Village Idiot

That's pretty close, yeah. Thanks.

Phil Brown having to deal with Zaki? I can't miss this.

Yeah, I envy you too, I absolutely adore Camp Nou but it is a very old stadium and it shows, the costs of remodelling it are so huge that we don't know how we can finance it even with selling all the land we own around it.

couldnt get permission to increase the east stand (the buildings behind it are listed) and problems with reinforcing the gallowgate making it hard to expand it. Thanks!

Question for brummie: is Aston Villa's debt sugar-daddy 0% interest loans ala Abramovich or Al-Fayed or is he owed interest?

Saint James' Park always stood out to me for how weird it looks, with those asymmetrical stands. It gives the venue a lot of personality that most identikit stadiums lack, but is there a particular reason for it?

Would certainly like to see us sign him. We need a right sided player and from what I've seen of him he could tear this division apart with his dribbling ability. I saw him play at Camp Nou during our preseason match against City and I was impressed. He can be something.

http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/10/01/15/SOCCER_Man_City_Weiss.html&TEAMHD=soccer He is a very canny player. Pretty sure there would be the possibility of a loan for next season too, since he has little chance of breaking into ManCity's XI at this time.

Sometimes it reminds me of FM when I try to sign some sod on a lower division that's on 500/week and he goes out and asks for 5000. Maybe that game is more realistic than I thought.

I have watched Nolan play *lots* (I have mentioned on occasion I like Bolton), and he just doesn't work on a midfield of 2. Allardyce got the best out of him in a 4-5-1, where he could be carried by the other midfielders and he was free to pop from behind with goals. He used to have a certain industry back at Bolton that for your comments seems to have deserted him (I have only seen him play a couple times for you), although he wasn't the smartest player regarding positioning and tackling. Anyway, if you're going to play 4-4-2 he's going to be a liability at the top flight. But if you pack the midfield he's a very reasonable player for a promoted side.

Wonder where Hiddink will end up, although I don't think he'd come to you at this point. Schuster I think is a very good manager, and has a very good record with promoted sides in Spain. He also gets his clubs to play nice enough football (which admittedly is easier to get away with in La Liga). However he seems to want to stay and live in Spain for now. Frank Rijkaard I still rate immensely, stick a tough assistant manager to handle discipline (like Hen Ten Cate at Barça during his first years) and enjoy the show. Pretty sure he'll get sacked this season in Turkey if he doesn't win the league A bit of idle talk though, unless you falter massively in the coming months (god forbid), you are starting next season with Hughton.

If Alonso had his head turned he really couldn't do anything, can't keep a player that wants out and sure as hell the club couldn't meet the kind of wages he's at Real. However he is at fault for a) not having another playmaker in the squad (Lucas Leiva, don't make me laugh) b) signing a crocked player that's going to be useless this season.

Heh, I opened the PDF and the first page says is that I am not allowed to view it if I'm in the USA. Now I'll get deported FFS

Maybe they want to have the sacked managers' multiple honeymoon periods and thus guarantee promotion?

http://content.liverpoolfc.tv/?9MaPrLxQbm0AA0oNb9slecpdtpHjJGCu9 Looks legit

Now that Kevin Davies is getting old they need to ensure they can still play hoffball for another decade.

Oh my god, he was boring as hell. Guess he would work with what you have though. Plus maybe he gets you to lose a few finals.

Surely promotion is enough of a reason for that? Promoted clubs hold huge celebrations in Spain, even reasonably big ones like Atlético, Valencia or Zaragoza had them.

Is there a trophy awarded to the winner? There is one given to the winner of the Spanish Segunda División. I guess it counts as a trophy, just not a "major" trophy. I'm pretty sure all the clubs that won FA Trophies or FA Vases are mightily proud of them.

Spanish sports rag "Marca" slowly turning into a gay magazine: http://estaticos02.marca.com/multimedia/primeras/10/01/g0114.jpg (no photoshop or anything, that's today's front page)

Yes, the current demands in the game surely put more strain in footballers' hearts nowadays (just compare the body types of footballers now to the ones 20 years ago for example), just wondering why do we have a particular bad case of it, since as a country we actually have a *lower* incidence of earth diseases than the average of the European Union.

I'm bored so get used to me posting a lot of inanity until my classes start next week. Anyway, didn't you sign Andy Cole in a similar time?

Feel sorry for the lad, also Sergio from Deportivo had a hearth condition diagnosed last week and he's been sidelined until further tests are conducted. That's 4 cases in 3 years in La Liga, weird.

Dressing ridiculously, mainly. Isn't he scoring for fun in Greece? Don't think you could get him as a CCC side though.