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Old news if any of you were on the internet last night, but still worth repeating:
Giuseppe Rossi staggered by bull; Joan Capdevila's twitter joke. Actually it was amazing how quickly someone updated Diego's Wikipedia entry to show he'd replaced Edwin Van der Sar, and "Diego Lopez" briefly became a worldwide trending topic on Twitter as Red Devils supporters checked up on things.
Latest Rossi stuff in descending order of probability. Barcelona--agent says not a lot new, the CL final needs to get out of the way first; Juventus (?), yes, the Juventus that has not qualified for Europe next season; and finally just read this headline, then the story and marvel that anyone would let this get into print....Real Madrid boss Mourinho makes personal move for Barcelona target Rossi....
Finally, something worth reading in detail, a breakdown of Premier League club finances in England. Just like La Liga, clubs are (almost without exception) losing money, but on an even grander scale. Player wages are 2/3 of income and clubs such as Manchester City and Chelsea would not qualify for Europe under the Financial Fair Play guidelines approved last year by UEFA. So put the kibosh on those Cristiano Ronaldo to Man City rumors, then.
Interesting to note there is one club with a balance sheet much like Villarreal's--in fact it has no debt at all. It's Wolves. Not much success on the pitch though, as they fight to stay up this weekend. Good luck to them!
Also this weekend, Robert Pires plays his last game for Aston Villa. Well, probably he won't play, because he hasn't much, even though I've read good reports when he did. Therry Henry is trying to get him to come to MLS. Maybe after a year warming the bench in Birmingham Bobby might be more willing to move across the ocean.
Finally, any of you who watched the Europa League Final, as I did, must've been very disappointed. Compared to the semis between the Yellow Submarine and the Dragons, this was a cautious, dull, slow-moving final between two teams who knew each other too well. Porto were deserved winners, but played nowhere near their best; Braga looked like a side that had made it to the final by dour 0-0 draws and solitary away goals, as in fact they had.
The B team plays at Grenada tomorrow; Diego Mariño says VCF B is just as good as their opponents, and certainly there wasn't a huge difference in quality between the minisubmarino and Elche on Monday. Coach Molina hasn't released his squad yet--we'll have to see if players such as Pérez, Mano, and Wakaso, all of whom had some injury issues, are available given the short turnaround. Endavant minisubmarino!