La Liga Transfer Rumours and General Chat

It's duvets and drugs at the Copa del Rey

Wednesday 16 April 2008 15:11
Tim Stannard

Despite being stranded in Spain for a good few years now as it struggles to save the pennies for that golden Easyjet ticket home, La Liga Loca has yet to completely adapt to its Iberian environment.

The blog will literally die if it has to wait until 11 o'clock at night for its evening meal and it walks a good four times faster than most five abreast in the frickin' way Madridileños, an irritating issue that is leading towards imminent pavement rage and a probable heart attack within the next few years.

The blog definitely needs its beauty sleep and likes to be tucked up in bed at a reasonable hour. Besides, Elsa Pataky can produce such a pout if La Liga Loca doesn't have her cocoa ready by 10.

And this is why, in typically British fashion, it must have a good old moan today as La Liga Loca is set to go to tonight's Copa Del Rey final at the Vicente Calderón.

But it is not 100% happy about it, as it may not leave the stadium until past one in the morning.

This is because of the ingenious plan of whoever controls these kinds of things to play the match at 10 o'frickin' clock at night. On a Wednesday.

An absurd time that even Marca admit "is not good for children," although it should have added travelling supporters, spectators and anyone with a job to the list.

Should Getafe pick up the title, then the 21,500 fans can look forward to celebrating their triumph by legging it like lemmings to the nearest railway station hoping that there will be trains still heading south.

And the Valencia support can enjoy an early-hours-of-the-morning arriving miserable trip home on the hundreds of coaches hired to bring them to the Spanish capital. Or try to find somewhere open in La Latina, past two, to drown their sorrows.

However, those participating in the mass exodus from the Mestalla are ready for any eventuality with their travelling Copa Del Rey kits - 'Koeman Stay!' signs, 'Koeman Go!' signs, white handkerchiefs and victory scarves.

"We have a support that we don't deserve," admitted club president Agustín Morera, in a comment that can be taken in more ways than Paris Hilton.

Those Valencia fans heading up the hill to Madrid on Wednesday may find three hitchers by the side of the road. And should they decide to pick them up then they could be sharing their car with Albeda, Angulo and Cañizares. The club has made no attempt to organise their travel to watch the final despite still being members of the squad as the judge at the Albeda v Soler case was recently told.

One man who is particularly desperate to lift the cup come 2.30 in the morning - should extra time and penalties be required - is Fernando Morientes, as the Copa del Rey is the one trophy he has yet to win. "This could be one of my last chances to win a title," he confessed.

One man who probably doesn't give a flying fig about the result is Ronald Koeman who looks set to be sacked whatever happens on Wednesday night.

"If it's my last match, then that's the way it is. I'm not worried about it," shrugged the soon to be 9 million euros richer Dutchman.

La Liga Loca has long since given up the pretence of unbiased reporting so will be happily cheering on Getafe until whatever time in the morning.

But it has a sneaky feeling what with life being the cruel, relentless, miserable experience that it is, that it will be Valencia lifting the trophy come Thursday morning.

An Citeog wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKOD1eNPLqo

The decision by broadcasting behemoth SKY to drop live coverage of the Copa Del Rey final has irked many Spanish football fans around the world this week.

The broadcaster’s loveless and seemingly ungrateful relationship with what is a marquis product does appear both arrogant and stupid. We shouldn’t be shocked though.

It is symptomatic of Sky’s in-your-face, uncompromising, cutthroat approach to business that has made it such a powerful force in the broadcasting sector.

What’s more, it isn’t the first time the company has dropped this clanger. Indeed, if my memory serves me correctly, the Copa Del Rey final has been dropped by Sky before. There are also numerous weekends throughout the season when La Liga coverage seems undernourished given the quality of entertainment the competition offers and the worldwide interest. It is notably evident in Sky’s frustrating ‘as live’ coverage (I mean, is there really any point? In the current communication and media age, it’s a concept as outdated as VHS). This is when Sky shift around coverage to a time of the day that suits them, or over-focus on Real Madrid and Barcelona to the extent that non-live coverage of the Clasico couple usurps live action of other matches.

This recent move is not a major departure from past behaviour, but that doesn’t make it any less noteworthy and worthy of debate. There’s an interesting and somewhat paradoxical tug of war at play where Sky seem to be cutting off their nose to spite their face, and where, partly by definition and partly by accident, their Spanish coverage trumps that of their Ace card and favoured pupil in class, the Premiership.

As we all know, England’s Premier League is the Sky’s golden ticket. Not only is it the most lucrative member in the corporation’s bristling arsenal of sporting events, it’s effectively Sky’s baby. Rupert Murdoch’s multinational made the Premiership the beast it is today. It all means an overt bias and lessening of journalistic integrity in Sky’s coverage. It ensures the company spend an exorbitant amount of time marketing the Premiership, and blurs the line between the reporting and promotion of the competition, such is the inclination to get the veritable pom poms out for the “insert superlative” league in the world.

