Liga Pundits articles

[diegomessi]

here i extend an olive branch --------------------

[Poor_Sunyol]

It was such a cheap shot and now he's at it again with a smart arse comment about olive branches. Why just because Gio is Italian?

[Beast]

Again DM? how about i extended a tango branch

i'm reporting this to the mods , seriously someone needs to stop this next thing you know he will be taking Alex to a fish & chips dinner to make up

[Metaphysical]

Double standards from Del Bosque and Marca
Tim Stannard

Monday 12 October 2009 12:01
If Joan Laporta’s wettest dream, an independent Catalan football side, ever comes true, then at least one part of the Spain manager’s life would have been made considerably easier: the politics.

Of course, this undeniable upside would be instantly countered by losing the likes of Iniesta and Xavi and having to build the midfield around Guti, a footballer who now claims to have rediscovered his Christian roots and has demonstrated this leap of faith by recreating the roof of the Sistine Chapel in a enormous tattoo on his left arm.

Saturday’s 2-1 World Cup win over Armenia has left Spain with nine wins from nine in their group, eight points clear of their final opponents, Bosnia, and Vicente del Bosque in a charitable mood with his players. The Barça ones, anyway, complains the Madrid press.

Spain’s coach has decided to allow the rib-bruised and suspended-anyway Carles Puyol to travel back to Barcelona along with the apparently knee-knacked Xavi.

And this has got AS’s panties in a bunch with the paranoid paper suspecting that a dodgy deal has been made between Pep Guardiola and the national manager – a suspicion that has come up in the past with injured Barça players returning home only to return for their next league encounters.

“I don’t have any agreements with any club,” sighed the moustachioed manager in a response oft uttered down the years by the national team boss.

Monday’s irritable edition is also accusing Del Bosque of double standards over his treatment of Fernando Torres, who has been troubled with muscle issues all week and only lasted 55 minutes of yet another non-scoring encounter.

But despite admitting that he has had conversations with a concerned Rafa Benítez, Del Bosque tells AS that his striker isn’t going anywhere and may play again on Wednesday, due to injuries to David Villa and Dani Güiza.

“I told [Benítez] that he is being well taken care of,” said the Spain manager about a player who has returned to Liverpool in an injured state five times.

I can't believe anyone with a real p.o.v. would complain about del bosque. is casillas anywhere near the first XI? no! he plays xavi and puyol in an utterly meaningless game and looks like he may play iniesta in yet another one (although in ramos and iniesta's case they could use the game time).

Marca are also crying foul over players poleaxed on international duty. Spitting flames over Cristiano Ronaldo’s ankle injury, which will see him on the sidelines for a month, Marca may never be ready to make nice with Portugal and their ex-Madrid-managing coach.

“Their doctor and [manager Carlos] Queiroz took advantage of the good faith of Cristiano,” moaned Monday’s editorial, saying that both should have listened to Madrid’s own medical report warning of the risks of playing their expensive product in the win over Hungary.

“It’s the opposite to what Del Bosque has done,” continued the complaint, which claims that the Spain coach has chosen club over country – all very brave in a game that was completely meaningless for his own side.

Unfortunately, there is no further word as to whether Portugal's bosses should have taken heed of Marca’s Saturday headlines, which boasted that Ronaldo would not be “hiding from this crucial match for Portugal.”

AS have taken a different line, with a reasonable Alfredo Relaño arguing that Ronaldo’s contribution to Portugal’s opening goal was key and asking whether the winger was “supposed to tell his country that his ankle pain meant that he preferred to count his millions in Madrid, whilst Portugal played for their World Cup future?”

But that’s of no concern to Marca, who are in full sulk mode and praying that their superstar player can return in time for Madrid’s encounter against Barcelona on November 29 – a game that is apparently the first “match of the century” of the current campaign.

Liverpool fans may be having the same worries over Fernando Torres' availability in the immediate future. But for Marca, there's one major difference between those two giants of the world game. Only one of them plays for Real Madrid

the bit in bold is magnificent.

and in AS, no less!

I guarantee you some agents/doctors tried to tell CR to miss the game/be on the bench and it was his choice to start. he's a massive patriot and despite having womanly tendencies is actually quite ballsy.

[Hamzah]

i'm amazed at diegomessi's blatant racism...

[Beast]

What's the time, Mr Wolf?
By Phil Ball


The break in the league programme this weekend means that the Soccernet column can stray down other alleyways, whistle in the dark and even lift up a few dustbin lids. Where shall we start?

Well perhaps in Madrid last Tuesday, where the 'Tormenta Blanca' book presentation was shored up by the welcome presence of several ESPN readers. Thanks for reacting to the clarion call and coming along guys. Later, invited onto a TV football programme called 'Punto Pelota', I meet 'Lobo' (the wolf) Carrasco in the make-up room, before going to the studios for the live midnight show. Carrasco used to play up front for Barcelona in the 1980's, and was capped over 50 times for Spain. Now he turns up occasionally on football chat programmes, of which there are several dozen each week in Spain. The Spanish like to talk, and to disagree with each other. It's the national art, and it makes some of the country's citizens a decent enough living. But Carrasco has always struck me as being a nice bloke, on the telly. I wonder if he'll tolerate the fact that I have come along with a book about Real Madrid under my arm.

