stcappy

Lundekvam's first squad number was 22, 2nd season 6, and then Switched to 5 I believe. He certainly had 22 as I had the first shop printed shirt with his name and number when he signed - I had to spell his name for the girl doing it as they had only done his match shirts at that point.

He also had a guy called Raul Longhi asissting when at espanyol. He is now head of the espanyol academy I think.

As someone fairly local, there is on street parking but you will need to get there early and there isn't much in the way of pubs etc at the ground. If you come off at junction 45, it is a few minutes off the junction in the direction of the stadium. You will see some car showrooms across a roundabout and you take the junction off the roundabout to the right of those. The park and ride that did run from just off the motorway at junction 45 (and was there last time we played them) is no longer in use - it runs from elsewhere in the city. It's a long walk from the centre to the stadium - but taxi is easier enough. If your on the train there is a shuttle bus from the station to the ground. There is a retail park by the ground but they don't allow parking for the game. There is a morrisons beyond the retail park - again not suppose to park there but it does have a 3 hour limit. There will be quite a few Cardiff saints there with the flag which might get an interesting reaction off the locals! Then again it might not!

The interpretation on some of those 'mistakes' is interesting in that for a number of them his is actually the last of two or three mistakes prior to it, that led to him being in that position. Some of those prior mistakes have been used to argue other players are not good enough too - eg. Kelvin. For example, the utd penalty was a direct result of a poor pass by kelvin, that put us under pressure, stretching our defence so several were trying desperately to make up for the initial error. Jos's tackle was a desperate final attempt to do that and stop RVP scoring from 12 yards out or so. The arsenal own goal, I seem to remember that the issue with that was 3 saints players around podolski, who evaded them all, played a ball to Gibbs, whose cross went through Kelvin, and hit jos behind him unexpectedly. In that instance there are 4 players before jos that could be blamed equally for that goal! It's accepted that one own goal v Fulham he could do nothing about, a bit like the own goal at Newcastle which fox kicked at him from point blank range. So that's 4 of his mistakes that can strongly be argued to not be his sole fault at least, yet he gets the blame. That doesn't wash with me. At the start of the season, his confidence was clearly affected by our form and start, and it was right to drop him. I also think that now he has come back in he has been very good in some strong team performances. That isn't to say I wouldn't look to strengthen at CB, because I think we could improve on all our options there. I have a feeling that Pochettino as an experienced defender himself, believes fonte and yoshida are too similar in style to play together hence the current selections. I also think forren is possibly seen as a long term upgrade on fonte and yoshida. Guess we will see. Anyway to blame jos like this thread tries to, without looking at all the facts, and comparing to how much workload he actually has to deal with in every game, is only looking at part of the picture to make a pre-conceived assertion valid.

There are penalties and decisions we should have had this season that we haven't had. We got one today that went out way. No-one has mentioned the benteke elbows, or his deliberate handball, the studs up challenge on gaston, the wild lunge at Morgan - all could and should have contributed to villa players being sent off. Halsey had a poor game full stop. And for the record, I think it's law 12 that says that it's an offence "to trip or attempt to trip" - therefore the idea that contact is necessary is nonsense.

A fixture I looked for as like others have said its a new ground. Sadly though my first miss of the season - mates wedding is same day. Have already warned them that I will be using the hotels wifi to find a stream for it during the reception!

Oh I know that - I shall avoid reading the board for a while if that happens!

Quite frankly I am amazed that nobody has picked up the more important issue with all these rumours of bids for players in Italy, and that's the fact that we can only do one deal at a time so must surely only be looking at Astori as that negotiation is ongoing?!?! It's impossible for us to have bid for two more players this week as we all know! I do have to laugh at some of the garbage that gets spouted on here about our transfer policy and approach to it. We are no different to most clubs in the world. Scouting network finds players for position manager wants to strengthen, we approach players then on basis of ability, potential availability and value, as well as doing the whole host of other research the club does into character etc before bidding. Is it really that difficult to understand?? It beggars belief that some would think we haven't got a system even fit to run a Sunday league team.

Sorry, I should have added Sergio busquets to that list too.

Reading a book at the moment about this. Valdez, piqué, iniesta, messi, fabregas and I think Xavi. Piqué and fabregas both left as teenagers and then were signed back having played in the same academy team as messi. So its possoble to split hairs on whether they came through the ranks or not. In Guardiola's time he blooded 19 players from their Academy system. Not sure what that has risen too since he left if it has at all.

We really need to rethink how we play away from home. We got player selection wrong today (not sure j rod was the right pick)and badly missed schneiderlin sitting in front of the back 4 in the first half. (Would have played yoshida on midfield and brought hooiveld back in Morgans absence). He tidies an awful lot up and gets us playing the passing game we are pretty effective at. We looked very unbalanced and once osman and pienaar realised they had the freedom of midfield and the flanks we were in trouble. Today proved it doesn't matter who plays at full back - if you give them no protection away from home, allow the opposition to double up on them, then your asking for trouble. Neither lallana or J rod offered cover first half. We look decent going forward but far too fragile defensively still. We seem to be set up to stop teams playing through the middle of us, but both arsenal and now Everton have really exploited the space out wide. Don't know the answer though without detracting from what's good about us going forward. Yoshida had a good game throughout I thought, SD and JWP were better second half positionally. Even though he was a little more wasteful in possession today, Ramirez still looked a class above at times. If he pulls it back to 3-2 then they would have panicked having taken their foot off the pedal. Lambert had little service after the opening 20 minutes, and lallana's influence wained after that too. I still think we will be alright - Everton are a good team this year, especially at home. I think they have won 8/9 ar home now including last season. We need to find a way of playing away that makes us tighter at the back, and enables Ramirez, lallana and lambert to do their thing. We haven't got that balance anywhere near right yet. Didn't expect anything from today so more frustrated then down tonight to see us waste a lead again.

For those concerned this is taking too long, might be worth checking the timeline and events of the Modric to Real Madrid saga. All thought fee etc was agreed including player, Who wants to go. Real say they won't go higher with their bid, Levy trying to get more money for his club. Guilleme Balague on Sky said earlier this goes on all the time, and will eventually get sorted - again he said its called negotiation. Even the biggest of spenders negotiate hard and draw lines in the sand. This isn't unusual when pursuing top end of the market players. The RVP deal didn't happen in a week either did it?? That was ongoing for a month at least. What will be, will be.

Agree - it is crazy. I couldnt believe it yesterday morning. I knew fares would go up but the pace was frightening! Hopefully it will make for an even better atmosphere out there though- the France game was a little flat. Knew I couldn't get off work for the semi hence why I have just gone for it this weekend. More than i wanted to pay but knew I would regret not being there come Sunday if I didnt.

I have managed to get flights and accommodation for 2 nights in the centre for £650. The flights were £515 return. Every refresh though yesterday as you searched possibilities the price went up. One possibility from heathrow went from £460 to £750 in about 10 minutes! Ended up booking with Lufthansa going from Birmingham. Reasonably happy as its the same as the day trip option. Just wish I had booked it straight after the ukraine game and not spent the night thinking about it.

Prices were increasing by the second yesterday for flights this weekend! Heading out early Saturday until Monday. Went out for the France game and cant wait to get back out there.