Village Idiot

Marca publishes the list of candidates to manage Madrid next season (and given the power they have, it has to be taken seriously as muppet-tastic as it looks) - Rafa Benítez - José Mourinho - Fabio Capello (come on, they sacked him twice after winning them leagues, why would he ever want to go there again?) - Ancelotti - Scolari (currently earning as much as Cronaldo managing in Uzbekistan)

Cheers. They'll go for mental prices if they get sold by touts etc wont they? Pretty much, the prices are mental already, €75 cheapest ticket in the top tier (I wouldn't mind paying that if I was there, mind, still have great memories of our AC Milan semifinal home leg, and that was a 0-0 bore draw!).

Pompey lawfully qualified for Europe under the rules everybody knew beforehand imho, this would not be Liverpool in 2005 if they got in. I personally think that sporting merit should trump paperwork.

Just checked. Tickets for the general public will only be made available the day before the match. Club members can start purchasing them today. So yes, impossible (at regular prices).

Stupid decision by the Spanish FA today. They have decided to move the Cup final from the originally designated Santiago Bernabéu to the Camp Nou, to ensure the venue is more neutral. But even if Bernabéu would have had a majority of Atlético fans, Madrid is very accessible from Sevilla (less than two hours by train), now Sevilla fans face a much more annoying haul if they are to travel to Barcelona to see the game Although rumor goes that the Real reason is Madrid didn't want to see Atlético potentially winning a trophy in their turf. Unlucky year for them The big problem is the lack of available dates for the final if Atlético go all the way in Europe, since it would clash with the pre-WC friendlies.

Cheapest are 30-something at the very top tier, which is miles off the pitch. When I was in Barcelona five years ago I paid €36 and ended up three rows from the very top. Wasn't meant to be going to a game when I was there but had time over that night so I'm fairly alright with it. 4-4 against Villarreal if I'm not mistaken and I think Ronaldinho got a hat trick (couldn't make out one player from another up there ) Yeah, I remember when I went to the Sporting game this season, and since it was a last minute thing (my plane back to the US was the day after in the morning) I could only get top tier tickets. The only player I could tell of the whole lot was Ibrahimovic since he was twice the height of everybody else

Our matchday+ST revenues are at €110m. We don't fill up the Camp Nou often, but it's a gold mine.

Cheapest are 30-something at the very top tier, which is miles off the pitch.

Unreasonable expectations, self-pity, anger at the villains who are running the club – that’s widespread among football fans everywhere. The only ones who I don’t understand are the Arsenal fans who criticise Wenger because he hasn’t won a trophy in five years. If I was watching great football in a great stadium with regular appearances in the Champions League, I wouldn’t be complaining. They aren't real fans that criticise Wenger, talk to a proper non arm chair fan and they'll all tell you how much they love Arsene and the work he has done. I adore the man, if we don't win a trophy until he retires i will still love what he has done for the club, at the end of the day there are some clubs that are at risk of going out of business and play s*** football. We play amazing football, are financially secure and have qualified for Europe for the last 15 years or something stupid. He's an unquestionable god amongst genuine Arsenal fans. My dad tells me of the boring Arsenal days, i cant remember this but i'm proud of where we are. I see Wenger as Cruyff was for us. He kinda lost the plot in his last years due to his stubborness and weird no-name signing policy (he was undermined by the board though), but he completely changed the club philosophy and aspirations, and set us on "our way". So even if he leaves, which at some point he will (and should), that's no reason to become "1-0 to the Arsenal" again.

If I end up going back to live Barcelona this year, going to watch Barça will ruin me. I usually pay €50 for shitty north end tickets (I like being near the away fans, though, nice banter), and I bet on another price hike.

He won't get Hugo Sánchez's and Zarra's record (38 in league), I wish... I think Ronaldo's 34 is also a bit out of the question unless he mantains 1 in 1, which isn't as easy as people think. Now, the overall 47 goals in a season I think is achieveable since he's at 40 and has at least 9 games to play, 10 if we make the CL final. Still difficult, but the first player that has a shot at it.

That's why I call them the Wigan of Spain. Little following, they sell a boatload of players every season, but somehow manage to unheart new ones and survive.

Emery has had a few spats with players already, though. He thinks quite highly of himself (which he is entitled to, he has a few managerial records in his hands) and has a strong personality. I don't think he's done anything special at Valencia given the caliber of players at his disposal, myself. Valero has been one of Mallorca's best players. He was always a promise, but I guess the English game didn't suit him.

The day I marry Cheryl Tweety. In case you overrate my Spanish sexiness: no. Not a single major party will take him as their candidate, so if he really attempts a political career (he already tried in his times before the Barça presidency) it will be in a fringe party with no chance of getting elected. He might, might get a seat if his popularity translates into the political arena, but that's all he can aspire to.

