I think it was more a case that Milan knew they were basically finished and sold them off while they were still worth a lot

I don't think Sheva was finished when he left. His last season with us was great. For him it was more of an adaptation issue in the Premier League. Kaka', yes, he was very injury prone and had slowly started degrading when we off-loaded him. Still, no matter how you look at it, gaining €110 million from those two sales was a genius masterstroke.

Sheva spent most of the time on the wing at Chelsea, it was never going to work.

The Argentineans Gabriel Heinze and Gonzalo Higuain said it initially on the training ground, but they were stopped.

LOL.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18024212

Like Messi a wonderful football. As his French/Argentine genes would suggest.. not so good a person.

Haha well played. I expected you to get mad at me for half-teasing you over your beloved Gonzalo.

I did have to try and think of a reason to criticise him so I didn't look like a hypocrite.

Always thought of him as a sneaky little basturd. One that shows his true colors every now and then, mostly when not many are looking. I've seen it many a times during matches, Messi isn't the classiest of individuals. Good thing guys I've liked (Kaka, Pato, Maldini, Nesta, Sheva, Silva and many more) are way beyond this shtick.

I mean for someone who deliberately broke Maicon's tooth by hitting him with his foot, is either terribly reckless, recklessly terrible. A bit of both, most definitely. He even horribly tackled Seedorf last November when the Dutch got away from him. But then again, one can say they stopped making them like the classy footballers of old.

I mean, for someone who is supposedly the best player in the world, you'd expect a little show of grace.

Three players were mentioned in the link Zeddie put up - Messi, Higuain and Heinze. Suarez is obviously another high profile one. Maybe South Amerca is just very ignorant?

Yes, but they have been playing in Europe for quite some time now. I mean, me being where I am, and never visiting Europe, USA or any other Western country know what I should be saying, and what not. And these are professional players, and you see them doing and saying sub-human stuff. That's beyond pathetic.

It's as if people themselves have a choice of race/religion/region they want to be born in. Sub-human, I say!

And oh, it's not like Higuain and Heinze are male versions of Mother Teresa, anyway. They are plain and simple thugs, the later one in particular. But you'd think someone like Messi should know better. Guess not. What's next, you'd have people calling Messi a fat midget with chicken legs. Not racist, but disgraceful nonetheless.

Racism should be out of all fields in life in general, sports in particular, and football first and foremost.

You know, you're always so quick to call players thugs whenever it pleases you. Now, I won't deny it when you mention the various Pepe, Marcelo, Dani Alves etc, but what has Higuain ever done to be called a thug? If anything, he's one of the most correct players at Madrid, for what I've seen. Let's not jump the gun at every occasion here, please.

Marca is reporting Barca has reached an agreement with Gareth Bale.

I wonder how well he'd fit into their team...

Yeah, I can't think of anything either. It's one of the reasons I like him.


------------------------- Valdes -------------------------

----------------- Puyol ---------- Pique -----------------

Alves ------------------ Busquets ----------------- Bale

----------------- Xavi ----------- Iniesta ----------------

------------------------ Fabregas ------------------------

----------------- Sanchez -------- Messi ----------------

Or drop Fabregas, put Messi there and have Villa up front.

If referring to a black man as negro is common and ordinary and they see nothing wrong with it, then it can only be called ignorance.

I find one thing hard to understand though, all of them have black teammates, if they were racist and meant it when they called a black opponent negro or something, then their own teammates would take offense at that too. but you don't see any problem between Higuain and Lass, or Messi and Keita.

Maybe it's just me, I don't think these guys are being racist or truly mean what they say. they're just ignorant.

-

And I agree with X-Off, Higuain hasn't done anything to be called a thug. maybe a little scuffle here and there, but so has anyone you mentioned in your post, acid. Kaka, Sheva, Pato, Nesta, Maldini, etc. that's football and these guys are human beings. don't read too much into it.

What Messi said to Drenthe was 'Hola Negro!'....it's not the same as 'abusing racially'...but yeah it's a sensitivity thing.

