La Liga summer transfers - pt 1

     Well the World Cup - my most favouritest one ever - is now over. Football is dead, long live football. A new season is on the horizon and with it arrive a plethora of new players; some well known, others unknown, some for extortionate fees and others on frees. Possibly the best new signing could be a team rather than a player, with Eibar confirming it has managed to raise the amount stipulated by the ridiculous Spanish rules and will therefore be hosting Primera teams at its minute Ipurua ground for the first time.
     As I have some time to kill ahead of Primera División football breaking out again on August 23, I thought I'd take a look at the acquisitions of all teams in La Liga to date. There will be many, many more signings made between now and the transfer window closing on August 31 but I'm feeling impatient for football again and this may just kill some time! And so, without Freddy Adu, we begin with;

Almería

     After staying up by the nerve-endings on the skin of their teeth last season, los Rojiblancos desperately needed to both strengthen their team and keep hold of Aleix Vidal. They failed in their latter attempt, the inspirational winger beating a path to across Andalucía to Sevilla for EUR3m. In a somewhat strange move, Real Madrid graduate Marcos Tébar has also left, swapping the south-east of Spain for West London to join... Brentford. Go figure.

That's one happy Teerasil

     In their attempts to strengthen, Almería have spared no expense. Sorry, I mean they've spared no money. Operating on a tight budget, the team hasn't spent a penny on reinforcements, with new players coming in either on free transfers or on loan - as is the case with perennial loanee Wellington Silva from Arsenal and, intriguingly, with Teerasil Dangda from Muangthong United. The Thailand striker formerly spent a season at Man Citeh in 2008/09 but never kicked a ball in anger.

     Among the frees, they've brought in Rayo Vallecano 'keeper Rubén, Argentine centre-back Mauro dos Santos from Real Murcia and right-back Ximo Navarro from Mallorca. More in hope than expectation of adding firepower, they've also brought in Israeli striker Tomer Hemed from Mallorca. Although he performed reasonably well in the Primera last time out a couple of years ago, he only managed a paltry 2 goals in 24 games last season in the division below. Almería will look to pair him with Quique, who bagged a highly creditable 24 in 38 last season, albeit in Segunda B with CD Guadalajara.

Athletic Bilbao

Thumbs-up: Viguera

     Los Leones finished fourth in La Liga last term, 7 points behind Real and 7 points ahead of Sevilla. You'd think they would have spotted an opportunity to break into the top 3 this season, as although Real and Barcelona have both strengthened ridiculously, Atlético Madrid are haemorrhaging players and could possibly falter.

     The main problem for Bilbao, as ever, is their laudable transfer structure which means they can only sign Basque players. This obviously limits the number of players available to them on the market somewhat, and so far this summer they've only managed to bring in Borja Viguera from Alavés for EUR1m. However, the striker did manage to notch 25 goals last season, so could provide decent back-up to the ageing but still good-for-goals Aritz Aduriz who is in his third and most prolific spell with the Bilbao team.

Atlético Madrid

     I'd say of all the top teams, Atleti and excitable gaffer Cholo Simeone have the toughest job over the summer. Most other teams winning one of the big European leagues could reasonably expect to strengthen their team and not have the squad picked apart, but this is exactly what has happened to Atlético. It would seem they have become a victim of their own success, with much of the squad moving overseas - and a large part of that to Chelsea unfortunately.

Err, that's one way to celebrate: Costa

     Former Brazilian Diego Costa may have resembled some sort of haggarred, weak-kneed beach donkey during the World Cup but was instrumental in the team's against-all-odds league victory with 27 goals. He of course has joined Chelsea for EUR38m and I'm sure everyone reading (hello both) will join me in wishing him a dismal season of failure and lots and lots of rain in the Premiership. Joining him in the hopefully relegation-bound side is impressive left-back Filipe Luís after EUR20m changed hands. The clever but frustratingly inconsistent Diego has left for an undisclosed fee, joining Fenerbahce, while Atleti somehow managed to persuade Porto to part with EUR11m for 60% of the rights to one-goal-per-nine-games striker Adrián. David Villa has joined New York City. Just to help the game grow across the pond of course. Nothing to do with a massive pension top-up. Not at all.

