Jermaine Pennant has tried paella and he likes it very much: The non-English speaking soccerball leagues 09/10

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01371/antonio-cassano_1371916c.jpg

Great initiative, a hoy hoy, I'm on dis ting

Dani Jarque R.I.P
Van der Vaart and Sneijder look like they are going to Inter, meaning Chelsea have to put up with Deco for another year
Roma looking into even more fat, useless Brazilians
Bundesliga starts, no-one seems to notice.

Also, Ribery has supposedly been signed as the next galactico for next year, because, you know, transfer rumours are always so accurate.

Van der Vaart and Sneijder look like they are going to Inter

both of them!? meh.

in the meantime the dutch league has a new star.

http://psv.nieuwslog.nl/data/subdomain/150/article/20090311182853_keisuke_honda.jpg

Keisuke Honda, all the way from Japan. will probably leave his minor club VVV (he basically scored all their goals or gave assists so far) for PSV (if they sell Afellay)
would be nice if Honda helped Japan to a World Cup quarter-final.

Have been reading good reports on him elsewhere on the internets.

shhh i was going to say you heard it here first.

HOW MANY FOOTBALL THREADS

5 (6 if you count MLS I guess)? As per every year?

One for Scots; one for us glory hunting organic prawn sandwich eating types; one for the dudes waiting for their club to go into administration; one for De Subjectivisten and me to orgasm sneeze over Barcelona and then FA Cup, oh and I guess Carling Cup threads. Not that crazy.

sorry, I guess it's just cos they all have similar titles and all cropped up recently (start of leagues d'uh) tht I noticed the 'abundance'

carry on :D

(this is the thread I'm most interested in, besides the SPL obv; bookmarked)

dani jarque RIP; very sad :(

Everyone's favourite Belgium manager gets fired, so I'm guessing he'll be Chelsea manager come February

Turns out most leagues started this weekend, including Ligue 1, without anyone seeming to notice.

Advocaat is Dutch, a hoy hoy (but will be manager of Belgium from january 1st 2010 on)

G'Day, mates: Robbie Fowler is coming to your pissant town: The 2009/10 A-League

I thought he was Dutch, and originally typed "everyone's 7th favourite Dutch manager", but then obviously misread the article - before my first hit of caffeine this morn - and cocked it right up, thinking I'd got his nationality wrong.

Good and madly fascinating summary of the Mutu fiasco here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/mattslater/2009/08/mutus_misery_is_footballs_foll.html

That's pretty good, but I don't really understand the tone of incredulity - you could question using the replacement SWP fee rather than Mutu's own fee, and I suppose whether Chelsea should be entitled to compensation for the whole term or just the period of the ban (though that would effectively mean that a club couldn't sack a player who failed a test), but the principle of the thing seems fair enough. It's just a pity it's Chelsea's pockets being lined.

MADRID, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Valencia have secured a loan of 74 million euros ($106 million) which they plan to use to acquire a stake of 72.5 percent in itself in an attempt to stabilise the cash-strapped club, president Manuel Llorente said on Sunday.

Local bank Bancaja agreed to lend the cash to the club’s charitable foundation and the Valencia regional government, the Generalitat, has guaranteed the loan, the club said on their website (www.valenciacf.com).

The foundation plans to buy the remaining 1.53 million shares available in a capital increase, which has already raised around 18.75 million euros, they added.

“From this point a new era of stability begins and the players can concentrate fully on their game,” Llorente said. “We have saved a very difficult and worrying situation.”

Valencia’s foundation said in a statement it planned to make shares available to those who had not been able to take part in the initial phase of the capital increase.

“At last the club is being returned to the Valencia fans,” Llorente said.

The club finished sixth in the league last season and qualified for the potentially lucrative Europa League. But their financial woes forced a halt to construction on a new stadium and officials said they might have to sell prize assets such as Spain internationals David Villa and David Silva.

The club’s debts of some 500 million euros rival those of Real Madrid and Barcelona but they lack the vast earning power of the two Primera Liga giants.

