Village Idiot

if thats true I would just sub him in during injury time to run down the clock...

Real Madrid in talks to loan Adebayor until the summer, according to several Spanish media.

Heh, they gave him #11 right off the bat.

Takes time, don't feel down

We have glut of players for the middle of the park, I don't think we'll go for Modric even though it's true that Pep likes him.

Mourinho has whined again that he needs another striker on the press conference before the cup match against Atlético. So they have been re-linked with Adebayor, Váldez and Klose - whose contract runs out in June. "As" also reporting that Juve's interest in Forlán is "serious" and they are trying to seal a deal like Milan did with Zlatan: a loan until the end of the season with an agreement in place to buy the player outright in the summer.

who do they fight then? Nobody, fortunately. They mostly harass incoming fans. Most hooligan trouble is limited to local derbies when rival firms are bound to clash. The hooligan (or "ultras" as we call them here) phenom is much smaller in Spain than in the UK. They are a bunch of tosspots, but there aren't that many of them around.

A squad of unattached Spanish players is playing two friendlies this January to catch the eye of scouts. I thought that only happened in Football Manager.

No, the scenarios are sent by the readers. The cartoonist just includes a drawing of a player or manager in every strip. Sometimes the team the play for appears in the scenarios. Carroll's strip could make a nice avatar for any of you: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/SPORT/Pix/pictures/2010/11/10/1289405395124/Andy-Carroll-You-are-the--003.jpg

Gotta love how they keep making things up as they go along regarding the Qatar WC, I suppose there was a bid with a plan in place on how to organize this thing, and that's what supposedly won you know.

I think thats a brilliant price for a player of his quality. He's getting on like. He's still tremendously fit though, I can see him performing at top level for a couple more seasons. Still can understand it's a big price.

Do Boixos Nois have any kind of impact at away games? No. The profile of a Spanish away fan is rather middle-class (so they can afford it), our hooligans come mostly from the working class. Same with most other Spanish clubs, hooligan firms don't travel.

I suppose Pep fielded a full-strength team in order to kill the tie right here, right now, and do more significant resting when we travel to Sevilla, which will be close to the Arsenal game. Messi's been playing deeper this season, as a false #9. I sort of thing that's been his plan all along, when Pep took over Messi was a winger, and last season he started playing him as a striker and now with Villa/Pedro cutting in he can pull back and run play from the hole. This was actually a staple of Cruyff's Barça when Guardiola played in it, Laudrup was deployed as theoretical centreforward but was actually a trequartista with Stoichkov/Begiristain cutting in from the wing and providing the goals. I feel like I'm 12 when I see this again Messi is also never subbed off indeed. It's not frowned upon or anything but Pep notoriously never uses subs to rest players. He only uses them to blood new players on a closed game, to run down the clock on a tight one, or tactically, and there's hardly ever a tactical reason to take Lionel Messi off a football pitch. Betis' following is huge. They are a pretty big team. With the new ownership the whole club seems more focused and they are walking the second division so looking forward seeing them up here again. Very funny fans, great songs.

Yes, there's just no culture of away following in Spain. Lots of the away fans you see at Camp Nou are actually Barcelona residents hailing from the region of the visiting team (Asturians, Andalusians and Galicians have big communities here). There are exceptions, some Andalusian teams do carry big crowds, particularly to regional derbies, same with Sporting. Usually fans only travel for big games or nearby places (you can suck up 8+ hours easily travelling from Andalusia to Barcelona by train, thanks to our Madrid-centric rail system ). Distances are also larger than in England, where you have most clubs nested in or around the Midlands. One of the reasons we don't carry an away following to the Barcelona derby is that Espanyol has forbidden the sale of tickets to away fans. So bitter

If you look at the solutions #2 is amusingly considered to be a handball.

Forlán linked to Juve, although apparently they have balked at Atlético's €15m valuation.

Henrique is a mainstay for Racing, which isn't saying much since they are a s*** team, but they do keep it tight. Cáceres isn't doing so well at Sevilla, although he's playing quite a bit thanks to the fact that he can slot at right back too. Sevilla has been a bit messy this season though, their midfield in particular isn't doing a good job of shielding the defence, something that they used to be great at.

Apparently Milito (the one that prevents goals instead of scoring them) has reached an agreement with us to leave the club. Zaragoza, Málaga and Inter Milan reportedly interested. Yay, an even thinner squad.

Why they signed Squillaci is beyond me, couldn't think of many defenders less suited to the PL and he wasn't particularly great in Spain to begin with.

Yeah, I think he mentioned it yesterday. I would be surprised if that had anything to do with it, something is up. What the hell are doing the ETA commanders in your sig?

"As" reporting that Madrid have secured a first option for Fabio Coentrao for the summer. Strange one, for what I have seen of him he's not very good in defending duties, and they already have Marcelo who's very good going forward but not so much at the back.

One of the things I really like about Guardiola is how far he goes to protect his players and will even lie out of his teeth in order to do so. Abidal will have a mare at CB, like he did at the start of the season, and he'll come out and say how impressed he was for his effort, that he's doing great, etc... Heck, until the last day of last season he'd say that Zlatan was awesome even though they had already fallen out behind the scenes. Even Mou in his particular style always shields his players (unless you're Karim Benzema). That's how a top manager has to work, imho.

WAGs of the world, Messi is single again. His grandaddy just said on an interview this morning that he left his lifelong GF.

Massive blow for them. Surely they have to buy a striker now? Looks like not. They have Cronaldo, Benzema and the kid Morata, plus Mou has already tried Kaká as a false nine since he came back. They will buy one in the summer, but not now.

I stumbled upon this board when Sir Bobby died. I had lots of time for him as a manager and person and thought about seeing what fans of his club thought about him. I ended up liking the place and the indigenous life, so here I am. I don't have second clubs other than CF Badalona, but I certainly want you to do well.