Nicolas Anelka will soon be playing professional soccer in China. This is surprising because Nicolas Anelka is still a talented, effective soccer player who would help all but about 10 teams in the world. This is not surprising because Nicolas Anelka is going to a place where they'll pay him an exponent of a number it'd take me years to count to.

In an era of Galácticos, oil ball, and 300,000-a-week wages, it's easy to view football as a revolution. When something is wrong, blow it up and start over. Avram Grant not working out? Try Ancelotti. Ancelotti not the ticket? Go for AVB. If Ronaldo and Kaka aren't enough to be beat Barcelona, maybe Ronaldo, Kaka and The Special One will be.

It's remarkable how varied soccer teams' attitudes towards possession are. Obviously, no team is more deeply committed to possession in all situations than Barcelona, even though that commitment can cost them, as it did in the recent Clasíco, when Real was handed their early goal via an uncharacteristically dumb and easily-intercepted pass from Víctor Valdés.

Sócrates is dead. It's hard to see how anyone could be surprised. It's also hard not to think that he died because he wanted to, since Sócrates always seems to have done what he wanted to. He smoked incessantly because it gave him pleasure; he seems to have ingested vast amounts of alcohol for the same reason.