Will banks ever learn that giving more money to those who can't pay what they already owe = stupid?

oh they'll make it all back by selling t-shirts

So Serie-A started off this weekend. Ronaldinho didn't look fat and pointless, Bari got a point against Inter, Genoa beat Roma and look like they might still be able to keep up last season's good form and everything else was a bit boring. Good times.

holy shit Bolivia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4qHKXkXumY&feature=player_embedded

x_x

you can't deny the remarkable agility of the lads

Anyone been watching ESPN's European football, then? I've been dipping in and out, and it's felt weirdly unsatisfactory, almost like I'm expecting an anchorman or something to try and give it some context. I do keep missing the live games, though, so I'm stuck with the edited re-runs of matches. The continuity feels a bit lacking.

This Serie A highlights show right now is inspired - turns out that what Serie A highlights need is to be shot so you can't make out what's going on, and to have the commentary replaced with the new Mika single.

Ooh useful thread, been meaning to pay better attention this year.

In France, it seems Gourcuff is continuing where he left off last season, along with the rest of Bordeaux (who tbf haven't had the most troublesome opposition yet). Top scorer in front of teammate Chamakh; I wonder how long the team can hold onto them.

that bolivian highlight bringing me back to the ?brazilian national cup final? of some years back, where at 2-0 up some wiseass decided that ball juggling was the order of the day with 2 mins to go, starting off a riot.

I think he's going to stay there for the year. Rumour is that Arsenal were hashing out a deal for around 6-8m for him, but once we sold Adebayor, they told us to double it and wouldn't step down. For everyone else though, 6-8m is fine. He doesn't want to go to West Ham though, and is a good enough player that he should be at a champions league team.

Still can't believe how much Milan cocked up over Gourcuff, even if Ronaldinho has given up the Elvis diet.

darraghmac, you mean this? Some wiseass = Kerlon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBXv5FISzjg

That seal dribble shit warrants getting elbowed in the throat, frankly [/working class]

(still patiently waiting for Kerlon to become the best footballer ever - he has his own thread: KERLON )

My favourite foul ever, about 24 seconds in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Yj7GoXPZw

unless that situation degenerated dramatically after that clip stops, then no, i mean riot

players fleeing from the pitch, throwing themselves 15ft down concrete stairwells, etc.

but in principle, same kind of event.

there's a cafu clip with much the same type of foul. you can't help but think 'good on yer' while wincing.

oh aye I remember the one you mean, no idea how to find it though as I can't remember who it involved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk5cDq2iL0Q

that's the one

ROME (AP) -Leading gay rights group rebuked national team coach Marcello Lippi on Wednesday for saying he'd never allow openly homosexual players to play for Italy because it would create scandal.

Lippi's remarks came amid a wave of anti-gay violence in Rome, including a violent attack against a gay couple, that has prompted new calls for an anti-discrimination law to better protect the rights of homosexuals.

Lippi was quoted on an Internet television program as saying a gay couple on the field would create "conflict'' in football-mad Italy, where games and the lives of its top players are dissected in detail in national sports dailies and television talk shows.

"We're not talking about a cultural question, but of a mechanism of interests for whom a relation of this type would enter into conflict,'' Lippi told the KlausCondicio program. "Even if from a cultural perspective people would approve and be able to understand and accept such a situation, it would nevertheless be exploited so much that it would end up negatively.''

Gay rights group Arcigay said Wednesday such comments only increase prejudice against homosexuals and are particularly damaging coming from someone such as Lippi, who is held in such high esteem by the young.

"We are tired of hearing politicians, singers and coaches who fuel... a climate that is by now poisoned by fear and suspicion,'' Arcigay said in a statement. "We don't want to be afraid any more, and we hope that people in the public eye will have the courage to affirm the dignity of everyone to live their own lives, their relations and loves in broad daylight.''