Caked in make-up and lying in a semi-comatose position, Carrasco greets me in reverse perspective through the huge wall mirror of the brightly-lit room. "Hi there!" he intones (in Spanish). "So you're English?" I nod into the mirror.

"How's Gary?" comes the next question. This is the direct result of something I've noticed before about famous people - in that they always assume that if you're sharing the same space as them, you must be famous too. I guess it's some kind of defence mechanism, but Carrasco, I presume with a little trepidation, is enquiring as to the health of Gary Lineker. I have to think quickly, but have already discarded the alternative possibilities (Gary Glitter, Gary Megson, Gary Cooper,) before coolly replying, "He's absolutely fine. I see him every week". Carrasco sits up at this news, and even turns to look at me. His face is buried beneath mounds of dust and cream.

"You see him every week?" he asks, now genuinely interested. "I haven't spoken to him for a while now" he continues, "but any time he's over here we often meet up. And Mark too" he tells me. I assume he means Mark Hughes, who was also at Barcelona when he was there.

I decide to come clean. "I mean I see him every week on the BBC, on Match of the Day. Never met the guy in my life" I tell him, as I'm ushered into a make-up seat. For some reason Carrasco finds this hysterically funny, and I have a new famous friend for the evening - which is just as well, because I'm crap at chat-shows and find that my Spanish falls to pieces under the pressure of live questions, despite having spoken the lingo for 25 years or more. There are others invited onto the show. Jorge D'Allesandro, the former Argentinean goalkeeper who played for Salamanca for several seasons and who managed various La Liga clubs, the journalist Iñaki Cano, Elias Israel the ex-boss of Marca and a host of others.

As the cameras start to roll, we are all thrown a football by the back-stage staff and are forced to run onto stage dribbling the ball in front of us. Carrasco sets off boldly into the glare of the lights and I follow, desperately trying not to trip over the camera cables or to lose control of the ball. Finally, safely seated, ball under foot, the programme hammers along largely ignoring me, save for the occasional close-up of the book I've taken along. Carrasco is the kindest, constantly reminding the host, Josep Pedredol, that I haven't been asked anything for the last few minutes - but it's ok. The less attention the better.

It is remarkable how little of any significance can be stretched over a two-hour period and be watched by a decent percentage of the night-bird nation. Later, at about 3.30 a.m. in some night-hawks-at-the-diner Madrid café, we are still seated in a huddle discussing Sevilla's defeat of Real Madrid and Joan Laporta's right to get political whilst still president of Barcelona. Lobo Carrasco is now re-living old glories, and is trying to tell us about when a Juventus defender elbowed him in a European Cup match. I just nod and sip my orange juice. What's the time Mr Wolf? Way past my bedtime. A chap staggers across, clearly having seen the programme earlier, and tries to take issue with Iñaki Cano over something he said about Pelligrini two hours ago. Cano ignores him and when the man threatens to get nasty, a waiter intervenes and leads him away.

One topic that was discussed after the programme was, however, far more interesting than several that made it onto the live forum. The fact that several high-profile clubs are in a tizzy about the possibility of their star men not making the World Cup is a new twist to the saga of club power. It all started with Cristiano Ronaldo, of course, and the fact that if Portugal fail to make it to South Africa, he will suffer from gloom and a lack of motivation that will affect his club performances for the rest of this season, poor chap. Not only that, but Real Madrid have calculated that Ronaldo's annual worth in media-related income is close to €90 million per annum, a sum that will dwindle considerably if he is not participating in the World Cup. That sounds like idle speculation, but you never know.

Messi, though he has his value too, is worth less in marketing terms to Barcelona for the simple fact that he's not quite so Armani - but Argentina's game at Uruguay now takes on a potentially high significance for both Barça and Atlético Madrid, the latter who would like both Diego Forlan and Kun Agüero to be representing them on the media stage, but who may have to settle for losing one of them to gloom and doom. The general media themselves, of course, will feel that a part of their investment has been taken away if Messi fails to make it, and they may be right. Barça might also have cause to regret the poor form of Sweden too, since Ibrahimovic might now also be subjected to attacks of depression at the prospect of a summer with his feet up on the sofa watching the telly.

Nevertheless, were professional players always like this? Alfredo Di Stéfano, placed on the Number One-of-all-time podium by no less a figure than Pele last week, never played in a World Cup (although he travelled to Chile in 1962 with the squad), but it didn't seem to affect him much. George Best never did either, but nobody ever put that forward as a reason for his hitting the bottle.

