Village Idiot

Marco Materazzi is such a tosser http://www.marcomaterazzi.it/blog/ http://www.marcomaterazzi.it/public/mercibeaucoupmonsieur.jpg

It is broke but only since they introduced that wanky 'interfering with play' rule. No f***er knows what's going on, not even the referees. They should just revert back to the old system - if you're offside, you're offside. Whistle blows, freekick, everybody's happy. Old rule ain't that great, I remember refs ruling out long range goals because some random guy was offside inside the box.

Were you there for that Barcelona CL game when it was so foggy you could hardly see from one end of the pitch to the other? Aye, I was living in Prague at that time so I took the time to travel up north and watch the game and visit the city. My memories of the game itself are equally foggy... Luís Enrique opened for us, they drew no much later on... and then the remainder of the thing was rather dire to watch.

I like the away USA shirt a lot actually, I think I'll get one (my family will disown me if I ever buy a Spanish kit).

Lots of stories I have heard about people meeting Souness seem to indicate that he was a very gracious person outside football, funnily.

I guess the main change would be that all defences would be forced to sit deep, which is pretty boring. If the opposition plays with goalhangers you need to be shoulders with them, and if they don't you would be forced to sit deep too as pacy forwards would have a very easy time ripping an advanced defence without offsides. So pretty much every goal would be a lumped ball or a lucky deflected shout outside the box. Yay.

I was at the Olympiastadion before the remodellation too, and it was a horrible, horrible place. Unnecessarily big and uncomfortable...

Ashley's best chance of recouping part of his investment is to rebuild the club to an acceptable level (which he is in a good position to do now with a cleaned up wage bill) and flipping it.

i was in the museum in september, don't recall having the goals in their We bought a shedload of stuff from Old Wembley: the dressing room tunnel, some of the steps, the goals, dressing room hangers and benches, squad benches, the Queen's chair... they wanted to make a small replica of it besides the replicas of our old offices and dressing rooms at the museum, but the whole lot is stored at some warehouse somewhere which is a crying shame until the museum is expanded, which has been put off several years. The goals were on display in the early 2000s, though.

Old Wembley is a sacred place for Barcelona fans, hosting our first EC win after many many tries. I was too young to have gone to the final but was one of the first things I went to when I first went to London in 1996 (four years after the fact). Walked the steps, observed the goals, imagined where Koeman stood when he took that FK... When it was demolished, FC Barcelona bought both goals, which are part of our museum (although they weren't in display last time I was there).

Hehe, didn't realize you were richer than us in the early 2000s! (Not surprising given how extremely poorly run we were under the previous board)

To be honest Spurs have always looked to me an exceptionally well-run club off the field.

Some assorted news: - Higuaín's contract extension stalled after he has demanded Galáctico wages (which he deserves tbf) - Negredo has said that he "doesn't want to favour Barça" when Sevilla plays against his boyhood club Real Madrid. - Barça's squad reportedly restless because there still isn't an agreement for player bonuses (club reportedly wants to lower them after the treble season saw payments of €50m) - Zidane said today that "rather die than apologize to Materazzi"

Lack of glamour isn't what is stopping players from going to Germany. It is the lower wages that are doing that. It is nice to play in front of 70, 00 every week, but that's not worth giving up half your wage for. As long as German clubs stay financially prudent, there is no way they can compete in the modern market. Isn't their prudency sort of enforced by the German FA? That doesn't allow them to get in much debt or they will be relegated from the Bundesliga. Not a bad approach if done Europe-wide, mind. I wouldn't know, man, but that sounds fantastic. This article explains their system a little. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1074354/Solvent-Bundesliga-clubs-example-debt-ridden-Premier-League-counterparts.html

Lack of glamour isn't what is stopping players from going to Germany. It is the lower wages that are doing that. It is nice to play in front of 70, 00 every week, but that's not worth giving up half your wage for. As long as German clubs stay financially prudent, there is no way they can compete in the modern market. Isn't their prudency sort of enforced by the German FA? That doesn't allow them to get in much debt or they will be relegated from the Bundesliga. Not a bad approach if done Europe-wide, mind.

Do they? Stamford's Bridge capacity is 41,841 just a few hundred below the average in that list (which honestly is a bit hard to believe)

You got a link for that mate? I'd be interested to see where Newcastle figure. Not to steal KSH's thunder, but I was just looking at them myself after that post : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average_attendances_of_European_football_clubs a solid 18th. Chelsea need a new stadium, one of the top teams of Europe can't have such low attendances (although I'm aware they fill up Stamford Bridge nicely)

Still can't wrap my head around the fact you're the 20th richest club in the world and yet got relegated. But I guess you have beaten that horse to death and took it to the slaughterhouse for steaks already. I wonder how many currently Premiership teams will you still beat when this season's numbers are published.

When I have seen you lot play he seems to be terrified of the midfield line, dunno where that goal is going to come from if he doesn't cross it.

Don't think Hiddink will have time to do much with the CIV team before the WC surely?

We would be closer to Real if we had a paid shirt sponsor. I hope we aren't forced out of the UNICEF deal in order to compete though, I prefer it that way.

Bale in midfield, time to make some transfers in my FF team

Who are you going to play on the right with Bentley and Lennon out?

There isn't that much money in the MLS as you may think. Outside LA and NYC there aren't teams that would be able/willing to meet his usual wages. What kind of contract does he have at ManU? Is it pay-as-you-play or a regular one? He might be better off seeing that one out, he may even win some silverware too (I think he already has the 10 games this season for a medal too).

How strange though, as I would say the same of La Liga this season outside of the current top 4. You can include two of the top four in England, though. Arsenal are woefully unconvincing. Liverpool, well, the most important point from them is the fact that they're in the top four at all. Sevilla and Valencia have blown hot and cold too. But what I mean is that it really seems we are destroying the depth of our leagues.