Village Idiot

Slow news days I guess, but his picture holding the MOTM trophy from the Watford game has been chosen "Image of the day" by Marca.

Christ on a bike, I just saw Gerrard's dive against Blackburn, truly comical stuff

Don't get me started on the Real Madrid tv contract. A Catalan company of all things bought the rights of that scum and they pay them more than they pay us Aye, we get more money from out TV contracts, but La Liga doesn't give out prize money like the Premier League does, and the CL market pool money is also absorbed by the media rights holders (this has the side effect of giving more financial stability to Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, by the way, since a bad European campaign or failing to qualify - like it happened to us once - doesn't hit the bottom line as badly as it would do to an English team. Of course and exceptional campaign like ours last season isn't rewarded as much either, but I prefer the stability).

Not on our TV Ah yes, should have realised it will all those CL games.

You're playing again this Wednesday? Man I love this league. Is it televised? Maybe they show it over here again.

Eh? Barcelona and Madrid are two out of four fan-run clubs in Spain... aren't they quite successful? The real state billionaires that own Atlético are doing quite fine too (not)

http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/league-championship/2009-2010/table http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one/1992-1993/table/1992-12-05 Seven points behind. Doing better at home though. When Wolves had 19 games, they had 46 points, so we're four points behind from last year. I remember Wolves had a big slump in January-February. Those months seem pretty key.

Reyes, one of the thickest footballest I have ever seen (literally, the guy is reportedly dumb as f***) has just come out and said that he was immensely happy when Abel was sacked. Classy. He's been reprimanded with his new boss Quique Sánchez Flores and pretty much everybody else at Atlético. Ibrahimovic has quit the Sweden NT "temporarily" because he isn't motivated to play "pointless friendlies".

Rumour going round in Spain that Luís Aragonés has been offered the Bayern Munich bench if Van Gaal doesn't turn it around quick. I find it really hard to believe but I'll report it anyway because I find it fun (he doesn't know the language or the league). He's been also heavily linked with Portugal these last months (but the fact they managed to qualify put that on ice)

Oh regarding the Athletic Bilbao / Atlético Madrid thing, that's because in its origins Atlético Madrid was a branch of Athletic Bilbao. That's why they wear similar uniforms. They weren't even allowed to enter the same competitions, I think. Another nice story of both clubs, is that both Athletic and Atlético used Blackburn Rovers uniforms, that Basque trading ships bought when travelling to England. However, once the ship that took care of it was diverted to Southampton, they weren't able to find Blackburn shirts, and ended up buying Southampton ones that were adopted by Athletic and Atlético. The Blackburn Rovers colors are often used as the base for their away kits (Athletic uses a perfect copycat this year) (I love all these kind of stories, by the way)

By the way, the 18 year old boy that took what was supposed to be Xisco's spot in the Racing squad today got a brace, and assist and was MOTM. I think you will be seeing Xisco back in your squad by the end of the season.

I'll probably offend experts on the subject... ...but I think it's because the Basques, like the Catalonians, consider themselves as a separate nationality to Spain. All other languages (i.e. not Spanish) were banned under Franco, which deepened the hatred for all things Castillian, and I think Bilbao had to change their name for this reason as well.. I think this is why Atletico and Athletic have different names. As for the selection policy, I think they relaxed it so that people could qualify under the 'grandparent rule.' I may be completely wrong though. The story is much more amusing and - contrarily to what most people think - has nothing to do with Nationalism. During the beginnings of Spanish football, all clubs fielded teams of local players. These squads, however, included usually a good number of Englishmen that resided in those cities. England had a bigger tradition in the sport, and they were usually their most experienced players. That was also the reason why most managers were usually English. The rule however, stated that a foreigner had to live at least 6 months continuously in the city the club represented, in order to be eligible to play in championships. This was a point of contention between the teams, that continuously complained, protested and contested the squads of their opposition to the organizers of the Spanish Championship (nowadays the Copa del Rey). Athletic ended so fed up with it that they just decided to play only with Basques. Ultimately they took great pride on it, after becoming very successful in the early days without playing foreigners while all the other teams did, so they kept the rule even though other teams started to sign players from other parts of Spain and moved from the old "players of the city/region" model. Nowadays, though, it has been mixed with Nationalism. But yes, they have also relaxed the rule to include players from outside the Basque country that have Basque parents/grandparents, but they don't abuse it very much. Their fans don't like it. I also want them to stick in there and be successful. They are still the 3rd best team in Spain historically (Valencia probably will surpass them this season though).

If they miss out on CL the sales will start of course nee one has given Arsenal more money than Barca so it would no doubt be a big cheque for Cesc from Barca to sort out the cash flow problem. I don't see how they would miss out on CL qualification though, they look fine for that this year. And I agree regarding Cesc. It wold be a blow to them, though.

Your better shout is to cannibalize a relegated side, really. If Pompey goes down (they are getting better, but all the off-the-field problems will get to them at the end) I'd certainly get Boateng at least. I reckon Tal Ben Haim and Hreidarsson would be useful backups too (Haim can play LB too, if I recall correctly). Belhadj I'm not so sure but worth a shout I guess. If Hull ends up going under, Hunt is a canny left winger. Bullard has shit fitness, sadly, but he's England material when he's healthy. I wouldn't touch anything else from them with a barge pole. As said, Milijas from Wolves looks very good. I rate Doyle too, but he's not that good to justify a probable 8m+ pricetag.

Vela won't be leaving Arsenal just yet. He's getting some airtime right now with all the injuries that lot seems to have. I also think he's not going to make it at this level.

There was talk of Xisco getting his first start today for Racing, but he's not even in the squad. Apparently he had a minor knock but rumor (according to a journalist from a decent news channel) is that he feigned injury earlier this week to avoid playing with the reserves and the manager is furious with him

s***, that's a class goal. The defenders were very soft, though.

"The white Drogba", that's what they called him at the time

Dani had a good first season, but floundered afterwards. Not the worst in the lot.

Damn you to hell, I had finally erased Rochemback from my mind. Joan Gaspart nearly bankrupted the club. Worst president in our history.

That's interesting, how so? And while I've got you, who's been Barca's biggest waste of money in your opinion? When a player is transferred between Spanish clubs, the player gets 15% of the transfer money. This never applied to when players were transferred to a non-Spanish club. Luque sued Deportivo for it, and finally a Spanish judge last year determined that he was entitled to it. Now it's a precedent and other footballers (like Eto'o) transferred to non-Spanish clubs are seeking this same compensation. I guess our biggest waste of money was Overmars, which was our record signing until Zlatan (€40m). He wasn't useless, but he didn't live up to the pricetag by a long shot, and had Owen-like fitness. Gerard López (€25m) probably had a worse return. We also paid €20m for current Hull superstar Geovanni. Hleb, Maxi López, Dehu, Cristanval, Alfonso... I could stay here all night really. Martín Caceres and Henrique, centreback pair we bought for €30m combined and are out on loan are shaping up like real winners too.

If it's of some comfort to you, Luque's transfer to Newcastle set up a legal precedent that costs Spanish clubs quite a few million every year. Magpie revenge.

With Alano Hansenez? Angel "Pichi" Alonso is our Alan Hansen (former Espanyol and Barça forward).

I miss watching the Catalan TV's MOTD

On paper, ManU's team this year is pretty average for a top European club. Yet they are still pulling it off. I'm impressed to be frank.