Nearly in last season's colours: Mandzukic

     Los Colchoneros have needed to sign two 'keepers in order to replace Zamora Trophy-winning loanee Thibaut Cortois, with Jan Oblack (EUR16m, Benfica) and Miguel Ángel Moyà (EUR3m, Getafe) coming in his stead. They can't play them both at the same time though, obviously. To replace Costas' goals the Madrid side have turned to Bayern Munich's Mario Mandzukic, shelling out EUR22m on the 'big man up top', and taken a EUR7.5m punt on young Argentine striker Ángel Correa from San Lorenzo. They have since also executed a nimble bit of transfer gazumpery by bringing in classy wing-waif Antoine Griezmann for EUR30m. Tough-tackling fullback Cristian Ansaldi has also joined from Zenit. Where he played all of 9 games since moving from Rubin Kazan last year. Finally, Cholo has elected to replace his Brazilian left-back with...a Brazilian left-back, with Guilherme Siqueira coming in from Granada for EUR10m. After all if it ain't broke etc.

Barcelona

     Having 'only' finished second last year Barça are quite clearly in need of a massive revamp of
their squad. Surely the biggest loss for the team over the summer was a giant of a man, a true

Pity for me this funny man has gone :(

legend of the club who should have won more international caps by far and stood firm between the sticks for years, playing in a total of 31 games in six years - the venerable pirate of El Puerto, José Manuel Pinto. As an aside, Victor Valdés and (actual) club legend Carles Puyol also left on frees. The Catalan side generated most of the funds for incoming players with the sale of not-really-first-teamers Cesc Fàbregas and Alexis Sánchez, who possibly shared the same plane as they jetted in to London to join Chelsea and Arsenal for EUR33m and EUR42.5m respectively. Somewhat less cash-money was generated by Jonathan dos Santos (EUR2m) and Bojan (EUR4m) joining Villarreal and somewhat implausibly, Stoke.

Suárez minus his mouth-weapons

     The flip-side of this coin is, of course, that Barcelona managed to sign the 'humble' (not the first word that springs to mind for most, Andoni) Luis Suárez from Liverpool for a staggering EUR81m. There were rumours before that they may have included a 'no biting clause' (and what the fuck kind of adult human being needs that kind of shit written into a contract), but what are they going to do if when he bites someone again? Cancel his contract and not take any money from the queue of massive teams lining up to sign him? Brilliant footballer, abhorrent human man. The club (can they be called a club, they're supposed to be 'more than' that, aren't they?) would do best to extract all his teeth and allow him to wear dentures while out and about on the street, provided he can prove his control over them.

     Of the actual humans signed, Ivan Rakitic is the pick of the bunch. One of the very best players in the entire league last year, Barcelona prised him away from Sevilla with the offer of EUR18m plus a borrow of Denis Suárez. The team behind new manager Luis 'turncoat' Enrique also sanctioned the signing of two highly impressive 'keepers - letter minefield Marc-André ter Stegen from Borussia Mönchengladbach for EUR12m and Chilean #1 Claudio Bravo for EUR12m from Real Sociedad. The team also made left-back Jérémy Mathieu the most expensive-ever signing over 30 when they paid Valencia EUR20m for his services.

Celta de Vigo

'El Bati' in his new surroundings

     Os Célticos finished an impressive 9th last time out - 10 points above the relegation zone nine places below but also 10 points behind Sociedad in the last European spot just two places above.

     In a bid to push on, the team has raided Barcelona B for two defenders - Carles Planas and Sergi Gómez. More importantly, Celta managed to bring in forward Joaquín 'el Bati' Larrivey on a free from Rayo Vallecano, and the Argentine hitman will look to form a good partnership with naturalised Chilean Pablo Hernández, who has arrived from O'Higgins for a fee of EUR1.6m. Born in Tucumán, Argentina, Hernández received a Chilean passport earlier in the year and played for the team in a World Cup warm-up against Costa Rica, where he scored a brace. If he keeps up a scoring record of two goals per game he'll even manage to challenge CR7 and Messi for the Pichichi. Maybe.

Córdoba

Happy new additions Deivid & Fidel

     After finishing 7th in Segunda last season (and even that only on goal difference over Recreativo), Córdoba saw off Las Palmas in a tight two-legged final to reclaim their place at the top table of Spanish football for the first time in 42 years. Manager Albert Ferrer, yes that one, obviously has faith in his side's defence, thus far only adding Deivid on a free from their vanquished promotion opponents.

