Joined: Feb 21 2002 Posts: 31779 Location: The commentary box
A unknown superstar wrote:Which he isn't happy about either.
Hardly surprising as he's one of the most highly self-opinionated players there is, and that's up against some stiff opposition. He out big-headed Zlatan at Ajax, f'rinstance. No mean feat, I'm sure you'd agree.
It's not just about the relative merits of the actual on-field performances of players y'know. Ashley Young's people would be idiots if they thought of thinking about walking away from Villa where he's getting regular football in a settled side with a manager who knows what he's doing, long and short term. Long term isn't something required in the vocabulary of a Real Madrid manager. And van der Vaart is nothing if not disruptive. He was at Ajax. He was at Hamburg. Sounds like he's already started at El Real. Good. They're welcome to him. Classic El Real player.
So what I'm saying is that it'd be a rubbish deal for Villa.
Joined: Oct 24 2004 Posts: 12169 Location: South of the river
The weekend in full:
Deportivo La Coruna 4 Recreativo Huelva 1
Mallorca 0 Sevilla 0
Numancia 4 Valladolid 3
Osasuna 5 Getafe 2
Racing Santander 1 Malaga 1
Real Betis 0 Athletic Bilbao 1
Sporting Gijon 1 Almeria 0
Villarreal 1 Barcelona 2
Espanyol 2 Atletico Madrid 3
Real Madrid 1 Valencia 0
So, with beating Villarreal and Sevilla helpfully drawing in the Balearics, Barcelona go into the winter break with a 10-point lead having not lost in La Liga since the opening day - a sensational effort from Guardiola's men. With strikes from Seydou Keita and Thierry Henry, the Yellow Submarine drop out of the top six and are replaced in third by Atletico Madrid - who have the brilliant Maxi Rodriguez to thank for squeezing past Espanyol at the Montjuic. The Blanc i Blau have collected just one point over new coach Mane and are without a win since November 2nd, horrendous.
A solitary Gonzalo Higuain goal was enough to beat Valencia and that, rather surprisingly given results, puts El Real within 2 points of Sevilla in second. At the bottom, 2 results to thoroughly upset the form book as Osasuna put 5 past Getafe and Numancia beat Valladolid thanks to a 90th minute winner from Brit. Osasuna remain bottom but they are just a point behind Recreativo, smashed in La Coruna, and Espanyol. The big winners this week at that end were Athletic, who climb to 12th following their win in Andalucia.
Joined: Oct 24 2004 Posts: 12169 Location: South of the river
1 Barcelona 41
2 Sevilla 31
3 Atletico Madrid 30
4 Valencia 30
5 Real Madrid 29
6 Villarreal 29
7 Deportivo la Coruna 27
8 Valladolid 23
9 Málaga 22
10 Getafe 21
11 Sporting de Gijón 21
12 Athletic Bilbao 19
13 Real Betis Balompié 18
14 Racing Santander 18
15 C.D Numancia 17
16 Almeria 16
17 Mallorca 14
18 Espanyol 13
19 Recreativo Huelva 13
20 Osasuna 12
Top scorers:
1 Samuel Eto'o 15 Barcelona
2 David Villa 12 Valencia
3 Gonzalo Higuaín 11 Real Madrid
4 Lionel Messi 10 Barcelona
4 Diego Forlán 10 Atletico Madrid
6 Sergio Aguero 9 Atletico Madrid
7 Álvaro Negredo 8 Almeria
7 Thierry Henry 8 Barcelona
9 Nabil Baha 7 Málaga
9 Mate Bilic 7 Sporting of Gijón
The Penguin's 'team of the season so far' to follow.
Joined: Oct 24 2004 Posts: 12169 Location: South of the river
The Penguin's not-quite-halfway team of the 16 rounds
GK: Victor Valdes (Barcelona)
CB: Carlos Puyol (Barcelona)
CB: David Prieto (Sevilla)
CB: Gonzalo Rodriguez (Villarreal)
LM: Jose Andres Guardado (Deportivo La Coruna)
CM: Kofi Romaric (Sevilla)
CM: Xavi (Barcelona)
RM: Maxi Rodriguez (Atletico Madrid)
RF: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
CF: Samuel Eto'o (Barcelona)
LF: Juan Mata (Valencia)
Honourable mentions: David Villa, Gonzalo Higuain, Diego Forlan, Maniche, Kun Aguero, Sergio Asenjo, Jesus Navas, Fernando Llorente, Jonathan Sesma, Achile Emana, Rafa Marquez, Julien Escude, Josepa Llorente, Iker Casillas, David Belengeur, Esteban Granero, Duda.
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