Mr. Snrub Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 Another comfortable home win for Mallorca today. That's played 7 won 7 at home. Scored 20, conceded 3. Unbelievable. Haven't won away yet but other than Madrid, they've been the best team to come to Camp Nou this season. Made things very difficult at times. Would like to see them get European Qualification, nice club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Heneage Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 Borja Valero has looked good for them. Won't get into the national side, but still may be worth trying to nab from West Brom. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazzle Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 They have had the easiest set of home fixtures you could've hoped for though. Although to be fair, you can only beat what's in front of you and they've picked up a few good points on the road. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lagerstedt Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 Another comfortable home win for Mallorca today. That's played 7 won 7 at home. Scored 20, conceded 3. Unbelievable. Haven't won away yet but other than Madrid, they've been the best team to come to Camp Nou this season. Made things very difficult at times. Would like to see them get European Qualification, nice club. It's all very good by Mallorca, but if I'm not mistaken they've only played teams from the bottom half at home? And I think I'm right in saying Real Madrid played 5/7 of the teams Mallorca played as well (at Bernabeu). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Optimistic Nut Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 Some 16-year old lad's just scored for Bilbao against Valencia. How the hell do they keep doing it? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 Villa just equalised, he is awesome. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 I love to see Bilbao doing well. Someone else might be able to give me a better idea on the whole 'Basque' selection policy... do they strictly have to be from that exact area of Spain, or are there flexibilites in that philosophy? And why are they so fussed (for want of a better word) about not having anyone else in their team? I've probably just understated a load of history there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tooj Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 Fucking Bilbao and away goals. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ponsaelius Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 That Muniain will be a good player like, already scored a few this season at 16. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Optimistic Nut Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 What happened to Del Horno anyway? He was excellent for Athletic Bilbao, went to Chelsea, and his career's just seemed to have stopped since then. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Snrub Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 2-1 Valenthia. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 What happened to Del Horno anyway? He was excellent for Athletic Bilbao, went to Chelsea, and his career's just seemed to have stopped since then. He was at Valencia a while ago as I used to abuse his crazy dribble accuracy on pes few years back, duno where he is now. But the enw LB has jsut hammered that one in. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 Shit ref is shit. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 hahahahahha Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazzle Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 I love to see Bilbao doing well. Someone else might be able to give me a better idea on the whole 'Basque' selection policy... do they strictly have to be from that exact area of Spain, or are there flexibilites in that philosophy? And why are they so fussed (for want of a better word) about not having anyone else in their team? I've probably just understated a load of history there. 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. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Segun Oluwaniyi Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 On a whim, I caught the last fifteen minutes of the Valencia-Bilbao match and it was brilliant. Disallowed goal, horrible penalty decision, penalty miss, keeper almost scoring. Everything you'd want from a random La Liga match. The referee was terrible though. He got nearly every decision wrong. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Village Idiot Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 I love to see Bilbao doing well. Someone else might be able to give me a better idea on the whole 'Basque' selection policy... do they strictly have to be from that exact area of Spain, or are there flexibilites in that philosophy? And why are they so fussed (for want of a better word) about not having anyone else in their team? I've probably just understated a load of history there. 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). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Village Idiot Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 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. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Village Idiot Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 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) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Village Idiot Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 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". Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Village Idiot Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 More details emerge from the potential buyout of Xerez FC by Bernd Schuster. Apparently he's offered 2,5m and plans to invest 3m. A bit far and away from what's touted for EPL teams! (Xerez has a total budget of 10m, which is less than half of the next lowest budget in La Liga). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Village Idiot Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 Athletic de Bilbao get their first black footballer! http://www.marca.com/2009/12/10/futbol/europa_league/1260443664.html He's born an and bred in Bizkaia, but his parents are from Angola. He was playing in the Bilbao B feeder team, but he's now been included in the Europe League B list and he is expected to play soon in La Liga. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delima Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 More details emerge from the potential buyout of Xerez FC by Bernd Schuster. Apparently he's offered 2,5m and plans to invest 3m. A bit far and away from what's touted for EPL teams! (Xerez has a total budget of 10m, which is less than half of the next lowest budget in La Liga). Please refresh my memory as to why Bernd Schuster left Real Madrid ? Athletic de Bilbao get their first black footballer! http://www.marca.com/2009/12/10/futbol/europa_league/1260443664.html He's born an and bred in Bizkaia, but his parents are from Angola. He was playing in the Bilbao B feeder team, but he's now been included in the Europe League B list and he is expected to play soon in La Liga. Very good to see this. This proves that Athletic Bilbao are a nationalisitic / regionalistic club instead of a racist club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delima Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 Village Idiot what do you think about the quality of Spanish second tier football (equivalent to the Championship in England where Newcastle United are this season) ? I always thought that the second tier of other countries are an untapped reservoir. If the gulf between Spanish second tier and La Liga is not bigger than Championship and Premiership then we should really explore the market there. Mohamed Diamé and Jordi Gómez for example, clearly have the potential to be a rather decent player in the Premiership. We should be scouting and scouring the second tiers of Italian, French, Spanish and French football. I remember that Watford bought Rinaldi from Brazilian second tier. Rinaldi clearly had the potential and talent. But for some reason unknown to me he rarely appeared for Watford. Maybe there are some attitude issues, maybe there are some adaptation and acclimatisation issues. But it takes only 1 in 3 Rinaldis to succeed to make the risk taking worthwhile. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Village Idiot Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 Please refresh my memory as to why Bernd Schuster left Real Madrid ? He was sacked for saying he thought Barcelona was "unbeatable" in the eve of last year's Barça-Madrid. No, I'm not making that up, that's the reason. They did way better under Juande Ramos, though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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