Village Idiot

Man, I already love Villa http://www.elmundodeportivo.es/gif/20100519/e__archivo_photo_10_1_1_20100519_YBA01F2-2.tif6.jpg Luís Enrique

Fourth major trophy in 4 years for Sevilla. Great run.

Palop is going to win the Cup for Sevilla tbh. He was immense when we lost the tie against them and he's doing it again in the final.

Mejuto González. He's retiring this season, so they gave him the final as a parting gift even though he's been quite dodgy this season. He refereed the Istanbul CL final IIRC.

Where would he play in their line up? In place of Stephen Ireland? A bit harsh on Ireland, really good player him. Ireland hasn't played much this season. And Milner has the attributes that have seen Ireland dropped (workrate and tactical discipline). Nothing wrong with Ireland's workrate tbf. Last two seasons he has done extra training during the summer while all the other players were away to improve his fitness & strength. Every time I have seen him on the pitch for City he's looked lazy to me. Well, rather than lazy just not bothered to defend or press. ManU's goal in the derby was pretty much his fault for letting Scholes go.

Where would he play in their line up? In place of Stephen Ireland? A bit harsh on Ireland, really good player him. Ireland hasn't played much this season. And Milner has the attributes that have seen Ireland dropped (workrate and tactical discipline).

I don't get it, he's been extremely ineffectual this season and looked like he had his head elsewhere.

You only had one team in the semi finals this year, we had two, and they are both s****. If they qualified for the UEFA Cup that makes your league s*** then We have 4 wins and 6 finalists in the past 10 years. They all dropped out the champions league as they weren't able to compete in it. I'm sure if our 3rd and 4th placed teams were in it they would s*** all over it. Like Liverpool. And Sevilla and Valencia won the competition having qualified through the league. Espanyol and Alavés were finalists in the same way (Espanyol as cup winners actually). Atlético are the only side to win it after dropping out the CL.

I'd expect you to get beat at San Mamés. And you underestimate Getafe and Villarreal. I'm not saying we'd go there and beat them but over 2 legs I don't see why we'd get beat by any of them, given one-off 2-legged ties, assuming we play 'well'. Villarreal would probably cause us most problems. Obviously, I'm biased. On a side note I'd love to see Athletic playing English sides more often, they are by far the most British side in Spain.

You only had one team in the semi finals this year, we had two, and they are both s****. If they qualified for the UEFA Cup that makes your league shit then We have 4 wins and 6 finalists in the past 10 years.

I'd expect you to get beat at San Mamés. And you underestimate Getafe and Villarreal.

Warming up to the Spanish Cup final. 48,000 Atlético fans and 32,000 Sevilla fans are expected at the Camp Nou. Sevilla has spent €1m to move 15,000 of their fans for free. There's already controversy as the FA has cancelled Negredo's red card last weekend so he will be able to start the final. Given that Fabiano is out injured that would have left out Sevilla with only Kanouté.

8-bit Inter shirt. If they ever do that to our stripes I'll turn to terrorism.

Spain has also dominated the Uefa Cup this decade. Hardly possible if everything outside the top 2 was shit.

Ok, the Villa deal is official now. €40m seems the final amount, which is better than the €50m quoted yesterday morning. Our DoF has appeared on the Catalan tv to again say that Zlatan Ibrahimovic "is not for sale". He also downplayed the Cesc rumors.

Xisco has barely played for Racing and on top of that they're skint. You should count your lucky stars if they approach you for an extension of the loan, tbf.

As expected, Mallorca have entered administration. Their president has also confirmed that Manzano will leave the club for another "of significant higher level" (strongly rumored to be Sevilla). This is the first time a first division club does it in Spain.

The keeper is at a serious disadvantage. In open play feinting a shot can make you lose time before a defender or the keeper itself gets to you. In open play, there's no such danger. I personally think it's a cuntish technique.

Modric as the most attack minded central midfielder in a 4-5-1 would be devastating imho, akin to when Rijkaard released Xavi playing him in that position. I'm a bit of a Modric fanboi, though.

Other assorted rumors coming from Spain. Wenger might be looking to invest some of the potential money of Cesc's transfer in getting Reina from Liverpool. Madrid to buy Negredo back from Sevilla for €17m, to potentially include him in some big money transfer. Rolando Bianchi to Atlético to replace Agüero if he's sold. Gignac to Valencia to replace Villa. Silva to Manchester United if Mourinho doesn't approve his signing for Madrid. Additionaly, Diario As says that Mourinho has already given a list of transfer targets to Florentino Pérez: Di María, David Luiz and Coentrao (I highly doubt it).

They can't complain on their league performance (their best of all time), and they were just a bit of luck away from progressing on the CL. I think they should stick with a manager for once, although I can see Mou doing a great job there since he's a great manager. We'll see how the Bernabéu reacts however, they sacked Capello twice for not being attacking enough after winning them titles. They just need stability and with the team they have I honestly can't see them not winning anything in the next few seasons.

Reports saying that Pellegrini will get the sack tomorrow, which interestingly is when Internazionale are expected in town.

Was astounded when somebody brought up the attendances at Delle Alpi a few pages ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadio_delle_Alpi 2001–02 40,687 Juventus Serie A winners and Italian Super Cup winners 2002–03 39,771 Juventus Serie A winners and Italian Super Cup winners 2003–04 34,365 2004–05 26,429 Juventus Serie A winners (Calciopoli) 2005–06 30,469 Juventus Serie A winners (Calciopoli) Always thought a team of Juve's stature would have much better support than that.

Reports say €30m, which really ain't much but players might get in the mix.

Yeah, the money spent on Valdes, Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Messi, Bojan and Pedro was way ott. If only they could build a team around youth products like Madrid or Chelsea. I love you We splash the cash a lot to be honest, funny thing is that our signings tend to flop quite a bit so the kids have to bail us out. Hope the next DoF is a bit better at wheeling and dealing.