The trouble is that having Messi and Ronaldo in the World Cup is becoming such a media-led necessity that you begin to fear for the cleanliness of the qualifying competition. Somewhere, there must be somebody out there who has contemplated a (dodgy) set of measures that would ensure, at the very least, the presence of one of these players. Portugal look to have the easier ride, at least to the play-offs, but their victory over Hungary was achieved with Ronaldo on for the first 27 minutes, despite his suspect ankle. Now he's out for four weeks, to the frothing indignation of the powers that be in Madrid. But they can't have it both ways. Presumably the presence of Ronaldo in the Portuguese side against Hungary was simultaneously helping the national and the club cause, but now the headlines are that Carlos Quieroz did it on purpose (eh?) and that he doesn't care about Real Madrid because they treated him badly when he was (briefly) manager there.

Over in Armenia, Spain won 2-1 in a game whose result failed to reflect the utter dominance of the visitors - that despite the fact that Armenia equalised at one point (thereby scoring against Spain for the first ever time) and celebrated the goal as if they had just won the national lottery. Valencia's Juan Mata restored some sanity with a penalty soon afterwards, but Spain looked as if they could hardly be bothered for most of the game, and simply passed it among themselves for long periods, with the Armenians running around in a daze, unsure of what to do.

The win made it nine out of nine for Spain, the longest consecutive run of group wins in World Cup qualifying history. They may have their work cut out to make it ten in the final game in Bosnia in midweek, but the astonishing fact is that the Spanish have now gone 42 qualifying games without defeat - the last one coming in 1993 in wonderful wonderful Copenhagen (1-0).

In Segunda 'A' there was a full programme, and I'm happy to report that Real Sociedad went top after beating Salamanca 2-0 at home. I went to the game and was surprised at the quality on offer, in front of a 19,000 crowd, buoyed by the long weekend because Monday, October 12, was a national holiday. Last season's 'silver' campaign was dominated by the three sides who eventually went up, leaving little option in the end for the chasing pack. This season it looks rather more open, especially after Real Sociedad put Numancia - theoretically this year's favourites to go up - to the sword in Soria last weekend, following it up with this impressive performance against Salamanca - a side who have also been a historically significant one in La Liga.

Waking up on Tuesday morning and opening the papers to see your side top of the league always makes the day more bearable somehow, despite the inevitable rain. The club is still technically in administration, and doesn't have two pennies to rub together, but the sudden emergence of a small group of players from the youth system this season (there were ten locally formed players in the starting line-up again on Monday)- some of them unexpected in their progression - has lit the fires of optimism again.

Next weekend it's back to the bread and butter. Watch out for the Valencia v Barcelona game, despite the absence of David Villa. It looks like the pick of the fixtures.

[yusuf]

half the time i have no clue what he is talking about

[sammy]

And i think many times he didn't have a clue also

[Beast]

He is talking about himself when he was interviewed/part of a chat show on Spanish TV with the ex-Barca legend Carrasco while he was holding his book "the white storm " about Real Madrid

anyhow

Cesc Should Go...But Not Right Now
Posted 12/10/09



Whilst Spain's World Cup qualifying campaign has been a fairly successful one with nine wins from nine, it has been more than a little patchy for both Fernando Torres and Cesc Fabregas.

Nevertheless, all that changed for one half of this Premier League pairing on Saturday night, during Spain's 2-1 away victory against Armenia - a game which gave indications of a possible fantastic future with La Furia Roja.

But it wasn't the Liverpool man who turned a corner with the European Champions. Instead, Torres endured another rotten evening for his country and failed to reproduce his brilliant league form with the striker still to score in the seven group games he has featured in.

Indeed, Torres has only grabbed one goal in 12 with Spain since scoring the winner in the European Championships in 2008.

With manager Vicente del Bosque admitting that he was at a loss to explain Torres's ongoing issues, Saturday's match looked like being a good opportunity for the striker to break his duck as David Villa's absence was to free him from the constraints of a less-than-perfect partnership.

However, Torres was all with the Wurzel Gummidge once again, with his unsure-of-himself Spain head telling him to take that extra touch in the box when his Liverpool one would have seen him firing off a net-busting belter.

But it was to be a much happier night for Cesc Fabregas who has always had a tough time with his country simply because of the quantity and quality of the midfielders he is competing with.

When Del Bosque opts for a four man midfield, then Cesc is very much an unwanted cog with Marcos Senna taking the holding position, Andres Iniesta as the creator, David Silva the wide-man and Xavi as the masterful midfielder who runs the Spanish show.

Aside from substitute appearances or injuries, Cesc cannot be considered a regular in the Spanish line-up because of the side's playing style that has clearly suited the country well over the past couple of years.

But injuries to David Villa and David Silva on Saturday gave Cesc the chance to strut his Arsenal stuff in a five-man midfield. And it was a fairly free role that he took full advantage of with the midfielder opening the scoring in a 2-1 win.

"I felt really happy with the position where I played, which was a bit more advanced and where I was able to take part in a lot of the moves," said a happy Cesc after the victory.

"In England, he plays at a different rhythm and it was costing him a place with Spain. But now he is overcoming this," wrote AS editor, Alfredo Relaño.

