Liga Pundits articles

[G.J]

No I meant the "lock up your galactico" and the forlan one i think. I dont remember reading them before and I visit his blog weekly.

[Beast]

No I meant the "lock up your galactico" and the forlan one i think. I dont remember reading them before and I visit his blog weekly.

i have all Sid articles delievered to my mail box as soon as they are published.. here is the link

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/b...perez-election

[G.J]

Cheers mate.

[Raed]

Cules find it funny that we are resorting to the same man who had us losing three seasons in a row by destroying what could have been a decade dominating team but I also find it funny that Laporta issued a warning stating that the players of Barcelona are dedicated to the team and any attempt to sign Barca players will end in vain. He did not want such events disturbing the peace between the two teams.

Perez was buzzing around the Bernabeu in silence, minding his own business, but his aura instilled fear in managers, directors and club owners. He spoke for 13 minutes without mentioning anything, and people are already worried about their stars.

[Beast]

Is Pep The Main Man Of La Liga?

Tim Stannard



Spain doesn't really hand out golden gongs to the season's perkiest player or most magnificent manager.

And this means that the country misses out on all the fantastic fun to be had ranting and raving over why professional footballers and half-witted hacks haven't got the faintest idea.

That's not to say that trinkets aren't bandied about as campaigns draw to a close. But these are often awarded on an ad-hoc basis that veers between the political and the downright potty.

The extremely Madridista Marca kicked off a new tradition last year by awarding a player of the year plaque to Raúl.

And they are set to repeat the process until the Madrid striker retires, even if he spends the season standing on his head in the centre circle reading Cervantes.

Meanwhile, Atlético Madrid's professional penalty-giver Johnny Heitinga is set for a summer of stuffing himself silly.

The Dutchman was recently honoured by a local supporters' group for scoring the club's first goal of the season and has been given his weight in kilos of ham and litres of wine, his height in cheese, his foot size in litres of olive oil and 64 packs of beer to signify the minute the strike took place.

Ledley King is already campaigning to have him sent over to Spurs for the new season.

But if there was to be a trophy for the Top Cat of Spain's coaching world then it's Pep Guardiola who's the boss.

In the past week, Barcelona's big guy secured only the club's fifth cup and league double by beating Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey final and by seeing Real Madrid lose to Villarreal on Saturday, handed the Catalan club the league title before having to kick a ball in the Balearics against Mallorca a day later.

All this was achieved despite the current campaign being only his second season in management and looking a little like a Freddie Mercury who's lost his keys.

But if you were to think outside the Barcelona box and go with a George Burley, against-all-odds plucky performer then Unai Emery would be a snug fit.

The Valencia boss has had to deal with three different club presidents, his players going unpaid and the knowledge that almost everyone will be sold from under his nose in the summer due to the Mestalla club's crippling debts.

But with two matches to go, Emery's side are still chasing a Champions League place despite a 1-0 defeat to rivals Atlético Madrid on Sunday night.

But none of this will be of any consolation to a notoriously bad loser and a manager who looked livid as he stormed out of the Vicente Calderón press room soon after the disappointing defeat.

Málaga's drop out of the fight for European places shouldn't take anything away from a superb campaign from coach Antonio Tapia, who lead a side that came up from the second division last season and was expected to go straight back down.

The coach of the eighth-placed outfit has yet to sign an extension to his current contract and is reportedly keen on a move to England.

Anyone who gets their hands on this particular moustachioed maestro would enjoy watching their team play smart, fast, counter-attacking football using two wondrous wingers. What's more, Tapia even brought Albert Luque back to his best.

Deportivo, currently in seventh place, may be one of the dullest teams in Spain's top flight and the footballing equivalent of an evening with Ken Barlow, but they are still hanging on to hopes of a Europa Cup campaign despite the fact that the club is some 130 million euros in debt and possesses no players you could call strikers by any stretch of the imagination.

But what the club from La Coruña does have going for it is a manager with enormous experience - Miguel Angel Lotina, who can be a bit of a misery-guts and recently confessed to crying during television talent shows.