Lippi's remarks came amid a spate of violence against gays in recent days that has convulsed the capital: Last week, a gay couple was attacked as they embraced, with one of the men suffering a head wound and another knifed in the abdomen. The attacker was arrested.

And on Tuesday night, vandals tried to torch a prominent gay disco while it was closed, breaking a window and throwing flammable liquid inside.

Mayor Gianni Alemanno has denounced the "grave'' attacks and said that decisive action must be taken whenever such forms of intolerance occur.

Alemanno, a right-wing former neo-Fascist, has joined Arcigay and members of the center-left opposition in calling for anti-discrimination laws to help combat anti-gay violence.

"Why, dear Lippi, couldn't footballers openly experience gay love when they show their flirts with every type of showgirl in front of every TV camera?" said a statement on the Arcigay association's website (www.arcigay.it).

El Real Madrid traspasa a Robben al Bayern de Munich por 25 millones de euros, apparently

this has a whiff of madness about it to me. i know he is a lazy, petulant fuck, but no one better than Bayern came in for him? really?

leaves Bayern nicely loaded on wings tho.

if it isn't a precursor to a ribery move in the opposite direction, but that seems unlikely

maybe a tee up for next year. Madrid seem to have a thing with these back room, long term transfer agreement shenanigans.

If only the rest of the Bayern team weren't shockingly bad, I'd almost want to watch one of their games this season. I mean, as exciting as it will be to see Robben and Ribery as providers, they are doing their magic for... Toni and Gomez. Well fuck me.

Arjen Robben came in the second half against reining champions Wolfsburg and slotted the 2-0 and 3-0! Dream debut, looking very good together with Ribery.

Valencia's kit is as ugly as this game is boring.

bah the one time i'm distracted and something happens! well, i think kanoute got sent off, i'm not sure due to the spanish commentating.

Did anyone see the Milan derby?

My god... I just saw Axel Witsel's (Standard) horror charge on Marcin Wasilewski (Anderlecht) of last night, breaking Wasilewski's leg. This is a serious shocker, like Eduardo last year. There's video here, but it's not for the weak hearted

my girlfriend just texted me from a pub to tell me that Barcelona have just scored one of the best goals she's ever seen. True? (Assuming that she's seen plenty of good goals.)

Sampdoria have confirmed that their coach Luigi Del Neri is on his way to Juventus.

it begins :(

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/may/22/barcelona-cesc-fabregas-barney-ronay

AT LAST SOMEONE'S SAID IT :D

haters gonna hate iirc

Don't really get his beef with the "more than a club" thing. He said it himself - Yeovil Town are more than a club, every fucker reckons they're a massive club, more than a club, salt of the earth, for the people etc.

I mean, is it just that they painted a few seats yellow?

thing is I also agree with Ray Hudson about Barcelona. I am a walking contradiction.

(Yeovil Town does not believe itself the Pope of football clubs.)

You should totally try for a Guardian blog, lj

That guy's got one thing right, though - the Unicef thing is really annoying. You can't have a sponsor and get the kudos of having no sponsor. I liked that Villa promoted Acorns because I'd never heard of it and it could use the publicity, plus Villa gave up some wedge to do it. Barça have just turned their shirt into a Rolling Stones VW Golf

Doesn't it help Unicef to have that exposure? If so then that's a good thing, right? If not why would anyone sponsor a shirt?

Barca pay Unicef to have their logo on their shirts. Again, I don't really see what the 'problem' is. Would people prefer it if they sponsored an obscure charity they'd never heard of? Damned if they do, damned if they don't. I like watching Barca's "non‑contact tippy-tappy style of play", and I like the fact that they pay a charity for the privilege of having their name on their shirts. Doesn't mean I don't think any less of clubs who get paid for advertising Chupa Chups or Doritos.

Ha, doesn't mean I think any less of clubs who...

Yeah I know Barca pay for it, I'm just questioning why anyone would moan about it when it is clearly good for the charity - of course Barca get positive publicity out of it but what's the problem? Most clubs do charity work and most clubs publicise it when they do as it is a slight counterbalance to their usual greedy money grabbing mercenary fucks who take their supporters for granted activities.

