The 'where are they now?' files

[Buzzo]

Celtic paid £250k to get Mackay-Steven today as opposed to free in the summer. Dundee Utd fans must be delighted.

[Daniel 7]

Old Firm scumbags

[Shaggy]

Andriy Voronin has announced his retirement. Goodnight, sweet prince.

[Rich]

A bit mean

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lLpEHHya1w"]Andriy Voronin goodbye and thank you - YouTube[/ame]

[meffin]

Andriy Voronin has announced his retirement. Goodnight, sweet prince.

[Fosterbloke]

That's funny

[rodo]

Former Liverpool striker Sebastian Leto has been taken to hospital for emergency treatment after a barbell fell on his head during training.
Now at Italian side Catania, Leto suffered the injury after a squat exercise in the gym which saw a barbell drop on his head.
The 28-year-old, who has been on loan at Argentinian club Lanus since February 3, was initially sent home by the medical staff with a deep wound in his head.
But he later went to the hospital after suffering headaches and is now in intensive care.
Doctors are not ruling out surgery for the 28-year-old and it is feared Leto may have internal hemorrhaging.
Leto was signed by Rafa Benitez from Lanus in 2007 and made 15 appearances for the Reds before leaving for Olympiacos on loan in 2008.
He left Anfield permanently a year later when he signed for Greek side Panathinaikos before moving on to Catania in the summer of 2013.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...#ixzz3RSEaciH4
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[RedReet]

God.


Had a close call myself at the gym recently and thought the barbell was going to drop on my head.

[Daffy Duck]

Mackay-Steven's goal in the 1st minute of his Celtic debut.

[Gibbo]

David N'gog just scored a 90th minute goal to pull his team level with Marseille.

I know this because it's ****ed my bet.

[Roanmore]

David N'gog just scored a 90th minute goal to pull his team level with Marseille.

I know this because it's ****ed my bet.

Mine too

[Buzzo]

Steven Warnock sent off on debut for Derby today.

[Daffy Duck]

I thought he'll be great for us when he came into the first team looked really promising.

[peekay]

HAILED as the next Lionel Messi, involved in a tug of war between Liverpool and Real Madrid, capped by both Spain and Argentina. Gerardo Bruna is not your average Accrington Stanley player.

If he was once used to the luxurious facilities of Real’s Valdebebas training base, Bruna shows no signs of unease as he emerges from the Store First Stadium dressing room with a smile on his face and sits down to speak, before heading off to the nearby Crown pub for a post-training meal.

Bruna is embracing life at Stanley.

His debut came against Oxford on Tuesday, and it was impressive.

“I think I can still play football!” he laughs.

Perhaps that should come as no surprise. Born in Mendoza in the foothills of the Andes in western Argentina, Bruna and family moved to Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands when he was a baby.

By the time he was 12, the talent he was showing as a young footballer was making him a hot prospect.

First he travelled to Villarreal – the club of his hero, Juan Roman Riquelme, and a club who would soon become Champions League semi finalists - for a week’s training with their junior squad.

Then Real came calling.

“I grew up in the Canary Islands, a warm place, nothing like England!” said Bruna.

“First I had an option to go to Villarreal. When they asked me to train, Riquelme was there, Forlan had just arrived.

“A little bit later Real Madrid came and knocked on my door.

“I was only 12 so at the time you don’t realise how important it is, but obviously I was very happy.

“Real sign players from all over Spain or anywhere and you go into an academy - you live there, you go to the school there and in the afternoon you go to training.

“For the last three years I was there, we were training at Valdebebas and it was just amazing. They have maybe 10 pitches for the kids and four for the first team.

“They gave us a season ticket at the Bernabeu so I used to go to every home game. They had Beckham, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Casillas. It was the time when they used to call them Galacticos.”

Bruna, though, feared that it would be difficult for him to reach the first team.