     Further forward, los Califas have added firepower in the shape of giant Japanese centre-forward Mike Havenaar (yes, in spite of the name he is genuinely Japanese, albeit by birth) on a free from Vitesse. Incoming midfielders have come in the flavours of José Carlos, from Rayo, and Patrick Ekeng from Lausanne. In addition, Ferrer has loaned in exitingly-named Brazilian wing-smith Ryder Matos from Fiorentina, Fidel from Elche and Fede Cartabia from Valencia.

Deportivo La Coruña

Arriving in Galícia: Cuenca

     After leading the way in the Segunda for much of the season, Superdépor were overtaken by fairy tale team Eibar at the death and finished second. Thus far their only concrete business has seen them bring in Isaac Cuenca from Barcelona after the Catalans agreed to rescind the pacey young player's contract. He will be hoping to resurrect his once-promising career after falling out of the picture and being loaned out to Ajax last term.

     Joining him will be a clutch of loan signings. It's easier to list them than go through them all individually, so they are - defender Roberto Canella from Sporting Gijón and midfielders Luis Carlos Fariña, Lucas Pérez and José Rodriguez from Benfica, PAOK and Real Madrid respectively.

Eibar

     After managing to raise the amount stipulated by the Spanish FA, Eibar will be allowed to take their rightful place in the Primera Liga next season for the very first time! Huzzah! And extremely well done to anyone who bought shares in the little club to help them achieve their goal. No-one connected with the club will underestimate the task facing them this season, though. Their championship-winning squad was filled with a mass of loan signings, many of whom will not be returning to Ipurua this time round.

Dani García (renewal) & Javi Lara,
with scarves. Big scarves.

     Predictably, all their signings so far have been on frees. As much as fans like the fairy tale story of a tiny team from a far-flung part of the country with a stadium holding barely over 5,000 getting into the Big Time, players prefer money. Los Armeros, therefore, have so far only managed to persuade three blokes to join their crew. Manager and former player Gaizka Garitano will be hoping that Levante's Ángel will be able to provide some goals while Jaime Jiménez, from Valladolid, will be able to keep them out at the other end. In between the pair, journeyman midfieldster Javi Lara has joined from Ponferradina in what is something like the 74th transfer of his career.

Elche

     Along with Almería, Elche also finished last season one point above the drop zone. While the team's goal difference of -20 was better than many of those around them, they only managed to score 30 goals in 38 games. Nonetheless, manager Fran Escribá hasn't seemed preoccupied with bringing extra firepower into his front line. The only actual striker to have joined is Jonathas, who arrives on loan after scoring 15 in 37 for Latina in Lega Pro Prima Divisione/B last season, helping them win promotion to Serie B after finishing third.

Pasalic with the customary thumbs-up

     In midfield, Fayçal Fajr was secured on a free from Caen, Adrián Gonzalez joined from Rayo, as did former Real Madrid youth Pedro Mosquera. Poland international 'keeper Przemysław Tytoń has joined on loan from PSV Eindhoven, but the most interesting Eastern European addition is Mario Pasalic, who joins on loan from Chelsea. Despite never having played an international game, the German-born 19-year-old was part of Croatia's initial World Cup squad before missing out in the final cut. He's highly-regarded by the West Londoners and it will be interesting to see how he fares.

Espanyol

An absolute unit: Caicedo

     Los Periquitos had a quiet season and pulled themselves together before the end to finish 14th, albeit only 3 points above the drop. Nevertheless Dépor legend Sergio, in his very first appointment as manager, feels the scoring side wasn't such a problem last season, and has therefore only added spectacularly-dredded former Manchester City misfit Felipe Caicedo to his forward line on a free from Al Jazira, where he had presumably got tired of reading the news.

     Defenders Anaitz Arbilla and Álvaro González have joined from Rayo and Real Zaragoza respectively, while link men Paco Montañés and Salva Sevilla signed up to the Barcelona club from Zaragoza (again) and Seville team Betis.

That concludes the run-down of the first 10 Primera Liga teams. The second half of this enthralling, rip-roaring, unputdownable internetty scribe will be posted in the next few days/next week/when I can be bothered/never/no, probably in the next few days, actually.

