Village Idiot

cool, so u follow english football much? i've just been to barcelona, what a fantastic city it is, the best i've been to so far, as me & my friend follow barca quite closely, i probably watch them more on tele than i do newcastle Yes, I have always admired English football. The traditions in there, the quality of the support. It's when I scrub down the divisions and I see villages with 100-year old clubs dragging 10,000+ people to their league 2 games that I fall in awe with the depths the game reaches in your nation. yeah, if u look at the numbers that attend games on weekends, run's into around 5 million a massive amount so what was the reaction to real's lost last nite? can't imagine it being good Lots of kneejerking going around, but that club has gone mental these past years, burning through managers as I burn through chocolate cookies. Media and fans want the manager sacked already, and it's going to happen if they slip out in the next few games. As I said in another thread, the problem is that they believe their own hype, and the pressure on the players is absolutely silly, they were booing them at half time in their second? game of the season. The problem is until they stop undermining their managers and stop treating them as the presidents' puppet and the guy that just rubberstamps their FM-tastic lineups they won't be going nowhere. There's a reason why Wegner, Mourinho, etc... have refused to manage in that place. Still, even though I'd love them to crash and burn this season, I'm pretty sure they'll be still up for it coming spring. Their players are just too good.

cool, so u follow english football much? i've just been to barcelona, what a fantastic city it is, the best i've been to so far, as me & my friend follow barca quite closely, i probably watch them more on tele than i do newcastle Yes, I have always admired English football. The traditions in there, the quality of the support. It's when I scrub down the divisions and I see villages with 100-year old clubs dragging 10,000+ people to their league 2 games that I fall in awe with the depths the game reaches in your nation.

Born in Barcelona, have lived in Madrid and New york for the past five years (celebrated a couple leagues and a CL while living in evil's den, sweet stuff). Now that I think of it Barcelona decided to usher in the golden age of the club as soon as I moved out of there, bastards. My interest in Newcastle is pretty recent to be honest. Of course I know about Keegan's and Robson's eras, and I have seen you play, but didn't start to follow you until I came into this board when Sir Robson died, and I liked what I saw. Pedro scored for Barcelona against Cultural, btw. 1-0.

Fairplay to Barca for having the best team in world with locals in it but lets not kid anyone they are raiding 12 year olds from around the world no doubt they see it as part of there UNICEF deal. Not slagging off Arsenal for getting them, just that I would haver preferred them to be here.

Have to say Barcelona youth midfielders doing well for Arsenal is starting to slightly annoy me.

Even if the stars are all being rested, the squad taking the field is quite decent imho Pinto Abidal-Chygrynsky-Márquez-Maxwell Busquets-Touré-Keita Jeffren-Bojan-Pedro Also, Busquets, Jeffren, Bojan and Pedro have played in Segunda B during the last 3 years, so they are used to those small narrow pitches with little space. Midfield is physical, which will help.

Incidentally, since I'm not British, who's the bird in your avatar?

What's up with Almunia? Not even in the bench for the cup...

Also it has surfaced that a journalist from a regional radio bet 4€ on a double of Alcorcón 4 - Real Madrid 0 and... Cultural Leonesa 4 - FC Barcelona 1. He stands to win 280,000€ if it comes to pass, and has already offered 60,000€ to the Cultural players as bonus if they get that result.

There was absolutely no chance that Pérez would have kept Ramos, as he wasn't his appointment. He is a big time egomaniac (Like Laporta, mind, although Laporta stays out of sporting matters) and wants everything about Madrid to be "his". He was forced to keep Del Bosque first time around since he was fresh of winning the CL, but jumped at the opportunity to sack him after winning 2 leagues and another CL for the club. Then again Calderón also sacked Capello after winning the league I blame their supporters, really. The Bernabéu crowd have a sense of entitlement (fueled by their media, to be honest, with all the talk about best football club in history blahblahblah) that will make them bring out the hankeys if they aren't winning 6-0 at half time playing stuff that would make 1970's Brazil look like a pub team and scoring league/CL doubles every year (the cup is beneath them, though). They just believe their own hype. They need to spend 5 trophyless years and playing the UEFA cup like we did recently to learn to get behind the team no matter what.

Fun story coming out of a guy that got 400/1 for Alcorcón winning 4-0!

People are already asking for the head of Pellegrini, with Marca's cover being "Go out!" today If it happens I think it would be their seventh sacked manager in 5 years.

A friend just told me and I couldn't believe it, but... Real Madrid has been just twatted 4-0 by Segunda B minnow Alcorcón in the cup. Now they have to put five past them at Bernabéu (achieveable if they care) to not lose the tie (hate they went back to dual leg ties after big teams started to get too many upsets).

