Village Idiot

Hey, we are in the market for a left winger!

thats what people are implying. He is a known Newcastle fan anyway. Lovely, saw that gesture dozens hundreds of times when watching the English football highlights show back in the 90s.

Enlighten a foreigner... is it because he is raising his hand a la Shearer after scoring a goal or is there something else I'm missing?

I just made contact again with a Pompey fan I knew that told me he went to a fans forum in Portsmouth yesterday. Apparently nobody blames Redknapp for what's happening, they think he stretched the wages a lot but has been "loyal to the club" buying back players at good prices to take them out of the ditch. Mandaric is who they blame for it all. Apparently the loans he took to bankroll the squad in the early 2000s were crippling and have been biting them in the ass (forcing refinancing after refinancing) until they have caught up on them. One of the things they are looking at is selling Fratton Park and having it leased back. Nobody at the forum thought they were making it out of this, but would rebuild the club in the non-leagues if necessary. Oh, they have 3 new rumoured owners. A local consortium and two overseas.

We have been linked with Belhadj for this particular reason, the fact we could sign him outside the window on the cheap to cover for our current defense woes (although it's probably bollocks since we don't really need a leftback).

Even if you sign a bunch of players, you won't be signing nobody to replace what's perceived as one of your best performers, 6 months after signing him. Routledge will be starting the first game next season (bar injury).

Marca reporting today that Real Madrid has informally contacted Mourinho to gauge his interest in managing them. Same reports says Mourinho has reacted "favourably". Barcelona papers - bless'em - are carrying the rumour that the chosen replacement for Pellegrini is... Rafa Benítez

http://www.eskimo.com/~nickz/seaman/seaman.jpg Not far from where I live in Manhattan...

Is Rennie holding a round red card in that photo?

There's also been some messy pitch invasion and fisticuffs between Bilbao and Anderlecht fans. 4 Anderlecht fans were arrested before the game, too.

Not really a good day for Spanish teams in the competition. Atlético, Bilbao and Villarreal conceded at home and tied their games, Valencia lost away... Valencia can make it at home, and Atlético should really advance if they pull their finger out of their ass.

That game was turgid as f***. But yeah they're a great side, their Brazilian legion in particular are so good on the ball. That's what they are good at though, they sleep the game down and use their pacy forwards to drive counterattacks.

Shaktar are a great side, gave us a game for the European Supercup.

That's what I'm getting to. 60m isn't such a huge debt in the grand scheme of things, particularly for a PL team. Not one to threaten dissolution at least. Unless it's all (or most of it) short term for some reason.

They will probably need to raise enough to cover the club's debts, I presume.

I'm really curious to see their finances, if they are really going to be made public as said. I just can't see how badly this thing has to have been mismanaged to reach this kind of situation.

What business do have Danish fans owning an English club?

exactly. So, since the Top 4 can afford big strong squads they are allowed to rest players and other teams have always to field their first XI? Not a good logic. This decision opens a can of worms really, who says what a "full strength team" is? What about the cups?

Aye, keeping thinking that Every time he scores or makes an assist he takes one of your firstborn.

Somebody pointed to me that had they not split the last 16 CL round over two weeks, they would have had to have two games at San Siro on consecutive days. Has this situation happened before? (I'm sure it has but can't remember). It has also occurred to me that Campbell today scored his second consecutive goal in the CL... after the one in 2006's final!

Just saw the highlights. The ref didn't really do anything bad but he was a bit of a cunt for the second goal.

It's been reported here yes. Arshavin does really have a big mouth, doesn't he?

Xerez have good away following in Spanish terms. It's their first top flight season ever so they're all psyched despite their hopelessness.

Shambolic defending on both sides of the pitch, this can be an entertaining game!

A friend of mine that supports the parakeets sent me this article to brag about their ST growth, it includes a nice list of all La Liga clubs ST totals: http://elespanyol.com/articles/35865-espanyol-sexto-club-con-mas-socios I'm not that sure about Barça's number. I have seen 88,000 in other places as I'm not sure we are allowed to sell out the entire stadium as season tickets. Then again, this is an Espanyol news site and the last thing they will be doing is giving us reasons to brag