Spanish football fans either love him or hate him. For some he is a temperamental, fly-by-night midfielder, a jack of all trades and master of none, a player who has paid as much attention to his hair style as David Beckham but has failed to become a media hit.

For others he is Spain’s nearest equivalent to Zinedine Zidane, a visionary playmaker who is capable of unlocking the best defences with an almost limitless repertoire of passes, a midfielder who has been consistently undervalued by both club and country, a product of the Real Madrid youth teams who paid the price for the club’s Galactico transfer policy.

Last year Real president Ramon Calderon even described him as “an eternal promise who has never really counted and remains a promise at the age of 31,” when he let slip his opinions about the player in a speech to a group of university students.

But whatever your opinion there is little doubt that Jose Maria Gutierrez, or “Guti” as he is universally known, is in the form of his life at Real this season. He scored two and had a hand in five more during the 7-0 demolition of Valladolid on Sunday.

Guti has flourished under the expert guidance of Real boss Bernd Schuster, another cultured and controversial  blond-haired midfielder whose international career was inexplicably short-lived.

In Guti, Schuster seems to have identified a kindred spirit and his handling of him has brought the best out of the local-born midfielder. Adjusting his role depending on the opposition, the German has alternated between playing him in the starting line-up and using him as a second-half substitute to exploit the spaces when their rivals begin to tire.

Although the indiscipline that plagued his early career has occasionally flared this season, Guti is a far more focused and determined than before and finally looks to have gained the sort of confidence he needs to perform at his best.

So far Luis Aragones has resisted the pressure to recall Guti to the national side, but with Spain still struggling to break down opposition defences surely there is space for the Real Madrid midfielder in the squad for Euro 2008?

Simon Basket, Madrid

PHOTO: Real Madrid´s Guti celebrates a goal in the 7-0 win over Valladolid Feb. 10 REUTERS/Susana Vera

AC Milan’s Alberto Paloschi bought his team mates pizza after taking just 18 seconds to score on his league debut in Sunday’s 1-0 win over Siena. The 63rd minute strike from the substitute was the fastest debut goal in Serie A. 

Fellow 18-year-old Alexandre Pato had already hauled a stuttering Milan up the table with four goals since his arrival at the start of the year.   

The future looks bright for the European champions, even if it looks bleak for Ronaldo. He has been usurped by the youngsters and only managed 45 minutes against Siena in his latest comeback from injury, again looking overweight.

He probably didn’t fancy Paloschi’s pizza.

Mark Meadows, Milan

PHOTO: AC Milan’s Alberto Paloschi celebrates after scoring against Siena during their Serie A match Feb 10 REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo

So in the end it wasn’t the minute’s silence that spoiled the afternoon for Manchester United, but the 90 minutes that followed it.

Manchester City’s fans observed the silence in memory of the victims of the Munich Air disaster 50 years ago, with absolute respect.

The only sound that could be heard inside Old Trafford was the occasional ringing of a mobile phone and eight loud firework bangs from outside the stadium. They were not part of the official commemoration and enquiries to the police afterwards shed no light on who set them off.

Inside the stadium, a city was truly united in paying its respects to the 23 people who lost their lives as a result of the disaster in Munich in February 1958.

From the moment lone piper Terry Carr led out the procession of teams and officials on to the pitch, Old Trafford seemed to shift from being the Theatre of Dreams to a huge Field of Remembrance.

The weather was spring-like, United resplendent in their 1958-style kit without logos, or badges or names on the back — just old-fashioned numbers 1-11.

Old Trafford is an awesome arena, and of course has witnessed many anniversaries of the disaster before. This one was special, however.

The survivors are getting older. Even those young enough to remember the disaster are well into middle-age.

There was apprehension all around Old Trafford before the silence began, especially as a minute’s silence for the victims was cut short at Wembley on Wednesday before England played Switzerland.

But the piper’s tune gave the occasion a sense of solemn dignity. The way United manager Alex Ferguson and City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson laid wreaths in their club colours side by side on the centre-circle was a deeply moving moment.

City fans respected United’s fallen heroes — and then chanted the name of former City goalkeeper Frank Swift who died in the crash too.

Football came together for a moment in the best possible way before kickoff, and after City’s fans had played their part off the pitch, City’s players did theirs on it.

