La Liga Loca

A sideways look at Spanish football

Tim Stannard and Simon Talbot

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Espanyol unveil their own Kaka

Wednesday 15 July 2009 12:00

While the Head of Player Presentations at the Camp Nou has spent the past few months hitting the refresh button on their Facebook page every three seconds in a desperate attempt to pass the time, their counterpart in Espanyol’s Pratland - or Cornella el Prat to use the correct title of the club’s new home - has been doing the rarest of things for a Spaniard during the summer.

And that’s working.

And not just lazing about, moaning about the hot weather AS IF IT ISN’T LIKE THIS EVERY FRACKIN’ YEAR!

Anyway. Monday was a big day in the blue-and-white-stripey part of the Catalan capital as it saw the public unveiling of Espanyol’s latest trinket, Shunsuke Nakamura, who arrives on a freebie from Celtic.

"So, what's Gary Caldwell really like?"

With La Liga Loca not having seen a game of Scottish football since 1967, the blog has no idea if the midfielder is any good - not always an issue for an Espanyol signing - but he certainly brought the locals out of their hovels with 6,000 turning up to see him kick a ball around and say that he had already eaten some tomatoes on bread - a prized local snack.

But more importantly, Nakamura’s presentation attracted 300 journalists, with a large chunk of them coming from Japan, where the event was broadcast live.

The former Celtic man was wheeled out again on Tuesday and was seen fannying about at the airport with a couple of team-mates to advertise the new Espanyol home and away shirts.

Wheeze-bag Espanyol president, Daniel Sánchez Llibre compared the signing of Nakamura to that of Kaká and Cristiano Ronaldo.

But aside from being completely wrong on this point, the Perico big-cheese was also completely right to a certain extent.

La Liga Loca is no expert in anything - aside from Zombie warfare - but it imagines that the interest in Japan in all things Espanyol was fairly limited until now.

However, the signing of Nakamura massively increases the club’s profile in a potentially lucrative market.

Nakamura’s arrival is another small sign that those lesser mortals living in la Liga are finally realising that there is money to be made in them there hills outside of Spain.

Joan Laporta and Florentino Pérez have both mentioned the importance of paying more attention to the wider world, with the latter chewing over the concept of 3pm kick-offs to compete with the Premier League and to attract more viewers in Asia.

And when both these clubs both want the same thing, it tends to happen.

Laporta and Perez ponder

While La Liga Loca is always the first to moan and whine about midnight matches and games that start on one day and finish on another, it is not sure that the league wouldn’t lose a bit of its magic with early afternoon start times.

There is also the inconvenience to Atlético Madrid fans who would have to get up very early indeed to start the beer-boozing and ciggie-rolling to reach their normal levels of high-as-a-kiteness for their home games.

However, any radical changes are likely to be a long way off for the simple facts that the game in Spain continues to be run by prongs and that the TV dispute that has caused so many problems to the sport has yet to be solved, despite a truce being called for the new season.

While some of the clubs in Spain may be thinking about the wider world and the riches to be earned, those running la Liga will always be several steps behind.

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About Tim Stannard and Simon Talbot

When he isn't fighting the evil forces of flamenco or attracting libel actions for La Liga Loca, Tim Stannard is building his media empire in Madrid. As well as contributing to Football365 and doing odd jobs elsewhere, Tim also works in the glamorous world of television as a producer, script writer, news editor, coffee boy and stand-in fluffer.

Simon Talbot? Well, he's a man of mystery.