Gregorio Manzano has done an outstanding job with Mallorca, a club that had looked set for the drop due to enormous debts and a change of president but now finds itself comfortably in mid-table and looking like a more promising purchase for any prospective buyer.

Another one of la Liga's old warhorses resisted mid-season calls for his sacking and restored stability to a side which became the third best team in the second half of the current campaign.

Manzano even managed to pull off a win against Barcelona on Sunday evening, all-be-it against a second-string Barcelona and a badly-misfiring Samuel Eto'o.

If gongs are to be given for mid-season miracle-makers then Espanyol's Mauricio Pochettino is the stand-out star after taking over the club at the beginning of 2009.

A 1-0 win over an Athletic Bilbao side still feeling the effects of their midweek Copa de Rey mauling by Barça moves Espanyol into 14th and just two points away from certain survival after scraping the bottom of the table for much of the current campaign.

The Pericos saviour appears to live in his club tracksuit and sleep on a bench, but Pochettino is on the brink of ensuring that his side moves into their spanking new stadium next season proudly parked on a Primera-shaped perch.

Hugo Sánchez has done a fine job since taking over little old Almería at the beginning of the year. Sceptical eyebrows were certainly raised when the Mexican manager moved back to Spain to seek his fame and fortune but have since returned to their default positions.

It was felt that Sánchez was living off a reputation as a player rather than as a coach when he took over the southern side over the New Year.

But with a magnificent flat-top perched on his head, the former Madrid striker has led Almería out of the badlands of relegation and into a snug mid-table spot.

All these names of worthy of a frantic flag wave but it is Pep Guardiola who the undisputed top performer of this season's Primera.

After all, he has lead his team into a position where a Champions League win has now become a nice-to-have and not a necessity

[Beast]

La Liga’s Good Day, Bad Day - Round 36

Monday 18 May 2009 10:00
Good Day

Barcelona

Like a wet dream for Maniche, Barcelona didn’t even need to disembark from the bus on Sunday to seal the deal.

Instead, it was the party-poopers from last weekend, Villarreal, who gave Pep’s Dream Boys a break with a sterling show against Madrid.

Apart from watching Mad Sammy Eto’o having an absolute ‘mare against Mallorca, the most entertaining event of the evening's affair was seeing Barça’s goalkeeping legend, Oier Olazabal, receive rapturous applause during the guard of honour that greeted la Liga’s latest winners as they trotted out at the Ono Estadi.

Atlético Madrid

With Valencia’s front-line making Klaas-Jan Huntelaar look industrious on Sunday night, Atleti should have buried the men from Mestalla in a gallon of goals.

But instead, the rojiblancos chose to do things the hard way in front of a jumping-and-jiving Vicente Calderón crowd.

Chance after chance was missed by Kun & co, and it was only after an outrageous tumble from the Argentinean striker that Diego Forlán was able to poke away a penalty that moved Atleti into fourth spot - a spot they can’t possibly blow. Can’t they?

Espanyol

And speaking of dodgy decisions from referees and polemical penalties, here’s Paul from Barcelona on Espanyol’s 1-0 win over Athletic.

“An awful match between a below par (not in the golf sense) Espanyol and Stoke City minus the long throw but with Crouch up-front.

"Espanyol won thanks to a (dodgy!!! - LLL) penalty after the worst player I've seen this season, Gurpegui, fouled man of the match Coro and Luis Garcia scored.

"Nothing else happened. It was really bad.

"250 Bilbao supporters and one stray cat.

"Good to see self-proclaimed Barça fans behaving themselves. What a bunch of (fine upstanding supporters - LLL)!!!”

Paul, Barcelona.

Roberto Soldado

La Liga Loca is still a bit befuddled over whether the former Madrid man is actually any good or not.

The Getafe striker is a bit of a wasteful Wally when it comes to chances in front of goal, as seen in his team’s Bernabeu clash when it took some 57 attempts before he found the back of the net.

Luckily, one of Soldado’s decent days was on Saturday when he powered in a header to give Getafe a draw and a big old point away at Deportivo.

