Village Idiot

Why? Like a very, very, very, VERY poor version of Dani Alves. He would be Alves backup. We don't have any understudy for him, only Puyol who doesn't have the legs to play fullback anymore (he's been shown up by pacy wingers often when played there).

Gotta love the English press doing our job for us before the WC. Thanks fellas

I'd have Warnock over Bridge, but the comedy potential is too big, so: Brown, Johnson, Cole, Bridge. Not happy with your RB options (or very happy depending on how you look at it ). Maybe Richards if he plays there again and shows some form...

Also, I have stopped reporting the daily Cesc rumours, but now we have quotes from the man himself to go with them. Yesterday Cesc was interviewed by a Catalan radio: "If I would like to come back? I have never hidden it. I had being going to Camp Nou since I was 9 months old. I have worn those colors all my life, but for some or other reasons I had to leave." That said, he refused to talk directly about his future when asked. We are also still interested in Eboué.

Apparently Zidan's father has said in an Egyptian TV that United, Arsenal and Barcelona are interested in signing his son and have already talked to his agent. (I'd say bollocks, although we were interested in him a few years ago when he first broke out)

I would not say he's world class, but he can be a very good player when he's not sulking or being petty. He is the kind of player that does have talent but needs everything to go his way to demonstrate it, doesn't have the fight or determination to impose himself.

I love your posts cause I always get to wiki new players. From that Brazil side you're probably more familiar with Zico. Again another football great that never won a World Cup or anything in Europe. Fuck it, I'm off to look for videos of 1980s Brazil. (You need a mouth-watering smilie)

The Pelé to Real Madrid story is a bit exaggerated, there was never any deal in place whatsoever. He was very close to go to Juventus, though. Believe me, if there was something to it here in Spain we would have never heard the end of it from those cunts. Another player I would mention is Sócrates. Never won the WC, never succeeded in Europe, but god hell he was one of the best midfielders I have ever seen. He captured my childish imagination at the Spain WC. Incidentally, anybody remember Careca too? That 1980s Brazil side had some utterly gifted players that never achieved much.

how could I forget him, wasn't his transfer to Betis the most expensive of the world at the time? Ludicrous. At some point it looked like he could be another Rivaldo, but his fall from grace was quite remarkable. In his last seasons at Betis he was laughably useless, it's like somebody had switched him with a clone with the footballing brain of my grandmother.

Yes, I remember him. Van Gaal converted him to right back, although it was more like wing back since we played 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 back then. I remember him as a fast guy that was decent on the ball. Bad luck with injury. He was loaned out a few times, I remember, and never did much. Ironically, he started our Centennial game against Atlético, which means he's part of our history.

Christ, Chelsea's dressing room is a brothel.

Zolton needs a sig like mine.

Javier Saviola.

Atlético are clear favorites on this, even with their awful season a Racing win would be a big shock.

The Spanish league in the 1990s had some pretty great sides... Cruyff's "Dream Team" was considered the best Barça side of all time until this season, "Super-Depor" with Bebeto, Mauro Silva, Fran were also amazing... Atlético were unplayable in their double season, Real Madrid played some pretty good possession football in the mid-90s under Valdano... even if you don't want to go to famous sides, teams like Celta (with Mazinho, Makelele...) or Tenerife (Redondo), had some great stuff going.

Yeah, I was about to mention him, but he still won the CL and was excellent for PSG and Brazil before that. He was but I'd say he was only at his peak for two years at a maximum. Even when your lot won the Champions League he wasn't as good as the season when you signed Davids in January. He never ran at players even then, he just became very stationary and then used to lay the ball off with some nifty flick/through ball. Was still class but it's a shame he never had that desire to dominate the game for years. True, on his prime he is the most mouth-watering footballer I have ever seen playing for us. The things he was able to do, coupled with the mobility and directness he had back then... a big loss. You're getting confused with Ronaldo as he used to be called Ronaldinho too. Nah, Ronaldinho (Gaúcho) in his prime had more to his game. The league was better too, some of the teams Ronaldo was up against must have been pub teams judging by the clips. Judging by the clips? So that means you never really watched him play against some of those sides? Ronaldo was an absolute monster in his prime. He is all about what the modern game is now about, pace, power and absolutely clinical. You're bang on with that. But Ronaldinho was also a great athlete in his first years. He used power as much as technique back then, running at defenses, using his body to generate space, etc...