Most importantly of all, Cesc also showed that he could play alongside Xavi, with the paper noting that "between them, they destroyed their rivals."

Whilst this was very good news for Spain, it could mean bad times ahead for Arsenal as for a while now, there have been doubts in Spanish circles that Cesc could play alongside the Barcelona midfielder.

This has perhaps been one of the reasons why the Catalan club has never made a serious effort to bring one of the products of La Masia back to the Camp Nou.

That's not to say, of course, that Fabregas would have agreed to any move had it been made, especially after the disastrous one season spell his former team-mate and good friend, Alexander Hleb suffered.

Barcelona's very particular playing style means that it is a club where very good midfielders can be made to look very bad. This is something Cesc should bear in mind with the Catalan press predicting that the Arsenal man will be Barça's big purchase next summer.

Whilst previous stories could have been discounted as poppycock, they should be taken more seriously on this occasion due to the political situation at the club.

Barcelona are facing new presidential elections next summer, the traditional time for a candidate to win over supporters with a big name signing - and there are none bigger in the Catalan capital than Cesc Fabregas.

Even the current sporting director, Txiki Beguiristain, feels that Cesc back at Barcelona would make perfect sense. "He was born and raised with the football here. One day he'll end up playing for us at the Camp Nou. I'm sure of it."

Although a summer time move to Barcelona would certainly increase Fabregas' chances of picking up silverware in the immediate years to come, it could be an enormous step back in the personal progress of the 22-year-old.

While Vicente del Bosque may tinker with his Spanish midfield to accommodate the Arsenal man alongside Xavi, it's not something that is likely to happen at Barcelona with their firm 4-3-3 philosophy.

A purely defensive midfielder alongside Andres Iniesta and the 29-year-old Xavi is likely to be the fixed line-up for a couple of years to come along with an attacking front three. In this situation, Cesc would have the same problems breaking into his club side as he currently has for Spain.

But if the Arsenal man were to bide his time for a few more seasons at the Emirates and continue his imperious progress, then the rewards could be remarkable.

That's because the midfielder is the most logical candidate to take over Xavi's role at both Barcelona and in the national side and become the footballing focus of both teams. Whilst their styles may be completely different, their influence could be the same.

However, it is crucial that Cesc resists the temptation of an early return to Spanish shores and continues his growth under Arsene Wenger.

Because when the time is right for Cesc to make his move, few Arsenal fans would hold a grudge against a player heading to his home club and country not as an heir, but as a king.

Tim Stannard

[Beast]

Champions League Or Bust For Valencia?
Posted 19/10/09



Certain hoity-toity elements of Valencia society have a curious attitude to money. For these superior beings, cash is not something that is actually earned as done by grubby little commoners. Instead, it is stolen, embezzled and stuffed into envelopes.

A huge corruption case focusing on the region is currently dominating Spain's news agenda - those sections of the media not aligned with the the country's opposition party that's heavily implicated in the affair, that is.

Every day, more sordid stories puke forth from the east coast province concerning an ever-expanding network of corruption involving politicians, businessmen and even the Pope.

This somewhat unorthodox approach to finance has been rubbing off on the city's two football clubs. For years, Valencia's second side, Levante, has turned its nose up at the passé concept of paying its players, whilst the men from Mestalla are to economics what the Daily Mail is to compassion.

The hyper-blip version of why Valencia currently find themselves in 540m Euros (and rising) of debt blames it on the cost of constantly hiring and firing managers, buying rubbish for insanely-inflated fees and trying to build a new stadium and sell the old one during a property crash.

But, over the summer, the club adopted the bold policy of refusing to sell the likes of David Villa whilst dangling their tippy-toes in the pool of bankruptcy.

The strategy from club president Manuel Llorente centred on the concept that the club would have bugger all chance of a full recovery if the team's football future was reliant on Manuel Fernandes and a bunch of school kids.

So, all bids for the side's superstars - including one by Real Madrid for Villa - were turned down and a deal was put together where Bancaja, a local financial institution and Valencia's biggest creditors, would shovel a further 74 million Euros in the gaping Mestalla mouth, whilst 18 million was raised through a share issue amongst 28,000 fans.

In a truly touching moment, the local council or 'Generalitat' guaranteed the 74m loan, a move that no doubt delighted the non-Valencia fans of the region or those watching their local services cut during a hard-hitting recession. However, the move stopped the club flitting out of existence, says Llorente who claims that "without the intervention of the Generalitat, we'd be suspending payments and in the Segunda B division".

The problem is that Valencia's latest economic escape is akin to putting up wallpaper during an earthquake. The club lost 70m Euros last season and is expected to lose another 40m in the current campaign. It still needs to raise 200m to complete work on the new Mestalla and sell the land of the old ground.

Valencia's beancounters can only be weeks away from having to push David Silva out on the streets armed with a guitar and an Oasis songbook. It is no joke that it is already possible to hire some members of the first-team squad to attend your Mestalla-hosted wedding or corporate shindig.

