Poor Diego Forlán. It seems that nobody loves the little fella these days aside from his hot supermodel lady friend. And himself. And maybe his curling tongs.
A fun story broke in El PaÃÂs, this week, claiming that the Uruguayan is not just in the bad books of the Atlético fans these days - books of the colouring variety, probably - for his somewhat half-hearted performances, but also in a cooking pot of crankiness with his own teammates too. The paper reports that there is a campaign in the Rojiblanco dressing room known as âÂÂnot one pass to la RubiaâÂÂ.
José Antonio Reyes - one of the players accused of being part of this ball-hogging cartel in a round-about way - denied such tittle-tattle on Spanish radio station Cadena Ser but did admit that âÂÂla Rubiaâ or âÂÂBlondieâ is Diego ForlánâÂÂs nickname, whether the forward likes it or not. All Quique Sánchez-Flores could do was look exasperated and complain that he was "fed up with all these situations with Forlán.âÂÂ
LLL will be at GetafeâÂÂs Coliseum stadium at eight on Wednesday night to see if Forlán really is 'Billy No Mates' in the Atleti dressing room as they face their opponents in the grand title, ding-dong battle to be the second best capital city club in la Primera. Until Rayo return, anyway.
Also kicking off at the same time in the ongoing action of round 26 of la Primera are a Villarreal team looking to finally win a league game after four failed attempts. TheyâÂÂll be kicking themselves until they have just the one leg left if they fail as they face a Hércules side who have managed just the one win and three goals on their travels in la Primera this season - bizarrely the victory and two of those strikes came against Barcelona in the Camp Nou.
Osasuna are hosting Deportivo in a match that sounds truly dreadful, so the blog will move quickly on rather like one does when spying a huge pile of pavement spew - thereâÂÂs curiosity to have a glimpse but no desire to hang around for too long.
Real Sociedad are taking on Levante in a fascinating battle that will show if the visitors can continue their rather remarkable form of four wins in five, the defeat being the setback in the Santiago Bernabeu.
The big game of the night is Pep trying to beat Valencia with his Dream Boys for the first time in Mestalla in la Primera. The problem is that the Barça manager may not be there to witness the attempt as he is suffering from back problems. This wonâÂÂt make a blind bit of difference to the match says Unai Emery, who notes that âÂÂneither Guardiola nor I are playing in the game although if we did he would probably win.âÂÂ
Xavi and Dani Alves will return from injury and suspension respectively, although David Villa might be a touch flustered as the former Valencia man has had to spend Wednesday morning in a court room in Avilés in Asturias on the north coast due to a dispute case raised by his former agent. But needing the firing-on-all-cylinders forward, Barça will be hiring a private jet to get the tiny-bearded one to Mestalla in time.
The Barcelona press are very excited indeed by the notion of Real Madrid going into their tie with Málaga on Thursday ten points behind the Dream Boys should Barça win in Mestalla. âÂÂPsychologically, three points today is half the league. Only half, but still half,â said Miguel Rico in Mundo Deportivo rubbing his hands together in glee.
âÂÂIf Barça beat Valencia, Mourinho will fall into a depression and end up crying in the next press conference,â was the chuckle from Josep MarÃÂa Casanovas from Sport.
MourinhoâÂÂs presser on Wednesday ahead of the Málaga game mainly featured the Madrid manager moaning about the fixtures and aiming insults at those who disagreed with him, journalists (one was called a hypocrite) and Manuel Pellegrini. The current Málaga boss had said that he had a record at Real Madrid to be proud of with history allowing him âÂÂto have the best campaignâ in the clubâÂÂs history.
âÂÂIf Madrid sack me then I wonâÂÂt go to Málaga, IâÂÂll go to a big club in England or Italy,â scoffed Mourinho in reply, managing to wind up the opposition manager and team at the same time. Which may have been the Special OneâÂÂs cunning plan. Or it may simply have been all part of what Xavier Sardà, a Catalan TV presenter, claimed was an act. He noted that âÂÂMourinho plays the role of idiot extremely well.âÂÂ
Tuesday nightâÂÂs games saw Mallorca taking three admirable points in Cornella against Espanyol with a 2-1 win and Sevilla taking a firm hold of seventh with an easy 3-0 victory over visiting Sporting.
