Village Idiot

Yes, the following season was a disaster and the wheels came off pretty quick for him. He also got in a row with Reo-Coker IIRC (although everybody seems to do that).

To be honest Pardew's first season in the top flight with Wham was pretty impressive. Harewood even looked world class. My Wham supporting mate was waxing lyrical about "Pards".

It was ridiculous watching it. Exactly the same as watching the first team, still had like 77% possession or something crazy. That's kinda the idea, all of our sides play the exact same football, from top to bottom. I just had a vision of us playing Inter again in the next round, by the way. Surely Benítez will have been sacked by that time and they'll be good again though.

Spanish journalist just said that our lineup today would have been illegal in La Liga because of using too many players from our B team

Would have loved to meet your lot in the next round tbf.

Pretty sure it was Pardew who benched Mascherano/Tévez. I cursed the damn useless c*** every weekend since I got Tévez on my FF team.

Víctor Vázquez nets the second. We have been unsuccessfully trying to break down this lot for two years, and it had to be with the kids...

Thiago

30 minutes on and Bojan and Jeffren already stretchered out and subbed. These russkies aren't joking.

http://estaticos.marca.com/marcador/futbol/2010_11/champions/1a_fase/jornada_6/grupo_d/bar_rub/images/01_300x303.jpg

Seems like we are playing 3-4-3 tonight, guess Pep fancies to experiment. Bunch of kids starting, let's see how they do. Now that he's favorite for the Ballon D'Or, I remember Iniesta's first European start was in one of these rubbish "already qualified so play the kids" CL games and he had a mare.

Mino Raiola represents Jol? Cunt of highest order, and has an easy mouth.

Wouldn't work. I'd love to see him managing in a big league again but he'd be too risky for you. He isn't a great motivator/man manager and your squad isn't really built to play the way he knows.

Atlético signed Elías from Corinthians for €7m. I admit to not knowing anything of him.

Xavi, Iniesta, Messi finalists. Surprised to see Sneijder miss on this. A Barça treble... time to lurk/troll Real Madrid boards.

Team UK!

More Real Madrid striker parade: Diego Milito.

Me too, but WC performances always distort stuff in this trophy. He's probably in his best form since then, mind.

La Gazetta runs today that Iniesta is going to win the Ballon d'Or with Xavi and Messi finishing second and third. How reliable have they been in the past in this kind of stuff?

I don't really rate Webo. One of those non-striking strikers that "work hard".

Our press has pretty much dropped the issue after moaning the day after. You have to think it's the 3rd time in a row we are passed over a major sports event (Olympics twice and now the WC), while you at least got the London Olympics. Also the 2004 EC but that was earlier. I'm not that fussed mind, would have been a great chance to rebuild the Camp Nou but well... I'm mostly pissed of having what's probably going to be an awful WC in Qatar (I suppose Russia will pull it off).

"As" reports that Madrid has had a €25m bid for Dzeko refused by Wolfsburg.

He's actually a pretty good impact player.

Well, we almost literally won without stepping off the bus, Helenio Herrera-style. Glad the comedy had a happy ending for us.

And warming up in the corridor of the coach, yes.