Week 34 - A Messi situation of their own making

     The unassuming, scruffy-haired little man had been in the first team for nearly 10 years. A decade, and he was still only 26. Still had pretty much the same haircut too. Along the way he'd smashed records and won many shiny trophies, always at the forefront of his team. But now, after nine seasons and some 241 goals in 273 league games, some Barcelona fans had begun to turn on Leo Messi. No-one questioned whether the magic in his feet had left him - after all he still has 26 goals in 27 games in the league and is behind only Ronaldo and Diego Costa in the Pichichi rankings - but whispers had begun circulating concerning the little magician's drive, even his commitment to the Barça cause.
     The whispers soon grew into jeers and even personal insults following poor results over the past couple of weeks. After three defeats in a row - to Atlético Madrid in the Champions League, Granada in La Liga and Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final - the players had arrived back at Camp Nou to find irate fans waiting for them, hurling a barrage of boos and insults. Some players came in for more flak than others; Dani Alves partly because he had announced his intention to leave the club in future, Neymar on account of his inability to mould himself quickly to the Barça style of play, in addition to the shame brought on the club by his dodgy transfer (although that's not his fault) and Pinto because...well, because he's Pinto. But as if three successive defeats wasn't unexpected enough, the previously unthinkable had begun to occur. The previously untouchable Leo Messi, four-time Ballon d'Or winner and top-scorer in the club's history with a frankly disgusting 351 in all official competitions, also copped some personal abuse on each of these occasions.

Messi comforted by CR7 after the Copa
del Rey final defeat

     The personal insults ranged from the mild (but still no doubt cutting, for an athlete in the prime of his life) and tongue-in cheek 'try and run a bit less' to cries that he had brought 'shame' on the fans with his latest performances. A poll in (the admittedly pro-Madrid) sportspaper Marca ahead of the weekend's game asked fans to rate Messi's season. Bearing in mind the still-astronomical numbers being posted by the man from Rosario, some on the outside might be surprised to see that 36.8% of respondents thought he'd had a 'regular' season compared to 28.9% who thought he'd been 'bad' and 21.5% who think he's had a 'very bad' year. After all he's missed quite a few games due to injury and his team are still well in the running for the Primera Liga title, even if they are now outsiders.
     The Argentine press has been in full fingers-crossed mode over the past couple of weeks as Messi's form has stuttered, with many on that side of the ocean hoping praying hard that he's saving himself for a big performance in the World Cup. After all, a lot of people (who are talking out of their arse if you ask me) reckon you can't be considered the best player in the world unless you lift the World Cup. These people presumably believe Stéphane Guivarc'h was a better player than George Best, then. Hmmm.
     In truth, this may have been one of the toughest seasons yet for Messi. The long year began with the player turning up on the front as well as the back pages after he and his father were dragged to court numerous times on tax evasion charges. The winger then sustained a few injuries (and has continued to do so since Guardiola left - Pep blames his decision to leave his Camp Nou project on Messi, who had stopped taking his advice on conditioning) and did not immediately receive the improved contract he'd been hankering after.

One of them appreciated the
goal more than the others..

     On Saturday night at home to Athletic Bilbao he managed to put whatever demons are haunting him to one side for at least 5 seconds to take a free kick in the 74th minute with the score at 1-1. The Basques had been the better team over the game before then and were unlucky not to take the lead in the first half when the highly impressive Aritz Aduriz rattled Pinto's post with a superb bicycle kick. The Athletic number 20 did notch early in the second half though after receiving the ball from the tiny but bull-necked Iker Muniain and shooting it close to Pinto. This is usually enough for a goal and so it proved here, Bilbao were ahead and good value for it. In the 71st minute, Pedro bumbled the ball over the line for 1-1 after Alexis Sánchez shanked a shot roughly towards goal following an excellent run from Dani Alves.
     Up to this point Messi had not been involved massively in the game, but he hit the free kick hard and true and was enveloped by his teammates as they acclaimed his 26th goal of the season. In truth the wall was set up poorly and had Gorka Iraizoz in the Bilbao goal just stood still the ball would have struck him and Barcelona would be a further two points behind Atleti. Still, you takes the breaks when they're offered to you. Barça then survived late Athletic pressure and a scare right at the death to take all 3 points and maintain pressure on Madrids Atlético and Real.

