Village Idiot

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.

Looks like the injury fairy is looking after the England team, preventing Capello from selecting duds.

I think the thread title is still too vague and prone to misinterpretation, since you're in the higher echelons of the Football League.

April 10th or 11th.

No. Just watching the reviews of the other La Liga games. Almería bagged another win and they climbed to 10th. They are the 3rd best team in the league since Juanma Lillo took over Also chuffed that Tenerife won 4-1 against the scum. They play a very silkly brand of football and I would love if they pulled it off and managed to stay up.

Yes, I do rate him. How come he's lost his place? Last time I watched Birmingham a couple months ago he was playing great.

Pretty much like over here tbh. The coverage of Spanish/European football in papers is non-existant, don't suppose you know any good English language websites dedicated to (or atleast focus on partly) Spanish football? To be honest, I don't know of any. This is the only football forum I write in (I also usually read bigsoccer for the yank footie coverage).

Regarding Higuaín, he is a very good player, but also has an extreme case of tunnel vision syndrome that he needs to address (he is still very young). I think that's what's preventing him from performing against good sides.

One of the most mong-tastic things going around Real Madrid nowadays, is how people are elevated from heroes to villains to heroes again in a matter of single games. The whole club just needs to take big breath and relax.

Valladolid are an extremely poor side. I expected Real to put a handful past them today. They're as good as relegated. Horrible refereeing also.