Village Idiot

Pochettino has done a great job with them, sadly. Club legend IIRC too. Could be favourable for them if one of the bigger names come sniffing around. He's a bit pissed off after the winter window, but will stay put. Loves the club and indeed he's a legend there.

Classiest moment of Espanyol-Barça rivalry is Iniesta being clapped off the pitch at Cornellà after he paid homage to Jarque, with whom he was very close. Sad that he have to put aside our emnity for such a tragic matter, but still a great moment.

Pochettino has done a great job with them, sadly.

Yeah, he was a quite good CB. Wouldn't say world class or anything but good.

I won't say it. EDIT: Okay A______ keeper.

Yeah, that's class actually.

Espanyol have very little going forward with Osvaldo injuried, if Real sneak a goal they'll be fine.

Only free number they had after M. Diarra left. In Spain members of your 25-man squad have to take numbers 1-25. Anybody with a higher number is a youth player.

Antonio Adán, B team keeper. Played in their last CL match and in the Cup. He's decent enough although this is the first game he plays where there's something at play.

Dudek's broken. Adán, one of their kids.

Oh, and Espanyol will still manage to throw this. It's beyond impossible that they ever manage to do something remotely useful for us.

Dunno, I usually use this one and leave La Liga thread for non-match stuff, but now people seem to be commenting matches there too.

Still seeing that Callejón cunt sending off Casillas with a dive has a sweet taste.

thought you'd be supporting the catalan mackems for this one My brain does, my heart just can't. I'll just fetch me some vodka.

f***ing s***, I'm trying hard here to cheer for Espanyol but it goes against my genes. I'd settle for a draw.

Depor for ya. Villarreal were unlike themselves tonight, though.

I know Niel loves these clever headlines.

Villarreal* but yes I think they had some problems that they're expecting to come out of when they qualify for the Champions League again this season. Competing at the highest level with very limited resources is difficult and the fact they've managed to do it at all is an example to a lot of other clubs with far more potential. What is your point? The scenarios are completely different. OK, so we "do a Villarreal" (who by, VI's admission "are truly a fairy tale"). We keep the likes of Carroll, Tiote and Enrique here by promising them that we'll match their ambition with some sensible spending and increasing the wage structure to attract champions league calibre players. Heaven knows, we actually start challenging for the Champs League and qualifying a couple of season - might even go on a run. Now that we're earning at that level, we start spending at that level. What happens when we don't qualify one season? Or re-create the Partisan downfall? Do we continue to spend during that season in the hope that we re-qualify (facing far fiercer financial obstacles if we fail) or do we cut our cloth accordingly and sell off some of our star players, breaking up the squad in the process? (this may have happened to Valencia) I probably got lost in translation here, when in Spanish you say something is a "fairy tale" it means something like "a dream come true". Anyway, I think Sevilla are a far better example for you lot. Similarly sized club (I'd have NUFC to be bigger). A policy of very shrewd scouting and buying brought them trophies and CL campaigns. They also did sell *a lot* of the players they discovered (Baptista, Ramos, Dani Alves, etc...) but managed to keep being competitive thanks to a fantastic scouting setup and the outrageous money they got off their sales.

Still, you have to take into account that Villarreal are fantastically tiny. I don't believe their gross spend has been all that, they have just run up the debt because they had the turnover of a lemonade stand.

Villarreal are truly a fairy tale. It's not that many years ago that I used to watch them play against Barça B. They have overspent, but are trying to keep it sensible, cutting the budget and still remaining very competitive. They will land on their feet. Still they benefited from the fact that although Barça/Madrid dominate the top spots, La Liga is actually a very open championship and we don't have an established Top 4. The grip of the likes of Arsenal/Chelsea/ManU and now City in your CL spots is way bigger.

I really like seeing Bolton doing well and not playing longball s*** to be frank. Always had a soft spot for them and shows other teams it can be done.

Hum, Villa and Everton only 3 above the drop. For some reason thought they were in a better position.

Jose Baxter, Everton's saviour.

The second Moyes leaves, the second Everton stops challenging for Europe imho. I can see him leaving after this season though, doesn't seem he can take Everton much further and probably needs a change of scenery.

3 games scoring in a row? Impressive.