Atleti manage to score a pen

     The league leaders hosted Elche on Friday night and for the second week in a row were indebted to one of their centre-backs for getting them off the mark. Miranda, who's hoping for a spot in the Brazil squad for the upcoming World Cup, as well as a name-change perhaps, scored in the 71st minute straight from a corner. Maybe Cholo Simeone should think about letting his defenders take any penalties won in future as David Villa became the latest to waste the chance to score from the spot, shooting straight at Manu Herrera. Atlético did eventually manage to actually score a penalty late on nonetheless, Diego Costa this time screwing up his eyes and smashing the ball in the vague direction of the goal to wrong-foot the 'keeper. He'd won the spot-kick himself after characteristically flapping to the deck when Săpunaru came within 15 feet of him. The Romanian was still shaking his head at the decision as he walked down the tunnel after the ref agreed that going anywhere near Diego Costa is indeed a sanctionable offence. Christ, Costa's nearly as bad as Ashley Young, and that's saying something.
     The weekend's results leave Barcelona still four points adrift of Atlético and two ahead of eternal rivals Real, who enjoyed a weekend off due to their upcoming Champions League semi-final. Apparently the Spanish FA can't work out how to play two matches on a Friday night. Not that los Blancos were complaining as they were afforded time off to relax by the pool or head off on a jolly to Dubai. Or in Pepe's case scheme on how to piss off the largest number of people possible on his next foray into the world of televised football, which just happens to come against the Bayern machine on Wednesday.

Paulão can't take any more. Or he's throwing shapes.

     Sevilla closed in on Athletic Bilbao's fourth spot with an emphatic 4-0 win over Granada, the opening being of the own-goal variety by the curiously-named Mainz. Kévin Gameiro, Vitolo and the coconut-headed emotional basket-case Stéphane Mbia rounded off the victory in the second half. There was an own-goal too at Vallecas, where the woeful Paulão scored Rayo Vallecano's second before actually asking to be subbed off even before the half hour mark. He explained on Monday that he hadn't wanted to keep screwing up and there were "players who'd be able to bring more to the team than me in the moment I was suffering." Strange, nonetheless. Larrivey and Blackburn reject Rubén Rochina scored the others for Rayo, before the unfortunately-named Chica scored at the right end for rock-bottom Real Betis.
     Of the others in the relegation zone only Getafe managed to pick up a point following an awful, awful 0-0 draw at Levante. Really, they could've just met up before the game and agreed to give both teams a point, saving everyone the trouble. Almería remain second-bottom but were far more value for money in a rip-roaring 4-2 home defeat to Celta Vigo, Nolito bagging a brace for the away team. In the remaining games Real Sociedad beat Espanyol 2-1, Carlos Vela grabbing the winner in injury time, while Osasuna played out a 1-1 draw with Valencia which doesn't much help either team's quests at either end of the table.
     The Monday night game saw Málaga welcome Villarreal to La Rosaleda. Roque Santa Cruz opened the scoring for los Boquerones in the sixth minute, and the second half started with Duda attempting to lob former Málaga 'keeper Sergio Asenjo from range before Noureddine Amrabat went on a Gareth Bale-type run and picked out Sergi Darder arriving late and unmarked in the area to make it 2-0. The Dutch-Moroccan later saw red for questioning the referee's eyesight but the Costa del Sol side managed to see the game out and move onto 41 points, surely safe from relegation now. To watch it, one wouldn't think Villarreal had needed the points to continue pushing for Europe, but that was the case. They now remain two points behind Real Sociedad. The commentator seemed to grow increasingly exasperated as the game went on though, with ever-louder sights. One could only feel he'd had a bit of a heavy Easter weekend and felt he was probably sweating more than the Málaga fan who kept drumming throughout the whole encounter.

Result of the weekend for Alavés. Maybe a different
away kit next season though, eh lads?

     In the Segunda, Deportivo continued their march back to the big time with a standard 3-0 away win at Mallorca with goals from Sissoko, Luisinho and Borja. Eibar, in second, beat Real Madrid Castilla 1-0, Capa scoring after 11 minutes. Castilla continue to flounder this season and find themselves under the shadow of relegation. Meanwhile, Barcelona B went 1-0 down at home to Girona through a 29th minute opener from Ortuño before storming back thanks to goals from Sandro and a late screamer from Munir, who'd only been on the pitch a matter of minutes. They remain in third, level on 54 points with island teams Tenerife and Las Palmas. Behind those three it's turned into a right kerfuffle, with eight teams all within four points of each other. At the bottom, Alavés did themselves a huge favour by overcoming the odds in the result of the weekend, winning 2-0 at highly-placed Recreativo. The goals came from Manu García and Borja Viguera, who overtakes Stefan Šćepović of Sporting Gijón in the Pichichi rankings for the Segunda with 22 in 35 games.