Manager, Michel, says Getafe deserved more from the tie. La Liga Loca says what would he know?

Numancia

‘Good-bye!’ cried La Liga Loca last weekend to Numancia. Well, it’s 'hello again!' after a 1-0 win over Recreativo in a match where they battered their opponents.

Villarreal

Villarreal’s strikers are still an absolute disaster, but luckily the club’s midfield tricksters went about their business on Saturday with both Robert Pires and Cani coming up with the goods in the 3-2 win over Real Madrid.

With Atleti due to balls things up royally before the end of the season and Valencia visiting El Madrigal next weekend, a Champions League spot is still a big possibility for Manuel Pellegrini’s men.

Sevilla

La Liga Loca spent the first part of Saturday night clucking like a chicken and flapping its arms as Sevilla took to the field against Osasuna with Jesus Navas and Diego Capel both on the bench.

It spend the second half doing it too, as it happens, but for very different reasons.

A four man central-midfield ensured a pragmatic point for the Andalusian side who still sit in their third-placed throne.

Arzu

Not only did the Betis midfielder get to score a thumper in his team’s 2-0 win over Almería but Arzu also got to pump a good old fist towards the critical home crowd.

This ensured much booage for the rest of the encounter and one or two eggs probably being thrown at his car. If it hasn’t already been set on fire, that is.

Sporting

And so the comeback begins, thanks to a truly bizarre own goal from Malaga’s Hélder who somehow managed to whack a glancing header into the back of his own net.

Racing Santander

“This particular encounter is set to be a stinker, a slimer, a David Bisbal of a game of football. A guaranteed gumbo of a game” wrote La Liga Loca on Racing’s clash with Valladolid - a 3-2 thriller as it turned out that moved the home side onto 42 points.

Bad Day

Juande Ramos

On Friday afternoon, Juande Ramos was appealing to the press on why his booty should be parked on the Bernabeu bench come August.

“Two weeks ago, I was a strong candidate to manage Madrid next season,” argued the manager who was a strong candidate to manage Madrid next season two weeks ago, “and now I’m not, just because I lost one match.”

Unfortunately for Ramos, that’s just tough titties.

It wasn’t the loss of that single game against Barcelona that blew his chances of a contract renewal, but the disastrous manner of the defeat. That and the absolute stuffings handed out by Liverpool in the Champions League.

While it’s true Ramos had inherited someone else’s squad - no-one at Madrid seems willing to take full responsibility for it - the perception in Madrid is that he should have done better with the resources at his disposal.

Real Madrid’s third straight defeat means that Ramos has just two more weeks left in his current post. Plenty of time for that stationary cupboard raid.

Osasuna

Maybe playing Barcelona and Real Madrid in their last two games of the season won’t be so bad after all. Even so, Osasuna need to win both after the weekend’s disappointing goalless draw against Sevilla.

Julien Faubert

The Madrid man has finally made the front pages. But for apparently being asleep on the bench and “touching his parts” as Marca tastefully puts it during the defeat in El Madrigal.

Kun Agüero

“Agüero is not being clever in the penalty area. He’s being a cheat,” says Roberto Palomar in Monday’s Marca. La Liga Loca, for one, salutes you sir.

David Villa

This may be just a footballing fluke, but whenever La Liga Loca has actually seen David Villa play live, he hasn’t been any good.

TVE

Not a great week for Spain’s national channel that is still trying to get to grips with the concept of live television.

During the week it cut away from the national anthem during the Copa del Rey final and replayed it at half-time having manipulated the sound and images.

On Saturday, in its infinite wisdom it opted to show Saturday’s title decider at Old Trafford a good three hours late. But at least the good, good people of Spain got to watch some bike testing from Le Mans.

Ordinarily, La Liga Loca would sigh and move on if it weren’t for the fact that TVE bought the Premier League rights with ITS TAX MONEY. Scumbags.

