The matches from Spain and Italy were more than entertaining, they were electric. The 4-4 Milan v Udinese match had you on the edge of the for the entire 90 minutes. Hell, I was so excited by the first half that I actually watched all the half time highlights, commercials and commentary! Then there was the Real Madrid v Valencia match was another “cracker” (as they say), fully equipped with a come from behind win and a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick. Plus it was played on ESPN in HD, so not only was the actual match action exciting, but the picture was sexy too!

There was tons to talk about coming out of England with 32 FA Cup Third Round matches to run through, not to mention the on going Beckham loan scandal of will he or wont he. We manager to cover both sides of the Atlantic, starting first with Paul Hayward from the Guardian in the UK.

It's been much too long since we had Paul on last, but that didn't slow things down. He recently wrote a piece on the return of “King Kenny” (Dalglish) to Liverpool Football Club, and his first match was no walk in the park. The Reds took on Sir Alex and Manchester United at Old Trafford, only to fall to the Red Devils 1-0 thanks to a Howard Webb penalty and straight red given to Steven Gerrard. When asked what Dalglish can do from now until the end of the season, Paul said that the new manager “cant solve the problem from now until May, he simply must find those mediocre players and try to raise their level of play to keep Liverpool afloat”.

Howard pointed out the disconnect in the Liverpool talisman Steven Gerrard, to which Paul commented, “I think Gerrard and Carragher are fed up with carrying this team full of player who don't deserve to wear the shirt”.

Howard went on to see if Paul had a solution in mind for the Merseysiders. Thinking that the goal was returning to upper echelons of the English Premier League, Paul theorized that “it will take 50 million pounds to return to the top four”.

Next order of business was that of Mr. David Beckham and his loan deal to Tottenham Hotspurs. For a while now, we here at WFD (mainly Steven) have been speculating the reason behind yet another move for the aging Becks. Was it to try and get the attention of the England Manager in order to get enough caps to beat Peter Shilton's record? Was he scheming to buddy up the future England Manager in Harry Redknapp? Is Los Angeles that bad? Steven wrapped up the sentiments of most serious soccer supporters in this country when thinking about David Beckham when he said, “if David was a dog, we would put him down”.

Paul on the other hand, holding on to his love and respect for the British footballing icon, simply said that “David Beckham has to be seen in the public eye at all times in order to make his brand survive.”

Finally, Steven posed the question of just what the FA Cup meant to Paul. Steven has gone on and on about how he feels the third and fourth rounds only interrupt a good rhythm to the league play and should therefore be held during the week. Cohen also went on about how the tournament has lost it's magic in this modern day. Sadly, Hayward tended to agree when he said that while watching these third round ties, he “feels the creep of indifference when watching” this Cup competition.

After Paul, we welcomes another new guest to the show in Juan Arango of GolTV and Simplyfutbol.com. Juan discussed the major matches coming out of La Liga, and pointed out that this is the first time in a long time that we are witnessing both Real Madrid and Barcelona really looking strong rather than having one strong and the other not so much. Juan also gave us his thoughts on what Mourinho plans to do to improve his squad, basically stating that there is too much pressure on Ronaldo. Although from his hat trick against Valencia, seems like he has it under control. We also got Juan's prediction for the Ballon D'Or winner, to which he said that if it's based on the most valuable player, it should go to Xavi, but if its the best player, then it should go to Messi.

We wrapped up today with an ESPN Soccernet writer, Jeff Carlisle who has been covering this Beckham loan deal from an American and MLS perspective. He wrote an excellent piece which you can find on our Facebook fan page that gives the MLS credit for having a backbone and trying to keep Beckham from doing whatever he wants. But as we turned on the televisions today, we saw Becks rocking the powder blue training kit of Tottenham, so as Carlisle says, “it depends on who you're asking”.

The only thing that Jeff could confirm is that Tottenham Hotspurs have on their website that “a training stint is all that has been agreed to, but the situation fluid and ongoing”.

Make sure to voice your opinion on the David Beckham loan, or any footballing news that tickles your fancy. Today, we also had Anne Ramos (along with two other callers we could squeeze in) called in to gloat to Steven about her Real Madrid team coming back to beat Valencia. So call in and get your club or concerns recognized on the show.