When Pablo Zabaleta signed for Manchester City this time last year he admits he wasn’t really expecting to be playing on the same team as Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor.

How times change. City are now being referred to as part of the “Big Five” in the Premier League and a Champions League qualifying place must be their target for the season.

Click on the video above to see Owen Wyatt chat to Zabaleta about the coming season.

We welcome comments on our blog site, and if you’re feeling more adventurous please feel free to leave your own video response. Upload it somewhere, send us a link and if we like it we’ll showcase it on our site.

Now that the dust has settled on the Ronaldo story (at least until he actually signs) I wanted to go back to something that bothered me about last week’s on-field action.

Former England striker Jimmy Greaves summed it up quite well at half-time during England’s 6-0 thrashing of Andorra in a World Cup qualifier.

“Have you ever seen a team this bad at Wembley?” Greaves, one of several members of the 1996 World Cup squad to be given belated winners medals after missing the final, said when interviewed by ITV.

Greaves went on to question the sanity of the near 60,000 fans who bought tickets to watch England beat a side that would struggle to survive in the fourth tier of English club football.

It wasn’t quite what ITV wanted to hear after desperately trying to stoke interest in the miss-match but the outspoken Greaves made a very good point before we were returned hurriedly to the studio.

The likes of Andorra and San Marino may belong to the FIFA family but they offer absolutely nothing to football at this level.

There sole objective is to avoid a double-figure thrashing which they usually achieve by positioning 11 players behind the ball and never venturing over the halfway line.

Apart from the three points pocketed by the teams facing them and the chance for strikers to skew their goalscoring stats the matches are… pointless.

Andorra have managed just three wins in 84 internationals with a combined goal difference of minus 203. San Marino are even worse, having managed just a solitary win in a friendly against Liechtenstein.

It is now time for FIFA and UEFA to act and stop these excuses for games of football.

Nobody is advocating banning them, but a system whereby the minnows must come through a pre-qualifying group before getting to face the big guns would at least weed out the country’s who are just cluttering the schedule.

By playing against nations of a similar standing it might even encourage them to try and score goals and ultimately improve their level of play.

In which Owen Wyatt and Kevin Fylan discuss the merits or otherwise of Cristiano Ronaldo’s impending move from Manchester United to Real Madrid.

Real have got the best player in the world, arguably, but have they got a bargain, or come to that a sustainable business model? And just who is the new Claude Makelele…?

We welcome comments below, and if you’re feeling more adventurous please feel free to leave your own video response. Upload it somewhere, send us a link and if we like it we’ll showcase it here.

Florentino Perez began his second spell as Real Madrid president on Monday and immediately signed up Zinedine Zidane and Jorge Valdano for the project.

Those appointments are all very well, but the question we all want answering is which players Florentino is going to bring in. Will he content himself with one major signing, a la Zidane, or will he, as some have speculated, sign basically a whole new team.

Click the video above to see Owen and myself discussing Real, and considering briefly what went wrong at Real Betis.

And remember, comments are always welcome…

The Champions League final is almost upon us and the views of the Roman locals are quite interesting.

As Paul Virgo explains above, AS Roma fans are rooting for Barcelona while Lazio supporters want Manchester United to win.

The Stadio Olimpico is eerily quiet but it will soon be buzzing on Wednesday when the hordes of fans descend on the venue for what many are calling a ‘dream final’.

Thierry Henry did not enjoy the happiest of starts to his new life in Barcelona but it’s clicked for the Frenchman this term.

He plays more as a winger than a striker under Pep Guardiola yet he’s still managed 15 league goals this season and the Premier League certainly seems a poorer place without him.

Click on the video above to see Owen Wyatt emerge blinking into the Canary Wharf sunlight to discuss Henry’s current form, and why you shouldn’t leave your car parked anywhere near the Barcelona training ground.

And if you’ve got any thoughts on Henry please let us know in the comments or, if you’re feeling adventurous, in a vlog of your own. Personally, I put his return to form down to cooking and Cluedo.

Owen Wyatt has invested in new 3-D technology to provide a fresh look at Real Madrid chances of knocking Liverpool out of the Champions League.

Click on the video above to hear our views on the key battles at Anfield, and a look at what the Spanish papers and Real Madrid players are saying ahead of the match.

The view in Spain seems to be that the form and fitness of Torres will be the decisive factor in this match but we’re not so sure. Liverpool are in charge after the 1-0 win at the Bernabeu but an early goal for Real would change everything. Watch out for that man Raul.

A few weeks ago the La Liga title looked a done deal but Juande Ramos has steadied the ship and Real Madrid now find themselves four points behind Barcelona with the two teams still to play each other at the Bernabeu on May 3.

Can Real complete an unlikely comeback?

Vlogonthepitch host Owen Wyatt and Kevin Fylan discuss.

Join vlogmeister Owen Wyatt as he takes the plunge and asks John Arne Riise whether he’s still a better player than Andrea Dossena, the man who replaced him at Anfield.

And talking of the Premier League, Arsene Wenger thinks Liverpool’s title hopes are still alive, and that none of the top teams are playing to their full potential. Dare to disagree with Wenger? Let us know in the comments, or record your own video rant and send us a link. If we like it, we’ll embed it here.

As Tony Adams and then Luiz Felipe Scolari discovered this week, football is not a patient game.

In a recent interview aired on Revista de la Liga on Sky Sports, Real Madrid defender Michel Salgado said that at his club there was no such thing as a long term project as far as he could see. All that mattered was what was happening now.

This results-driven impatience is not a phenomenon exclusive to the top clubs and in his two seasons with Fulham Clint Dempsey has played for three managers and seen a fair few team mates come and go.

The Texan has found first team chances hard to come by but he’s still managed to make an impact, notably when scoring a crucial goal against Liverpool to keep his side in the top flight at the end of the 2006-07 season.

Things have been looking up for him this term and he recently scored a brace against Chelsea in the West London derby.

Dempsey is living proof that even in Premier League it can pay to be patient. Click the video above to hear what he has to say.