Mmm? He was brilliant for Real last season. Would have been over by February had he not taken charge. Who wrote that wankfest of an article, btw?

I think the ball was going goalwards before he got his foot in, so he actually cleared it

Well, being a toon fan sort of passes the litmus test about glorychasing. Meaning, there's no glory to chase there (and I say that with great respect). If somebody from Asia still supports the toon after all it's been gone through, that's quality supporting. I still don't get why people support a club that they will never see in the flesh instead of a local sports club (stuff like the rivalries for example, just can't be the same), but if you stick to it through good and bad and don't switch to the next hot thing, you get my respect.

Ibrahimovic is a very different player than Eto'o. As said Eto'o was great in forcing mistakes from the opposition and breaking defences with his pace. Ibrahimovic is a way more deliberate player, which as stopped our tempo a bit upfront. However he is way, way, way more technical than Eto'o ever was, and some of the interplay he manages with Messi and Xavi is absolutely amazing. Also his height allows us to play high balls on the box, opening more options. I must say that I enjoy watching him immensely. It's still early but I don't think there will be a big difference in effectiveness between the two players. Overall we haven't been at our very best yet. With that meaning that all these pastings have been against very poor teams. Determined squads like Almería, Valencia or Kazan have showed us up, and we look truely shaky at the back and very open to counterattacks (although we concede so little since we keep possession so much, but a good counterattacking team could do us harm). However Iniesta hasn't hit form yet (he's been 4 months out) and his interplay with Xavi is sorely missed. Almería succeeded in nullifying Xavi, and the same did Sporting during the first game of the season (we won 3-0, but all where deadball goals). Usually man-marking Xavi gives Iniesta acres of space to rip apart the opposition, but he is clearly out of form yet. He doesn't have the same precision as his last season, and seems a bit overeager in the pitch, wasting possession in a way he would never do. Sergio Busquets is also not playing at the same level. His virtue was in being a DMC with a very good foot, which gave Xavi and Iniesta another footballer to relay the ball to when under pressure. Now he is wasting possession very often. Hopefully it's just a slump. I personally prefer Yaya on that position. We look so much more solid and composed when he is on the pitch, but Guardiola has a lot of belief in Busquets and has tipped him to become one of the most complete midfielders in Spain. Lastly, Henry's also been very poor, and we are missing that incisive presence from the left wing that gifted Eto'o and Messi so much more space last season. However, people are expecting the same Barça that finished last season, and we should compare it to the Barça that started that season. On the league, we are already performing better (point and goal-wise) than last year's side. It really took a couple months for that side to hit gears, and we had some embarassing results (losing away to Numancia or drawing at home against Racing), until the team clicked.

Arsenal are doing that a lot lately, scoring a couple and then turning off.

I was born in Barcelona, the first time my dad took me to Camp Nou I was so young that my legs were hanging from the seat. So yes. For me following Barça is a way to show my pride for being from Barcelona and a deep tie with my father. I can't stand glorychasers, they are sadly necessary to compete nowadays but for me real football fans support their local club, or a club they have real emotional ties with.

See, there's this Asian guy I see at the gym every day, clad in ManU training gear. So one day I decided to chat him up. At the end of the conversation, when I was about to leave, I say: -"So, and how's life in Manchester?" -"I'm not from Manchester, I'm from Shanghai" -"Oh, then maybe one of your parents is from there?" -"Ehhh... no" -"Did they send you there to study?" -"No." -"Any other relative?" -"Dude, I am from China." -"I don't know, since you're a Manchester fan I thought you had, I don't know, and actual tie to the city of Manchester." -"Oh no, I just like them." -"My bad, sorry. Anyway, see you, glorychaser." Everytime he sees me now he eyes me like he's going to kill me with his bare hands and fed me to the sharks or something

5 minutes added time on the Liverpool-ManU game

Read in the Spanish press that Mou is badmouthing Balotelli again. Is he getting sold soon then?

Indeed he has, I have seen him play at the Camp Nou. And score! Aye, I remember him having a great game then. I think he even got a shot cleared off the line if memory serves well. Possibly, I was pissed and could hardly see a thing being so far up in the sky in the away end. Well, this is fun, I was sitting just below the away end. (Those are the cheapest seats in the stadium and I always get those)

Indeed he has, I have seen him play at the Camp Nou. And score! Aye, I remember him having a great game then. I think he even got a shot cleared off the line if memory serves well.

Indeed he has, I have seen him play at the Camp Nou.