He just did now on the training pitch didn't he?! But no, seriously, I'm old fashioned that way, when it comes to the sanctity of the sports. It's called a sport for a reason, and I'd love it were kept that way. If I wanted to see a fight, tussle, roundhouse kicks, I'll much rather tune in to WWE/UFC or any other similar programming.

While I agree, Higuaian may be the closest to the cleaner versions of professional athletes, and that's why I said "particularly the later". Heinze is not just dirty, but full of himself as well, remember his incident with the cameraman in the World Cup, and various other similar deeds. Higuaian to a lower extent, but still.

As for the various Pepes, Valdes and other dirtbags, I have other stronger words for them, and frankly if I had my way they'd get much stringent punishments. They have no right to end someone's career, or threaten the opposing player's life in the name of sports/game. I call them animals, violent animals. Thugs is too small a word for me.

That's probably because I categorically hate violence (and violent behavior), or probably I am spoiled by the highest standards displayed by all the players I've followed/liked in my life, right from the early 90s (when I was mere 5-6 years old). None of them did this, and surely never on purpose. You can say I'm spoiled.


I don't know man, saying someone is negro is one thing, but insulting someone is another. I mean, clearly the intent was to work Drenthe up in his mind so he can't concentrate. But like I said, it's a very cheap way to do it, offending someone just because he/she has a little extra melanin in their skin.


Well I have seen Higuain do stuff on the ball and off it, during matches, that let's just say I wouldn't call him overly graceful like some of the more classier names of football. But I think it depends on the definition of the word thug, if you use it like I do in a mild manner, then I think he is. If not, then well Higuain is standard stuff.

I do agree he does not have all those animalistic instincts like other dirty players, but hey, like I said, I'm spoiled.

I know, but let's keep it out of the game (as popular a sports such as football) as much as possible. Football is a uniting factor for the world, the last thing it needs are displays of such low nature. I mean, almost everyone can be abused racially, but you'd think this ambassadors of the game would know better.

Some may not think of it that much, but I'd be worked up if anyone (not just Messi, even any other player that I liked) did it. Discrimination based on race, religion, sex, build, color, creed, heck even age or money, is just not on in my books. Now you may call me vanilla this way, but these are just my rules that I always stick to.

I'm not so sure in Messi's case. It's not like he grew up in South America and then says it likes it's normal, didn't he grow up in Europe? Where I am pretty sure it's not normal to say that.

He was in Argentina till 14. Most of your cultural upbringing is done by then I guess.

According to wiki he was 12. You don't really start to grow up properly until you're about 10/11 in my opinion anyway, not until you go to high school and actually learn things outside of how to count and read and whatever.

Villarreal relegated.

Rossi! But we're all stocked up. Fyck...Juve just creamed their pants! There is their striker!!

Rossi will be out for another six months. That's one year of inactivity in total. I'd wait before signing him.

+1

I'd take Zapata as a backup off them. He'd be cheap now, his stock is low after a bad year at Villarreal and he has Serie A experience.

Not a bad idea at all.
I mean I haven't seen any of the guy since he's been in La Liga, and from what I just read on Wiki he made a howler of a debut with his first touch, resulting in a goal. Add to that the fact that his team is being relegated I begin to question the current levels of which he is capable of performing at still, but I'd have to rely on the more frequent La Liga viewers to say.

But hey, if we can send Galliani in to make them a nice offer. Why not?

If. The chubby idiot better get to work this season, and hard. I know this is a recycled statement, but the next few years the league is going to get harder and harder, particularly now that Juventus look settled and will probably invest in the coming months. We need 2, 3, 4, 5 good players, and the sooner the better.

Next few years?? The next season is gonna be a trial by fire for Allegri.

I meant that so that even if Allegri fudges up next season, it'll be hard for the next coach. That is, unless we really go all out and get in some top class talents this summer.

625 first team appearances for Real Madrid.
128 full international caps for Spain.
5 Spanish titles
1 Spanish cup
2 Champions League titles
1 World Cup
1 European Championship

And Casillas is only 31 today.

