Village Idiot

It's very different to play like Stoke than what Villa do, in my opinion. Villa are a great counter-attacking side and I enjoy them at what they do, particularly when they play top-half teams who set themselves to dominate a game.

One of the "good" things about your relegation, is that when you're promoted your wage bill will be very manageable for a Premiership team, while having a much better turnover than a team like Hull or Stoke. You don't need to cut down on your squad (bar something like Butt and maybe one or two of your "strikers"), in my opinion. As Niel points out, you just can't get a new team outright, your best bet is getting 2-3 quality adquisitions that will displace current starters and work from there. You don't have a large squad anyway.

He's on huge wages at Zaragoza, who'd be delighted to get rid.

Arteta does qualify for England, but he's stated that his first choice will be always Spain. Sadly he was born in the same generation as Xavi, Iniesta, Alonso... Actually he had a pretty decent chance of making the Confed Cup squad last year, but he went down injuried. I hope he ends up capped at some point, he really is brilliant and deserves to play international football. Also, enlighten me about the naturalization rules... if he can play for England does this mean he could also play for Scotland, Wales, Norn? Or how does this work?

He's probably playing at a higher level than when he was at Rangers.

It will be hard for him to make the squad at this point, he's not been in the NT for a few years and managers are reluctant to put new players into the mix at this point usually.

Sorry VI. Really need to stop tempting fate. Don't worry. Titles aren't won in March. They certainly can be lost in March, but not won. We still haven't lost it so as long as we are able to get out of this lull we are in, I'm not panicking. El Clásico will be quite important again, not because of the points themselves, but in setting the trend and morale for the remainder of the season.

They wanted to get rid, but he's been very good for them when he's been called to action (Alcorcón tie notwithstanding).

Bah. Too good to be true.

http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php/topic,68037.630.html Quality, thanks! Just think that he keeps that thing inside his shorts, while sweating for 60+ minutes, 30 or so matches per year. It's gotta look shabby (and stink) no matter what. Surely he could have bought himself a better mask?! Looks fairly cheap that one tbh

Iker losing his sainthood, 'bout time it happened. We dodged a bullet today if this stands (although it could also be said we lost a chance to go 5 clear...)

http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php/topic,68037.630.html Quality, thanks!

Are you having games for the Olympics at SJP?

Any photo of the Spiderman mask? It's a quite rare sight you know!

It's a bit sad I admit. Interestingly the 2000s started wide open with Deportivo and Valencia winning titles, Villarreal getting second place, Real Sociedad losing a title in the last game of the season... but since 2005 onwards it's been a two team affair. Sevilla are pretty ambitious and in a very good financial standing, if they are able to exploit its current success to increase its size they might have a chance of shortening the gap. Valencia was in a similar position at the start of the 2000s, heck they came very close to go past us in turnover at some point, but they failed to exploit their success.

He was great during the first half of the season though, the most complete forward I have ever seen play for us. He scored, he held, he created... He's not anywhere near that level now though.

Leo Gogogo... we seem to be playing better with 10 than 11.

Meh, we are going through the same bad patch we went through last february-march, problem is that Madrid are in a much stronger position now to profit from it than last year. Can easily see them going top today. Zlatan is just not the same player he was from September-December.

Aw crap.

Messi can't take freekicks, nossir. let's see if we get that game back on track. Almería are being more steely than I expected from a Lillo team. Fair play to them, mind. Guardiola's been sent off in the first half, for those of you not following it

Henry again on the bench for us today, Pedro taking his place. Ibrahimovic on top, Iniesta/Xavi/Touré in midfield... looks sweet. Almería have improved greatly under Lillo (which I'm delighted since I love the guy), but he plays an extremely positive brand of football which should favour us greatly.

Holy fuck, I just woke up and saw this. What's happening?

Kneejerk-ism and petty villain figures are the salt and pepper of sports fandom.

Wonder what did he really write on that paper

And really, I'm genetically impaired to cheer for Raúl at anything. I'd die of a brain aneurysm or something. What happens is that with all the over the top patriotism getting trotted out during World Cups, etc... as Catalan sometimes I find myself uncomfortable to throw my lot with them. But having Xavi, Puyol, Piqué, Busquets, etc... helps.