Village Idiot

Not Seaman's fault that he kept being picked when he was past it. EDIT: Still remember that penalty shootout

How did I miss this? Genius! Is the original song popular at Fulham?

Not sure if I should post this here or in the "Not Worthy" thread, but it gave me a good laugh: http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/everton-fc/everton-fc-news/2010/05/10/new-siamese-stadium-plan-for-liverpool-and-everton-football-clubs-unveiled-92534-26411613/

Maradona is a total idiot. Cambiasso is one of the best in the world at what he does, Zanetti is still the best full back they've got despite his age and Lucho must surely be better than an old Veron and the domestic players he picked. I would have also picked Lisandro ahead of Lavezzi probably. They would have a chance of winning the tournament with a half decent coach. The age excuse also vanishes when he picks up Palermo. All in all, they still have enough quality to make a decent show of themselves (QF or so), which will probably be enough to keep him in charge.

In all honesty, if Colo did make the final squad and did get to play in the World Cup, I'd be more worried about his stock going down after a bad game or two. He's been class for us this year, but there's still this nagging suspicion that higher calibre strikers than the ones we've been facing on a weekly basis in the Championship might not be so forgiving. Eto'o, Raúl, Real Ronaldo, Forlán, Villa, Torres, Van Nistelrooy. well to be fair ,when Colo played for Depor he played against some of those mentioned ,as well as other top class strikers week in week out and didn`t look out of place at all in that time. That's what I meant, these are the forwards he faced while at Deportivo. And it's not like they leaked goals like there was no tomorrow, Deportivo were a solid defensive side. Heck, Real Madrid never won at Riazor during the years Coloccini was there and I'm talking about a side that had more stars than probably most national teams he'd face at the WC and they shut them out often. It's a fair point (to an extent - we know that Depor fans liked him, but you have to take into account the possibility that they've ignored his failings because both he and the team overall had done alright for them, along with other factors like maybe expectation/pressure being lower?). But the last time he was up against those sorts of strikers he just looked very poor by the time the season ended, with certain flaws being established as being part of his game (too easily turned, not able to do anything to make up lost ground, etc etc - which is why so often the £10m price tag or "international centreback" tag were brought up that year) - e.g. Torres who left him for dead at will whenever we played Liverpool. If he was genuinely good for Deportivo, and it's not a case of him being exposed whilst with us in a league where defenders aren't able to "hide" and where possibly expectations/pressures are higher for defenders to be good at certain things than others, then that bodes well for him and for us if we keep him. But from what we've seen in a Newcastle shirt, those aforementioned flaws in some areas of his defensive game were targeted and exposed over the course of a season in the Premiership. Having just had a season in the Championship against mediocre players which has clearly rebuilt his confidence, I'm not sure it'd be wise for Maradona to throw him in in such high stake games where the pressure to perform is going to be intense and any costly mistake will be highlighted. Depor defended deep. That makes up for a lot of his flaws as a defender, and incidentally makes him not the best defender for a PL team, but that's different to saying that he would look out of his depth at the WC. International football in general has a waaaaaaaay slower place than the English game.

Well, that wiki snip you posted also credits the FC Basel story. I have only heard the Merchant Taylors story from English sources, which makes me a bit wary of it (in the same way I have only seen English sources giving credit to London club Corinthians for the Real Madrid kits). The Basel one is the most accepted in Barcelona, and the one that makes the most sense to me since Gamper was who created and organized the team and the first Barça strips were exactly like the Basel one (halved, not stripped, the image I posted was a slight variation in Basel's traditional kit). I'm gonna check something, the colors of the club were established in the fundational charter, and I'm not 100% the Wittys were in it yet. EDIT: Aye, the Witty brothers joined the club later, and we already had those colors. As said, I just think this was originated by some Anglo-centric footie historian, can tell you this story has never had any traction in Spain. This site is awfully designed, but it's the best online source for FC Barcelona history (in Spanish): http://www.webdelcule.com/varios/hiba.html Oh, and not trying to diminish the Wittys involvement in our early history, by the way.

Especially Hugo Sanchez right? And mostly that's due the mexican teams being damn rich. Aye... and also due to their corruption. WHich has historically held them back from actually competing well internationally. Mexico have a very decent record in all the recent world cups.

I miss the relegation/promotion playoffs in La Liga to be honest, cracking games. Also made the relegation dogfight more interesting since there were more threatened places (4 instead of 3).

In all honesty, if Colo did make the final squad and did get to play in the World Cup, I'd be more worried about his stock going down after a bad game or two. He's been class for us this year, but there's still this nagging suspicion that higher calibre strikers than the ones we've been facing on a weekly basis in the Championship might not be so forgiving. Eto'o, Raúl, Real Ronaldo, Forlán, Villa, Torres, Van Nistelrooy. well to be fair ,when Colo played for Depor he played against some of those mentioned ,as well as other top class strikers week in week out and didn`t look out of place at all in that time. That's what I meant, these are the forwards he faced while at Deportivo. And it's not like they leaked goals like there was no tomorrow, Deportivo were a solid defensive side. Heck, Real Madrid never won at Riazor during the years Coloccini was there and I'm talking about a side that had more stars than probably most national teams he'd face at the WC and they shut them out often. How often did he play DM for Depor? Sometimes, but was preferred as centreback. Duscher/De Guzmán were the first choice DMs.