All this financial fuss has put even more pressure on Valencia's stars to pull their collective fingers out and get the club out of the distinctly unglamorous Europa League and into the Champions League next season.

Two victories in their first two league games at the start of the year suggested that all would go well on the field for Valencia even if the club was a basket case off it. But that was followed by two draws and a defeat along with a careless tendency to throw away leads.

This did not go down at all well with the notoriously fickle Valencia fans who routinely go to games with handkerchieves to wave in case of a poor result or scarves to shake after a victory.

Manager Unai Emery was under pressure and a narrow 1-0 win away at Racing in the last round of action was not enough to burst this particular footballing boil. But the 37-year-old-coach had another chance to buy himself some time with the visit of Barcelona on Saturday night. The problem was that his squad was without the injured David Villa, the league's top scorer with six strikes.

So, to make up for this immediate disadvantage, one of Valencia's sponsors decided to knock together a '300' themed inspirational video to try and make Mestalla 'a hell' for the visiting Catalan club.

In reality, it was no better than one of those crackly Youtube compilations edited by a 15-year-old attempting to make some random Serbian striker look like Messi using nothing more than a Linkin Park soundtrack.

But despite being totally rubbish it was considered naughty enough for Spain's version of The Man to demand that it be taken off Valencia's club website. It was soon replaced by a video of a cartoon Heidi 'promising to be good' as she danced hand in hand with her best friend Peter the Culé.

Saturday night's atmosphere in a mental Mestalla was indeed impressive, but it wasn't enough to produce a win over the league leaders. And this was mainly thanks to much-maligned goalkeeper Víctor Valdés.

Your corespondent possibly stands alone in the universe in feeling that the Barcelona man gets a bit of a raw deal from Primera pundits. Against Valencia, the cantera product was superb and lauded in the Sunday press in Cataluyna for winning a handy point for Barça in the goalless draw.

Fans of the Camp Nou club routinely complain that Valdés is not Iker Casillas, whilst everyone else in the country - including various national managers - always focus on his increasingly rare gaffes. The Barça number one's string of saves in the opening ten minutes of the Champions League final against Manchester United is constantly overlooked.

In the first half of a storming Saturday night encounter, Valencia huffed and puffed but failed to blow Valdés' door down, before Barcelona got back into the game in the second half to find the former Spurs keeper César Sánchez in equally impressive form.

The stalemate meant that everyone went home more or less happy. Even the Valencia fans. And that's saying something.

Barcelona stayed on top of the table, one ahead of Real Madrid, with Pep Guardiola reminding the press that "we cannot win every single game" whilst the sixth-placed men from Mestalla showed that they are as good as anyone else in la Liga, on their day, with or without Villa.

A strong Sevilla still look good for a third-placed finish this season but the continuing failure of Villarreal - now bottom of the table - and a pathetico Atlético leaves the fourth spot tantalisingly open for Valencia.

And with the Mestalla club still living hand to mouth and looking for loans to survive in la Liga, failure to achieve this particular goal could be fatal.


Round 7 Results

Deportivo 1-0 Sevilla
Real Madrid 4-2 Valladolid
Valencia 0-0 Barcelona
Xerez 2-1 Villarreal
Espanyol 2-1 Tenerife
Mallorca 3-1 Getafe
Zaragoza 2-2 Racing
Málaga 1-2 Almería
Athletic 1-2 Sporting
Osasuna 3-0 Atlético


Tim Stannard

[Gnegneri]

In reality, it was no better than one of those crackly Youtube compilations edited by a 15-year-old attempting to make some random Serbian striker look like Messi using nothing more than a Linkin Park soundtrack.

He is talkign about Dzeko, Bojan!

[Beast]

SPANISH PRIMERA LIGA
Yellow Submarine sinking without trace

By Phill Ball


Time is an inconvenience between football matches. Who said that? Albert Camus? Nah - it was actually my mate Rob from Grimsby - but you can best appreciate that sort of sentiment if you come from such a place. In Spain, however, some extraordinary stuff again this weekend. Who needs beach balls when you've got La Liga? So let's start with a quick round-up, after the annoying little hiatus caused by the international fixtures

Apart from the newsworthy but fairly predictable fact that Barcelona dropped their first two points of the season and actually failed to score in Valencia (gasp), the sight that truly raises the eyebrows after this weekend's fare is the plight of the Yellow Submarine from Villarreal, submerged at the bottom of the sea after a couple of depth-charges from lowly Xerez hit them amidships.

Perhaps one should begin by congratulating Xerez on their first-ever win in the top flight, although it was not achieved without controversy. Antoñito's historic goal that won the game late on was a cracker, worthy of such a moment for the home supporters, but Calvos' handball that preceded it was obvious to everyone save the famous Rubinos Pérez, not one of the league's more perceptive refs, which isn't saying much, of course.