Soraya

Despite being as bright as a button, as cute as a puppy and in possession of a terrific tush, Spain’s Eurovision entry bottomed out, as it were, in Moscow, causing a whopping storm of protest on Saturday night while the citizens of Barcelona were smashing up their city centre for the fourth time in a fortnight.

Was it the fault of pesky Commies? Being last to perform? Singing in Spanish or simply the result of a terrible tune?

[Quash]

I love these articles :cheers: Keep em coming man, always a highlight.

[Beast]

My pleasure Quash :cheers:

Why it's time for Guardiola to go

Tim Stannard

Tuesday 19 May 2009 09:00
When the world’s finest football magazine repeatedly begged La Liga Loca to come on board some 78 years ago - well, offered it a packet of biscuits - those running the show knew they were getting their brilliant hands on an institution that spoke the truth, stuck it to The Man, kept getting its Llorentes confused and would fail to predict night following day.

But it also knew it was banking on a blog that was a straight-talker, a blog that was ahead of the game, a blog that would lead and not follow.

So that’s why it is now officially calling for the handsome head of Pep Guardiola. It’s time for Barcelona’s big guy to go.


Barring a wobbly start for Pep’s Dream Boys at the start of the season in la Liga, the Catalan coach has barely put a foot wrong.

After just one year’s experience in Spain’s lower leagues, Guardiola leapt onto a wild horse called culé and has ridden it into the sunset of success.

Women want to be him, men want to be with him and the Madridista press doesn’t hate his guts despite his side making their Castle Greyskull cronies look very silly indeed.

Even grown-up broadsheets go goose-pimply in his presence. “He’s the eternal seducer,” sighs El País. “The triumph of passion,” pants El Mundo. “Miles better than the Pope,” suggests Vatican-crazy ABC.

Pep’s men won la Liga with three matches left. Pep’s men are on course to score the most number of league goals in a season. Pep’s men have just bagged the domestic double for only the second time in half-a-century for the club.

Barcelona don’t even need to win the Champions League next week for golden idols to be carved to glorify Pep’s name, as if he’s the Catalan capital’s very own Kim Jong II.

Things simply can’t get any better for the Barça boss. And that’s why he should jump ship as soon as the final whistle blows on the end of current campaign.

In fact, he should do it as early as next week to avoid a disappointing draw against Deportivo in the last match of the year.

Imagine the alternative future if Pep remains at his post for another season.

Barcelona’s laurel-sitting superstars start the new campaign at a canter leaving Roy Keane’s Real Madrid with a 10-point lead by October (Arsene Wenger having quit two days into his role).

The local press, who are currently claiming that the sun shines from Pep’s perfect posterior, begin to blame his lack of experience, say that he’s a first-season fluke, announce that he’s a busted flush.

An editorial in Monday’s Sport is a key to how the backlash could begin. “The key to the transformation of this team is exclusively down to the work of Guardiola,” writes Joan Vehils.

That’s all very nice now from the culé-loving columnist, but does the same principle apply if things don’t go so well in the future?

Run, Pep, run, while you still have the chance.
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Interesting

[Quash]

Hmm interesting, but about as far from my line of thought as you can get. Obviously, I don't think what we've achieved this season will be repeated in a hurry but why would someone who has brought nothing but positive change go? Regardless of what we win next year, it's strange, I can't imagine us with a different coach anymore. I want to see what he can do with the new players next year.

[Raed]

Well he said it himself, had a different coach been in his position, the boys brought in and the ones remained had enough in them to win.

He was being humble like he always has been, which is great, but to a certain extent he is right. But for that very reason, sticking with Barcelona might see him bring in more success. Really, if he wins the league next year again, it would be success. If he brought in a different major title in every season at Barca it would be success. On the long run if Barca go a year or two without having won a lot in previous year it would still be success but the team must win something almost every year. Barcelona won't find anyone better than him and don't get spoiled. Alex Ferguson is a hero for his consistency and Man U got to where they are by not demanding doubles every year.

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Women want to be him, men want to be with him and the Madridista press doesn’t hate his guts despite his side making their Castle Greyskull cronies look very silly indeed.
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Barcelona’s laurel-sitting superstars start the new campaign at a canter leaving Roy Keane’s Real Madrid with a 10-point lead by October (Arsene Wenger having quit two days into his role).

