Fabregas in Valencia

Today it is raining, not just lightly but torrential, with rolling thunder and lightning. After getting caught out during our morning walk to the paper shop (for a copy of Marca, the daily sports paper), the bread shop (donuts & barra [small crusty baguettes]) and Toni’s bar (café con leche). We are now warm and dry in our most comfortable villa on the side of a hill in the Xalo / Jalon Valley.
Marca has caused my mind to drift back to the arrival of Bergkamp in 1995. The year when my name came up on the waiting list and I picked seats for Dave and me in the family enclosure at Highbury. Arsenal (Bruce Rioch the manager just before Wenger arrived – Arsene who?) paid £7.5m for the 26-year-old. This just before Newcastle paid £6m for Les Ferdinand & Liverpool £8.5m for dogger Stan Collymore! Bergkamp came to life under Wenger and through his career scored 121 goals in 424 games. Dennis was the best for us and we both had the redcurrant commemorative shirt printed up with no. 10. We bought Dave’s for his 19th birthday with HUSSEY across the back. Mine was a 45th Birthday gift from Amy, Dave and Jon G with Mr HUSSEY. During the Bergkamp era I said to Dave that he didn’t realise what an amazing period he was witnessing as a fan during his teens. I’d seen some real boring boring Arsenal but Dave lived through a golden era of silverware and silky passing football watching a sublime Bergkamp – happy days together.
On Wednesday (3rd Oct), like Chelsea, we visited Valencia. They without ‘el despidido’ ('the sacked one' as Levante called Mourinho), us without a map. However, we managed to find Fabregas everywhere! I assume this must be the gas company rather than some tribute to our most fantastico Fabregas who gets lots of coverage in the Spanish press in his exploits for ‘los gunners’. We love Fabregas; Lesley jumps out of her seat and has words to say if anyone dare tackle him too strongly. Very happy with last night’s away win in Bucharest with RvP getting the goal to give us 6 points from 2 games after he also got the winner on Saturday. Hope the hammers in ‘The Willy’ enjoyed that :-).
Anyway, enough for today, I need another café, hasta luego.