At the age of 16 - despite the offer of a new contract from Real - he decided to leave and join Liverpool, then managed by Spaniard Rafa Benitez.

“Real Madrid is one of the biggest, if not the biggest club in the world, and they always look to buy the best players,” Bruna said.

“For someone that wants to come through it’s really difficult, although a few of the players are coming through now like Nacho, Carvajal and Jese. I played with Carvajal, and Jese had just signed for Real when I came to Liverpool.

“In Spain you have so many teams - under 18s, under 19s, the third team, the second team and then Real Madrid. I was only in the under 16s at the time, it’s a really big step.

“So when Liverpool called me and offered me the chance to train with the reserves and the first team sometimes, I felt like it was a lot closer.

“I thought for a 16-year-old kid it was a good move. Benitez was one of the main reasons too.”

Such was Bruna’s talent that Real academy boss Michel was not shy in voicing his disappointment at the midfielder’s exit.

But it is a decision that the 24-year-old stands by to this day.

“I think you should never regret the decisions you take, I am happy I went to Liverpool,” he said.

Bruna would soon be called up by Spain, joining future stars such as Bayern Munich’s Thiago Alcantara in the squad as they won the UEFA Under 17 Championship in 2008.

Capped by one giant of world football, a year later he was called up by another. After a recommendation from Liverpool’s Argentine duo Javier Mascherano and Emiliano Insua, he was selected to represent the South American country’s under 20s team at the Toulon Tournament.

“I was born in Argentina but my agent was telling me that it was a good opportunity for me to play for Spain’s under 17s, that people would see me, and I enjoyed it,” he said.

“But when I was at Liverpool, Mascherano found out I was from Argentina. Mascherano and Insua asked me if I wanted to play for Argentina. I said yes. To be honest I feel I am Argentinian. I was born there and my family are from there.”

In his Real Madrid days, Bruna was described as ‘the next Messi’, although he was always a little sceptical about the tag.

“I think it was more about the background - both being from Argentina, both being left footed and both moving to Spain,” he says.

“He is a striker, I’m more of a midfielder. I was young at the time and any player that comes through from Argentina, the press call him the next Messi.

“They wish to have another one but unfortunately there is only one!”

Bruna helped Liverpool to win the Premier Reserve League but in the end his hopes of playing for the first team were dashed.

“After I played for Argentina I came back to Liverpool and did pre-season, that was when Benitez gave me a chance in the first team squad,” he said. “But I had a knee injury, I had the operation in Barcelona and when I came back I struggled a little bit with injuries and wasn’t involved that much.

“Benitez left and everything changed. Roy Hodgson came, I still trained a few times with the first team, but then came Kenny Dalglish and he told me I was not going to play in his first team, so obviously I needed to do something.

“Ian Holloway convinced me to go to Blackpool. The team was good but I think he didn’t really give me the chance.

“After my first year when I wasn’t involved that much I tried to leave and Holloway said, ‘Don’t leave, you’re going to be important for me this season’.

“Again I wasn’t involved after that but football is football.

“One day you are up, another day you are down and you just have to keep going.”

Bruna moved back to Spain last season with third division side Huesca. He enjoyed it and played more than 20 games but missed his girlfriend, who is from Liverpool.

He returned to England and had a brief spell with Tranmere at the start of the current campaign before joining Sussex side Whitehawk in Conference South.

In January he was recommended to Stanley, and now he is determined to make the most of the opportunity John Coleman has given him after impressing on trial.

“I just want to play regular football,” he said. “I don’t think it’s my last chance, but I’m enjoying it here.

“Hopefully I am at the right club with the right manager who believes in me.”

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/11794538.I_chose_to_leave_Real_Madrid_for_Liverpool_and_I_don_t_regret_it__says_Accrington_Stanley_new_boy_Bruna/?ref=mr

[Yozza]

That buck toothed fella who used to play for us - Suez I think - apparently now plays for Barcelona!

Scored a cracker for them today too....