cmon dude, Mowbray knocked 5k+ of our attendance last season.

Some ramblings on matches I watched today:

Atletico Madrid/Osasuna

For the most part Atletico dominated the game and ran out comfortable 3-0 winners in the end. Even with Atletico's slightly weakened back four I don't remember Osasuna having a single real chance and De Gea apart from one or two routine saves had nothing to do. Good news for Atletico fans is that the Forlan/Aguero dynamic duo seems to finally be starting to find each other, combining for the first and second goals. For the first the goalkeeper saved an Aguero shot and Forlan was the first to react to the rebound, the second was an Aguero header from a Forlan cross after a quick counter attack. Forlan scored the third from a Simao assist.

Palermo/Catania

An entertaining open game with chances at both ends which ended 3-1 thanks in large part to the individual quality of Pastore who scored all three of Palermo's goals. The first was a header from a Balzaretti cross (dreadful marking by Catania), the second a low right footed strike straight from the restart after Catania had equalised through Terlizzi which beat Andujar when it really shouldn't have, and the third a calm left footed finish from a Maccarone cut back to cap off a quick counter attack. Catania had their chances especially in the first half when for example Lopez missed a practically empty net from ten yards out. I seem to remember Lopez also having a good header which brushed the topside of the crossbar. Martinho I think also had a chance after Gomez forced a good save from Sirigu, and Gomez in general was very active and useful on the right wing before being subbed off early in the second half. A very strong showing from Pastore after being injured in midweek against Milan.

Lazio/Napoli

Don't really remember much about this. Zarate scored Lazio's first goal, controlling a long pass from Mauri with his chest (there might have been a hint of handball) and beating De Sanctis at his near post. The second was a well worked move on the edge of the box from Hernanes -> Zarate -> Floccari -> goal. Napoli rarely threatened. Lavezzi had a few chances in the first half, both shots from the edge of the area the first of which was easy for Muslera while the second hit the crossbar. Cavani might have had a chance or two in the second half. Hamsik had a quiet game.

lololololololololololololololololol

HAHAHAHAHAAH Cruyff > all and Guardiola > the last couple of Milan coaches


Mino Raiola is a dick anyway, one of the worst agents out there. Sadly he's influential at Ajax (again) atm through Martin Jol, apparently.

Attendances have dropped rapidly in the last 2 years but the attendances have been north of 55k many times. In fact for something like 10 years in a row that was the case.

While that Raiola guy should obviously keep his mouth shut, he is right in a way. Its dangerous to follow around Cruyff w/o thinking for yourself. There will be a point in his life where he simply is not in touch anymore with everything that goes down. Its hard to say when that is because he is difficult to follow sometimes even when he is obvious, if you get what I'm saying. We dont have a whole book full of "Cruyff sayings" for nothing.

Its been quite a while since he was actually on the field and training a squad. Everything he does, he does behind closed doors so to say and he makes sure that he is not to blame for anything. This ensures that his legend stays intact. He is vain like that in my opinion. Obvious example is his refusal to ever train the Dutch team. Its not like we didnt want him in that spot (except for 1990? ).

Dont get me wrong, I think he was an awesome manager and an even more awesome player...but you have to think for yourself at some point in time.

Cruyff is right though. I very much doubt he is not in touch anymore. I would suggest he is more in touch than literally anyone not actually managing.

He was arguably the most important man in leading Barcelona to the club they are now over the last x years. Hard to deny he was successful in doing that. If he wants to do the same at Ajax now, for god's sake let him do his thing.

Coutinho out 2 months. Chivu out a few weeks. Julio Cesar had some problems again yesterday.

Thiago Motta, Obi, Milito, Samuel and Maicon out too. Cambiasso is a maybe.

That makes 7 first squad guys out + some reserves.

C'mon, really?

Blame Rafa imo.

+1 to both of these. We can't forget that there was probably some front office posturing that brought someone like Zlatan to Barca in the first place, even if they didn't "need" him.

Tough game @Freiburg today. I hope we can win it but my gut says 1:1. Didn't make the trip since I'm superbusy but hopefully I can catch all remaining away games Frankfurt+

fu rafa

Ajax - Psv tonight

Cliffs last Ajax month:
- We have been awful the entire month
- Lost the last 3 games
- Mainly due to Suarez not scoring as much as he normally does. He hit the post/bar 13 times already this season in the Eredivisie.
- Lots of Cruijff talk who had lots of criticism on current staff/board.
- Cruijff main criticism is that there isn't any football knowledge in the board and he wants to plant ex-Ajax players there to implement football knowledge.
- Board members want to keep their jobs and don't agree with Cruijff. All the supporters and rest of the world agree with Cruijff, obv.
- While all this is going on Martin Jol and Danny Blind (his first assistant) apparently hate each other.
- Ajax 6 points behind Psv atm so a loss would be devastating for title chances.

I read this is because Blind is unhappy at how little his son is playing, true?

Haven't decided whether to watch this or Milan/Fiorentina yet. Prolly this.

True. It's weird cause Daley Blind went to Groningen on a loan last year and did very well on the right back spot. But two weeks ago we had to play vs some 2nd league side for cup at home and VD Wiel was injured. Instead of playing Daley he played left back Anita at the right back spot and dropped back Emanuelson to lb. Which must have pissed Danny (and Daley) off.

Down 0-1 in Freiburg at HT, I'm hoping for some Klopp magic and Kuba for Großkreutz.

Celtic playing Dundee Utd and it's 1-0 going on 5-0.



Hooper again, this lad is a brilliant find by Lennon.

UN****ING REALL THIS CANNOT HAPPEN . WTF WTF WTF

epic epic epic miss by kuba

Holy **** Kuba, that's one of the very worst misses I have ever seen in my life.

lol if freiburd scores now

such a sick game

Ball hit our bar, my heart can't take this.

Ship the win though.