Village Idiot

He made a number of stupid comments which got everyone's back up when he left, we had no doubt he would leave at some point for bigger things but not so soon, not when his comments included he loved the club, he had a 5 year plan to get us into the Prem, he would have to be pushed out, etc. He also made very public comments against players who left for clubs seen as bigger or in a higher division, talking about money not being everything, they should have some loyalty etc.. So when he went, it was like your girlfriend leaving you for some ugly tosser down the road who has a bit more dosh than you. Fair enough, then.

Are Swansea fans angry at Roberto Martínez? He served you extremely well both as player and as manager.

Just realized that even with this defeat, Everton would only be 5 points adrift of 7th place. EDIT: Just watched and saw that Atlético are 1 down against Nicosia already. Not even Europa League for them.

I guess Everton are back to the old "European qualification one year, relegation scrap the next" yoyo paradigm.

Leighton Baines still on my FF team

Pellegrini has been struggling to fit everybody who's expected to play (and that's a lot of whos at Real Madrid) in a tactic that works. Kaká on the wing is a bit wasting him, particularly when you stick Raúl in the middle instead. Higuaín is also not a good sole striker, he's great as a support striker or even drifting to a wing. However this is just Zürich. I think Pellegrini is starting Raúl to keep him and his media posse happy, and then will drop him for the Barcelona game and play a saner formation instead. That's the garbage Real Madrid managers have to put up with though, the politics.

The Real Madrid - Zürich game is starting shortly, with Cronaldo being expected to play off the bench after spending almost two months injuried. As a bit of trivia, FC Zürich and FC Barcelona were founded by the same individual, Hans Gamper.

Get your facts straight, you have given Orlandi to the wrong Barcelona team... http://english.people.com.cn/200605/22/images/0521_A52.jpg He was good, too lightweight though.

Having Steven Taylor, Coloccini, Kilgallon plus the odd showing of Kadar would have you sorted for centrebacks as a promoted club.

Aye, for the first years I would only worry about the Fagans, Beatties and Fullers of the world. I think Colo can deal with those and in my opinion Newcastle would do well in retaining him. You are running low on players with experience at the top level, and you will need those if/when you get promoted.

I love all the Benítez bashing, when he's the only manager in the last 20 years that has gotten them performing consistently in Europe. I expect many years of Europa League fun if they sack him. I don't know why Newcastle fans always get the "deluded" brand on them, there are no more deluded football fans in Europe than Liverpool's and their divine right to do well, when they have been crap for two decades.

Pot 4 South Korea Japan Australia North Korea Mexico USA Honduras New Zealand We are f***ed. Damn, my hopes of the US being drawn in a group together with France and North Korea have been trashed.

Greedy twats the lot of them, screwing the people that put football and their clubs in the place they are in our society. No sympathy from me. Spain isn't England, people don't have the same disposable income and stuff like PPV and Satellite/Cable don't have the same expansion, this would black out a lot of people from being able to follow the league.

What's in the pot together with the US? The problem is that every time they get paired with a UEFA, Conmebol and CAF team, which makes for lots of potential "groups of death".

La Liga has threatened with a stoppage in the weekend of December 13th if the Spanish Government doesn't approve some of its demands for the new TV law. Mostly, they want: - That the current mandatory free Liga game every week is removed, so everything can eventually be moved to more lucrative paid solutions - That televisions that don't purchase the rights to do so, are banned from showing clips from games until the end of the gameweek (currently media outlets are allowed 3 minutes of free clips from every game, for informative purposes) - That radios have to pay for broadcasting La Liga games (that's an insane dick move, small local and regional stations can't afford to do that, and it's still the preferred way for most Spaniards to follow games that aren't broadcast free).

... what? So - for every game, we get 12% of the respective seats in that stadium, whilst the other team gets 88%? I imagine the other team would also get a similar amount. As for the other 76%... Reserved for FIFA and local fans, I assume. Still a bit too much.

To be honest I loved the old Serie A tie-breaker system. There was talk of implementing it in Spain after Barcelona won the 1994 league on head-to-head record (that was probably one of the most cracking league finishes ever, by the way), but was rubbished. Why did Italy abandon it? To be more like the other major leagues?

Real Madrid midfielder Gago's agent has come out and said his client wants out in order to realize his World Cup hopes. He is pretty pish and should be nowhere Real's or Argentina's starting XI, so I hope he stays there because Pellegrini still seems to play him from time to time.

Actually, I think it's fairer when it's only over the 3-6 games like group matches. That way it's more about which of either team was better than the other instead of which one managed to slip the most past the team finishing last. Full 38 game schedules are different and more down to consistency. La Liga uses head to head. It makes games between relegation candidates and title contenders much spicier. It's pretty common to say that winning the head to head is worth an extra point.

When he played in La Liga, I remember a commentator saying he was a relative latecomer to playing football, coming from a track & field background. Would explain his problems with the ball.

I have contributed something.

Seems I was right!

Thought he was canny then. I also have vague memories of Bramble making something ridiculous on the run up of the save...

Was Steve Harper in goal many many moons ago in a CL game against Juventus at SJP? I remember the Newcastle keeper making a killer save on the late stages of the game and me thinking "that's their #2?".

I shouldn't be posting this kind of stuff but... http://www.lfc-endofseasonparty.com/