Die hard La liga followers will acknowledge that Athletico Madrid have now been lampooned with the label of a ‘feeder club’, despite winning the Europa league, players such as Jurado,, Simao, Aguero and De Gea have all left respectively over past seasons. Thus, it is fair to say selling has well and truly become embodied within the clubs DNA.
It may have been an overly feisty affair, as such has become the custom for El Clasico in recent seasons, but Barcelona’s 3-2 win last over Real Madrid, a 5-4 aggregate victory over their fiercest rivals in the Spanish Super Cup will be remembered by one man in particular; Cesc Fabregas. The former Barca trainee was forced to watch from the bench until the 76th minute with a cameo appearance allowing the former Arsenal captain to make his long awaited debut for the Catalan giants.
In 1930, Herbert Chapman, one of the most successful, innovative and forward thinking football managers in the history of the beautiful game, signed a young Austrian goalkeeper called Rudi Hiden for Arsenal. The transfer was about as unlikely as today’s Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, signing an English player, for international transfers, in the 1930’s, were almost unheard of.
Hartlepool nil Huddersfield nil. Goalscoring opportunities nil (or at least it felt like that!). Entertainment nil. Reports on Sky nil. Hours driving to and from the game a lot more than nil. Ticket price nil. Money earned more than nil. And it’s those last two which I try to remember on days like this.
£18Million is a lot of money for any player, its a price that seems to fit the position of a new number 10, or a tricky winger out on the left, its a price tag that comes with a lot of expectation right off the bat, for that much money, a player needs to be a game changer, a breath of fresh air for a team in need of that extra kick. It hopefully brings in an experienced head amongst the team, or someone who knows the game well to slot right into his new surroundings with consummate ease.
Aston Villa have snapped up Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given for an undisclosed fee reported to be around £3.5million. Manager Alex McLeish signed him to replace Brad Friedel who moved to Tottenham. So is this good for Villa and Given?
Some of you will be familiar with Vitesse and will be thinking, isn’t it Vitesse Arnhem? But it’s not – although they do play in Arnhem, the Dutch outfit currently play in the Eredivisie and finished the 2010-11 season in 15th place, just scraping survival.
Manchester United earn all three points after going down to a dodgy goal. Joey Barton and Alex Song find themselves reigniting an old flame. Arsenal still look wasteful in the final third. And Fernando Torres still looks way off that £50 mark despite his best efforts this weekend.