Broadcasting the game in Spain has been a huge success for Sky. This has been particularly the case this decade, because when they picked up coverage in the nineties Serie A was still in its pomp, before viewing figures dropped in the 21st century.

Any other sports broadcaster would be mad keen to market and cover La Liga to saturation point, but Sky have, as mentioned above, other priorities. That tunnel vision gives rise to ignorance and evidently some disrespect for Spanish football, as well as the watching fans, because the company see La Liga as either incomparably subservient to the Premiership or as competition for it. As a product then, La Liga appears to be both a real boon and a slight threat. Either way, Sky’s Copa crap out doesn’t look good for one of the world’s premier sports broadcasters.

It’s a shame, because La Liga is a great competition, and a great product. It’s a competition that for many surpasses the Premiership in quality and entertainment terms. People have different tastes in football - just as they do for everything else they enjoy - a basic human trait that renders the ‘best league in the world’ debate largely weightless. Crucially, La Liga coverage is presented with far less drama. The event carries the show, not the bells and whistles of the build up.

Those individuals that have covered Spanish football for Sky over the years have done a decent job of it. Sure, they could do more, though they have far less time on air and almost certainly less resources than their Premiership counterparts. They also seem to genuinely enjoy the football, quite possibly because there isn’t the relentless pressure to plug the show. It improves the coverage for the viewer. There’s no hard sell, no feeling it is a corporate event. It is far more relaxed and personable. As a result, the enthusiasm and interest of the presenters, reporters and pundits transfer to the viewers more freely and genuinely.

Most of all, the punditry of La Liga is far better than that of the Premiership because journalists are used just as much, if not more, than ex footballers. This was probably deemed a necessity by Sky, in attempting to provide specialist expert knowledge on foreign football to often insular British fans (an insularity the corporation has helped to create), and it works extremely well.

Anybody and everybody can be a Sky Premiership pundit, providing they have kicked a ball professionally. Far too many of their studio guests, all ex-footballers, offer absolutely no insight whatsoever. They appear in tokenistic fashion, talking in circles and clichés, just as current players are taught to do though media training, essentially as an indirect, two-pronged gagging tool. It stops players making regrettable comments while preventing the interviewer/journalists from writing an interesting story; such is the meaninglessness and nullifying effect of the player’s response. Unfortunately, many of the current Premiership pundits do precisely the same, forgetting that they are supposed to be interesting, original and incisive – an expert.

The most memorable and entertaining instances of Premiership punditry and ‘expert’ opinion in Sky’s coverage comes during their Soccer Saturday Show, but that is primarily because the observations and behaviour of the panel could easily be replicated by the mentally incompetent inmates in the seventies film One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. It works better as comedy or farce than a sports show.

The end result of all of this is that Sky’s La Liga coverage too often bites the dust because of economic and branding interests, and it is almost certainly not the only competition or sport that suffers. For now, I’m afraid, not much is likely to change. That said, the more fans or (as Sky would view it) consumers voice their discontent, and the more La Liga is pushed into the back of beyond, the likelihood of better coverage or a challenge to Sky’s broadcasting exclusivity will hopefully increase.

Monday's Good Day, Bad Day - Round 33

Monday 21 April 2008 11:38
Good Day
Levante

Ah. It's been another vintage year for the goons nominally in charge of the game in Spain.

Changing kick off times and locations the day before matches. Doing diddly squat about the TV wars. Forgetting all about Betis' punishment. Tucking the Copa del Rey final away to a handy Thursday two in the morning slot...

But their biggest triumph must be having completely ignored the pecuniary plight of lowly Levante. Quite how the situation can arise when the players of a top flight club can go unpaid for over a year without either the league, FA or even unions dragging themselves away from their 10 course dinners to do anything about it is anyone's guess.

If the Levante players follow up on their threat to strike on Sunday then all power to their footballing elbows. Two wins on the trot have won the players a huge amount of respect and praise from the Spanish press. And all deserved.

As the t-shirts worn by the squad as they came out onto the pitch read - "Solutions Now!"

Espanyol

In the wonderful world of Espanyol not losing is considered a good day, so here's happy-chappy Paul from Barcelona.

"A thoroughly deserved point for Espanyol against the self-proclaimed biggest club in the world. We defended so well against a team who never seriously looked like scoring. Zabaleta was fantastic, Kameni made up for his howler last week.

Even with the introduction of Messi, Barça were still poor though not as poor as their supporters.

What a shower of ***** (answers on a postcard). At home, in a local derby and they get out-sung by around 800 Espanyol fans. Our worst turnout for years but a lot of people did boycott the match in protest against recent performances.

