Village Idiot

Mmmm... just checked. Chris Eagles 2 goals 3 assists in 34 PL games (20 starts). Somehow I thought he had better stats.

I remember him having quite a few good games for Burnley.

Also, if one team on parachute payments gets promoted the remainder of his pot is redistributed throughout the Football League, isn't it?

I admit that one of the reasons I sort of want to see Leeds promoted is seeing Becchio somehow managing to play in the PL.

Never understood how with such good ownership they have done so badly. That's football I guess.

Would really like to have Leeds back, personally. That said, I have never met a Leeds fan or anything.

Well, he's Kosovar-Albanian.

Just watching Brum-Stoke highlights. Every Stoke highlight seems to start with a Delap throwin.

He only needs to master the "appeal for a foul as you fall down" technique then. http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/11/19/article-1087477-02A4D50A0000044D-236_468x286.jpg

It is rare in Spain though, for some reason (well, the Big 2 never cared much about the Cup lately). Would have loved to see the likes of Betis, Mallorca, Zaragoza, Espanyol having CL outings in the past few years. Having the 4th placed team going to the CL is a joke, at least have an actual "champion" take that spot.

You only need to add two legs to that proposal and you'll get our s*** Cup tbf. I miss the time when we had the "single game at the lowest team stadium" rule. Lots of giantkilling and unusual winners.

awful. In anything it should be seeded like the French cup so the lower league team are always at home. Uh? Is that on the cards? Incidentally I'd love it if the top 3 leagues gave the fourth spot to their domestic cup winner.

'Doing a Newcastle' Not winning anything for a long time. Throwing away a significant title lead. Participating in a game that has lots of goals, bonus points if it ends up 4-3. Sacking a manager for little or no reason. Having a prick as an owner. Having impatient, deluded fans. Coming back from a number of goals down to draw. Generally shooting yourself in the foot at any given opportunity. Etc.

Come back and get a draw. West Ham were 3 down, drew 3-3. Stupid commentary. I see. Was out and didn't follow the PL today. Just checked your result from my cellphone and that's it.

What's "to do a Newcastle" nowadays? You lot get through a lot of insane stuff.

Is he getting any profile in Spain again? I think if he were to move he'd go back to La Liga as he has previous there. No. Same with José Enrique really. You play in the top 4 or you don't exist. Doesn't mean club scouts aren't paying attention to them, just that they're not getting press.

It'd be s*** if you found a Tiote though. Wouldn't imagine his clause would match his real value, which would mean that we would lose him for peanuts compared to what he's worth. In that instance you'd probably offer him a new contract with higher wages and a higher release clause after 3 months or whatever I'd have thought, not that the player would have to accept. We just had to offer a new deal to Busquets, whose release clause was a "mere" €30m. Reckon Busquets, albeit he is class for Barca, would be fairly average if he moved elsewhere due to how suited he is to playing for Barca. That happens with a lot of our players, but it's the point of our youth setup really.

loads of people go on what they remember in the press and he was slated in his first season (deservedly some would say). loads of people are adamant we play with a very high line cos it was mentioned in the citeh away game so they think we do it all the time... we don't. loads of peole last season thought alan smith started off grerat cos the press said so...he didn't. Yeah, that was what I thought, they were mostly talking out of hearsay/faint memories from his first season/assumption that any CB playing for you must be total s**** by default.

It'd be s*** if you found a Tiote though. Wouldn't imagine his clause would match his real value, which would mean that we would lose him for peanuts compared to what he's worth. In that instance you'd probably offer him a new contract with higher wages and a higher release clause after 3 months or whatever I'd have thought, not that the player would have to accept. We just had to offer a new deal to Busquets, whose release clause was a "mere" €30m.

I think Coloccini is still under the radar, I was talking about NUFC with my couple of English friends and they still thought he was rank.

Are the values of the release clauses generally quite well known? In public, and amongst clubs? Yes of course, they are public.

It'd be s*** if you found a Tiote though. Wouldn't imagine his clause would match his real value, which would mean that we would lose him for peanuts compared to what he's worth. Happens all the time. You have to offer a new deal to the player to increase his clause. Racing tried that with Canales, but he refused and went to Real Madrid for €5m.

I don't particularly think players are more loyal in Spain. If a bigger club comes knocking, they'll ask for a move. Our release clause system tends to reduce the drama, though, since there's already an asking price in place for any player (clauses tend to be reasonable outside the big clubs/stars)

Because he chose Croatia?

Atlético were heavily linked to Rakitic in the first half of our season an ended up signing Juanfran for twice that amount of money instead