Village Idiot

I used to buy La Gazetta in Barcelona from time to time, I can read Italian pretty well (not that a big deal for someone who speaks Spanish) and I love those pink pages. Plus they have great cycling coverage and I follow that a lot.

I remember a case a few years ago in Spain, where a small but well-off club bought a higher-ranked but bankrupt club, and took their place in the higher league. Yes, Ciudad de Murcia in the Second Division was bought by a guy from Granada and took it there and became Granada 74, with the old Granada 74 becoming the new one's feeder team. The Spanish FA opposed it but the Spanish courts ruled in favor of Granada. They became football pariahs and chained relegation after relegation and eventually dissolved, although the original Granada 74 still exists. There are, however, several examples of Spanish clubs wound up and reformed on the lower echelons: Logroñés, Oviedo, Málaga... a lot of times what happens is the former reserve teams are able to retain their place in their division, and become the new "senior" club. That obviously can't happen in England.

Pretty sure Betis were after Montero last year.

Hehe, fair enough Still, Hugo Sánchez was like a 1000 pound gorilla stepping on my toe.

The fact your aims are higher or lower doesn't necessarily change the passion for winning or losing. And those are our main rivals, of course it sucks when they piss all over you every season, no matter if it's in the top division or League 2.

Parmalat > Teka http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/1486/madrid1989vv4.jpg Ridiculously talented team, I grew up suffering their iron grip on the Spanish league for years. Five on the trot, I still have nightmares.

I don't know, it's not because it's Real Madrid, but I always find plain white shirt designs utterly boring and unappealing. It's a decent shirt if you ignore the sunbeams, which I find ridiculous but I guess some people might like them. I dislike the white patches on the sleeves though, I hate when they put those. Plus the lines should be purple, not blue. Teka used to sponsor a lot of sport teams in Spain, but they seem to have stopped doing it recently. I don't think they do well in the Spanish market anymore so I guess that's the reason.

Well, it's a white shirt, not much to play around with. Except the Real Madrid badge enlightening the world of football.

Real Madrid home http://estaticos01.marca.com/imagenes/2010/05/30/futbol/equipos/real_madrid/1275223583_extras_noticia_foton_7_0.jpg

Most of our current setup (Xavi, Silva, Casillas, Cesc, Iniesta, Marchena, Torres, Ramos, Mata, Piqué... just off the top of my head probably more), have won medals in youth championships this decade.

All three goals scored by English players

googled jose enrique messi to see if there was any pics from his la liga days and i found that its a few pages in We still put four past them in the game in your avatar though José Enrique was immense in the second "leg", though. Jose has only played once against Barca in a 2-0 win. The other game that season was 4-0 at the Camp Nou, because he wasn't in the starting XI or even on the bench. Silly Villareal. :colo: Oh, you're right. For some weird reason I thought that was our home (4-0) game since we are wearing the home shirt.

In addition to Mascherano, we have been linked to Alou Diarra and Moussa Sissoko to replace Touré Yaya if he leaves. I have heard lots of good things about Sissoko, although personally never seen him play. Alou Diarra is a bit meh, but could do the job I guess, particularly in a squad role which is what Touré doesn't want.

ta. Some classy posters there, seen a few plastered around the city but not all of them. England's made me laugh.

Aye, like we were supposed to be at this point last season when they spunk €300m on players. It ended up pretty well. But that's just what Mourinho loves, the underdog status, you're just playing into his 'Us against the world' mentality. The fact he's got under performing stars, and problems is what he thrives in, I've never seen a manager bond a team like him. The players now all know they have the best in the business right now, and he knows he has some of the best talents and in Ronaldo arguably the joint best player in the world. I'm not saying get ready to give the trophy over. But Barca didn't cruise to the title this year, they were kept right down to the wire with Madrid. Have you read the Madrid press? Underdog my arse, they are talking like they have already won the treble. Exactly like they did last year. They always do that. And I love it, it motivates us. Some headlines culled from Marca: "What won't Mourinho win at Real Madrid?" "Europe already fears Mourinho's Madrid" "Florentino's cleverness gives Mourinho's Madrid its first victory" "Mou, the trophy collector" Mourinho quite sensibly is actually trying to reign in their arrogance, since Florentino wanted a Galactico unveiling like Cronaldo got last year but Mou's asked for a traditional unveiling at the press room.

Aye, like we were supposed to be at this point last season when they spunk €300m on players. It ended up pretty well.

Looks like him to me. Guess one or several of the servicemen are Geordies and asked him to wear it.

Regarding promotion to our first division, it's pretty tight: 1) Real Sociedad 68 2) Levante 68 3) Betis 64 ----------------------- 4) Cartagena 64 5) Hércules 61 (1 game in hand) 6) Villarreal B 60 (not eligible) 7) Elche 60 With 3 games remaining. Pretty shambolic that we're still playing the regular season with the WC just two weeks away. Some of these teams have lost players. Our FA is just useless, useless. And for our promotion to the second flight... Ponferradina and Granada are already promoted, the remaining two spots for our second division will come out of these playoffs: · Pontevedra - Alcorcón · Universidad LPGC - Sant Andreu · Ontinyent - Eibar · Real Jaén - Barcelona Atlètic I'm personally not in favor of B teams being eligible for promotion to our second division, very much prefer a real club get that slot. But I'll be rooting for Barça Atlètic naturally. Hopefully Sant Andreu makes it though. We need more Catalan teams in La Liga.

I liked the movement of the US team a lot, both on and off the ball. Gigantic leaps and bounds better than where it was 2-3 years ago.

googled jose enrique messi to see if there was any pics from his la liga days and i found that its a few pages in We still put four past them in the game in your avatar though José Enrique was immense in the second "leg", though.

Exciting end-to-end stuff at the start of the US game.

I make a point of never, NEVER betting on international friendlies.

I think Reina is a bit better overall, Valdés a better shot-stopper though. Casillas has really been nowhere near his old form these past two years and is clearly behind these two nowadays.

Casillas has entered his decline, but he's the team captain and he's settled, so probably won't be good if we mess up with the GK spot right now. Hope the rumors are true and he gives up the captaincy after the WC and we can get around to replace him.

Casillas having a mare, I'll laugh since it's a friendly