I’m going to be brief, I’m in a rush to get out.
MON seemed to be thinking along the lines I was when I wrote the preview – throw the senior guys in from the start, the Malaga side have played no more football in pre-season than they had. I picked this up from TV commentary though – apparently Malaga achieved their impressive 8th La Liga finish last season with a fair number of loan players and have been scrambling
My old mate Damo has been banging an interesting drum recently which is summed up pretty nicely in a comment he made on his blog today:-
I think the most interesting thing is if you look at actual spend as a percentage of turnover … it’s almost the same. Nothing has really changed.
He’s made similar statements several times recently, although he normally inserts some kind of disclaimer that this is just what someone has told him, so don’t hold him to
Curtis Davies exposes the extent of his nickname repertoire.
Hat tip to Off The Post for the vid.
I speculated earlier that the local ex-pat community around Malaga might pack out the Estadio La Rosaleda when Aston Villa comes to town tomorrow. Now I’m not so sure.
I’ve just watched LDU Quito beat Al-Ittihad 3-1 in an almost entirely empty Municipal de Chapín stadium in Jerez. The stadium can hold ~20k and is the home to Xerez CD who will be in La Liga next year for the first time in their history. Apparently that isn’t
I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed that Nathan Delfouneso has been absent from the last couple of pre-season friendlies and is also missing from the Peace Cup 2009 squad. I hate to admit it, but it wasn’t straightforward tracking him down. The OS dropped a clue back in June when they ran a story about Delfouneso and Nathan Baker helping England qualify for the European Under-19’s Championships.
Turns out that he’s in Ukraine taking part in the
Malaga finished 8th in last season’s La Liga, which isn’t a bad achievement considering it was their first season back after a two year spell in the Segunda División. Coincidentally, their stadium, La Rosaleda, has the 8th largest capacity in the Spanish top flight. Not important, but a little factoid for you all the same.
Nestled in the heart of the Costa Del Sol, Malaga enjoy the support of the local ex-pat community, so maybe Villa’s visit will split the loyalties
The new home shirt for 2009/10 has just been released.
Arrest
News is just coming in that two Aston Villa employees have been detained by Spanish Police just outside of Malaga.
Details are scant right now, but witnesses report that the pair were seen loading a large, locked box into the boot of their Seat vehicle in Birmingham, England. It’s believed that they may have been under the impression that they were tasked with taking Aston Villa’s football kit to Spain. The reason for this is not clear at this
I’m going to resist the urge to refer to this competition as the “Mooney Cup” as I really like the idea of a tournament of this type featuring these sorts of teams during the summer. I’m enjoying the massive crowds turning out in America for the World Football Challenge and with other tournaments going on around the world, I hope this is a trend that continues.
So, despite the slightly questionable backing to this tournament, the terrible website and amateur