoring him for the NT much longer.

Yes, apparently we cut him because he was too short... Can't always get it right!

We are apparently in for him. I would utterly love him as our LB.

More like poor Portugal. Denmark played them out of the stadium in their last qualification match. But still, Holland and Germany will propably go through. denmark/portugal games have a bit of recent history for being very good iirc. edit. just found one of the games i was thinking of. a proper qualifying game, portugal at home and 2-1 up after 86mins....denmark win 3-2. i thought it was last year...it was 2008. Yes, they have been in the same group for both the last WC-qualifier and this EURO-qualifier - with Denmark as group winners on both times. The games are usually very good, so group B will most likely be good entertainment as Germany and Holland plays attacking football as well. Pretty good offence indeed. http://www.meborre.com/wp-content/imagenes///2010/07/Nigel-De-Jong-contra-Xavi-Alonso-600x400.jpg

I have yet to see those goalmouth officials make any positive contribution in a game.

Newcastle Brown Ale is rather common in NYC pubs, so it's not weird they made a dress of it for some silly hipster event. It's New York, that's what they do.

Decent group. Not too easy, not too hard. Croatia impressed me greatly in their playoff against Turkey, so I wouldn't count them out completely. Ireland - sorry - should be bottom and then it's up to us against Italy. I had Portugal down as a black horse for this, but that group can be too much.

When you think of the groups that we can get. Way harder to get out of the group phase here than in the WC. My favorite would be: Spain Italy Greece or Portugal Ireland The PIGS group!

4th spendiest club in the country on them. W00T! Pretty sickening tbh. /slightly on a tangent - if Hoffenheim recieved a fee for Ba, was that from us, or West Ham? If it was the Hammers, why did they not get a fee from us (if, as was initially reported, they didn't). off west ham, they didn't get a fee off us because for some insane reason they put in a relegation release clause of 0 in the contract Quite probably that was a demand from Ba, given the situation Wham were in when they signed him. Would suck to leave Bundesliga and get stuck in a C'ship team.

Any idea why he doesn't get a chance for Spain, do they see him as not able to play their passing game? Or is it a mystery like the one where Gareth Barry gets picked for England? Del Bosque is pretty conservative when it comes to throwing in new names, for example Soldado hasn't got a call despite his incredible scoring record this season, and the poor form of Villa and Torres (although Villa's form for Spain is alright). It's not a case of "picking on reputation", he's always said he values having a core of players that know each other and are used to play with each other, particularly given our brand of football. I think that Del Bosque envisions Arbeloa as the "safe" defensive-minded LB, and he's looking for a more adventurous alternative, so he's been trying Monreal and Alba in that position, who are better going forward. Possibly José Enrique doesn't fit this mold so for now he's out. But I think he'll get a chance when Puyol retires and Ramos moves to the center of the defence (thus Arbeloa starting on the right and another spot opening up for a more defensive LB).

Gotta say that it's quite weird that we have tried every player imaginable at LB to replace Capdevila, but José Enrique still hasn't got a call. He's getting considerable more time in our media now that he plays for Liverpool, though, but it's pretty unlikely he'll go to the EC if Del Bosque hasn't thrown him into the mix at this point.

I don't think they'll have trouble this weekend against Sporting given their current form, but this statistic is pretty interesting: since they signed him, Real Madrid have lost 43% of the games where Xabi Alonso hasn't played. Nice game yesterday at Camp Nou, Rayo Vallecano went for it which is always good to see and was great to see Alexis scoring a brace. I think he'll play a big part in any success we may have going forward.

Huh, first I've heard this too! Sadly, Inter fans say the same.

Oh, and pretty sure that trying to get a yellow on purpose would fall on the "simulating actions intended to deceive the referee" in the unsporting behavior rule. Thus an additional booking and a sending off.

Yeah it was farcical the way that went down To be frank, it's blatant in La Liga and has been like that for years and even decades. We have new regulations this year giving an additional suspension, but as said the problem is proving that they have the intention. As said, the yellow ban is a strange rule. I have no problem with people missing games on reds, particularly for violent tackles, but missing crucial games because of a few innocuous yellows here and there (Xabi Alonso is one yellow away for suspension right now, and might miss the Clásico just because of a harmless handball a few games ago). But I think it's a problem of football's penalty system as a whole.