Village Idiot

Atlético and Valencia both lining up with their top guns for today's match. I expect a class game.

Aye, been watching Barça's second goal today over and over thanks to that

Meh, here at Barça we indulge a fair bit in the same "protect skillful players" bullshit and truth be said Márquez and Piqué are pretty cynical tacklers. Deco was a bit of a bastard when he played for us too.

Awesome goal

Ah ffs, I knew it. You can't waste all those chances always comes back to bite you in the ass.

Touré isn't injuried, he is on the bench today. Abidal and Keita are our only injuried players currently. Both are 1-2 weeks away.

Zlatan hasn't really been himself since January dunno... he was magnificient the first part of the season so I guess it's just a blip. And I just saw Ryan Shawcross has been called up to England, great timing that.

I don't know... Guardiola doesn't seem to rate him and was signed at his back (a bit of a shady business). He's at Fiore for this season and the next, and there's even a buy clause attached to it. Doesn't seem he'll ever put the Barça shirt (well, he did for a photo-op when he signed). On another matter, we are creating a billion chances against Málaga and not converting one

Best news for you lot is that Forest really seem to be on a fall an can't see them getting the strength back to mount a challenge to send you to third. I'm not a NUFC fan so the Murphy Laws of Football don't apply to me in this case and I won't jinx it, so I'll say it: you're as good as promoted.

Stoke have never been in danger of being in a relegation scrap this season.

Pity they have no chance, would be my preferred option of sorts because of the way Moyes has been building that team. Otherwise apart from Liverpool (can't stand Benítez and the "Spanish Liverpool" wanking from our press) or ManCity (don't like the way they are intending to buy success) I don't really care who from Spurs/Villa gets it.

Didn't Ipswich sell players when under administration? Or was that different since they were in the Football League?

No. But it'll be funny as hell. This. I'm not generally against England, but I can understand why the "Anyone but England" attitude is common. Is it really that common? I guess in the US it's not so much. Maybe I'm just oblivious. I hear a lot of "Anyone but Italy", but maybe that's just the circles I run in. I do enjoy reading the English and Italian press when their national teams fail though. We are pretty funny to read when we fail too. Although this time around they will cut them some slack since this same group of players gave us our first trophy in 40 years. As a good God-fearing Spaniard I hate the French, Italians and English (give back Gibraltar you heretic scum ) ( )

They are losing the poll though

Bullard? Sicknote man Nzogbia will not come back. Doyle and the Bolton ones could be a canny shout though I do rate Klasnic, but isn't he 30? Also he is on loan from Nantes. Although they would happily loan or sell him since they are having a shit season in Ligue 2.

Surely that dog is more than 10 weeks old by this time?

Nothing against them as a club, but CL dropouts given a spot on the last rounds of this competition is a bit of a farce. I'd rather see a club that's been there from the start win it, imho.

Bilbao down 2-0 against Anderlecht, meh. Atlético also going out with current 0-0 against Galatasaray. Not good so far for Spanish teams.

It would be beyond funny if you went on to win the thing. There's always CL football though, which he might achieve this season (but so could you).

Bernd Schuster, in a radio interview yesterday, said that "some people" at Real Madrid vetoed the signing of Villa when he was in charge. He didn't say names but when the interviewer said "Raúl", he sidetracked quite notoriously (it is known that Raúl can't stand Villa since their times together in the Spain team) Villa is being currently linked to Manchester United for the summer.

*issues hands-off warning* I rate him.

Yes, I was drawing attention to the Shearer video. You can tell they keep asking him about Owen because he is a friend of Owen's. apparently they fell out when shearer dropped him at the end of last season If that's true it just makes Owen look even more of a cock. He seems much more animated talking about horses than he does football. I think he'll be retired soon. I can't imagine him being willing to play for 'lesser' teams. Could see him playing for Chester of some club like. Isn't there one club he is part owner of? But I can also see him retiring. Imaging if Man Utd would be winning either of the Premier League or Champions League, than I really could see him retiring "on the peak of his successes" or sth. like that. MLS i think No way he'll go to America and leave his My Little Ponies behind! You seem to forget that little Micky has a helicopter and knows how to use it... Not sure if that's a joke or not, but seriously, a 7hour+ flight in a helicopter over the Atlantic? Are you hoping he crashes onto a Mystery Island and is chased by a Black Smoke Monster? Actually a helicopter is not nearly as quick as a plane so a transatlantic trip would take far more than 7 hours! http://www.aeroworldnet.com/his.htm Michael Owen could still leave his mark in the world as the first civilian to make a non-stop transatlantic flight in helicopter!

I think it's interesting how, apart from the Big 2, no other clubs have been able to use CL money to establish a true Spanish "big four". Our third and fourth spots are always pretty open, with Sevilla, Valencia, Villarreal, Atlético, Deportivo, Celta, Real Sociedad... finishing there this decade. I think CL money is overrated when you operate within the margins of a high spending league like the PL or La Liga. It's an edge, yes, but I hardly think the average extra 20m Liverpool pockets per season is what makes them better than Spurs/Villa/Everton.

Lazy Spaniards?

Oh well, we were pretty damn shite, but somehow managed to escape with our skin. Kudos to Stuttgart, but a better team would have put us to the sword.