In general terms, Villarreal's difficulties are hard to fathom, although in specific ones they seem simple enough Like their modest opponents on Sunday, they seem incapable of scoring, even in the proverbial. Xerez's inabilities in that regard are more understandable (they've now managed three in seven games) since their tally in winning the Second Division title last season was a modest 73 - a good enough figure for sure, but not even two goals a game over the campaign.

Villarreal however, were expected to again challenge the big two this season, with or without Real Madrid's new manager Manuel Pellegrini upping the periscope to direct the torpedoes. After Robert Pires' effort on Sunday they have managed a mere five torpedo launches, but after watching Nilmar bizarrely hit the post in the second half after carving out the opportunity quite wonderfully, Rubinos Pérez turn down an obvious penalty and then having to bear Antoñitos' goal, manager Ernesto Valverde must be wondering if it's just not going to be his year.

He did okay with Athletic Bilbao and Espanyol in his previous four seasons of management in La Liga, and took Olympiakos to the Greek double last season, but the shadow of Pelligrini is already darkening his days at Villarreal, a post that several saw as being a step too far for him. Ironic that he was up against his old team-mate from his Bilbao days, Cuco Ziganda, with whom he formed an attacking pair that was all about goals. But the expectations are much less at Xerez, and Ziganda's job is less at risk, for the time being.

Looking at the Yellow Submarine's line-up on Sunday, it seems surreal that they are on the ocean bed. Joseba Llorente and Giuseppe Rossi bagged 27 in the league between them last season, and the Brazilian Nilmar will surely open his account sooner or later. The two Spanish internationals, Marcos Senna and Santi Cazorla are both excellent players and were on from the start, as was Joan Capdevila. Robert Pires, despite calling the referee a son of a b**** in his best Spanish, just seems to get better with age, and Soriano Bruno, Cani and Javi Venta are all useful players. You'd want to persist with Valverde a little longer, surely, so as not to rock the boat too soon (sorry to keep on dragging the metaphor along the seabed), but a managerial victim is more than possible this week.

Over in Valencia, not too much should be read into Barça's rather pallid performance in the Mestalla. David Villa, as was expected, failed to make the home team's starting line-up, and it was just as well for the visitors, given the opportunities that his teammates carved out without him. Victor Valdés, a goalkeeper who has never been rated as fairly as perhaps he should, and who has, on more than one occasion, been on the point of leaving the club, seems at last to have settled the debates as to whether he is a truly top-class act. Spain's' third-choice goalkeeper? Luxury! (with thanks to Monty Python).

He certainly preserved his team's unbeaten start with several top-drawer saves on Saturday night, but Barça's below-par performance was hardly surprising given that practically the whole squad had been on international duty in midweek. Leo Messi was provided with a private jet by the club so that he could be back in time to train and play in the Mestalla, but the money spent on getting him home in supersonic time seemed ill-spent. It's only mid' October but the wee man is beginning to look a tad jaded. Xavi himself looked unrecovered from the trauma of his last league game against Almería, and with only Iniesta looking like his normal self, the leaders struggled.

Ibrahimovic didn't even warm up from his hidey-hole on the bench, but Valencia is always going to be a tough place to go this season, as it has been for time immemorial anyway. The club's horrendous financial problems aside, the squad looks quite balanced this year, and the big names are doing their stuff. Sevilla's defeat at Deportivo, putting an end to a run of eight consecutive wins in league and cups, will have given Valencia fresh hope that they can be the third 'horse' this season.

Having said that it would be unfair not to give honourable mention to the two sides who sit immediately above Valencia after this weekend - namely Mallorca and Deportivo. Neither of them figured on the lists of La Liga's wisest for this season's early runners, although both sides hinted at better things to come with strongish finishes last season. Deportivo in particular were pushing for a Europa place almost until the final week.

Their extraordinarily busy summer, with seven players leaving the club and nine being repescado (brought back from loan spells - literally 're-fished'), seems to have paid off, youth blending in with the old timers Manuel Pablo and Juan Carlos Valerón. They've now gone four games without conceding, and look as though they might return the club to the consistency of yesteryear, when they even briefly threatened to become the third Spanish superpower.

Management might have something to do with this as well. Miguel Angel Lotina has never had massive success, but has always been a safe enough bet, and is a popular figure with players and press alike. This is his 18th consecutive season as a La Liga manager, with his ninth team. Likewise the rather noisier Gregorio Manzano over in Mallorca seems to have been around for ever, although he is four seasons short of Lotina's figure. Six of those have been spent at Mallorca (in two separate spells), so he obviously likes the island life.

In footballing terms, Mallorca have now won all their home games - significant in the sense that the home factor was never seen as their strong point in the past, with their ground often lacking the atmosphere and intensity of many of La Liga's stadia. Manzano seems to have put together a balanced and attractive side, without any great stars but without any obvious fissures. Aduriz, Keita, Victor - they can all score goals. Borja Valero, Suarez and Martí are all players who give the impression that they know what they're doing.

Getafe were the latest victims (3-1), manager Michel conceding that Mallorca's finishing had been of 'Champions League quality' - by which one presumes he meant that if they carry on like this they could make it a top-four finish. Early days for such assertions, I would contend, but they're certainly playing with confidence.

