Village Idiot

Who are they going to play there instead of Cole? Ferreira or Zhirkov?

Several times I think yank soccer football commentators are retired wrestling commentators or something.

Haven't really noticed it. Have in mind, however, that American sports culture is characterized by their love of stats, numbers, etc... so football commentary is naturally going to be affected by it. Sit around people discussing baseball or a gridiron game and you'll see that they talk sports in a very different way than us do. I.e. when Mark Sanchez drops a bollock and throws the pigskin into the opposition loving hands, commentators will start talking about this being his X interception that season, and comparing it to other QBs, and estimate how much f***ing yardage has been potentially given the opposition every game... they just love their numbers. When Busquets loses the ball in our own half I have no f***ing idea how many time he's done it, I just curse the guy

They are taking some time off for the WC this year, only for the group phase I think. Apart from the US team, there aren't that many players in the MLS that will be part of WC squads.

There are work-arounds for the DP rule... you can trade a slot from another franchise that's not using it in exchange for players or allocation money. Still, every DP counts for 400,000$ against the salary cap IIRC (which is a mere 2,5m I think), which means if they got 3 they would have very little cap space to pay the rest of the squad (which would then be crap).

Sheringham was an interesting type. Not technically gifted, but one of the smartest forwards I have ever seen on a pitch. His movement and ability to find space and goalscoring positions was uncanny.

Well, as a car-less New Yorker it's much more convenient to go there than the Giants stadium, so I'm planning to give the NYRB another go the next season. But I'm boycotting them the second Raúl puts on that (horrible, horrible) NYRB shirt.

The failed transfer of Bergkamp to Barça is second in my list of "historic Barça transfer fuckups" after losing Ronaldo to Inter. Cruyff wanted him as Laudrup's replacement when Bergkamp was struggling at Inter but our president (there was a growing rift between them at the time), failed to meet their asking price. Interesting that you cite Ashton as an "arty forward" kind of guy, when I saw him play he always looked like the quintessential Shearer-type forward to me.

They won actual silverware during their Maradona period, but it's a good call, particularly given the regional pride that Napolitans have, and the "us vs them" mentality regarding the northerners, a bit like Geordies and south England?

An(toni)o Jiménez is an awfully common name in Spain, I have two friends named that way for starters. And wasn't "your" Toni Jiménez and Englishman despite his name, to begin with?

This is probably his best season in the Premier League, isn't it? I think he's been much more decisive than in his Fulham days.

I would be in the fucking moon if we signed Silva. He's great and still very young. El Mundo Deportivo has a good stat breakdown of Messi's 101 goals for us. It's in Spanish, but you can easily make out what the stats mean: http://www.elmundodeportivo.es/infograficos/101golesmessi.html And I remember the handball goal, it was against the parakeet scum no less

I think that until his injury it clearly was Filipe Luis, I am afraid we (Barça) missed on a potential gem there. €15m for a non-international leftback was a bit of a steep asking price though.

Okay, I will try. Not sure a 4-4-2 would work with such lightweight wingers, but only way I could cram everybody I wanted to. Aouate (MLL) Azpilicueta (OSA) Dragutinovic (SEV) Godín (VILL) Filipe Luis (DEP) Messi (BAR) Javi Martínez (BIL) Canales (RAC) Silva (VAL) Cronaldo (RMA) Agüero (ATM) Although I should probably drop Messi and go with... Aouate (MLL) Azpilicueta (OSA) Pareja (ESP) Godín (VILL) Filipe Luis (DEP) Javi Martínez (BIL) Xavi (BAR) Silva (VAL) Cronaldo (RMA) Agüero (ATM) Navas (SEV) Which is a much better team overall, imho.

Raúl has an official offer to go play for NYRB after this season, and Real would let him go on a free (or maybe some marketing kickbacks in the MLS). They are matching his wages at Real (which are quite high, €7m net, 3rd highest at Real). Madrid would be quite happy to let him go "honorably" and save them the dressing room politics and the gigantic wages for a player who's no longer a starter. Rumor is NYRB also wants Henry and Paolo Maldini... do they want to make another New York Cosmos?

Remember when Barça was in tight on money in the early 1980s, and the board asked the club members to pitch in a fixed amount to be able to afford to repair the Camp Nou (which they did). Easier to do in a fan-owned structure I guess.

He's not finnish, he's from Iceland!

La Liga XI Valdés Alves Piqué Puyol Abidal Touré Xavi Iniesta Messi Ibrahimovic Silva

What if Pompey dissolves (which I still find hard to believe, I think they will keep the club alive until the end of the season)? Will they get another promoted team from the CCC to make up? Or just relegate two this season?

-----Zlatan --- Villa -----------Messi Iniesta- Toure-- Xavi Not too bad that Villa Messi Zlatan Iniesta - Touré - Xavi Maybe, Messi has trouble coming through the middle due to his size and is way better cutting in from the wing. Zlatan certainly has the ability to play as a recessed forward. Still a bit weird change of formation for us, since classic 433 has been working so well. Scary firepower though.

We have been linked with Villa again, our press reporting that there's an informal agreement between Villa and Valencia to let him go in the summer since Villa wants out to have a stab at silverware. Makes no sense, where would we play him? Looks wasted on the wing for example. So probable another rumor to put on the waste bin, although El Mundo Deportivo is usually the most reliable one concerning this kind of rumours (when they mention we are interested a player, it's usually true even if it doesn't pan out).

If Arsenal wins at Liverpool they'll have a piss-easy run of games after it, they could still get themselves back in the race as both Chelsea and ManU have been dropping points easily this season.

No but I think they should. I cringe when I see all these Italian clubs with ridiculous NFL style squad numbers, your 1-11 shirts should be your number 1 choices for each position Remember Ivan Zamorano 1 + 8? http://cdn.bleacherreport.com/images_root/image_pictures/0157/6035/zamorano_18_feature.jpg Aberdeen's Zerouali wore the number 0 short in reference to his name Lizerazu - number 69 Zamorano's 1+8 thing is actually proof of how highly shirt numbers are still regarded in some places. He was forced to relinquish it to Ronaldo and he didn't take it lightly. #9 shirts are a big marketing icon.

He had the balance of bambi on ice and he went down extremely easily, but I don't think he did it in a cynical way to be honest. At least not much more than the average modern footballer.

Not yet. His game is progressing a lot, but is still very much based on his pace and leading counterattacks. Fernando Torres, for example, was a purely pace-based forward and he went on to develop and impressive bag of tricks as centreforward.