There's a heartening element of camaraderie among anti-madridistas; something which madridistas themselves seem strangely to lack. Take Sunday evening for example. I arrived in my local hostelry to partake of a couple of swift beers and the Colombian barman, who knows my stance on this matter, chortled with unrestrained glee as he told me of the drubbing Madrid had taken at the hands of the lowly Getafe (2-1) in a local derby. Just then atleti (Atletico de Madrid) scored the goal that would give them the 1-0 victory over the mighty Valencia. An old Basque gentleman sporting traditional beret (and a supporter of my own Bilbao), offered up congratulations to an atleti supporter and his friend, with the former pointing out that the other man was in fact a madridista. The congratulations were duly withdrawn with due irony and the poor madridista's crestfallen expression met with hearty celebratory laughter from those surrounding him. It's moments like that that make it all worthwhile.
Elsewhere, Bilbao took a hammering from Barcelona (2-0), which I welcomed as it means that Barça now have an impressive 11 point lead over the enemy.
Needless to say recriminations abound over Madrid's demise and the ageing "galacticos" (geriatricos) come in for most of the stick, particularly Raul's poor form. Huge salaries and little to show for it, time for a shakeup. Meanwhile, no more has been heard of Harry Kewel's rumoured move to atleti. Watch this space.