Oh we have no money, but we have no debt, thats real wealth in todays football world! Your finance director said that you were £7m in debt in December. What's happened since then to correct that? He has an interesting accounting style, for instance the sale of Robinson to Bolton £2.1 million and Greening to Fulham £5 million, will not show on this years acounts, he defers payment for tax reasons, this is an annual event for us, Cuntis Davis to Villa being another example,all loan deals which are permenant at the end of the season, no get out. Us fans hate his prudence but it probably means we are always going to exist, abeit in some sort of footballing twilight zone between Championship and Premiership. Aye, all my Bolton supporter friends are delighted with the Robinson transfer de-ligh-ted

Yeah, I was about to mention him, but he still won the CL and was excellent for PSG and Brazil before that. He was but I'd say he was only at his peak for two years at a maximum. Even when your lot won the Champions League he wasn't as good as the season when you signed Davids in January. He never ran at players even then, he just became very stationary and then used to lay the ball off with some nifty flick/through ball. Was still class but it's a shame he never had that desire to dominate the game for years. True, on his prime he is the most mouth-watering footballer I have ever seen playing for us. The things he was able to do, coupled with the mobility and directness he had back then... a big loss. You're getting confused with Ronaldo as he used to be called Ronaldinho too. Nah, Ronaldinho (Gaúcho) in his prime had more to his game.

Yeah, I was about to mention him, but he still won the CL and was excellent for PSG and Brazil before that. He was but I'd say he was only at his peak for two years at a maximum. Even when your lot won the Champions League he wasn't as good as the season when you signed Davids in January. He never ran at players even then, he just became very stationary and then used to lay the ball off with some nifty flick/through ball. Was still class but it's a shame he never had that desire to dominate the game for years. True, on his prime he is the most mouth-watering footballer I have ever seen playing for us. The things he was able to do, coupled with the mobility and directness he had back then... a big loss.

Yeah, I was about to mention him, but he still won the CL and was excellent for PSG and Brazil before that.

I could also add Julen Guerrero, too. He started his career with a flash, and he really was something special. But I think his lack of ambition (always refused to move from Athletic, and became a bit lazy by being the king of that place) prevented him from becoming the world class attacking midfielder everyone thought he could become

Aye, missed Portillo. But I think he was just not good enough. Same case as Pavón really. Overhyped. Soldado's doing fine I think, but he's not going to be a Torres, Raúl or Villa.

Mmmm... Spanish players: - Guti. Oozles of talent, zero work ethic. - Iván de la Peña. Epithome of the confidence player. Couldn't deal with the hype around him, but was a magnificient talent. Found his feet again at Espanyol. - Raúl Tamudo: world-class forward in his prime, should have gone to a better team instead of pissing off his career with a bottom club. - Alfonso: again couldn't deal with the pressure of playing at top clubs (flopped at both Real and Barça). Most naturally gifted forward to come out of Spain in the last 20 years, but he didn't have the mental strength to deliver. - Vicente: one of the best wingers we produced, crippled by injury. - Manuel Pablo: Deportivo's RB, did his knee in every imaginable way and was never the same after coming back (missed 18 months...) - Pavón: not his fault, he was never more than an average defender, but Florentino and the Real Madrid media machine hyped him up to an insane degree.

Both of them have designated players, no? Becks off in the summer then? Not necessarily, they can still trade an unused DP spot from another franchise. Of course, two DPs + Donovan would hurt their salary cap a lot and it's probably not feasible. Donovan might leave too, who knows.

The much fanfared signing of Canales by Real Madrid has yet to be completed with the window already closed, and the player has said that "there aren't any problems with me going to Madrid but for now I have put it aside". Rumour is that ManU or some other English club are making a last-ditch attempt to hijack the deal. Rubén Baraja has declared that he's going to leave Valencia on a free at the end of the season.