That was a shame and undeserved. Regarding away fans,the few times I've been to watch Fiorentina,there have been about 300-1,000 away fans.AC Milan brought the most from memory.
I have been to watch Real Mallorca a couple of times when they were in La Liga, and I got talking to a bunch of ex-pat Brits who were regular Real Mallorca supporters. Most of them had British teams as their 1st love as you might expect, but because they loved watching football they got their regular fix watching and supporting Real Mallorca. I commented on the decent amount of support Mallorca had in the stadium, but what they told me was quite surprising! They said had the game we were watching been against Barcelona or Real Madrid, most of those Mallorca shirts would be replaced by the away teams colours, as for most of the supporters Real Mallorca was only their 2nd team, and either RM or Barca were their 1st choice! I can understand the ex-pat Brits having a 1st choice British team, but for Spaniards to have another Spanish team as 1st choice "it don't seem Roight" as our old mate Hollowhead would say!
I wonder how many of our fans at one point preferred United, Liverpool or a bigger London club. Probably more than you'd imagine.
I liked Villa when I was 9 as well as Watford, as I liked Brian Little! I grew out of it by the time I was 10 however.
Real Madrid fans are one of the "soulless" (as El Distraido said) supporters in Spain. We usually refer the Santiago Bernabeu as the "Theater" because everyone is quiet seeing the game, no one tries to cheer the team. They say its because "We only cheer against the great teams (Barcelona and Atletico and some Champions games), the games against the bottom clubs has no emotion... So you can understand they NEVER travel with the team. If you see someone supporting Real Madrid in an Away game (far from Calderon) they 99% surely are native from that city. @The Voice of Reason Thats "kinda" common, it also happened in Granada when we were in 2ºB. It usually happen with teams that hardly do it to La Liga, the citizens wants to feel like they support someone in the top level. You can't have 2 teams, you have 1 and feel sympathy for others, so I don't feel like they are supporting the club of their city, they just get into the wave once they are in La Liga
By the way, the final count of the winter market: INS: - Barral: Striker, I feel like he is coming just as a Peñaranda/Success/El Arabi bench option. Veteran and aggressive. - Jesus Fernandez: I didn't understand this sign really good, might be a competition of Jesus and Kelava to see who is the 2nd goalkeeper next year. He is good (nice reflexes) but he had 0 continuity once he left Real Madrid B years ago. He already said he wants to stay after this 6 months. - Ricardo Costa: GREAT defender, a leader and level riser on a position we needed someone more. Great signing. - Doucouré: He is called "the best Granada sign this year", I don't know him so much but people that know him says this midfielder is a beast. - Isaac Cuenca: I loved this guy when he was on Barcelona first team with Guardiola. So fast, vertical and not refusing 1vs1, he left the team and tried to be the star in a non top level team, but had no luck with injuries. We will see. OUTS: - Nico Lopez: He had few chances, I felt he was a little bit as Buonanotte: He had no physical aptitudes to be on a top level league. - Neuton: He played... 15 minutes? in the whole season. - Musavu King: He played... 0 minutes. - Thievy: I didn't understand his signing on summer, he is crazy and a ****ing bomb in all the teams he had been in. Now he is in France with another bomb: Lass (Rayo Vallecano). That's gonna be funny for their coach. - Piti: Piti piti... What a pity (See what I did there?), he was called to be the star of our team when we sign him, instead of that, he developed a bad attitude and never being important to the team. This year with Sandoval (Who had him in Rayo Vallecano), said in the early season: "He is the Magic of Granada CF" to give him moral, then he sit him on the bench once and Piti exploded, he started fighting Sandoval and trying to put other players against Sandoval. Now, right after leaving the club, he did a bad speech against Granada CF.