I was under the impression that Unicef were almost entirely state-funded, so there's no particular benefit to them in the exposure, unlike Acorns whom most people had never heard of. I may be entirely wrong here, I admit.

Aesthetically, I liked that Barcelona didn't sully their stripes with a sponsor's logo. Looks much nicer, and a respectable bloody-mindedness about it too. Not sure anyone's left to take that purist approach now, at least through choice. I still grit my teeth at international shirts having numbers on the front.

i can get behind the criticism of the "barcelona's tiki-taka is the pinnacle of all football"-sentiments but other than that it feels like the whole mes que un club thing means a lot more to the haters than the fans of the club

http://www.101greatgoals.com/15-goals-that-failed-to-make-the-101-greatest-goals-of-the-200910-season-list/55607/

http://www.101greatgoals.com/10-more-goals-that-failed-to-make-the-101-greatest-goals-of-the-200910-season-list/55653/

so french football followers, what's the hubbub on chamakh? i've seen him a few times and liked him but i'm guessing that is a bit different to someone who has seen bordeaux on french motd every week for the past decade...

"so, that ex-girlfriend of yours I've started seeing- what's she like in bed?"

she's well into pegging, actually

do i want to look that up i don't think i do tbh

haha, that reminds me. this has a different meaning in the us than what i assume rio intended:
The Manchester United and England defender told the Daily Mail: “I'm not scared of needles but there was a lot of biting on pillows”

pillow biting means the same thing here in the United of Kingdoms

oh!

'grats to Toluca, again Mexican champs after the most boring final 2nd leg I've ever seen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elg-1kSYCKs&feature=related

I would not be upset if this replaced 11v11 football.

cracking 1st goal

pavement's mark ibold is a dinamo zagreb supporter
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/img/music/pavement/torontoisland/12.jpg

carrying on the tradition of rocker's following croatian football. grateful dead were obvious supporters of the national team before they were an independant nation.
http://images.jambase.com/fans/kurt_van/Icon_Europe72_Front.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_NPS51Yzmg&feature=player_embedded

chilean football sub-ruling #1: every fucking game has to have a penalty in it

seriously I'm not surprised that ref got mauled

27-match ban, there. "20 games for strangling the ref, five for his second attempt to attack the official and two more for the red card"

the thing that outrages me about that clip is the number of penalties

maybe they were all blatant penalties? who knows. penalties are shit.

A big thing there was about the penalty that had to be retaken *three* times.

Indirect free-kicks in the six-yard box are where it's always been at.

why is it i wonder that the only examples of those i can recall were all scored by alan shearer? did he even have that many?

i think his indelible rifle action corresponds with the primal satisfaction of blasting it in from that proximity basically

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZxwEkZvAwQ

LOL fuck being in this wall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fseKqlSpH_Q&feature=player_embedded#!

shits kicking off everywhere.

wasn't sure where to put this but

Captured Mexican Cartel Leader Admits Hiding Salvador Cabanas Shooter

http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/114/mexico/2010/09/01/2099176/captured-mexican-cartel-leader-admits-hiding-salvador

can't believe Dr. House is managing Atletico Madrid.

thought that too

Tru dat. Should maybe take it to the La Liga thread, eh?

José Mourinho has trolled Catalonia and he likes it very much: La Primera División 10/11

(which I have just noticed doesn't actually mention Spain or La Liga in it, so not v. useful for searching if you haven't got it bookmarked)

aye, thought I saw one but when i searched for those key words i got bupkiss.

We have too many threads. I blame myself. One for Belgium next year, and that's it.

RIP Messi.

how did he die

Bolton-esque ankle massacre.

was gonna say he almost got Shawcrossed but fine, have it your way.

#messiprayercircle on Twitter for your best 140 character Ray Hudson impressions.

Goikotxea'ed is the Spanish (or maybe Basque) verb I believe