Village Idiot

Sunderland are disappointing so far this season, but they aren't bad enough to get relegated in my opinion. They are more likely to get better than to get worse if you ask me.

We were close to get a Betfair sponsorship before settling with the UNICEF scheme, it was fan opposition what blocked it Absolutely gutted had we got a betting site sponsor.

So your deal averages out to 2,5m per season. Although I guess it's a lower figure for the CCC that then rises if you get promoted. The bad thing of your deals expiring while being in the CCC is the lower figures the companies will offer you at this point, it's important that you still get good deals, since they will last you for a few years.

How does that compare to your current deal?

The owner of Udinese also owns Granada in Spanish Segunda B, half the players there are in Udinese's books even though they have never put a foot in Italy.

What he said about ESPNsports. They even have lots of brick and mortar branches that usually carry English soccer football shirts (might not find a Newcastle United one now that you aren't top flight, but I distinctly remember Michael Owen shirts on display at their Times Square branch years ago). http://soccer-gear.soccernetstore.com/search?w=newcastle

No, that's me.

Bah, just bring him in when you earn a freekick near the box, you can't sub him off again after he scores. Didn't he win some "best freekick taker of the world" FIFA award?

Amazing that Benítez brought Gerrard with him even though he was crooked because of "team spirit" and left Babel out.

Yeah but your managers don't decide on anything apart from lunch and the formation. Yep, different cultures. Actually the spanish word for a manager - "entrenador" actually means "coach". One of the points of contention between Guardiola and the board is that he wants English-style managerial powers.

Okay, stupid question... do English clubs really have 200000000000000 coaches like in FM? Because Spanish clubs only have GK and fitness coaches, and all outfield player training is conducted by the manager and his assistant. And that's true even for the big guns. We only used specialized coaches at youth teams.

I think he's massively overrated and has always benefited from the fact he's the biggest fish of a small pond (when it comes to top clubs). He has a rather limited game. But opinions are like arseholes...

Don't make me laugh, he isn't even the best English midfielder.

Pellegrino and Benítez are close pals since the times of Valencia.

He bears the truth. Being onside requires of two defenders between the attacker and the goal, people tend to think it's only one because they don't count the GK, which is usually always there.

Villa scores the fourth to go joint top goalscorer with Messi, 14 in 16.

Capdevila, Spain's #1 leftback :frantic:

To be honest I can't wait for Brown and Zaki squaring it off.

It's more like "uuuuuuuuuuuyyy!!!!" but yeah, we do that a lot. I personally love the "olé" when the home side starts passing around the ball. We don't sing as much as the English though, I love your songs.

Selling Mestalla is the only way to sort their situation long term, but I know they delayed it because with the housing crisis they were getting much less money than expected. And it was a red, just outside the box.

Geremi always seems to do well with Cameroon.

how valencia have managed to keep such a good squad despite their financial problems, their top 4 is one the best in europe VI should barca have signed villa instead of ibra? i heard villa was in tears when he heard the deal was off I think Ibra brings so much more to our game... Villa is probably a better natural goalscorer admittedly, but I'm very happy with what we got. I hope Villa gets a move to some big club (not Real please) where he can get the recognition he deserves. And apparently Valencia were in very deep financial s*** and supposedly needed to sell some of their players, yet that hasn't happened. There was a supposed takeover that hasn't materialized yet, but everybody wonders how Valencia keeps running when the situtation was so bad last season (they were late in their payments to the players several times). And Banega slots the first.

Valencia - Villarreal in about 10 minutes. This can be a sweet game. Valencia can go 3 behind Real with a win. They are lining up a front line of Joaquín, Silva, Mata and Villa, and they have people like Zigic (who I rate a lot at what he does) and Vicente on the bench. That's a peach of a squad.

Ibrahima (who quite funnily is a self-confessed Ibrahimovic fan) scores for Atlético. I think this is his second or third game for them, supposedly a promising talent! 3-1 btw.

another question, is why have barca always depended on valdes, he's very good on his day but is error prone He doesn't do as many mistakes as he used to do. Thing is, we struggled to establish a goalkeeper for 10 years since Zubizarreta retired... and Valdés works well enough for us. He's won us points and trophies so even though there might be better goalies out there, given that people like Reina failed at Barça (not that he isn't talented, but believe me that Barça's goal was like an electric chair back then, we ate goalkeepers like they were candy) we aren't taking risks.