I met a group of lads from Swindon who said they were so shocked by how quiet it was. Rumour has it Barça will be sponsored by Kleenex next season judging by the amount of hankies being waved about. In fairness it wasn't a great match but a moral victory for Espanyol."

Paul, Barcelona

Real Madrid

The post match a'leaping and a'laughing celebrations from the Real Madrid players may have been a little on the premature side, but they are understandable considering that the Racing clash was a match that many - including this blog - expected Real Madrid to lose on Sunday.

Instead, it was the best away performance for some time with some swoon and swagger returning to their game. And maybe that was because Guti wasn't on the pitch to slow the game down to a snail's pace as he muses over which pass to pick.

A win on Sunday against Athletic and a defeat for both Villarreal and Barcelona means that it will be curtains on this year's title 'race' next weekend. And thank merciful Zeus for that, says La Liga Loca.

Villarreal

A victory at last after two disappointing defeats. "Our obligation is to finish second," says Manuel Pellegrini. Villarreal's obligation is to not roll over like fluffy, wuffy kittens when things start to get a little sweaty.

Dani Güiza

Has now broken the record for most goals scored by a Mallorca player in a season with a hat-trick on Sunday bringing the diamond Güiza up to 21 and hot on the heels of a failing Fabiano at Sevilla.

The Mallorcan magician should still be selected ahead of Raul for Euro 2008 no matter what a moaning Marca is saying, purely on the grounds that he scowls considerably less and his goal celebration is not as fingernail-tearingly annoying. Although not by much mind.

Deportivo

The side's six man defence serves them well yet again with a victory over Osasuna that even Miguel Angel Lotina says was a trifle undeserved - especially because of an iffy penalty.

Incredibly, Deportivo have had a second half of the season that would see them in the Champions League places if it had been repeated in the first. But, that's a big if.

Unai Emery

Perhaps the best sight of the weekend was the sight of a rain-soaked Unai Emery leaping around the touchline like a lagered-up loon as all four of his side's strikes against Sevilla slammed home.

Ricardo Oliveira

Finally the on-loan Brazilian striker remembered where the goal was after firing blanks for the past three games. His two goal haul was enough to keep Zaragoza out of some serious relegation do-do. At least for this week anyway.

Betis

Looks like Paco Chaparro managed to drag his players back from the mental tropical island they had all gone to.

33 points from 19 matches for potty Paco and Manuel Ruiz de Lopera is still contemplating whether to renew his manic manager's contract or not. It's not as if he will have alternative options queuing around the block to sign him up over the summer.

Bad Day

Barcelona

As La Liga Loca wrote elsewhere - Surrender Monkeys.

And it has nothing more to say on the subject.

Atlético Madrid

There were two very loud noises in Madrid this weekend. One was the calor gas van at seven in the frickin' morning with what sounded like a game of bowls with the canisters being played by the driver. The second was the boos and barracks floating up the hill from the mad-as-hell maniacs at the Vicente Calderón.

The rojiblancos are currently riding their luck in their Champions League chase. Despite letting a lead go in the last minute against Valladolid and crashing to a dreadful defeat against Betis on Saturday they are still in prime position to be knocked out by Viddvolvv Krz in the Champions League qualifiers thanks to the footballing failures of Racing and Sevilla this weekend.

"I'm just one more manager who had handkerchiefs being waved him," shrugged Javier Aguirre who must have a sneaky feeling that Atlético's traditional season-ending balls up is now well underway.

Getafe

Not quite in crisis mode, but a run of no wins in five and just one goal scored suggest that the season is turning as sour as La Liga Loca's last attempt to make risotto.

"The team is affected by the cup final and that's human," admitted Michael Laudrup after Sunday's 3-1 defeat to Levante.

Just one more victory should drag a clearly exhausted Getafe over the finishing line. And with pathetico Atlético as the next visitors to the Coliseum they may not have too long a wait to do it.

Sevilla

No idea what's going on down there at the Sánchez Pizjuán. And nor does Manolo Jiménez who looked like a man on the brink of blubbing on Saturday night.

Valencia

Pathetic. Rubbish. Shameless. Useless. Abject. But most of all, very, very funny.

Osasuna

La Liga Loca was watching the Real Madrid game with a couple of exiled Osasuna fans on Sunday night. And they told the blog two things.

No, Osasuna won't be going down. And no, the home fans will not be giving the Real Madrid players a warm hand on their entrance if they turn up to their formidable fortress as champions. They may have some commemorative cigarette lighters to take home with them though.

Marca says that Osasuna are going through Groundhog Day. But without the ice-sculpting. Instead, the side are dominating games but missing chances and coming away with nothing to show for their work.

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Barca - Tomato-Eating Surrender Monkeys
"We're not in the ideal position to win the league", admitted Frank Rijkaard, on Saturday night, after the dourest of goalless draws against Espanyol, at Camp Nou.

