VALLADOLID -
(pronounced - va-ya-doe-leed)

Capital of the Castilla-Leon region in north-east Spain, an industrial and university city at the junction of the Pisguera and Esguera rivers. Pop. (1991) of 345,260.

Valladolid was the principal residence of the kings of Castile in the 15th century and capital of Spain during of the reign of the three kings Philip II, III, IV ( 16th - 17th century). The scene of the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabelle in 1469, Christopher Columbus also died there in 1506 and Cervantes wrote part of ‘Don Quixote’ in a house now preserved as a museum.


Well enough of that boring stuff. Living as I do most of the year in a foreign country, one gets 'attached' to the various new customs, foods and ways of life. You don't forget the old attitudes that you're had for all your life but you acquire a different way of looking at things.

Anyway, to help yourself fit in and enjoy life all the more it is of course necessary to 'adopt' a local football team. Adopt, of course, in the widest sense and as an additional object for whatever sentiments apply. Being registered, or probably certified more like, to Charlton it is pretty obvious that nobody is going to select Real Madrid as an adopted team even though they could register as my 'local team'.

No. Its important to let other nebulous ideas and desires be used to let ones fancy fall upon a suitable outfit. So between the language course and the paella I decided. VALLADOLID. Maybe its the profusion of L's in the name or the impossibility of being able to say it so that people would understand what the hell you are talking about. Or maybe its location in the middle of nowhere gave it some sort of mystery. Lots of history but impossible to get to.

Its been several years we're been together now and even though relegation from the Premier division happened 2 years ago, in true Charlton fashion I'm not going to desert them now.

So anyway, they'd in the news over here right now, for all the wrong reasons of course, and relegated to Page 42 of the Real Madrid fanzine ( otherwise known as the sports paper AS). After a mid-season run of 3 defeats on the run and a slump that has seen them crash from a promotion-chasing 3rd to 9th, the manager has got the boot.

Far from the proverbial public reassurance from the board before a vital home game against 2nd in the table Recreativo, he had been warned that anything less than a win and he'd be on his way. In true Charlton fashion, despite it being undeserved, the visitors having not a single shot on target, an own-goal by the centre-back gave the visitors a 0-1 victory and Marcos Alonso ( no relation apparently to Fernando of F1 fame) is history.

The new manager is one Alfredo Merino, an unknown previously running the 2nd string and the 4th manager in the less than 2 years. An away game against bottom of the table Malaga B, who are in the desperate position of having their first and second teams bottom of the premier and second divisions respectively, follows on Sunday!