Village Idiot

We had him on loan and he ended the season in pretty good form after a slow start. There was interest in his signing but we couldn't afford his wages and transfer fee at the time (we were going through a big sporting and financial crisis). Getting beat by Middlesbrough for a signing was quite baffling.

I don't think Bolton is too high on the purchase lists of arab oilers, to be honest. West Ham, Blackburn, have more "name" and are buyable on the cheap, and even you lot would be very attractive if you came back up and Ashley doesn't go nuts with the asking price.

To be honest I liked Coloccini quite a bit today. I know it's a lower level and probably that gives him more confidence but I even thought he was more aggressive than when I used to watch him in Spain.

Well, it gave them a few quite good years. Teams can only sign what they can, and it was a good way for them to get a few quality players on their squad without expensive transfer fees they couldn't probably afford. And despite some shaky times, they seem to me they have transitioned out of the Allardyce regime adequately (I was fearing for them to do a Charlton before Sammy Lee got sacked).

Not really. Harper was diving towards the close post and had to raise his hand against his body motion to make the save. Top drawer stuff really. This is the first time I see your lot play live. So. Butt/Smith midfield was pretty awful but you probably expected that. Very disappointed with Jonas, he spent the afternoon walking around and falling on his ass every time he seemed that he was close to doing something interesting. Enrique was good, Nolan had some good patches. Carroll gets stuck in but seems to me to be a very thick footballer. Struck to me that your off-the-ball movement going forward is truely bad. Every time you went forward your attacking players ended surrounded by a cloud of Sheffield defenders, which means lots of space elsehwere in the pitch, but nobody was moving into it, or offering passing lines to relieve the pressure. so was that like a top class chef watching how a hot dog is made? What with you being a Barca fan and all. I found it at the same time unwatchable and oddly mesmerising.

Not really. Harper was diving towards the close post and had to raise his hand against his body motion to make the save. Top drawer stuff really. This is the first time I see your lot play live. So. Butt/Smith midfield was pretty awful but you probably expected that. Very disappointed with Jonas, he spent the afternoon walking around and falling on his ass every time he seemed that he was close to doing something interesting. Enrique was good, Nolan had some good patches. Carroll gets stuck in but seems to me to be a very thick footballer. Struck to me that your off-the-ball movement going forward is truely bad. Every time you went forward your attacking players ended surrounded by a cloud of Sheffield defenders, which means lots of space elsehwere in the pitch, but nobody was moving into it, or offering passing lines to relieve the pressure.

You should just take us on as your second team, sir. It would be an interesting juxtaposition for you. I'll give it a go and watch more games if they put them in the telly here. Can't make promises but surely beats the New York Red Bulls.

Game got way better in the second half. Probably a cracking watch for you lot, gotta love edge-of-the-seat wins. Harper was ace and made the difference for you. Gutiérrez was abysmal, bambi on ice has more balance.

Sheffield's keeper is very dodgy.

That Sheff defender was utter thick for putting his arms around Colo like 1 yard off the referee

R. Taylor looked like he was sobbing when taking that freekick.

WTH, I'm going to watch this. Haven't seen a Newcastle game since the Roeder days.

I'll go with the Drog. Although I rate Torres more as a pure goalscorer, I think Drogba adds more to the overall play of the team, while Torres doesn't participate as much. Rooney really doesn't belong to the same category as these two in my opinion. Great player though, and still can improve.

Well, this came out of leftfield, but Johan Cruyff is going to return to managing... as the manager of the Catalan National Team (that plays 1-2 friendlies every year).

Modric is great, one of the best players in the league if you ask me. He is one of the few midfielders in the EPL that can really dictate the pace of his side and give a purpose to their attacking movements (Tottenham look like a headless chicken since he went down).

Oh yes! One of the things I weirdly remember from my childhood, when having a foreigner on your squad felt more extraordinary, is how excited I got for foreign signings with exotic names that turned out to be complete and utter wank. The Romeritos, Korneievs, Ekelunds, Cirics...

Just a question, who else does think that red cards should be really really used much more sparingly, and maybe institute some other kind of penalty? As a neutral observer, it just seems to me sometimes that a red card can kill exciting games. I'd rather give penalties for professional fouls or double yellows for example, and keep the game 11v11. That way the side trangressing the rules gets a heavy punishment (conceding a goal 90% of the time), but the game is still alive. Of course, excessively violent play or extreme unsporting behavior would still be fair game for a straight red.

He started at Langreo and joined Gijón at a lateish age. 17 or 18 if I recall correctly. So really depends on when you draw the line I guess.

Great youth setup too (the Mareo academy). They are probably not very known abroad, but players like Quini, Luís Enrique, Ablanedo, Abelardo, Maceda, Eloy... had great careers during the 80s-90s.

Gijón has some of the best away following in the league, and the trip from Gijón to La Coruña is a quick one. Also, there are usually big Asturian communities in the other Spanish capitals, due to the migrations when the coal mines collapsed. I was at the Barcelona - Gijón game this year and after talking to some of the away support (which were great fellows all of them), you would see that a lot of them actually lived in Barcelona.

Putting aside my Barça-related tastes and hatreds...

In order to build further, they have to be challenged. No chairman is spending hundred's of millions of pounds just to maintain the status quo. Man U were alos quite complacent imo, until Chelsea came along. Aye, that's why I talk about Mou. He's a very ambitious manager with a strong personality, so he's the kind of presence that can push a club forward in terms of ambition. But that very same ambition is what can make him go elsewhere if it doesn't look Inter can challenge for the CL.

Inter's squad isn't as good in terms of pure talent as the top 4-5 teams in Europe, but they have a great depth. If they can somehow build on that they will be challengers. Not sure they will be able to if Mou leaves, though. They look miles ahead of anybody else in Serie A, though.

Mallorca had lots of financial and ownership issues this summer (and the year before that...). They are a bit like Wigan in the sense that year after year they lose their best performers and are able rebuild and secure top flight status again. They lost half of their first teamers this summer. I remember they were all but relegated by Christmas last year, and then they pulled off a run that would have put them in Champion's League if maintained over a full season.

I had them down for a relegation scrap, so chuffed they are doing so well (I have lots of good friends from Mallorca that are fans). I still think they will struggle during the season, so any cushion they can get at this point is great. The perennial relegation candidate that I absolutely don't want to see going down is Athletic, though. Great they got 3 points off Atlético today. 9th place with 13 and counting.