Faking News: Why the Cesc Transfer Saga Remains a Saga

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Moc, Moc or Mock, Mock?

As you can see, Another Prick In The Wall hasn’t been writing lately. But it isn’t because APTW has been mulling over the possibility of seeing Thong Boy in a Gorilla Snot Hair Gel sponsored Real jersey ala Bimbo sponsoring Chivas Guadalajara. It’s actually because the blog has been trying to get an exclusive take from the Barcelona authorities on the Cesc transfer saga, which admittedly is not a very difficult thing to do, as they all love to talk about Cesc down in Catalaunya, about how much he wants to return and how much they want him back and how those sods in Arsenal are making the poor guy suffer by not letting him go for free. No, but the blog wanted to know why Barcelona are not ready to spend a shade over 40 million to secure Cesc, when they can spend 37 million for Sanchez, drafting up the prints of the agreement in black and white and saving on color toners.

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A warm breeze from Costa Del Sol

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VanGol's Andalucian Affair

There were over 15000 of them in the stands, delirious with joy, waving their scarves, signing “Malaga, La Bombonera”; most of them in their striped blue and white jerseys. The fireworks went off as a timed response to that player who emerged from the dressing room onto the big green pitch and waved to the fans. Blue and white confetti rained down while balloons of the same color rained skywards as the 35 year old Ruud Van Nistelrooy, one of the most lethal finishers in Europe over the last two decades, marked his return back to Spain and acknowledged the crowd, a crowd which exceeded the ones present at his official presentation at all of his previous clubs. One may be forgiven to think that VanGol had made a switch to one of the European elites judging by the amount of fanfare. But Malaga CF are far from being an European elite. They are far from being even a Spanish elite. A club who’s very identity is framed by obscurity, a club which till date has won only one title: The Intertoto Cup, a club which has always been run by presidents that skinny dipped in controversy or landed in a pan of boiling oil soon after resigning from their posts, a club which typified the textbook definition of a yo-yo club, a club who’s lack of remembrance in the annals of La Liga is only eclipsed by the size of the region in Spain it hails from. Until Sheikh Abdullah Al Thani took over, that is.

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Poll: Your La Liga Team Other Than The Fat Cats

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It's offseason and hence Another Prick In The Wall is looking to write a couple of special posts for clubs other than the big two. The blog needs to know which club apart from Real Madrid & Barcelona will you be rooting for in the coming La Liga season. The blog will try its best to put together a decent article about the club that wins.

Also please make sure you let the blog know your reasons for supporting the club you selected. Multiple choices are allowed in case swooning over more than one of the clubs mentioned below, but please let the blog know your reasons for all the two timing.

NOTE: Poll ends 30th June, 2011.

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A Steaming Vat of Gossip & Some Grim Reading

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Another Prick In The Wall loves when controversies hit center stage in La Liga. The blog felt that in all the hoolah-hoo of the transfer rumors, it has been neglecting the colorful controversies which give La Liga its distinct characteristic: Morbo. In this post, the blog has sought to report some juicy nuggets of the choicest gossip so that you can enjoy the kind of fervor for the most ridiculous and the most weird, which only the off-season can bring.

Fuel The Fire

First up, the big one: The season hasn’t even begun and the big two are already at each other’s throats. Barcelona’s Floppy wannabe president, Sandrito was quoted only few weeks back expressing surprise at the lack of recognition for Barca in spite of all their heroics on footballing’s biggest stage. May be someone needs to tell the guys at Barcelona that waxing on and on about your greatness doesn’t give anybody else room to express their own thoughts regarding the matter. Anyway, Rossel followed that intelligent comment up with a lengthy presser last week where he talked about the greatness of Barcelona and their values, namely dignity and honor, and about how Barcelona is a reference to everyone, especially children. And just when the blog thought that this was yet another piece of self-important tripe which the Barca PR department dishes out with unfailing regularity, Rossel delivered a bomb. “A media report fuelled by Real Madrid wanted to justify our team’s extraordinary sporting performances with pathetic accusations”, boomed Rossel in reference to the doping allegations, before continuing, “This season a Real Madrid employee, its coach, went beyond all the limits of necessary sporting rivalry. Surprisingly, RM’s response to our legitimate right to defend our honor was a formal complaint against eight of our players. Real Madrid did not get their way, as UEFA twice rejected their accusations. Rivalry will continue next season but we can't allow the limits of fair play to be passed again”. The blog had followed this outburst keenly, nodding its head, until Rossel reached a point where he talked about ending the “institutional relations” between the two clubs and then expressed his hope that the “President of Real Madrid will look upon this as an opportunity to revive our relations”.

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Transfer Shenanigans - June 05 to June 14

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The transfer rumor mill has hit a minor lull in the last week, sometimes repackaging and churning out the same never ending transfer sagas, which have turned even more “tripey” every time they’ve gone into print once more. The blog decided to wait for more than a week to report some bombastic signings and then finally decided to go into print with whatever it has mustered up so far. It should make easy, and in parts, tedious reading depending on which club you support.

Madrid

Too Soon?

Real Madrid are finally in the news for selling reasons. Marca has reported that Boca Juniors are interested in signing back Gago, which the blog feels may be with a disposition of taking the black sheep back. The “done squat” midfielder’s agent pompously proclaimed that Gago is dying to go back to Boca, but it will not happen in the near future as Gago has three offers from Europe in the range of 17 million euros. Looks like Gago doesn’t and can’t have his way even when he has to be laid off. To start with, there have been rumors that it was Manchester City who had tabled the 17 million euro offer; however Mourinho, who has always had the best interests of Gago at heart, vetoed the move. Marca has continued its Mourinho worship by interpreting this decision as Mourinho wanting to erring on caution and built up the story pointing out that the outspoken coach wants to make all the signings first and then think about selling, no doubt causing the club a minor loss in the process. Possible targets to replace Gago as per Marca have included Essien from Chelsea (APTW: Impossible!), M’Vila from Rennes (APTW: Quite Possible) and Sissoko from Juventus (APTW shaking head).

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Transfer Shenanigans - May 29 to Jun 06

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The season is now well and truly over and the Transfer Rumor engine has already notched up a gear in the last week. Another Prick In The Wall was expecting a sudden outburst of crazy rumors, but what the blog hadn’t prepared for was the number of confirmed signings this early in the transfer window, which is actually quite good given the fact that teams that wind up their transfer business sooner get more time to prepare and gel in the pre-season. The blog fully expects the two leagues – One between Real Madrid and Barcelona and the other between the rest of the teams – to pan out with cut throat competition between opposing teams.

So without much ado, let's look at all the crazy transfer allegations and confirmed news touted by media all over the world during the last week as per each Spanish province...

Madrid

The Usual Suspects

Unsurprisingly, leading the charge in the transfer market is Real Madrid. The blog wonders if displaying the same intensity in the league as that in the transfer market could help the club winning a Liga title. After the quick fire acquisitions of Nuri Sahin and Hamit Altintop from Germany, the capital club is now rumored to be close to signing Fabio Coentrao and Kun Aguero from Benfica and Atletico Madrid respectively.

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La Liga Transfer News Live Blog

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In order to keep up with the Transfer Rumor Engine in over drive, Another Prick In The Wall brings you the Transfer News Liveblog, courtesy CoverItLive. The live blog has incorporated some of the most established tweeters from the world of La Liga who will bring you steady, continuous and reliable updates on everything that is going to go on in La Liga this summer.

So simply hit the Play button and remember, La Liga News is just a button click away...