Village Idiot

A friend sent me this article about how last year's Champion's League final overtook the Superbowl as the most viewed sports event of the year. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/elite-clubs-on-uefa-gravy-train-as-super-bowl-knocked-off-perch-1884429.html However, what raised my eyebrow is this table: How the fuck can the 100m men race have 33m viewers watching the entire event and 95m watching only part? The whole thing lasts less than 10 seconds!! How much of an ADD spaz do you need to be?

Our current schedule fits our climate and habits much better. Spanish nights are very mild so it's quite pleasant to attend a game, except maybe the coldest days of winter. Spanish people also tend to have lunch pretty late compared to the rest of Europeans, particularly on weekends, noon kickoffs would hurt attendances a lot. But the TV rights holders have been pressuring for early kickoffs to better compete in overseas markets. I also think our times fit nicely with the overall football scheduling: i.e., you can watch the PL game at noon and afternoon, mix it up with the Italians, and then move on La Liga during the evening.

Guardado's been great, he's said several times that he is hesitant to move to a non-Hispanic country though, since he believes he'd have problems adapting. Coloccini was good at Depor indeed, it was just the fee that raised eyebrows. He's never been a €12m defender.

Ignore me. Game is this Thursday, not today.

La Liga has finally bowed to the pressure of media rights holders, and has followed in the steps of the PL allowing for Primera División games to be played in Monday, and Segunda games to be played in Friday. This allows to have at least one broadcast game every day most weeks with Cup/European competitions. Another change being championed but not yet approved (and I hope it never comes to pass), is using a scheduling scheme similar to yours, with games being played from noon onwards, instead of the evening.

Today Racing plays Atlético de Madrid away for the first leg of the Copa del Rey's semifinals. I wonder if he'll start since Miguel Ángel Portugal (Racing's manager) benched him alongside a lot of first teamers this past Sunday. Racing have never reached the final of the competition during all their story. It is also Atlético's last chance to salvage the season. IF we assume Sevilla wins the other semifinal against Getafe, it's a free ticket to the Europa League.

I'm sincerely amazed by the issues you have with your footballers private lives. We have none of such crap in Spain (bar a few Real Madrid players and the odd Barcelona one being reported on). I don't assume Spanish footballers live decent Christian lives, it's just that your gossip press is just criminal. Or maybe we just don't give a damn what they do. Happens the same with our politicians. Wonder if it's an anglo-saxon thing? Americans are obsessed about their politicians private lives too.

Hindsight and all that, but I think that when it happened I don't think many people thought Owen was a bad signing. Me the first, I was fucking delighted he left Real, his strike rate there was out of this world.

:colo: :fwap: I'm a lonely man :-[

I just counted and Zaragoza has done 7 signings this window... Suazo, Contini, Jarosik, Roberto, Eliseu, Colunga and Edmílson. Pretty much a brand new starting XI, god knows they needed it.

The only guy who I can see taking the captaincy is Gerrard, who I think is a monumental t***, so as a Spaniard would make a good hate figure for the WC

Pompey, Burnley, Hull/Wolves That's it.

It's like they just post a new thread for whatever crosses their minds, instead of making it just a post under "match thread" or whatever. It has a tribalistic quality that almost seduces me.

I went once to SMB for pure FF research purposes, and I found it a complete chaos.

Delap coming in, looks like it's time for the silky attacking moves.

I know you hate the mackems more, but Stoke are like a vacuum of football, we could play them and look like fucking Hull, they should be banished to the third circle of hell.

Pelé good, Maradona better, Leon Best

It seems an extra 250k soon changed that one around. It's like throwing a quid to a homeless so he doesn't complain while you kick him in the nuts. Poor Pompey.

When I say Simonsen I meant Sorensen. Damn Stoke could use less similarly-named keepers. Maybe that's why they signed Begovic.

I see that Stoke have snapped Begovic. Has there been problems with Simonsen? Always thought he's been very good for them, but maybe Pulis has wrestled him naked too.

Marca reporting that the Gago deal has collapsed as Al-Mansour couldn't be reached in time to give the go-ahead to the operation

Does he actually exist? or is he some Keyser Soze type figure? The greatest trick Nacho ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. ...

Bah, I want him to stay at Real, even if he only plays 1-2 games this season it can only help us And I reckon he'll be a disastrous signing. I mean, he's already slow as fuck in La Liga (both in legs and in decision-making).

And don't get me started on Nacho González! That poor guy has been involved in more shady dealings... was signed under the nose of Valencia's manager too, who didn't want him and got shipped to your place. Incidentally, Valencia just loaned him again to some Greek club this window. Has yet to play for them (and he never will).

I have always been a bit suspicious of the signings from Spain considering that Freddie Sheperd's son was in charge of doing the deals and we went out and whacked £10m on the likes of Luque from the middle of nowhere. Ashley has continued in this vein with some strange signings from Depor. Well, Luque is the least suspicious of the lot. I mean NUFC swooping with €15m for him at the time raised some eyebrows, but he still was a Spanish international that had a few solid seasons... nobody thought the move would work for him (Torres is the first Spanish forward to succeed in the PL, and even people like Morientes flopped), but he wasn't a bad player. Now the other Depor signings really were a bit more strange. Coloccini is actually a good continental defender for a midtable side, physically not enough for the English game. And Xisco... really... My friend from Galicia told me the other day that Newcastle is like the Fairy Godmother of Deportivo, since your coin has helped them a lot in difficult times. Marcelino Elena was a decent gamble. I mean Madrid got Iván Campo too (his pair at Mallorca's CB) and it flopped for them. Although it was a lot of money for a defender. Jonás was a midtable player in La Liga at the very best. But you got him for free and he's being good for you at this level.