:lol: Magnet Hose.

It's allright, it's Alan Shearer!

In all honesty, if Colo did make the final squad and did get to play in the World Cup, I'd be more worried about his stock going down after a bad game or two. He's been class for us this year, but there's still this nagging suspicion that higher calibre strikers than the ones we've been facing on a weekly basis in the Championship might not be so forgiving. Eto'o, Raúl, Real Ronaldo, Forlán, Villa, Torres, Van Nistelrooy. well to be fair ,when Colo played for Depor he played against some of those mentioned ,as well as other top class strikers week in week out and didn`t look out of place at all in that time. That's what I meant, these are the forwards he faced while at Deportivo. And it's not like they leaked goals like there was no tomorrow, Deportivo were a solid defensive side. Heck, Real Madrid never won at Riazor during the years Coloccini was there and I'm talking about a side that had more stars than probably most national teams he'd face at the WC and they shut them out often.

Diario As reports some details regarding Higuaín's stalled new contract with Real Madrid. He is asking for €4m (which is not even a third of what Cronaldo gets) and yet Madrid are offering just €3m. (Yeah, I'm reading the Spanish sport newspapers before going to bed)

And in what's the official beginning of what will be the most tiresome transfer saga of the summer, El Mundo Deportivo claims that Cesc has told his family that he's going to play for Barça next season. My brother actually knows Cesc's family so I'll phone him tomorrow and ask him to check. I have to say that all these transfer rumors are a bit uncomfortable. If true, a "lame duck" president like Laporta should not be using the transfer funds of the club, potentially curtailing the plans of the new president. Laporta is a c***, however, and since the next president is very likely going to be his arch-enemy Sandro Rosell he's going to try to undermine him (not only Madrid have stupid board politics, we are Spanish afterall).

David Villa would give us something that we lacked this season, which is a guaranteed goal threat/match winner apart from Leo Messi. Zlatan's form has been bad since January, and this left Messi as the only dependable goal source, as Henry's form has been just terrible. We also had Pedro's emergence, but a lad that played in the Spanish third flight last season should *not* be the second highest scorer of the team. He is old, but the advantage to that is that he is the finished article and proven in La Liga. He is also a very smart player so I believe a loss of pace wouldn't affect him immensely, so I think he still has 3 years at the top. We have a couple good young attacking players in Bojan and Pedro so if we don't spend Zlatan-like money on Villa I wouldn't be worried about signing him (last year Valencia valued him at €50m). That said, if we signed Torres instead I'd be over the fucking Moon.

Of all the kits in football, I hate Barcelona's the most. Red and blue in the pattern its in is really ugly imo anyway. Doesn't help that many of the grocery store employees who I'm guessing are Illegals wear them while they work. I love it because it's very unique. We almost never had to wear an away kit until it became trendy to boost sales, or Levante got promoted. Despite that, the kit is actually copied from another team: http://www.fussballfan.ch/fussball-blogs/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/fc-basel-trikot-2008-home.jpg Where our Swiss founder played before coming to Barcelona.

In all honesty, if Colo did make the final squad and did get to play in the World Cup, I'd be more worried about his stock going down after a bad game or two. He's been class for us this year, but there's still this nagging suspicion that higher calibre strikers than the ones we've been facing on a weekly basis in the Championship might not be so forgiving. Eto'o, Raúl, Real Ronaldo, Forlán, Villa, Torres, Van Nistelrooy.

Loved how Barça away kits in the 1990s were quite often orange in homage to the Netherlands ones, until Nike took over and started doing random flashy shit every season (gotta say that apart from that our 1990s kits were usually awful).

Sam Allardyce mouthing off Capello for not selecting Paul Robinson. http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/10/05/12/manual_133901.html&TEAMHD=soccer Aye Big Sam, you know better than Fabio f***ing Capello.

Valencia has signed Mehmet Topal from Galatasaray, pending a medical in the following days. The fee is rumoured to be €5m. I remember him being in Euro 2008, but that's pretty much it. Didn't Everton chase him after the tournament? Also Bánega linked with a move to Liverpool. Like last season, Valencia are rumoured to need to sell most of their stars in order to avoid administration (although last season they ended up not selling anybody).

I see that happening a f***ing lot lately, refs should be more mindful.

Just read that some Chinese millionaire is interested in buying Liverpool. Some Zhu Jun that owns a betting company and a Chinese footie team. http://www.dnaindia.com/sport/report_zhu-jun-s-liverpool-interest-may-be-on-the-slow-boat-to-china_1381938 Fun bit:

From an egoistical perspective, I think Leicester and Forest were the playoff teams more likely to stay up next season, so you can be satisfied with the final.

What did he do?

Just saw a clip of Crown Prince Felipe celebrating the goals at the Hamburg stadium. It's funny how some foreigners think that Real Madrid are favored by the Spanish crown while the fact is that the royal family are massive Atlético fans