Right, I almost forgot. Time to give the final count of Udinese's winter market too. IN: - Pablo Armero: 29YO comes back after loans to Milan and Flamengo, willing to relaunch his career judging from his first match. Good trasfer to give us more options at LB - Andrija Balic: 18YO AM from Hajduk Split. A true typical Udinese signing. Extremely promising young. Very very hot prospect. - Emil Hallfredsson: 31YO from Verona. Not a champion but more than decent quality and huge experience badly needed in our midfield. Good in his first match. - Zdravko Kuzmanovi*: 28YO from Basel, previously at Fiorentina and Inter. Same as for Hallfredsson, welcome in our midfield. - Ryder Matos: 22YO from Fiorentina. Very impressing in his first matches. Quick and capable. The SS we needed. OUT: - Nico Lopez: back from Granada and on loan for 18 month to Nacional in his native Uruguay, in the hope he finds back motivations and self-belief before a better return in Europe. - Emanuel Insua: on loan to Newell's in Argentina. - Lucas Evangelista: 6 months loan to Stramaccioni's Panathinaikos, where he should play a lot instead of rotting on bench here. - Rodrigo Aguirre: 6 months on loan to Perugia (serie B) to gain experience. - Marquinho: showed nothing useful on the pitch so far in season. On loan to Al-Ahli with option to buy I think, with the hope to get rid of him. - Panagiotis Kone: on loan to Fiorentina with option to buy. His avg. in performances in 1.5 seasons was: 1 great match with wonderful goal, 4 matches useless on the pitch, 5 matches out injured or banned. Again, strong hope to get rid of him. - Manuel Iturra: came from Granada. On loan to Rayo Vallecano. Decent but unfortunately not good enough for quality in midfield. Overall, a very good transfer window (and somewhat expensive for Udinese's average). Most of the players who most disappointed in team lately were subtituted with better options (on paper at least) with similar/identical role (Silva->Armero, Iturra->Hallfredsson, Marquinho->Kuzmanovi*, Kone->Matos). One new promising hot prospect (Balic). Several players who might be good for the future gaining experience elsewhere. I'm very satisfied.
Didn't realized you bought Ryder Matos, I loved that player some years ago, will be aware of his matches.
Ali Adnan seems promising. Not a future superstar maybe, but shows some potential for a very good player. He's still raw anyway and must learn a lot (tactics, defensive experience, better crossing) but he has time. Balic fee was 3M€ plus bonuses (probably up to something like one extra M€ if he plays several games).
Come on Granada.... Udinese will beat Bologna despite their recent revival. I've got a good feelig today is the day the Trinity win.
They started really well but just fell apart after the 1st goal. As long as Udinese stay tight and sharp, they won't lose.
I really wonder why on Earth Granada so often gives good (but unfortunate in results) performances against the big teams (like Vs. Real Madrid last match) and then horrible losses against much more affordable teams.
I guess being at home against the big sides you tend to try harder. The problem with Granada is they're too open, there's so much space. What they need to do is adopt a more QSF approach and stay compact with little room between defence and midfield and just make themselves hard to beat.
Sandoval have saved their skin last season with a more attack-minded style, but I wonder if he'll be still the manager next week. In last 11 matches (including this one) it's just 9 points with 3 won and 8 lost, 10 goals scored and 27 (!!!) received. And I'm not counting the embarassing overall 0-7 Vs Valencia in the 2 matches of Copa del Rey. Sheer numbers are not good.
Udinese 1-0 up against Genoa. Ali Adnan Zielinski has also scored for Empoli (2 red cards in that match in 40 minutes) EDIT: 1-1
Sandoval fired. New coach: Jose Gonzalez: He was a second coach in China, usually a 2nd/3rd division coach. No one in Granada understand this.
To be fair, Jokanovic was similar. I don't think many of us had a clue who he was and he worked out ok! Although that does seem even more left field than that.
I doubt the owners will have. The players weren't far off last night but the defence was a shambles and although it pains me it looked like you were only heading in one direction with Sandoval. Fingers crossed the new guy sorts out the defence.
Roji - what do you think the reasons are for Granada's troubles this season? They were excellent against Real on TV a few weeks ago but have been pretty mediocre either side of that. Now, to my mind that's not good enough. If the players can perform that well against Real, they then should not be at the bottom of la liga. Do you think there are some players that are only getting themselves pumped up for the big games so they can out themselves in the shop window, and don't really care about the club?
