Saturday
Deportivo (6th) vs Tenerife (19th)
Deportivo and Zaragoza met in court this week over the ongoing transfer saga concerning Queen Angel Lafita, who moved from the former to the latter at the end of the summer transfer window â much to DeporâÂÂs displeasure.
The dispute centres on the ownership rights of the versatile star of Chicago and part time midfielder and... and... considering most people will have stopped reading after the words âÂÂownership rightsâ the blog will save everyoneâÂÂs time and energy by stopping, too.
LLL prediction: Home win
AlmerÃÂa (13th) vs Barcelona (1st)
La Liga Loca has an apology to make. Indeed, so does most of the Spanish sports media.
The blog has made the foolish assumption that the launch of the Laporta 2010 website with its blurb about a better future for Catalunya, making brave decisions and YouTube clip of a jacketless Barcelona president in a sleeves rolled-up âÂÂIâÂÂm a regular guyâ pose was an indication of an interest in a future political career.
But apparently not. It was merely a sexed-up version of a MySpace page. ThatâÂÂs what Joan himself appears to be claiming after telling Sport that his political ambitions have yet to be confirmed.
âÂÂI am reflecting on this idea but nothing has been decided yet,â said Laporta. âÂÂThe time to make an announcement cannot be made before I have left the Barcelona presidency.âÂÂ
La Liga Loca must now make sure that it does not read anything into the launch of the Laporta-penned book called Dreams for my Children, in which he muses and chinstrokes on a number of fascinating subjects in regards to Barcelona football club and Catalunya - just the kind of thing that any average non-political José would do at some point in their life.
LLL prediction: Away win
Real Madrid (2nd) vs Sevilla (4th)
Florentino signings goooood, Ramón Calderón signings baaaaad: Part Three.
The Madridista press continues its ongoing campaign to ensure that fans of the Castle Greyskull club do not stray from the right-thinking path and get any funny notions about non-Pérez players being any good.
The propaganda baton was passed from Marca to AS on Thursday with the latter paperâÂÂs review of how the various Real Madrid players fared in their international fixtures - and it really was a tale of two cities.
Pérezâ princes:
Cristiano Ronaldo - âÂÂalmost every attacking play went through the boots of Cristiano.âÂÂ
Xabi Alonso - âÂÂboth led the midfield and defended it.âÂÂ
Alvaro Arbeloa - âÂÂcontained a very flat Ribery.âÂÂ
Sergio Ramos - âÂÂscored and looked very secure.âÂÂ
Kaká - âÂÂwas straight back to work in Madridâ after his sparkling friendly performance against Ireland.
Raul Albiol - âÂÂcame on after the break and achieved perfection.âÂÂ
RamónâÂÂs rogues:
Rafael van der Vaart - âÂÂplayed half-an-hour.âÂÂ
Lassana Diarra - âÂÂlost the battle in midfield.âÂÂ
Gonzalo HiguaÃÂn - âÂÂhe was boring, but he scored.âÂÂ
LLL prediction: Home win
Sunday
Málaga (14th) vs Xerez (20th)
Xerez only signed two players in the winter transfer window, which is not entirely surprising considering the bottom-of-the-table club are in SpainâÂÂs version of administration.
One of those is called Nicolás Vigneri but the forward hasnâÂÂt actually appeared for the Andalusian side as yet. And one of his agents is quite unhappy about the affair and blames the Xerez manager for making a financial rather than a footballing decision in overlooking his client.
âÂÂGorosito has not picked him as he was not brought in by his own agent and could not make any money on the deal,â jâÂÂaccused Jorge Chijane.
LLL prediction: Home win
Espanyol (15th) vs Villarreal (8th)
Shunsuke Nakamura has finally gone, gone, gone back to his first club, Yokohama Mariners, and has apologised to Espanyol fans for them not getting to see the very best of him during his rather uninspiring spell in El Prat.
The midfielder would almost certainly have made his declaration in his local lingo â and thatâÂÂs the heart of the problem with Nakamura, feels one Japanese colleague of the blog, who says that her countryman failed to learn Italian in three years with Reggina, did not pick up much English after four years in Scotland and was nowhere near learning any Spanish at Espanyol.
LLL prediction; Draw
Mallorca (5th) vs Sporting (10th)
La Liga Loca today announces its intention to bring its global readership the thoughts of Mallorca manager Gregorio Manzano on a regular basis.
But rather than having ManzanoâÂÂs musings twisted and turned by what Joan Laporta calls the âÂÂmedia cavernâÂÂ, the blog is bringing them straight from the managerâÂÂs mouth from GregorioâÂÂs personal blog.
The first philosophy from Manzano in this exciting series is a most intriguing one with his latest blog update stating boldly that âÂÂno input file selected.â Food for thought, indeed.
LLL prediction: Home win
Osasuna (12th) vs Getafe (9th)
A tremendous civil war has been fought at the Coliseum this week after a run of five league matches without a win for Getafe. After the Madrid sideâÂÂs most recent defeat against Zaragoza, Michel the manager complained that some of his squadâÂÂs âÂÂstarsâ were spending too much time reading their own positive press. Those who can read, that is.
But club president Angel Torres has hit back and defends the under-fire footballers. âÂÂIf 15 players have a bad day than itâÂÂs the fault of the manager,â sniffed Torres, putting Michel back in his box by complaining that SundayâÂÂs 2-0 defeat was âÂÂthe worst game in our six years in la Primera.âÂÂ
LLL prediction: Away win
Athletic (7th) vs Valladolid (18th)
There was a bit of a bust-up in the Basque Country on Wednesday after AthleticâÂÂs friendly with the national side of Paraguay. Sections of the South American countryâÂÂs press were huffing and puffing that the home teamâÂÂs line-up was distinctly second-string and showed a âÂÂtotal lack of respectâ to proud Paraguay, who came away with a 3-1 victory.
However, it's a charge that Athletic manager JoaquÃÂn Caparrós strongly denies (in the couldnâÂÂt-give-a-flying-fig sense of the word âÂÂdenies'). âÂÂYou [journalists] have your opinions, and thatâÂÂs fair enough, but IâÂÂm the one who has to make the decisions and I donâÂÂt just think about today, but also tomorrow and yesterday.âÂÂ
LLL prediction: Home win
Zaragoza (17th) vs Atlético (11th)
With just over two months to go until the end of the Spanish football season, the FA has yet to select either the venue or date of the 2010 Copa del Rey final between Sevilla and Atlético Madrid â feeling, quite rightly, that one canâÂÂt hurry these things.
The original date of May 26 has just been rejected by FIFA on the grounds that it's in the middle of World Cup preparations and 10 days after the deadline given by the organisation to leagues around the world to have their domestic affairs in order.
This now leaves Spanish suits hoping that both participants are knocked out of their respective European competitions as quickly as possible. Otherwise finding a free slot for the âÂÂshowpieceâ event could become somewhat problematical, although a spokesman said the organisation was 'hopeful' over FIFA agreeing to their latest proposal of July 11.
LLL prediction: Home win
Monday
Valencia (3rd) vs Racing (16th)
Sergio Canales - still a Racing player, despite what Marca would have people believe - is probably very relieved indeed that his side have an away fixture this weekend as any welcome in El Sardinero would be far from warm.
The young forward was splashed across the media in a foolish stunt, during the week, putting on the Real Madrid shirt, kissing the club badge and being made to look like an enormous tart by the Madridista rag.
SergioâÂÂs agent-father Angel was forced to apologise for the unfortunate incident and the player himself has been before the local press to âÂÂinsist that I am here to help Racing.âÂÂ
LLL prediction: Home win
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