Gerard Pique and La Liga Fun...

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Guillem Balague is earning his keep: this week he interviews Manchester United's Gerard Pique. It's a good time to speak to the up-and-coming defender as he has just scored his first Champions' League goal for United. Guillem's in Spain, so Bill and I are joined in the studio by Kevin Day and Tony Cascarino. Nevertheless, Guillem is on the line to give us the lowdown on La Liga this year, with Real Madrid breaking records and the "little people" coming to the fore: Leo Messi, Kun Aguero, Wesley Sneijder, Giuseppe Rossi... Smurfs Rule OK in Spain. In our Premiership review, Cas stirs the pot by effectively calling today's Premiership footballers pansies for the reaction to Joey Barton's "challenge" on Dickson Etuhu in the Northeast derby. Naturally, the rest of us beg to differ: attempting to stomp on Etuhu's scrotum is bad form in our opinion. We also reveal some details regarding Wayne Rooney's injury...

...yes, football-tennis can be hazardous to your health. On the evidence of their display against Blackburn, United can probably cope for a little while at least. We also look at the Birmingham derby and Kevin points out that every time Steve Bruce starts out by saying "I don't want to whinge" he ends up doing so. While it doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't have a point, in this case, he's a bit off the mark. The myth-destroying Bill Edgar crushes another footballing stereotype: that the collapse of Eastern Europe and multiplying of ex-Soviet Republics and the like has made international football more lop-sided and led to more crushing defeats. In fact, this is not the case. The number of wins by six goals or more has actually declined and, where we've seen lopsided games, it has usually involved the likes of Liechtenstein, Andorra, San Marino and the like (good thing the Vatican hasn't joined UEFA yet). It's basically another three-quarters of an hour of football chat, with few - rather than no - frills. We hope you'll join us. And, of course, you can always join in the debate below. No reasonable comment will be turned down.

Comments

[Pete]

I have to take issue with Cascarino's notion that the Villa - Small Heath derby game doesn't matter so much to Villa fans. He couldn't be more wrong.

He didn't play in one during his time at Villa due to the other lot being a division or two below us but if he'd been in the area in the build up to this match he'd have known that nobody could talk of anything else. Every Villa pub (and internet messageboard) was filled to bursting with people who could talk of nothing else.

Might I also remind people that Small Heath couldn't even sell out the ground for a game that supposedly means so much to them, while we sold out our allocation - even at a scandalous 45 quid a pop.

Will we sell out Villa Park for the return game ?

I guarantee it.

[Gabriele Marcotti]

Jo- Jean Charles de Menezes was shot seven times in the head while being restrained by police officers. To this day, they have neither been identified nor charged. I, like many, think it's absolutely scandalous. The police have a very difficult job, police officers who behave this way put the lives of all their colleagues, not to mention those of civilians at risk. I'm not embarassed one bit by the actions of the policeman who shot Gabriele Sandri. I'm angry. And, as a Londoner, I'm angry that the people who shot de Menezes got away with it.
On a different note, the reason I get defensive is it bothers me when facts get twisted. And the fact of the matter is that football violence in Italy has been steadily declining over the past four years. This does not condone or excuse the behavior of those who used Sandri's dead as an excuse to riot. But a little bit of context would be nice...

[Michael Bardget]

I am not a mcclaren fan and I never will be. He was boring and negative at middlesbrough and he is killing this england side.

Anyway on qualification, I am confident Russia will beat Israel, that only leaves them to play the mighty Andorra. I am working in the little country so me and my flatmate will try and make it as hostile atmosphere as possible. Given that i will be joined by 500 maximum locals I am not at all confident.

But i am going to do my bit.

Michael, Andorra

[Zulfy]

Enjoyed the pod (in-spite of Cascarino).

Can I just say I felt the "La Liga for dummies" slot was rather patronising guys. I think you massively underestimate your listeners who are I guess pretty much clued up on La Liga, so don't require a season update. Some in-depth discussion on current La Liga topics such as Valencia's troubles, Villareal's emergence or even the impressive promoted sides would've been more appreciated.
Oh and I posted this last week but it never got printed. The 2 last pods were difficult to hear on the tube.
Cheers.

[jo]

Marcotti made a typically snide comment re the killing of Jean Charles De Menezes ie that we pretended it never happened. So I've been hallucinating the fact it's been all over the media for two years then? What a case of mistaken identity occurring shortly after the biggest terrorist atrocity on English soil has to do with what's going on Italy I don't know, apart from you trying to spread the embarrassment from your police shooting dead someone by firing a warning shot across a motorway.

Why when criticism of racism in Spain or hooliganism in Italy occurs is the response usually a defensive nationalistic one of you're just as bad so you can't talk, rather than addressing the matter in hand. I'm also unhappy at the lack of accountability of people in power in Britain but save your cheap cracks for the appropriate context.

Yours defensively...

PS. I think we can all humbly learn from how the Germans do things.

[Bharath Janardhan]

Hi Guillem,

Regarding Pique, is he actually regretting the fact that he left Barcelona? The reason being that their defense (regardless of the fact that Milito has come in) looks like it could use a quality centre back.
He's behind Ferdinand, Vidic, Brown etc. at United right now, so would he have been happier at Barcelona right now, especially as Thuram is coming close to the end of his career, and Puyol is playing right back these days?
Oh, and about Barton, I feel that any club that is willing to play him has to be hauled into an automatic disciplinary charge, and get it out of the way before any match.