Athletic vs Málaga and look ahead to Copa final

On Wednesday night Valencia's Mestalla stadium hosts a Clásico in the Copa del Rey final.

     The teams come into the game in vastly different mindsets. Barcelona, having crashed out of the Champions League and lost second place in La Liga inside a week, are in bullish mood but one senses a terseness beneath the interviews given in the press. Real Madrid appear more at ease, but as with all derbies - and Clásicos in particular - form is temporary and the battle is all that matters. Literally, most of the time. It is of course just a few short weeks since los Blancos managed to balls-up at home to their hated enemies, and Barcelona will be hoping to emulate that victory in Valencia.

Carlo's eyebrow making a break for it

     Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti, left eyebrow permanently aflutter, revealed that the players would be practicing penalties ahead of the game for all of five minutes, although he would obviously hope to have the game well and truly finished before such a lottery became necessary. He also confirmed that, as expected, Ronaldo wouldn't be playing a part, although the Portuguese will be travelling with the squad along with the other injured players. Ancelotti also said he had his starting XI in mind but would not be revealing it to the press beforehand. Nevertheless, the Italian stated he was setting his team up 'to play our game with our identity' rather than attempting to respond to Barcelona's tactics. He conceded that the opposition would have the lion's share of possession, and so his team will have to 'control the game with the ball, and for that we need courage and personality, which are the most important traits for playing a final'.

Tata: "The last 2 games were clean"

     His opposite number, Tata Martino, recognised that the final represents a possible tonic for his squad after a torrid last week, although he is ruing the defensive injuries that have left him considering whether or not to play the creaking Puyol, who trained with the squad on Wednesday morning along with Marc Bartra. The Argentine manager refused to be drawn on Ronaldo's injury, but said he hopes for a clean game, expanding that 'the last two games against Real Madrid have been clean and well played by both teams'. It would seem he may have elected to forget Busquets stepping on Pepe's face a few weeks ago, apparently.
     As both presidents were posing with the Copa on Wednesday morning the press managed to wangle a quote out of Madrid head honcho Florentino Pérez, who rather diplomatically claimed 'we're not favourites, but we're optimistic'. On Tuesday, a few of the players had been wheeled out in front of the headline writers and as per usual nothing much of particular note was uttered, as is the way of such things. It seems footballers are paraded in front of the press in search of quotes, but whenever they say anything mildly interesting it gets blown out of all proportion as them calling the opposition manager's mum a whore or somesuch. The closest to interesting it got was when Iker Casillas was asked about his previous comment that he'd "slap" Spain teammate Sergio Busquets for the aforementioned foot-on-face altercation with Pepe. The goalkeeper said "I won't add to the circus that's blown up around this. I'll see him tomorrow and this matter will take up only two seconds of our conversation."

     The week began, however, with the impressive new San Mamés hosting Málaga in the final game of Week 33, with both teams needing the points for very different reasons. Athletic showed by far the greater desire to claim the win and re-establish their 6 point advantage over Sevilla in the battle for the fourth Champions League spot, and their positivity paid off early as Aritz Aduriz headed the Basques ahead in just the fourth minute from a corner. The striker scored again pretty much straight away at the beginning of the second half, taking his tally for 2014 alone to 12 goals, second only to the now-misfiring Messi. The man from Donostia had several chances to complete his hat-trick but was foiled by man-of-funny-name Willy in the Málaga goal. Nonetheless, Willy (tee-hee) was not at his best for the third Athletic goal, allowing a tame Ander Herrera shot to spill through his gloves. Feel free to make your own jokes about Willy and a slippery ball - just don't send them to me.
     For the Andalucians, who were pretty dire throughout, the result means they stay on 38 points in 11th, unlikely to threaten either the European places or those in the relegation zone now there's only five games left. They've been pretty shaky under Bernd Schuster this season and were in and around the drop zone for quite a portion of the season.