Last but not least, Real Madrid's Raúl, written off by so many observers but never doubted in this column (oh! My nose is unaccountably growing), scored twice against Valladolid and continues to pile up the records. Could Raúl actually go into the Guinness Book of Records for having achieved more records than anyone else? Not a week goes by without the Spanish press reminding us of another milestone passed. This weekend it was Raúl's 711th game for Real Madrid, which takes him past Manuel Sanchís' record. Sanchís managed this in 18 seasons. This is Raúl's 16th, which tells you something about his consistency.

Love him or loathe him, it's difficult to deny Raúl his twinkle in the firmament. Of all the clubs to achieve this with, Real Madrid is not exactly the easiest place, and the wonder of it all is that he was originally with Atlético as a youth player. The Bernabéu has long since forgiven him that little aberration of birth, and his divine status at the club is now an accepted lore. When he retires he is unlikely to go away, and will probably be groomed for management.

He is now the highest goalscorer in the history of the club, the top goalscorer for Spain, the highest Spanish scorer in the Champions League and probably the club's tiddlywinks champion. His semi-namesake, Raúl Tamudo, is similarly revered at Espanyol or at least he was until a few weeks ago.

On Sunday, for the home game against Tenerife, Tamudo was not even picked for the squad, and was asked to stay away from the stadium lest his presence cause trouble. Tamudo did as he was bid, but only after a tearful press conference in midweek that had to be abandoned when the player choked on his own words. In his 14th season with the club, he probably deserves better treatment to that meted out to him by the club's present authorities, but the breakdown between the two parties seems so irrevocable now that Tamudo's contract is on the point of being rescinded so that he can leave the club via the back door - a sad but seemingly inevitable end to a relationship that has seen the player also achieve a record number of club appearances (334) and score 130 goals. His 13 caps for Spain have always seemed a poor return for such a talented player.

In the most unfortunate of circumstances manager Mauricio Pochettino had asked Tamudo to cede the captain's position last summer (after eight seasons with the armband) to Daniel Jarque, literally three weeks before Jarque died tragically when on tour in Italy. The fact that Tamudo was not re-invited to the captaincy and then sought to have his buy-out clause reduced so that he could leave before this season began soured relations between Tamudo, a section of the fans, and the club's hierarchy.

It's a tricky one to analyse from outside the club, but it's all ending literally in tears. It might be better that he goes, before matters get any worse. Although not quite the force he once was, at 32 there are still plenty of clubs who will be interested in signing him for a couple of seasons, and the player has made no secret in the past for his admiration of the English game. Then again, Real Madrid could always sign him and really scare the lives out of opposing defences. A double whammy of Raùls - now there's a thought.

[Beast]

La Liga's Good Day, Bad Day - Round 7

Monday 19 October 2009 10:00
Good Day

Tomás Roncero

There was no happier fella in Spain this weekend than barking mad AS-man, Tomás Roncero.

For a while now, La Liga Loca had wondered whether his insanely upbeat articles about Real Madrid were clever examples of post-modernist, neo-satire.

Or simply the witterings of a delusional old sea-dog.

The blog can confirm it is the latter as it had the pleasure of sitting just behind the perfectly likeable but peculiar pundit during Saturday’s home clash against Valladolid.

Tomás was sat wearing a pastel-shaded Raúl scarf to celebrate the Madrid captain’s record-breaking 711th appearance, and spent his time madly responding to an avalanche of texts and commenting on the game.

“It was a pass! It was a pass!” shouted Tomás to everyone around him as Iker Casillas sliced a ball that somehow ended up at the feet of Sergio Ramos.

After half-an-hour Roncero was a happy man indeed, having seen two lovely goals from his favourite player put Madrid into a 2-0 lead and looking so comfortable (temporarily) that he even had time to spend a few minutes gazing at a picture of one of Rio Ferdinand’s bikini-clad squeezes on the back of AS.

Tomás Roncero: La Liga Loca salutes you.

Raúl

By tradition, La Liga Loca rarely has anything good to say about the Madrid captain so will merely note that it’s all very well scoring two goals at home to blooming Valladolid when you produce next-to-nothing away at Sevilla.

Still, he’s better than Benzema at the moment.

Victor Valdés

With Diego López gifting victory to Xerez on Sunday and Pepe Reina failing to save either of the two balls fired at him by Darren Bent, surely Valdés deserves a call-up to the Spanish squad sometime soon, especially after his brilliant display in Mestalla?

Yes, he has an annoying habit of chewing gum like an eejit as one LLL’er pointed out and once punched a cinema-going punter for no good reason, but the Barça No.1 surely deserves a day out of the doghouse.

Doesn’t he?

Xerez

Even if Xerez do go down this season, the win against Villarreal will be a top seller in all local DVD shops for years to come.

Possibly even knocking ‘Flighty Flamenco Floosies’ off the No.1 slot.