It was a victory for a united Manchester, and for football too.

Mike Collett, Old Trafford

PHOTOS: United and City fans hold scarves during a minute’s silence at Old Trafford, February 10, 2008. Lower down, Ryan Giggs chases the ball. REUTERS/Darren Staples

So, who is behind the Premier League’s plan to play some games outside England? Reading today’s papers it seems the finger of blame is being pointed at the American investors in the English game.

In Friday’s Telegraph, Henry Winter writes: “Now we know why the Premier League is the new Klondike for American franchise-owners; why soccer agnostics like the Glazers are really here: it is to take an English institution and float it on the global market. Our game is now theirs.”

In the Guardian, football business writer David Conn also smells the Yankee Dollar behind this proposal: “It feels like the first dramatic innovation influenced by the US owners and the others who bought Premier League clubs as investments, as ‘global brands’, without truly understanding the football traditions their PRs advise them to acknowledge when they do their first press conferences.”

I’ve also checked out a few fans message boards where people are raging about ‘franchises’ and the ’selling of the soul’ of the English game (see the post by Mitch Phillips below as a response to that).

But, leaving aside the fact that FIFA may stop this happening, does anyone stop to ask themselves why the Americans and others have bought into English football?

Far from wanting to ‘Americanise’ the Premier League, I suspect these businessmen are attracted to English football because it offers a greater freedom to do what you want with your money than the very restricted world of U.S sports.

Think about it – the New York Giants didn’t win the Super Bowl because, like Chelsea or Manchester United, they spent far more on wages and transfer fees than other teams. You can’t do that in the NFL – there are salary caps and there is no transfer market in U.S sports in the sense that you can’ t make a $50 million bid for Tom Brady. The result is that unlike in England there is no such thing as a ‘Big Four’ monopolising success for two decades – power rotates and the game is much more interesting as a result. Money talks much louder in London.

In fact, U.S sports have a system where the weakest team gets the best pick of the next year’s young pros which is positively socialistic compared to the naked, raw, anyone welcome, he-who-spends-wins capitalism of the Premier League.

If there was a signal to the Americans to get involved in the Premier League it was probably the arrival of a certain Russian in London who really showed that (unlike in the NFL with its very strict, ‘members only’, ownership policy) anyone with a few million to spare can join the club.

Remember it was the English who created these conditions, it was the English who have been happy to sell their clubs to the highest bidder.

The Americans (and other foreigners) moved into the Premier League because almost anything goes. The sudden discovery of ‘roots’ and ‘national identity’ by English fans is laughable – particularly coming just 48 hours after they were cheering on ‘Fabio Capello’s England’. Fans have been happy to have three of the big four clubs sold off to foreign owners.

Those now crying about identity should ask themselves what exactly is still English about most of the Premier League clubs. Chelsea are owned by a Russian, coached by an Israeli (who follows a Portuguese, two Italians and a Dutchman) and the players are from all over the world. They wear shirts made by a German company and are sponsored by a South Korean electronics firm.

Compare this state of affairs with the supposedly evil greed of U.S sports where there are no professional teams owned by foreign capitalists, the idea of a team featuring just one or two Americans would be laughed at, players come from University sports programmes (unlike English football where schoolboys are bought and sold) and shirt sponsorship is banned.

English football chose to become the most unregulated, laissez-faire, commercialised sports league in the world and the fans have cheered on every step. Now that the (mostly) Asian fans who have helped pour money into their clubs’ coffers may have a chance to see one game a year, the English suddenly bleat about roots and tradition.

Too late, lads.

Simon Evans, Miami

It’s just gone 4 o’clock on an August Merseyside Sunday afternoon. Fernando Torres slips, slides, leaves Tal Ben Haim on his backside and fires Liverpool ahead of Chelsea in the season’s first battle of the big four.

For the next hour Liverpool fans start to believe.

Five months later, it’s a similar time of the day, Alfie Potter doesn’t exactly slip or slide but he does leave Steve Finnan on his backside before his shot clips Martin Skrtel and gives part-timers Havant & Waterlooville a 2-1 lead at Anfield.

Liverpool fans had long since stopped believing…for another season at least.

