Oh dear! not looking good is it? ... two goals down to lower league opposition, red card on 23' ... HT
I mean this is the nicest possible way, but Granada need to ****ing sort themselves out. Embarrassing. Yet again they're losing (2-0 this time to a 2nd division team) and they've had another player sent off. Ruben Perez after only 20 mins. I've no idea if the sending off was justified, but I'm sick and tired of getting alerts on my phone telling me that Granada have conceded again. I'm also sick of telling my Spanish students that Granada are the best team in Spain. The fact that they're consistently in the bottom 5 means the joke is wearing a bit thin now.
The red card wouldn't have looked out of place in a WWE fight, the sort of tackle branded "cynical" these days in order to stop an attack, except Ruben Perez grabbed his neck to do so. The Leganes bloke made the most of it but either way, you're right. Granada need to sort it out, and quick. They look like what Martin Samuel would have you believe we are: mercenaries using the club as a stepping stone, not really caring about the club. Sorry if that offends, rojihorizontal, but sadly it's true from what Ive seen this year! I hope you can sort it out.
The red card was a ****ing joke, I don't get what did Ruben Perez got in the head doing that. And in the same way, I can't believe we scored a goal being with 10 during 70 minutes. I mean, we tied a 2-0 against Malaga and we are still alive on the cup... Hopefully this will get the players some psycological boost. And yep, its a 2-legged tie, its something spanish supporters wants to change, we want a clean cup with 1 match and free-rules matches (right now, 1 division teams comes in the 4 round, the "european" clubs play against the 2ºB and 3º clubs and rest of La Liga team play against 2º teams (As we are doing), so its quite impossible there is a non-La Liga team after the next round) We want surprises. PS: @LPC213 That doesn't offend, don't worry, im a rational supporter and I can see the mistakes, and we (the fans) are aware that a lot of players thinks in Granada as a step-club, thinking they will do as Siqueira, Brahimi or Murillo, thats why suddenly Sandoval is using Peñaranda, Success, Uche... Because they are young players that NEED that opportunity.
This evening Udinese begins Italy Cup (TIM Cup) against Atalanta. Second line players, a chance to see, e.g., Meret as GK (they speak a lot of good about him). Single leg (except semi-finals), but in Italy it's maybe even worse than Copa del Rey. Teams arrived in the first 8 places in serie A previous season enter the tournement only at the round of 16. All seeds are done already, no surprises. The first four in season (if they go on) always play at home. Nothing at all like FA Cup, unfortunately.
FT 3-1. Good match against a good Atalanta. Several reasons to be optimistic: - Di Natale scored a wonderful 2nd goal, we hope he won't retire at the end of December as rumours say. - 2 assists for an excellent Ali Adnan, particularly beautiful and difficult the second. - very good header in goal for Perica, worth using the option to buy from Chelsea - a couple of good saves from GK Alex Meret (18YO!) - Evangelista recovering from injury and playing a good match. Next December 17th: Lazio-Udinese.
0-2 against Atletico, not a surprise but it was a more equal game than the score shows. Atletico scored the second one with only 15 minutes left when Granada was having all the chances, but they have Top players and thats a huge difference: One great pass and a great shoot from Griezmann. Also, I don't usually think that referees are deciding the winner, they are bad, thats all, but tonight we could easily see how the referee was against Granada or pro-Atletico. 20 minutes and already 2 yellow cards (for no apparently reason), could were only for one side, a clear penalty not given... Its kinda frustrating. Right now Granada supporters are 50-50, some of them think the team is improving (im one of them) and the other half already want changes. By the way: Thievy had been sent on "holidays" since january 1st when he will be sold. He refused to do one training exercise during mid-week, left the field shouting at the coach... And its not the first one (not unexpected, he has been like this in all the teams he had been, no one in Granada understood the sign of such a "crazy head").
Watched the match and Granada was not bad at all against a very superior opponent. The referee was also certainly not Granada-friendly. If you continue playing like this, I'm sure you'll soon collect points and victories to get out of danger.
http://www.football-italia.net/76973/juventus-referred-over-motta-deal Udinese are being investigated for "alleged breach of rules concerning agents" over the transfer of Marco Motta... Gino Pozzo also named.
Ah! those Italians! To be fair it's a complicated business, deals are often made in good faith so when one person fcks up it can put others in the sh!t. As Uefa are not likely to interfere I can't see us being dragged into it and even then it would be just a slap on the wrist for our owner. Saying all that I'd still be surprised if Gino's arse isn't well covered as the Pozzos always have the best of lawyers.
All the Triad playing today. WFC early afternoon. Granada away at Levante in a hugely important 6-pointer in late afternoon. Udinese at home this evening, in a very difficult match against Inter leading the table, in a new Friuli Stadium now almost completed also in North stand. Works should be finished within end of year and official inauguration will be on January 17th for the home match against Juventus. The North stand: Spoiler The three new stands seen from the old main stand:
Brace for Penaranda, born '97! Full time! A hugely important win for Granada and maybe a new star rising discovered from Pozzo's scouting network.
¡PEÑARANDA! He became the youngest player ever to score on La Liga with Granada CF and he makes it with 2 goals and 3 points! After the second goal he started crying of joy knowing about what he just did. UDINESE IS ONE WIN AWAY FROM THE FIRST TRINITY WINNING WEEKEND EVER!!
Fantastic result for Granada... Big game for Udi tonight, the odds (3/1) look good to me! Confident of a result?
We need to build ourselves, but where possible Udinese and Granada really need support almost as a repayment for where we've gotten to.
So, so risky though. Redirect too much of our income to them, and we're risking our own survival and the long term safety of all three teams. I can see it being two or three years before Udinese and Granada start seeing benefits.
You joke, but realistically it's probably not that financially advantageous to operate three clubs at the current level. Realistically, none of us are in a great position to improve players that the triad bring in because we all want to stay so competitive (and the model is now based less around bringing in undiscovered prospects but instead those with tarnished reputations, who are still more costly and therefore less likely to earn a great profit), so the main source of revenue is going to be from our TV money. Unless Udinese and Granada are able to make a profit year-on-year even with a reduced ability to make money on player transfers, they will eventually end up costing money. Whether the Pozzos are more interested in the footballing side than profit maximisation, who knows. As someone who pays a lot of interest to Udinese and Granada, I hope so.
They really don't need our money. Giampaolo could buy Ronaldo and Messi if there was value to be had ... But without the revenue streams they would probably fall foul of FFP and be stopped from qualifying for Europe
Udinese lost 4-0 at home yesterday to a strong Inter side. Stadium sounds good though! Peñaranda's goals here: [video=youtube;7dZHz3AwQ_g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dZHz3AwQ_g[/video] [video=youtube;Uf0WfS1evNg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf0WfS1evNg[/video]
Sounds ridiculous after a 0-4, but yesterday we had overall an excellent performance and we were the better team on the field, but we gifted them with THREE horrible defensive mistakes and we were heavily punished. Handanovic, their GK (formerly at Udinese), was by far their best player and parried several great chances, created with a lot of running and high pressing.
I watched the game and 4-0 was a flattering scoreline, the first 2 goals were horrible defensive mistakes although I thought the keeper could have done better for the first goal. Then they were caught out pushing forward to trying to score but I have to say the finishing was clinical. Other than that Udinese played really well, bright and inventive with a great tempo, it's just unfortunate they came up against a keeper on his game.
So... Still waiting the miracle (3 wins weekend) The second Peñaranda goal comes after a great move dribbling 3 players (And getting up after a foul to keep playing, like Messi does).