Still will never beat Buffon in my eyes in terms of a keeper. Though credit where it's due it's an amazing record for one of the best keepers going.

Yeah Buffon is the man.

And he lifted those as the Captain...

A living legend as far as I'm concerned. he even has an awesome name! Casi-yas! like Zoff. or Buffon. those names you'll always remember, and will tell your grand children that you were around when he was playing.

@ Ash
I don't know if he's the better keeper or Buffon, but he's far better than Buffon at saving penalties. there's a top contender in Cech as the best penalty saver though.

Ironically I still believe it's Neuer who is the undisputed penalty saver king right now. Cech is excellent at them too. As for the top keeper, yeah, I'd say it's Casillas now, followed by Buffon. Used to be reverse a few years back, say around 2006. There isn't a clear cut winner these days for the top spot, but Casillas I think is the king.

Though the best penalty saver I've seen is Dida, he just left it too late before he moved, and saved most of them.

I'd put forward Bradg Guzan as top penalty saver. His record is incredible.

I remember him being in 2 shootouts with Villa.

Juventus: Saved 3 out of 6
Sunderland: Saved 3 out of 4
Then Gila failed to score one past him in a friendly for Fiorentina.

I think he conceeded 1 against Chelsea, I don't recall any others, but that's only 5 out of 12 penalties scored. Man's a beast at them - he's just not particularly great otherwise.

Yup, that's the point. Being a good penalty saver, but a mediocre keeper amounts to little, really.

Well, on the same night - the CL final - Cech made 3 saves out of 6 penalties while Neuer saved only 1 out of 5. that hardly makes him the undisputed king of penalty savers not to mention Cech guessed all of the 6 penalties right, while Neuer only 3.

There are very few penalty savers around and Neuer is one of them for sure and can improve as well. but right now I'd have to give it to Cech and Casillas.

I thought Cech would never be back to being what he was before that head injury, he was still mistake prone until a couple of years ago. but now he's easily back in top 3 or 4.

Ah, I'd call it "destiny", Zed.D. The way everything was going, I knew deep down inside that it was written in the stars that Chelsea will win it. The Messi penalty miss, hitting the bar, Robben miss, Chelsea going past Barcelona, how the played in the final, all part of the grand plan from above.

Mind you, I do agree Cech is one of the top keepers of the world, no denying that. But Neuer's got a reputation.

I don't know about his past reputation but in two penalty shootouts in the semi final and the final of this season, he saved a total of 3 out of 10 penalties. still a very good record, but not the best.

Casillas has a reputation for being a penalty saving specialist too. perhaps bigger than Neuer's.

As for Chelsea's destiny, I agree. I even said before the game that I felt they'd win. and after all the bad luck they'd had in the CL before (especially that Terry slip), I couldn't complain.

I couldn't care less about Terry The Loon (after all he and his family been doing these past few years) winning it, but the two guys that very much deserved it were Lampard and Drogba. Good for them. And as for destiny, this was somewhat along the lines of us winning it in 2007.

Comparisons can be drawn on how it all went for Chelsea and us, and how little chance both teams were given.

Manuel Preciado dies of a heart attack 1 day after taking the Villarreal job.

Yeah, I read it this morning. R.I.P.

Didn't know him but it's one of those tragic deaths. RIP

RIP.

Pfft, that thing again. Because Xavi and Iniesta look oh so amazing when they play without Messi. It's only them making him look better, the opposite surely does not happen.

*not going to talk about this beyond this post, I just felt an urge to respond...

Was that meant to be sarcastic? Because yes, they are pretty damn amazing without him.

^^ They can't score the goals without him though. Messi needs them as much as they need him.

Really? Didn't you see Spain?

If Spain had Messi, they'd have won the World Cup with fewer 1-0's and also would've scored at least 2-3 games in each of their Euro games. the only game they looked impressive in scoring goals was against Ireland. I'm not going to count the final for obvious reasons.

Besides, I was in fact talking about Barca because last time I checked Messi doesn't play for Spain