Village Idiot

That result guarantees an Arab team on the final, doesn't it? Would be sort of funny if they won the whole thing.

is there anyone who wants him though? real won't italian sides can't afford him and neither can german ones none of the english sides will go for him and barca the only real intrest we've heard of in europe apparently the players there don't want him as he might disrupt the dressing room Just what kind of wages is he really on? Also, Fernando Gago's agent met with Real Madrid officials yesterday. Marca understands City is offering €15m for him, while Real is reluctant to sell at this point. Most Real supporting friends I have (yes I do have them!) would bite their hands off. He's s*** and I reckon he would be way worse in the pacier EPL. 160k a week apparently One question, when you quote wage figures, are those always net or gross wages? In Spain the numbers quoted are always net. If that's a net figure, that's the kind of money we pay to Xavi and Iniesta (who are the second tier in our wage scale). don't know but at a guess its net since city can afford to pay it 120m wage bill, wow. That's pretty much the same as ours (ours it's 180m but usually only 70% of that is for the football team - Barça is a multi-sport club).

is there anyone who wants him though? real won't italian sides can't afford him and neither can german ones none of the english sides will go for him and barca the only real intrest we've heard of in europe apparently the players there don't want him as he might disrupt the dressing room Just what kind of wages is he really on? Also, Fernando Gago's agent met with Real Madrid officials yesterday. Marca understands City is offering €15m for him, while Real is reluctant to sell at this point. Most Real supporting friends I have (yes I do have them!) would bite their hands off. He's s*** and I reckon he would be way worse in the pacier EPL. 160k a week apparently One question, when you quote wage figures, are those always net or gross wages? In Spain the numbers quoted are always net. If that's a net figure, that's the kind of money we pay to Xavi and Iniesta (who are the second tier in our wage scale).

is there anyone who wants him though? real won't italian sides can't afford him and neither can german ones none of the english sides will go for him and barca the only real intrest we've heard of in europe apparently the players there don't want him as he might disrupt the dressing room Just what kind of wages is he really on? Also, Fernando Gago's agent met with Real Madrid officials yesterday. Marca understands City is offering €15m for him, while Real is reluctant to sell at this point. Most Real supporting friends I have (yes I do have them!) would bite their hands off. He's s*** and I reckon he would be way worse in the pacier EPL.

Makes absolutely no sense though, I know that they don't particularly care about money but they could easily flog him to a first tier European side and not lose that much money on the process.

Cameroon goalkeeper EDIT: Is it Kameni?

Just a few months ago they were the ManCity of the lower leagues... that went south fast. http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/10/01/25/SOCCER_Notts_County.html&TEAMHD=soccer

The difference in profiles between mr. toothpick Zola and fat Benítez.

My ManU supporting friend has just pointed to me that today is the 15th anniversary of Cantona's karate kid moment. I know violence is not to be celebrated, etc... but always loved the guy, characters like him make football all more fun.

It was quite a shock to see the meek assistant that Robson brought to Barça develop such an... "interesting" personality. Incidentally some priceless Cronaldo quotes after today's sending off: "I just wanted to keep playing. In England I learnt a lot about this because before I used to throw myself to the ground a lot, but now I get angry when players do something like that" :lol: (He might mean that he gets angry when he gets shirt-pulled and not when players fall on their arses at the minimum contact, but is still funny). He's called his sending off "shameful". "Maybe in the video you can see blood, but if you know football you know that's not a red. It was just bad luck because the Malaga boy is only 1,70cm tall. Had he been taller I would have hit the chest." Incidentally, I do believe that he really didn't mean to hit the guy in the face, but he really used his elbows a wee bit too passionately. Oh, and Madrid will appeal the red.

Indeed, I used to really dislike his bravado and megalomania, but I have really grown to love the guy.

So we are stuck at 4, aren't we? And I agree with that Sewelly, that's the kind of players that I'm looking for.

Thought I had 4 with Van Brockhorst (SPL with Rangers, Liga with Barça, EPL with l'Arse) but he never won the league with Feyenoord.

That's a good one, too. I'll think of some.

Indeed he did, I remember he was a shambles for them and was dropped pretty quick.

Sneaky, forgot he had that brief and disastrous spell at Milan. But indeed it works.

I'll clean that list up and add only active footballers (so they technically can still achieve it)

Has only Spain and Italy. He also has the Eredivisie but I don't count that as a "big league".

Good call. And he's still pretty young.

I was discussing this with a mate yesterday, thought I would bring it here. Has there been a player that has won at least 3 out of the EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A? Can think of lots that have 2 titles: Thierry Henry (Spain and England, never won it for Juve) Owen Hargreaves (Germany and England) David Beckham (England and Spain, now at Milan) Gerard Piqué (England and Spain) Arjen Robben (England, Spain, now at Bayern) Ruud Van Nistelrooy (England and Spain, now at Hamburg) Christoph Metzelder (Germany and Spain) Claude Makelele (England and Spain) Mark Van Bommel (Spain and Germany) Fabio Cannavaro (Spain and Italy) Hernán Crespo (England and Italy) Etc... Can you think of one that has three? EDIT: We have a winner! Jens Lehmann with Milan, Arsenal and Dortmund.

Your injury luck is reaching new heights, now your realistic transfer targets are the ones getting injuried.

This is funny (wikipedia image so assume free to post) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/53/Zola_%26_Benetiz_Upton_Park_09May09.jpg/800px-Zola_%26_Benetiz_Upton_Park_09May09.jpg

That's pretty much a spot on comparison. His Valencia was a mean machine but a f***ing bore to watch. The first time he won the league he did it with the lowest amount of goals scored for a champion in decades.

I think Benitez is rubbish in the transfer market but you have to give him credit re: Torres. At £20m it was a definite risk since, despite the hype, he'd never been that prolific even in Spain. So him coming to a more physical league and doing way better than he ever did for Atletico was a gamble that paid off. I voted for Pompey btw. Ashley has done a bad job and played a big part in you going down but at least he stabilised the finances which weren't looking too clever. Portsmouth might not even exist soon. Benítez made a name for himself buying dross and making them perform like world class. Seems that touch has abandoned him. I think that most modern clubs have already adopted many of his "innovations" that weren't that common (at least in Spain) in the early 2000s (carefully planned rotations, prozone and similar analysis of performance) so he doesn't have that edge anymore.

The players at R.Madrid know that whoever is the current coach is more than likely gone after 1 season so they can do what they want. Where at MUFC they have to do things SAF way as he is not going anywhere soon. And that obviously if Madrid have to choose between Cronaldo and Pellegrini, well... Meanwhile SAF is king there.