Sunday’s return fixture to August’s 1-1 draw should have title repercussions written all over it but instead Liverpool lie 11 points behind Chelsea and 17 behind leaders Arsenal. And with those double digit margins, what’s a game in hand between “big four” mates?

With Inter Milan ten days away, Rafa Benitez faces another one of his crucial do or die periods yet tossing all his eggs in the Champions League basket is now too dangerous a tactic even to contemplate.

No only could Liverpool be pipped to fourth spot by Everton as they were three years ago, there’s a real threat they could finish outside the top six for only the third time in 43 years.

If only it were just the club’s prestige at stake. With mounting debts to pay, failure to qualify for the next season’s Champions League could be disastrous.

Liverpool must face facts: it’s time to concentrate all their resources on the Premier League and if that hurts their European chances, so be it. At the very least it’s a game in which the boss can’t take the captain off with half an hour to go.

PHOTO: Benitez watches from the touchline before the match against Sunderland at Anfield, February 2, 2008. REUTERS/Phil Noble.

The English Premier League has held preliminary discussions about playing a handful of matches abroad.The riches of English soccer and the vast array of fans around the world were bound to lead to such an innovation at some stage, just like the NFL playing games at Wembley.

The difference is that the games in question will not be regular season matches but extra fixtures for a selection of clubs which will still count towards the league table.

How would such a complicated system work? Early feedback across the Web suggests the average English fan is not in favour. Meanwhile, Sir Alex Ferguson is upset at not being consulted, while English newspapers reacted on Friday with almost universal condemnation.

Not everyone is against the idea, however.

David Connor at Fore! Four Two sees it as a good way to reward the overseas fans who have effectively funded the Premier League’s expansion. He adds that the matches would have to take place mid-season for it to make any sense.

Ahmed Bilal at Soccerlens argues that playing such matches will do more good for the English football than domestic cup games, for example.

What do you think? We’d be especially interested in hearing from people outside the UK. Are you excited by the idea of seeing Premier League teams in your neck of the woods? Let us know in the comments and drop by the main Reuters Soccer site to vote in our poll.

UPDATE: This post, originally filed on Feb 7 as the news broke, was updated on Friday, Feb 8 to add video reaction from fans.

For all those complaining that the Premier League’s plan for world domination means the game has sold its soul, I say, wake up and smell the prawn sandwiches.

Where have you been for the last 15 years? Certainly not travelling to a top flight game on the bus with your dad, grabbing a cup of Bovril and a Wagon Wheel then rushing home to read the Saturday pink and wonder who will be on Match of the Day.

The Premier League has no soul to sell. Didn’t you realize that when clubs started being bought and sold by mysterious Americans and Asian venture capitalists?

Premier League clubs do not care what the fans think, only about how much they can spend.

Outrageous prices for tickets, shirts, programmes, drinks, mouse mats and baby bibs, all happily paid by supporters who are repaid by ridiculous kick-off times and heavy-handed stewards who threaten ejection if you dare voice an opinion.

This latest move is merely the logical extension of the “lucrative summer tours” and the tie-ins with clubs in America and the Far East as clubs seek to “extend their fan base”.

When players of the calibre of Wes Brown can tell Manchester United that he is not signing a new contract unless he gets 60,000 pounds a week, do you think their owners are going to take any decision based on anything other than maximising income?

Football still has soul, lots of it, but you have to look outside the Premier League to find it. Beyond the League of Greed you can still turn up on the day, sit or even stand with a group of friends and enjoy the base pleasure of watching a game.

It might not be being beamed live from Lapland to Hong Kong and all points between but there is a strong chance that if you visit a ground near you you’ll find it, and maybe even at 3 pm on a Saturday afternoon.

Fabio Capello has been grilled inside out by the press in Italy and Spain and will no doubt have been well-briefed about what to expect from their English counterparts once he took on the poisoned chalice of being England manager.

But even the widely travelled and experienced Italian seemed slightly taken aback, or at least amused, by the English media’s Beckham obsession on Wednesday.

Capello has said he will deal with the media through an interpreter until he feels confident enough with the new language to ensure his words mean what he wants them to mean.   

