Posted by Kenny Hassan

'Magnificent Messi'.....

Ok, let's first of all congratulate Chelsea for winning a historic 'double' under, for my money, the manager of the year in England without question, Carlo Ancelotti. Let's tip our hat to Jose for winning leg-2 of the treble by securing the title in Italy, Louis van Gaal for guiding Bayern Munchen to the 2nd of 3 possible piece's of silverware for the German giants, Pep Guardiola for retaining the La Liga crown with Madrid breathing down his neck till the last 45 minute's of the season, Atletico Madrid for winning the Europa League in a mundane finale, and Dundee Utd for replacing Craig Levein, who took the Scotland job, with Peter Houston who took them to Scottish Cup glory at Hampden Park.
Is any of this most recent glory by such storied football clubs truly leaving any more of an imprint in your football membrain than what Lionel Messi has again displayed this season? To put into perspective what the human hovercraft has showed us, lets look at the numbers. He has scored as many or more goals in league play -- let me repeat that -- LEAGUE PLAY, with 34 goals, than Espanyol, Livorno, FC Cologne, Nurnberg, VFL Bochum, Hertha Berlin, Kilmarnock FC, Falkirk FC, Boulogne, St Etienne, Sochaux, Grenoble, Stoke City, Wolves, Hull City, and Portsmouth. If we want to spend the time embarrassing many more clubs around Europe with his overall tally of 47 in all competiions, we could.

I don't want to. I don't even want to look at how many clubs will be diminished into the darkness and destruction smothered in entertainment that this wee fella provides, week in, week out.

'Magnificent Messi', Abramovich cant afford him, Manchester City and Real Madrid cant afford him, and FC Barcelona cant afford to lose him. Such is the value of the game's greatest example. I, like you, know every single time when I see him get the ball, that a goal will be scored or a goalscoring opportunity will be hatched.

In Glasgow, we call these type of football players, " absolutely fucking beyond ".

Last week's guest line-up was very nice indeed, a great pleasure for us to chat with Hans Backe, coach of NYRB, Danny Allsopp, the first Aussie to score in MLS for DC United, our good friend Declan Hill, author of 'The Fix', who examined with us some areas of concern with the upcoming World Cup and possible match fixers trying to weave their way into players pockets. Steven went to the HDC and had a good talk with USMNT candidate Edson Buddle about his hopes and thoughts regarding plane tickets to South Africa, great interview by Steven AND he waited for some time to conclude it. Michael Cox from Zonalmarking.net joined us for the first time to talk formations, tactical evolutions, and really set the marker for us with having a guest that can break down what takes place right in front of our eyes across the world. Richard Whittle, Serie A commentator, gave us his usual terrific brand of previewing the weekend in Italy, Grant Wahl, on the Bradley squad, and of course we rounded out the week with the incredible thoughts on Spanish football from Graham Hunter, who broke the news that he is sure Joan Laporta, President at Camp Nou, will, by this weds, leave a 'legacy' signing in Catalonia, namely, David Villa. Wow!

This week will see the return of Martin Tyler, Tim Caple, Graham Spiers, Andy Brassell, Neil Ashton, Daniel King, Ray Hudson and many more as we head into the biggest week of the European calendar of football, the Champions League Final from the Santiago Bernabeu this coming Saturday as the current Italian and German Champs face off.

Inter 2-1.

Enjoy the game everyone and please, please continue to spread the good word about the best daily football broadcast on the planet. And look out for our new contest set to be launched this week.


Cheers,
Kenny.