Since we are reaching towards the end of the season, I thought about posting some attendance data for your perusal (wanted to wait for El Clásico to be added to Real Madrid's attendances) http://soccernet.espn.go.com/stats/attendance?league=esp.1&seasontype=4&cc=5901 1 Barcelona 1,209,619 80,641 2 Real Madrid 1,118,000 69,875 3 Valencia 611,000 40,733 4 Sevilla FC 626,500 39,156 5 Atlético Madrid 581,000 38,733 6 Athletic Bilbao 491,500 35,107 7 Espanyol 351,130 25,080 8 Real Zaragoza 367,700 24,513 9 Deportivo La Coruña 341,568 22,771 10 Málaga 309,000 20,600 11 Sporting Gijon 324,500 20,281 12 Tenerife 295,000 19,666 13 Osasuna 257,500 18,392 14 Valladolid 268,732 16,795 15 Racing Santander 246,862 16,457 16 Villarreal 257,000 16,062 17 Xerez 234,200 14,637 18 Mallorca 178,209 12,729 19 Almeria 182,500 12,166 20 Getafe 171,800 11,453 Rubbish %s all over. They are here, they are there, they are everywhere etc... Mallorca showing again they are the Wigan of Spain with 50% attendance even with the incredible campaign they are pulling off. Athletic Bilbao with close to 90% tops the list, we are at 80%. Really surprised about Real Madrid's rather low figure for their standards, thought with all the hype during preseason they would be up there with us, but so far their assistance is their lowest in recent years Also can't see why Atlético are moving to a 70k stadium given how badly they fill their current 54k one. One think I'd like to ask. When PL clubs report assistance... is it tickets sold (with STs counted) or people through the turnstiles?

That's actually not completely true. They were founded by a mixture of Catalans and Spaniards. The thing is they chose the name "Español" to oppose us (their full name means "Spanish football club of Barcelona"), as we were founded by a mixture of Swiss, Englishmen, Spaniards and Catalans. Even at the moment of their birth they were already obsessed with us A few months later there was even a third team, called "Català", which was only made up by Catalans, created to oppose both us and Espanyol . Disappeared in the 1920s but we had a great rivalry apparently. Español becoming the team of the Spanish minority in Barcelona is a thing of the Franco era, as the regime - in a smaller scale as to what they did for Real Madrid - adopted them as a symbol of "good Spanish club" as opposed to us, the unloyal separatists. But if you look at the "oldschool" Espanyol fans, those whose parents, grandparents, etc... were Espanyol fans, they are actually Catalans mostly from the neighborhood of Sarrià - which is pretty middle-class. But since the 1960s they have had a huge following from Spanish immigrants in Barcelona. Although that's been balanced out these past years.

Most people from Liverpool are Evertonians anyway......a bit like people from Barcelona are Espanyol fans (though they don't all go to the games)...at least what I was told when I visited there. Maybe Village Idiot can confirm/deny this. I was talking to a proper die hard Espanyol fan though so perhaps an element of bias :lol: Espanyol fans are not a majority in town, not even by a long shot. There's a reason we average 80,000 souls in our stadium, and they 25,000. The "they don't go to games" is a shit excuse.

Paul Burgess (Former head groundsman Arsenal) got his big move to Real Madrid last year. Aye, they interviewed him yesterday before the Clásico. They asked him if he was signed to make sure the Bernabéu pitch is good enough for Cesc Fábregas

Liverpool are about to get in really deep shit. It's not losing the CL money what's going to hurt, is the fact that they won't be able to attract the kind of talent they need so much (since their squad is dire bar a few players), and they might even lose some of their top players. Another title challenge could be half a decade away, at the earliest, since ManCity's money is going to make them very hard to displace. Still, they could find themselves another rich Arab since they are a big name still.

I can understand why they do it what happend there was horrible and atleast from what i gather from the film it was a bit of a cover up by S Yorkshire police and also what the sun wrote about them aswell. Correct. South Yorkshire Police and their incompetence played a massive part in the deaths of all those fans and nothing has ever been done about it, that's why they still "harp on" about it and that's why, yes, they are "owed something". You've just shown yourself to be either a w***** or very ignorant of the subject. If it's the latter then maybe you should think before you start throwing criticism around to try and win a bit of approval from other posters on here. Fair enough. That still was 25 years ago and I honestly don't understand why it is brought week in week out *today*. I'm aware of The Sun business, and if I recall correctly they issued a quite thorough apology a few years ago. Monumentally late, but they did. Really, it makes absolutely no sense to keep going with it the way they do. It was a disgrace, they paid the price for some stuff that had to be done throughout football stadiums. But it was 25 years ago.

I may sound bitter because we lost, but when they came to our place in 2007 they were nothing but bother. I usually like British clubs coming to Barcelona because of the quality of their away support and the great banter, but the red scousers were just a bunch of condescending twats ("we are a lot bigger than you", the fuck they are, a few them weren't born the last time they won the league ).

One honest question. Why the hell do they keep harping about Hillsborough? That was two decades ago, and yeah, it was a tragedy and I remember how big of a shock it was even in Spain. But they still rant and chant about "justice" "truth" and whatever, organize protests, do mosaics at the stadium... like everybody else still owes them something. The odd homage is perfectly understandable, but they seem utterly obsessed with it.

I don't know... they aren't terribly original but I don't think I'm allowed to float the language filter by posting Spanish curse words one thing we call them is "los gorrioncillos" (The little sparrows) or "las gallinitas" (the little chickens) since their nickname is "parakeets". I admit the name both Madrid and Espanyol use for us is cleverer... "Farsa" (which means "farce" in Spanish). But they have such shitty names that we can't get good puns for them!

How many teams do you refer to as 'the scum'? You called Real Madrid the scum the other day. I guess to a Barça fan they're both scum but would have thought you wouldn't call them both 'the scum.' I have yet to find a good English translation for what we call Espanyol. We actually don't call "scum" to any of our rivals (not a common word to use in Spanish) but seems the word I see used most in English.

Atlético soundly beaten by the scum 3-0. Why do they never win when I want them to win?