So, sitting down at Wembley on Wednesday to discuss the 2-1 win over Switzerland in his first game in charge, he was perhaps preparing some Italian answers on Joe Cole’s lively contribution, Wayne Rooney’s tireless commitment, the growing confidence of David Bentley or even which comedian informed him that Wes Brown was the best right back in the country.   

Yet all the Pack wanted to know was what he thought of a section of the crowd chanting “there’s only one David Beckham”.

Doing an aural Arsene Wenger, Capello said he had not heard it. He could then barely contain his laughter when the follow-up question asked if such a chant would have any bearing on his future selection.

“The things I do are for the team and have nothing to do with the personal feelings I have for the player,” he said.

Undaunted, England’s leading soccer writers bypassed goalscoring Jermaine Jenas and man of the match Steven Gerrard and turned to Michael Owen, who spent the evening as an unused substitute.

Did Capello not realise what an integral part of the England set-up Owen is? Was he not concerned that not selecting the out-of-form and barely fit Newcastle United striker could damage the poor lad’s confidence?

Funnily enough, Capello did not see it that way, and delivered a Sven-esque reply about how all players are equal in the eyes of Fabio.

Previous England managers have dealt with the English soccer writers in different ways. Steve McClaren sought to become friends with them, Eriksson pretty much ignored them, Kevin Keegan argued with them while Glenn Hoddle merely bamboozled them with his own special brand of the language.

Capello was so respected by the Italian media that they called him “Don Fabio” .
It remains to be seen if Fleet Street’s finest will be similarly won over if he continues not to play the tabloid headline game, but it should certainly be an interesting ride.

Mitch Phillips, London

PHOTO: England manager Fabio Capello reacts during their international friendly soccer match against Switzerland at Wembley stadium, Feb 6 REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

Frederic Kanoute was declared winner of last Friday’s African Footballer of the Year award, but the Malian is also the unfortunate loser in what reports and sources say was a serious abuse of power.

Confederation of African Football insiders say Didier Drogba garnered more votes and was due to win for a second successive year.

However, Drogba says he refused to leave the African Nations Cup to attend the award ceremony and Kanoute was handed the award instead. CAF deny this.

It is tragic for Kanoute really because if a detailed analysis is made of achievements in 2007, he probably deserved the accolade anyway.

The award is voted for by coaches from Africa’s 53 member countries although in past years less than 50 percent have returned their ballots.

The award has become a farce, a far cry from its origins and the strict accountability it had for decades.

Drogba says a high ranking CAF official called to say that if the Chelsea striker did not make the award ceremony he would be dumped as winner.

There is no reason to doubt him, but CAF deny such a call was made.

Drogba did not see the point of spending a day travelling to and from his team’s training base in Ghana’s Takoradi to Lome in neighbouring Togo where the awards had been scheduled.

CAF battle at the best of times to get nominees to attend the gala because so many are based in Europe and find it hard to get time off from their clubs.

CAF thought it would be clever to host the ceremony during the Nations Cup where all the nominees would be in action. But then they decided to hold it in Lome instead of Ghana’s capital Accra, against good sense.

The credibility of the award is dying a rapid death.

“CAF has the right to make any changes it wants,” said CAF communications director Suleiman Habuba in a TV interview this week.

So the coach’s vote is a farce then?

The award was started in 1970 by the magazine ‘France Football’, which ensured a proper plebiscite of representatives from each African country for more than two decades.

France Football sadly dropped the award just over 10 yeas ago, leaving CAF to take it over.

At first CAF used to poll its committee members to determine the winner and then came up with the idea of enlisting the coaches a few years ago.

Sporadically they have published the results but there has been a scent of skullduggery around the poll for some time now.

That scent is now a stench if the reports are true. Pity poor old king Kanoute. He deserved a lot better.

Mark Gleeson is covering the African Nations Cup in Ghana for Reuters. Click here for our site devoted to the finals 

PHOTO: Mali’s Kanoute holds his 2007 African Footballer of the Year award in Lome, Feb. 2  REUTERS/Luc Gnago

I couldn’t resist this one. Check out the video above, with a report from Joanna Partridge, for a look at Germany’s unusual preparations for their assault on the Alpine nations of Switzerland and Austria next year.

Michael Ballack looks pretty good in that garb. Maybe he could think about a career in Hollywood when his ankles finally give out…