Village Idiot

We tried to sign him while he was at Atlético, hopefully we will revive our interest if he is in the market this summer... one thing we are lacking this season is the kind of directness and no-nonsense that he has when going forward.

Torres is such a ridiculously effective player, if he hadn't had all these injuries Liverpool's fortunes would have been different this season. I read that he might move on if Liverpool don't sign quality this summer, get him Pep!

He's the shortest tall player I have ever seen, if you get what I mean. Bet he's got the thinnest thick neck too His neck is freaky. And what I mean is that he's pretty awful at attacking the ball in the box, which means that despite his height, he is not that very strong in the air. http://beefbagel.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/maierhofer.jpg

He's the shortest tall player I have ever seen, if you get what I mean.

I chose a good week to make Torres captain of my FF team

Heh. I wonder how come O'Leary hasn't been able to find another job since the Villa sacking though. He really didn't do badly at Leeds all things considered, and I know that Villa fans ended up hating him (at least the ones I knew at the time, brummie might know better), but on paper his reign there wasn't that bad given their squad. I have seen managers with worse records get top flight jobs in the meantime.

Why would he go to a team where he wouldn't enjoy first team status if his main gripe at Bolton is that he isn't getting enough first team football? He is a decent player. Actually if you combined his shooting and crossing with Jonas dribbling and workrate you'd have a great player.

not a bad manager him and hes desperate for a way back into the game Aye I think it's vaguely believable tbh, expecially since we might only be talking 9 games. Could be any one of the usual suspects though in reality. Always had O'Leary for a bit of a chequebook manager though, he won't have that at Hull.

Also, quite amazing that Routledge has already bagged 24 points with the very few games he's had with you yet.

You lot could do some serious voting and maybe present the winner with a modest plaque in the name of this website? I have seen a few fan forums do it. Particularly if Alan Smith is going to win the official one

Chuffed for Bilbao, they were really somewhat struggling to stay up these past seasons but this one will be a much calmer one, with even a chance of playing in Europe again. I love that Almería has climbed so much in the league since they got Juanma Lillo as manager. He's one of my favorite gaffers in Spain.

They have a somewhat tricky calendar, but all their games against relegation rivals are at home, I think they'll manage it since there only is one more relegation ticket in play, imho, Valladolid and Xerez are certainties. You should be able to get tickets with ease during match day at their ticket offices, unless it's some very high demand game against the likes of Barcelona or Madrid

The table after Barça's win over Valencia and Sevilla's draw to Deportivo: 1 R. Madrid 65 2 Barcelona 65 3 Valencia 47 4 Sevilla 44 5 Mallorca 43 6 Deportivo 42 7 Athletic 41 8 Getafe 36 9 Villarreal 36 10 Almería 33 11 Sporting 32 12 Atlético* 31 13 Osasuna* 31 14 Espanyol 28 15 Málaga 27 16 Racing 27 17 Zaragoza 26 18 Tenerife 23 19 Valladolid 20 20 Xerez 15 18 points over the 3rd spot, we are fucking Scotland And it wasn't that way...

Was fooling around at youtube and found this old - but kickass - Nike ad. I loved it when it came out. Nice mix of talent there, funny to see how many of those are still active even though this was shot in 2000. (dunno why it says "banned commercials" in the title, it certainly wasn't in Spain and can't see anything bannable there).

Adam Johnson I hope. That would be a quite amazing turnaround. In the Championship in the autumn, in the World Cup by summer. He's never got a callup, however, will Capello put in the squad a player that he's never worked with?

First time for everything. They signed him a few years ago so he still spent time in their academy. Would be like us saying Vuckic, Kadar, Ranger, Alnwick etc were products of our Academy. I think if players join you before they are 15-16 you can claim they are academy players imho. It's like when we say Messi, Iniesta... are barça academy players when they started at other clubs, but moved there when they were 12-13.

What are Higuain's qualities then to make him such a successful striker ? Great speed, particularly with the ball at his feet. Good shooting with both feet (but not the greatest finisher, despite his numbers). Runs at defences without fear and gets stuck in, never disappears from a game. His problem is that he lacks intelligence and sometimes he could lay off the ball instead of running through blind alleys. But he is young and that's the kind of thing that experience does improve.

Mind I'm happy that one of your lot won it... but Nolan... I guess was sort of inevitable. Colo or José Enrique hardly had a chance, they are defenders and foreigners. Jonas doesn't score enough.

His wages are very public, and they are 6,5m$ per season. MLS wages are routinely published. Of course, he might have some other kickbacks outside of it. 128m$ is a truly staggering figure and indeed would've been an idiot to refuse that if true. Victoria Beckham certainly isn't a celebrity over here.

Everything he's done for the past 3 years has been geared towards ££££££££££££££££££ tbh. whereever he goes, he's gonna be loaded for life. its obvious how much he loves playing for his country, even if its only 10 minutes. he comes across as a really good person. with his final chance gone for england, does anyone think he might retire now? That only makes his decision to go to America & chase the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ even stranger. He had this weird messianic vision of making football popular in the US, he isn't paid anything he wouldn't have got in other places when he left Real imho. (6,5 million dollars a season I think). He has indeed brought exposure to the game there and abroad, but I think he overrated himself a tad too much.

:mackems: :mackems:

All this Brit infighting is so cute. We would be worse if Catalonia had a national team, mind!

You're joking aren't you? Imagine how many replica shirts they'll shift now... They have never been happy with these Milan loans, and he'll miss all the chunk of their season leading up to the WC. That would have been a great draw for them if he made the England squad. Perhaps they should have said 'no' when he/Milan suggested it then. They hold his registration and pay his wages and should have put their foot down if they weren't happy. There was a big fuss about it, but Becks was very firm and wanted to go. Donovan very publicly accused him of lack of compromise.

You're joking aren't you? Imagine how many replica shirts they'll shift now... They have never been happy with these Milan loans, and he'll miss all the chunk of their season leading up to the WC. That would have been a great draw for them if he made the England squad.

LA Galaxy will be happy. Not.