As understatements go, it rivalled rogue trader, Jerome Kerviel, asking his SG bosses if his billion dollar blunder was "going to look bad" on his appraisal.

Yet again, Barcelona had served up a display limper than a handshake from Larry Grayson and had left Real Madrid eight points clear at the top of the table, with their match against Racing Santander still to play on Sunday night.

And yet again, Barcelona had failed to win a game against opposition who brought less to the party than a tight-fisted agoraphobic.

On Saturday night, Espanyol were so primed for a pummelling the players could have turned up with targets painted on their shirts.

Having spent a very merry Christmas in the Champions League places, the poor old Pericos have since had a dismal time in the Primera.

Ernesto Valverde's men had picked up just nine points from forty two before Saturday's derby - a lamentable record that would have seen the manager booted into touch, according Valverde himself, had it not been for a spectacular first round record.

But Barcelona have not been faring much better.

Allegations from a club official of injuries being faked and the likes of Deco, Ronaldinho and Rafael Marquez being sidelined ran in parallel with the poorest performances on the pitch, with the Catalan club only managing seven points from the previous twenty-four.

Before Saturday night's match, the admirably optimistic Rijkaard claimed that, "miracles happen, if you believe in them".

On Sunday morning, the Dutch coach would have been gloomily munching on his pan con tomate reading of rebellion in the Catalan-crazed press.

"It was more of the same," sighed world-weary Josep Maria Casanova in Sport. "Impotency, frustration and bad play" wrote the columnist on the derby.

And not on his post-partido marital machinations, as the Freud-obsessed Spanish Thing first assumed.

It was an opinion mirrored in a gleeful Marca who wrote that Barcelona 'have thrown in the towel' on domestic glory and are only focussed on the Champions League.

And that was clear with Rijkaard's starting line up on Saturday night.

Whilst the Catalan press noted that Manchester United chose to play a near full strength team against Blackburn, Barcelona left Eric Abidal, Andrés Iniesta, Deco, Leo Messi and Thierry Henry on the bench - the latter suffering from a fever, according to his manager.

But after a typically lacklustre first half which produced a paltry two shots on target for the home side, Rijkaard decided to chuck the ever impressive Iniesta onto the pitch after the break, along with his miracle-maker, Messi.

The results were almost immediate with the Argentine causing more chaos and carnage in the opening minute that the likes of Eidur Gudjohnsen and Giovani had managed over the previous forty-five.

'We need 11 Messis', yelled the headline in Sport, on Sunday, and they were quite right - although the midget-magician would need Hulk-like quantities of growth hormone to fill in at centre back.

The performance of Messi put some lead into the footballing pencil of the home side and confirmed Carlos Tevez's recent declaration that "Barcelona is one thing with Messi and another without him."

From the off, he was hounding the Espanyol rearguard and starting to make things happen. But his display merely showed how lopsided and one-dimensional the current Barcelona side is without Ronaldinho on the left.

With suggestions that his current six week lay injury off is hokum and reports that the Brazilian slept on the bus during a recent training away-day before joining the party for a bonding BBQ, d'inho is unlikely to appear in that place ever again.

Instead, its a role that Bojan Krkic had to fill on Saturday night, and it was a complete waste of the youngster's fox in the box prowess.

What is causing most frustration to the fans - who again waved handkerchieves, papers and plastic bags at the Barça board, despite Sport's ridiculous claims that the referee was the true target of their tears and jeers - is the meek manner of their players' performances.

The squad is still outrageously talented but barring a few honourable exceptions seems to posses stomachs for a finger buffet, but not for a fight.

Last season, a Capello-inspired Real Madrid won ten of their last twelve games to grab the title from Barcelona's clutches in an incredible title charge.

But with the roles reversed this year, the depressing defeatism at the Catalan club from is evident with Barça managing just one win in their last eight matches and losing more leads than a forgetful Barbara Woodhouse.

And it is a run that has allowed Real Madrid to limp towards the league title, almost challenged - a title they will win should they beat Athletic Bilbao next weekend, and Barça and Villarreal both lose.

With European football being the funny old beast that it is, Barcelona clearly cannot be discounted over their two testing ties with Manchester United.

Man for man, they are a more than a match for Sir Fergie's footballers. But unless the Catalan club adds some pace, power - but more importantly - pride to their performances over the two legs, they could be on the end of spanking so severe even Max Mosely would flinch.

With Samuel Eto'o admitting on Sunday that he would leave the club if it looked there were no more titles to be won and the protests from the Ultra groups becoming more fearsome by the day, defeat for Joan Laporta's players against Manchester United is simply not an option.

"I can still imagine us winning in Moscow" said the club president on Saturday night.

Looks like he's not the only one who believes in miracles.
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