If you've got a moment or two to spare might I point you in the direction of The Away End?
They're on the lookout for the 100 greatest Scottish league players of all time.
That is the best players - of all nationalities - to have graced league football in Scotland over
the decades.
The latest installment of disgruntled-fans-sell-overpriced-former-star-on-ebay has launched,
right smack in the middle of the January window, leaving some hope.
The gentleman in question is Amauri, man of more nationalities than goals for his current club,
Juventus. Fans saw fit to throw him onto ebay, where the bids got up to now sit down €10m.
Infographic - Diversity in the Premier League
It's difficult to "rank" diversity per se, but that's exactly what was attempted in Visual News'
infographic. Race and ethnicity has been far too prevalent an issue this season in the Premier
League for anyone's liking, but it's something that cannot be ignored.
In the spirit of the 125 anniversary celebrations, and in a follow up to Darren's recent blog about
Arsenal's history, I now ask the question of whether the current team is the most multicultural
team in history. I wasn't the first one to notice it, but we've recently used a couple of different
lineups where every player hailed from a different country.
Gus Poyet has refused to back down from defending Liverpool striker Luis Suarez over alleged racist
comments made against Patrice Evra.
Suarez has been charged by the Football Association for remarks made to Evra in a 1-1 draw between
Manchester United and Liverpool in October.
Poyet caused further controversy by claiming that Evra has been "crying like a baby" over the
comments and is convinced that his fellow Uruguayan is innocent.
I am a big fan of Brazilian legend Pele, however, his recent remarks about players from other
nationalities is sad to say the least. Only a few weeks ago, Pele was in the news making similar
comments regarding Barcelona and Argentina star Lionel Messi. This time, Pele has shifted his
attention to England international Wayne Rooney.
Back in January 1964 the Beatles released a track called "can't buy me love" which considering
the money they have made since then and the fame they have enjoyed, probably wasn't strictly
true. Certainly they have enjoyed a kind of loving, revered by millions of people in countless
countries worldwide.
Barcelona's barren draw at home against Sevilla on Saturday seems to be drawing more controversy
as the days gone on. Latest news now emerging is that midfielder Cesc Fabregas racially abused
Sevilla's Malian striker Freddy Kanoute.
Apparently this happened after the Catalans were awarded a penalty in the dying minutes of the
game.
I am surprised that AVB has said that he believes the arrival of Juan Mata has had nothing to do
with the return to form of Fernando Torres. When he was asked about it he said the following:
"[It has] Nothing to do with it, in my opinion. We don't add in terms of nationalities
for every player, for people to get involved socially outside of the pitch.
Following on from the piece on nationalities in European competition I thought I'd take a look
at the squad numbers used during the opening week of European football (Europa League and Champions
League). There were forty games across Europe last week so it gives us a decent data set to look at
which numbers are popular in Europe, and which are not so popular.
Monaco midfielder Park Chu-Young has issued a come and get me plea to Liverpool - and insists he
doesn't want to go anywhere else.
The South Korean captain will snub possible moves to AC Milan, Spurs and Paris St Germaine to
fulfill his boyhood dream and play for his hero Kenny Dalglish.
The 25-year-old is available for around £6million and, with Liverpool touring south-east Asia this
summer, Young's arrival could not be timed any better from a commercial sense.
Written by WiganGooner
As with all Football Clubs, Arsenal send their scouts all over the world looking for top, top
talent. Just a few of the Nationalities at Arsenal are of course French, Spanish, Swiss, Belgian,
Russian, Dutch, Argentinian, Brazilian, English, Welsh, Polish, Bolivian – the list goes on.
Fire assistant Leo Percovich -- Getty ImagesBRIDGEVIEW, Ill. -- Chicago Fire assistant coach Leo
Percovich can chew out someone in one moment and be the nicest guy in the next.
On one end of the spectrum, Percovich brings necessary energy to training, as well as a strong
voice. That voice did land him a fine during the preseason's Carolina Challenge Cup, when he had a
few choice things to say to the officials.
Continuing the theme of looking at the breakdown of Castrol Performance Index Contributions
based on nationalities, I wanted to see how Spain and England compare to each other, particularly
when it comes to domestic players.
Percentage of Castrol Performance Index Contributions by Nationality for English Premier
League
Percentage of Castrol Performance Index Contributions by Nationality for La Liga
In England, Birmingham has the highest percentage of CPI contributions by domestic players with
58.
Michael Moritz wrote a piece for the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) earlier this
week drawing a parallel between open immigration in the English Premier League and how it could
be beneficial to the American tech start-up scene. What Moritz failed to point out (but other
readers noticed) is that the EPL isn't completely open.
It can be read by clicking here.
Features notes on the longest amount of time between league games (Adin Brown is up there), new
nationalities in MLS, Faryd Mondragon's debut, and more.
Previous Columns
- #1 - Champs usually start hot
- #2 - Home-field advantage
Calcio Thoughts is back for it's 12th edition! Lots of questions backed up from late January, so
I'm really sorry that they are only being answered now. Calcio Thoughts should be a regular weekly
post again, so if you ask a question for the next edition I promise it won't be answered in
2013.