Comments

	July 15, 2009 18:04 phantompong said: Oh, and they might well be right about 3pm kickoffs... I'm in UTC+8, which means La Liga matches are between 2 AM and 5 AM, and sometimes on Monday mornings. Though I have to admit that if I lived in Spain, I would like the kickoff times to stay as they are.
	July 15, 2009 18:33 sameoldcabbage said: Question unrelated to today's blog: Why is Marca so happy when Ribery and Xabi Alonso are reported to be in rebellion against their clubs yet if the same thing happened with a Real Madrid player that player would be called a scoundrel and a traitor and made to stand in the editorial stocks? Silly question, I know!
	July 15, 2009 18:52 phantompong said: Well, Marca's gripe of the day is that they would not want to be Lance Armstrong. Why? Because his breakfast of rice and eggs is revolting, says Marca. Proof: http://tinyurl.com/mjmc3r Their nonsensical, gut-busting coverage extends well beyond football.
	July 15, 2009 18:53 c0n0r said: It's very disrespectful of Nakamura to only talk of the impact commercially in Japan. He is a great player who I wish all the best in Spain.
	July 15, 2009 19:03 hombreculto said: Hasn't seen a Scottish game since 1967? So the writer was obviously one of the few people in the world game who missed Nakamura's TWO free-kicks against Man Utd just a couple of seasons ago!? Not to mention the way he is considered the 'Beckham of Japan' for his deadliness from dead balls. And yeah, let's change the kick-off times for Spanish Football to come into line with England. And why not do the same for German football. And French football. In fact, why doesn't everyone just change the world timezones to get in line with England??! After all, the world revolves around England so we might as well be honest about it, don't you think?! And this coming from someone who's apparently based in Spain? Anyone with the vague semblance of a brain in their head might have noticed the temperatures at 3pm in the afternoon in Spain & may consider that this is not conducive to running about after a piece of leather while losing several times your own body weight in fluids!! Now you may say that this is a blog written to be provocative & thought-provoking, which I'd be more than happy to read if it were the case. Unfortunately what we've actually ended up with is ill-informed, anglo-centric xenophobia. Good luck in Spain Naka, just stick to the Spanish press, at least they'll have bothered to know who you are!!
	July 15, 2009 19:53 sameoldcabbage said: 3 pm in Gijon, Bilboa or Santander in the winter months doesn't tend to be especially hot.
	July 15, 2009 20:52 psdiggs said: hombreculto it was Perez who spoke about changing kick off times to 3 o'clock the blog is just reporting it, it is not their idea(Just like them reporting the signing of Nakamura does not mean they have signed him themselves. Does it?) and while Nakamura did score two goals against Utd a few seasons ago in recent seasons he has been a squad player not the first name on the team sheet. As you said yourself he is the 'Beckham of Japan' and clearly a big marketing asset in that region.
	July 16, 2009 01:15 PrairieBhoy said: psdiggs: Naka has not ben a squad player. He was the starter on one wing with McGeady on the other. He is a fine passer and crosser of the ball in addition to being a very acurate dead ball specialist. He also posesses a rocket leg when he wants to use it. Like many players of his ilk, he is not polished defensively. Then again, that isn't why he came. Celtic offered him 2 million to stay because he is so popular in Japan. Watch Espanyol shirt orders take a dramatic rise in Japan. That does not happen for squad players.
	July 16, 2009 01:21 mrplow2000 said: a little bit disrespectful there, to the only team in la liga formed by catalans.
	July 16, 2009 11:42 Tim Stannard said: Hombreculto - first off, take a deep breath. As psdiggs pointed out, the blog post was actually against the idea of 3pm kick offs, but it's good that you didn't let that get in the way of a fine rant about "ill-informed, anglo-centric xenophobia" Interestingly, Thursday's AS is reporting that all Real Madrid games in winter will be played at 3pm and 4pm during the spring. Whether or not this actually happens is another matter. And as sameoldcabbage points out, winters in the north of Spain can be unbelievably cold.
	July 16, 2009 15:00 Deep Throat said: He eats chow mein and he votes Sinn Féin...
	July 16, 2009 19:43 AdamCule said: Hombreculto, in your rush to fly off the handle you appear to have overlooked the fact that Celtic v Man Utd is not a Scottish game, as well as the other facts people have corrected you on. Incidentally the temperatures in Spain don't tend to bother the second division footballers who have to start some of their games at 12pm. This may have something to do with football being played primarily between September and May when temperatures aren't all that high.
	July 16, 2009 22:57 Eddie said: Ah, now that explains it. While hunting around various football sites I found not only the usual 1,000 photos of David Beckham standing around at a charity match and about 5 of the Copa Libertadores final, but also 500 photos of Shunsuke Nakamura's presentation at Espanyol. That kept me puzzled all day yesterday, overnight and all morning until I read this blog. Thank you for the information that Shunsuke is considered the 'Beckham of Japan'. Everything is now clear.
	July 17, 2009 06:27 jfg said: Hombreculto says, ".. losing several times your own body weight in fluids!!" Now just wondering if you weigh 80kgs and lost, say 160kgs of body fluids, that would make you er, er...Help, someone..?
	July 17, 2009 10:12 hum4ndyn4mo said: Although this has nothing to do with this post, has LLL seen the new Getafe kits? Lets just say that Maniche has got to get himself a transfer!
	July 17, 2009 13:02 Tim Stannard said: Indeed, I have. I shall be doing something on that next week, perhaps. But you have pre-empted the most obvious gag to be made!
	July 17, 2009 17:32 TijuanaKid said: Just wanted to pop into say that Hombreculto's rant was easily one of the silliest, most useless diatribes I've ever seen on the internet. Hombreculto, how about you stick to the Spanish press and don't clutter LLL with your nonsense. Tim, do you think you could elaborate a little more on the current impasse with TV rights? I thought it was resolved at the end of last season, but obviously that's not the case.