In a surprise move so late in the season, the Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has announced that Manuel Pellegrini has been sacked as the manager of Real Madrid with immediate affect. He will be replaced by the more experienced Colin Mercer.

In an announcement made at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu earlier Señor Perez blamed Pellegrini for Real’s current league position and lack of success in cup competitions, stating:

“…a change of personnel is required if we are going to turn this season around…”

Mercer has had successful Football Manager campaigns at Liverpool, Monaco and Barcelona to mention just a few, most recently taking Liverpool to the Premier League title and Champions League final in his 2nd season in charge.

It is rumoured that he will look to bring players from his previous clubs like Torres, Gerrard and Messi to the Bernabéu.

This news comes as less of a surprise to the panellists on Revista de La Liga who predicted Pellegrini to be on the way out yesterday.

The day started off in a similar way to which the last had finished, with a nice beer. After getting up and stuff we headed to a local Tapas place for food. More details which I can’t remember about, the name of the place we went to and the name for the drink we had. It was basically lager with a load of lemon cordial in it. Very refreshing, perfect for that early drink. The Tapas here was also better than the stuff from the day before (did I mention we had Tapas the day before?), highlight was definitely the croquet style yummyness.

After foodage we wondered down to the Valladolid football Stadium where Nicko and Vicko are season ticket holders. Poor them I say.

The other reason to head down in the direction of the stadium was to check out the traveling zoo… well that’s atleast what it called itself. Turns out this is code for caravan with a couple of donkeys, which charges you an arm and a leg (I think maybe this is how they feed the animals?). So we skipped that and headed back into town to hit one of the locals for the end of the rugby, which of course Jefffo loved…

After the rugby we headed to pick up some more beer and a couple of bits and bobs from the garage whilst Vicko went on home to start preparing the roast dinner for the evening. And what a roast it was! I wish I’d taken pics of it, but was too busy scoffing it, definitely a 9/10!

After waking up bright and early, OK stop there, what a lie. Our flight in was delayed which meant we didn’t get into Madrid until very late, and then had a number of hour drive to Valladolid. Luckily Nicko didn’t fall asleep… unluckily Vicko did meaning Nicko had no clue where to go. Funny scenes as you veer across lanes and slip roads. We survived, and got back in time for a beer, but there is always time for a beer, even when its 3.30am.

The plan for the day was to check out a bit of the city, grab some Tapas and head to the pub for some rugby. Sounds like a good plan to me, especially when we added in the siesta and Mexican we were going to have for dinner.

I will talk more about Valladolid tomorrow, as by then we will have had a much more in depth look around the place and actually taken some pictures. For today, I only captured one thing and that’s the Bullring. Unsurprisingly, that’s where they do the Spanish tradition of Bull Fighting. A totally pointless, ridiculous activity (not even going to classify it as a sport), saying that though if there had been any on whilst I was there I would have liked to go. Cultural experience and all that.

Pub was good, rugby was bad, we played like tools but still won. Joining us in the pub were a couple of Nicko’s mates, an Irish guy (and his visiting parents) and a Welsh guy. Good laugh. But it was very quickly siesta time. Siesta time confuses the body clock a bit, meaning that dinner isn’t really dinner, much more of supper. In Spain it is customary to not go out for food until 9 or 10 oclock.

I’ve no idea on the details of the Mexican place we went to, maybe Nicko or Vicko will fill some of those into the comments section below, but the one thing to say is that it is important to like cheese. Nachos as a starter consisted of a massive bowl of melted cheese with some tortillas sticking in it. It was nice, the Jalapenos were a hell of a lot tastier than the ones we get over here. Main course was enchiladas, guess what, lots of cheese. Not as much as Vicko got though, described as a blanket because you could fold it back. Slightly strange and it got very sickly quite quickly. Picture time, look at the boys looking all happy…

With some heavy cheese sweats / cramps going on we heading to another bar for a quick couple then retired home. Day done… How did everyone get on with Day 1’s quiz?

Yep, that’s a sachet of Gin… yummy… not!

Why I hear you scream, why would he put us through reading more of his posts!? Because I’m evil, and so that if I refer back to anything on previous experiences over the next few days it will make sense. What is the point of me being pure comedy gold on paper screen if the audience doesn’t ‘get it’? Have you done it yet? I’ll wait…

… that should be just about long enough, warning there will be a test at the end. Anyway, back to the point, today I’m off to Spain. To be more precise I’m flying to Madrid and then getting a lift to Valladolid, making today a work and then travel day. I’m writing this on the way to London, to work from there for the day, a 9am meeting meant leaving the house at 6.30am, fun-tas-tic. After work heading straight to Gatwick, which shouldn’t take too long to jump on the evening flight to Madrid landing rather late. Because of the rather late landing Sir NickoBeano who I’m staying with has offered to come pick us up, what a gent.

I don’t really have much more to add right now, if you care, I’m travelling with @Jefffo.

Moving swiftly onto the promised quiz (if you get these all correct without reading the previous posts you could win a cookie – but its unlikely):

1) Name three of the Barbies I’ve been away with
2) Who did I see drop a simple catch at the MCG?
3) What was the name of the kick arse shop in Melbourne?