The victory owed an enormous amount to poor finishing from Villarreal and a losing-the-plot-along-with-the-rest-of-his-side Diego López, but fair do’s to Antoñito for his superb lob over the keeper after a truly dreadful clearance - his second in an awful 45 minutes for the Spanish international.

Oscar Serrano

If there was to be a less fancied player-of-the-season-so-far list, then La Liga Loca would plonk the Racing man into the left-midfield position.

As has already happened a number of times this season, Serrano has bailed his team out of trouble with a moment of individual brilliance.

Sunday’s saw Serrano burst through the Zaragoza midfield at 2-1 down and and chip their goalie from a good 30 yards out to give the visitors a cheeky point.

Miguel de las Cuevas

The Sporting midfielder was the club’s star signing of the summer. Well, it was pretty much their only signing of the summer.

And this did not bode well considering the footballer did not look all that hot while at Atlético.

But the brace up in Bilbao for Miguel was his second in a row and moves Sporting into a stunning 7th spot.

Fantastic news for everyone’s second favourite club in la Liga.

Mallorca

An uncharitable, arms-folded, La Liga Loca will continue to call Mallorca nothing more than effective this season, despite their 5th-placed position.

The Balearic side have won four from four at home but have taken on the flimsiest of opponents in Xerez, Tenerife, Valladolid and most recently of all, Getafe.

Only one point has been picked up on the side’s travels.

Win a proper game - like the visit to the Vicente Calderón next weekend - and the blog may, just may throw Mallorca a Scooby Snack of praise.

Espanyol

What would Monday be without a gratuitous dig at Barcelona, a moan about a referee and a showbiz encounter?

Here’s Paul from Barcelona who went to his side’s 2-1 win over Tenerife.

"A pretty forgettable match to be honest between one team that will finish top 10 and another that should win enough home matches to survive. You guess which is which.

a) Great away following again. About 250 Tenerife fans who sang a bit. Well done chaps.
b) Great finishing from Ivan Alonso and great goalkeeping from Tenerife's goalkeeper, Aragoneses.
c) The worst refereeing/linesman decision this side of a Barça match. Ivan Alonso through on goal, about to shoot, has his legs taken away from him from behind on the edge of the area. The decision: Alonso booked for diving.

Despite a couple of nervy moments, Espanyol were good value for the three points as Kameni should have saved the shot that Tenerife scored from.

By the way, I was collecting parts from The Harley Davidson shop and who should be standing outside? Zlatan. He's a big bloke and looks well hard.”

Paul, Barcelona

Deportivo

No. No. Still can’t find anything nice to say about them, despite their 1-0 win over Sevilla - the fourth 1-0 win of the season.

Putting Raúl in the Good Day section used up what scraps of goodwill the blog possesses in its cold and empty heart.

Bad Day

Atlético Madrid

Atlético’s latest disaster has been met by less than sympathetic ears - and indeed fingers - in the Spanish footballing press.

Disastrous performances both up front and at the back means that Monday’s favourite word to describe the 3-0 defeat to Osasuna is ‘pathetic’.

“Atleti were like a scared child” in the first 30 minutes rants Iñaki Díaz-Guerra in AS on a team that has tried every centre-back pairing imaginable in the league this season, but found that all of them are crap.

The rojiblancos have now conceded 17 goals, more than Barcelona, Real Madrid and Sevilla combined - three teams the side was supposed to be competing with this season.

“Football has been very unkind to us,” said a feeling-very-for-sorry-himself Abel Resino after the defeat in Pamplona.

Still, chin-up, says La Liga Loca, Chelsea away is next! Oh dear.

Villarreal

Lousy finishing, disastrous goalkeeping and a dressing room bust-up show what an awful position Villarreal now find themselves in.

Bottom-of-the-table, the only side without a top flight win and now suffering the humiliation of a defeat to Xerez.

Time will tell how patient Villarreal’s relatively-sane-by-Spanish-standard’s owner Fernando Roig is going to be with coach Ernesto Valverde.

Málaga

A truly rotten start to the season for Málaga continues with Sunday’s home defeat to Almería the side’s fifth in the last six matches.

Time will tell how patient Málaga’s relatively-nuts-by-Spanish-standard’s owner Lorenzo Sanz is going to be with coach Juan Ramon López Muñiz.

Getafe

Frackin’ frack. It’s now been 55 games since Getafe managed to win back to back matches in la Liga.

And only about a fifth of those can be blamed on current coach Michel.

Part of the problem is that Roberto Soldado has done naff-all since opening the season with a hat-trick against Racing.

However, he did manage to miss a bundle of chances in Sunday’s 3-1 defeat to Mallorca.

Marcelino

“I’m very upset,” said the Zaragoza coach after his side threw away a 2-0 lead against Racing with just 10 minutes left.

“I don’t like to give away things and that’s what we did today."

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[Cule Angles]

Tamudo in tears? They should add that as a new line in the song "it's a wonderful world".

[Beast]

Love Tamudo.. i'll miss him in Derby Catalonia
at least there is De La Pena