Lmao! I don't know if that was a mistake in the first comment but that is hilarious.

[maz]

If he does stay, i wouldnt expect the world from him. I understand football is about cycles. Perhaps he will stay and will build a dynasty of a club that will be on top for a few seasons at a time, and rebuilding for a few seasons. Or perhaps he will have a poor sophomore season and leave. I dont mind.

[Raed]

What does Sophomore mean?

[Beast]

Lmao! I don't know if that was a mistake in the first comment but that is hilarious.

you just noticed! ? every pundit has thrown a gay innuendo through out the season on Pep.. so no it's not a mistake

[maz]

What does Sophomore mean?

second.

Sophomore album, sophomore year etc..

[Beast]

Villa makes mistake of visiting Madrid
Tim Stannard

Wednesday 20 May 2009 10:00

“Valdano negotiates with Villa!” yells Marca. “Villa takes a walk to Madrid!” screams AS. “Over my dead body!” splutters Raúl.

Those were Wednesday’s headlines that greeted the appearance of David Villa in the streets of the Spanish capital the day before - an appearance that had him pestered and probed by stalking hacks and photographers.

The Valencia striker was seen with his wife (face blurred by AS, but not Marca) strolling hand-in-hand through the sunny streets!

The Valencia striker was seen near the Santiago Bernabeu!

The Valencia striker was in town to “buy a suit for my brother-in-law’s wedding,” explained the man himself.

‘Doesn’t matter!’ was the answer from the Madridista press desperately hoping that at least one of their Ribery, Ronaldo, Kaká, Silva, Zlatan, Villa, Wenger, Mourinho, Ancelotti stories comes true over the summer.

If the photographers are out sleazing on the streets once again on Wednesday, they will be snapping a pitiful posse heading into a court room to answer accusations that they were involved with “the destruction, suppression and hiding of public documents” in relation to Real Madrid’s controversial AGM held last December.

The group will be headed by Ramón Calderón and - embarrassingly for Marca, who merely mumble his name in connection with the alleged crime - current Real Madrid president, Vicente Boluda.

This has meant the paper has had to tone down their “worst president in the club’s history" tantrum a tad, considering that Boluda, as Calderón’s No.2, may have had some influence during his tenure.

Marca have some exciting transfer news for Atlético fans, fans that will be hoping their potential new player is of the calibre of recent arrivals such as Seitaridis, Heitinga, Cleber Santana, Assunçao, Reyes, Pernia, Maniche and Luis García.

According to the paper, the club are sniffing around Udinese midfielder Gaetano D’Agostino, a footballer who “has had many appearances for the Italian U21 side.”

Very promising indeed, thought La Liga Loca until it saw that D’Agostino was 26, making him a sensational starlet some six years ago and Serie A’s equivalent of David Dunn.

Still, the Italian’s Wikipedia page reports that his favourite animals are horses, so he will at least be partly prepared to spend the next few seasons alongside a bunch of donkeys.

Over in Catalunya, the local Barca-barmy dailies are all in a tizz over next week’s Champions League 3-0 mauling by Manchester United, despite the fact that it is still seven days away.

Sport’s headline fails to grasp the concept of superlatives by claiming that the Roma battle will be “the best against the best.”

While Mundo Deportivo have a devilish tale suggesting Gerard Pique will be the “anti-Cristiano” continuing the assumption in the Spanish press that Manchester United have a team consisting of just one player.

At this point, the blog must end on a melancholy note with the news that Sevilla’s Javi Navarro has hung up his hairband and announced his retirement after a lengthy spell on the sidelines with a giant knee knack.

The central defender played a key role for Sevilla during their five trophy, two season spell and recalled at a press conference on Tuesday that his “best moment was seeing children and grandparents crying when we picked up our first trophy.”

In a fine career, Navarro has certainly left his mark on the city of Seville, the game in Spain and Juan Arango’s skull.
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