Manolo Preciado during a match between Sporting Gijon and Real Madrid in 2010. (Getty)

On Wednesday, 54-year-old Manuel "Manolo" Preciado was announced as relegated Villarreal's new manager and the man tasked with getting the club back in La Liga as quickly as possible. A press conference unveiling Preciado was scheduled for Friday, but early Thursday morning Preciado suffered a heart attack and passed away.

Villarreal announced the terrible news on their official website:

Coach Manuel Preciado died early this morning in Valencia as a result of a heart attack. The Cantabrian, who had been elected by Villarreal to drive the draft next season, had 54 years. Villarreal want to show their deep regret at the sad loss and want to show their condolences to his family and all his relatives.

Preciado had a 15-year playing career that began with Racing Santander that led into his career in management that most recently included six years at the helm of Sporting Gijon that ended when he was sacked in January.

Described as "a people's poet and street philosopher with the deep

Fernando Torres attempts to save a shot while mentor Pepe Reina watches. (AP)

As this year's Champions League final showed yet again, goalkeepers can be the difference between winning and losing in a tournament like Euro 12. And by reading far too much into pictures taken during Spain's Wednesday training session, we can see that they are so desperate to retain the European championship that they are cultivating a secret weapon: Fernando Torres as goalkeeper.

Already blessed with the talented trio of Iker Casillas, Pepe Reina and Victor Valdes, some questioned the selection of Torres after his exile from the national team while he was still in the midst of his recently cured goal drought. But now we see why he was reintroduced: To play a key role in Spain's experimental and groundbreaking two goalkeeper formation.

Wearing no gloves and playing alongside Pepe Reina, Torres -- whose mother banned him from being a goalkeeper after a ball knocked out his front teeth when he was a child -- tried to stop shots from his teammates using only his bare hands and freckles and artificial blondness.

How successful was the ploy?

England arrived at their Krakow, Poland hotel on Wednesday and while they were greeted by welcoming fans, there was also a very vocal Irish delegation present. The boisterous Irish fans (whose team is based in Sopot, Poland) sang a medley of choice cuts once the England bus arrived on the, including a couple rounds of "You'll never beat the Irish" (mostly because the earliest they could face each other is in the knockout rounds), "John Terry is a racist," "Maradona" and of course the always resourceful "Booooo."

According to the Telegraph's Henry Winter, the England fans present fought back with chants of "Thierry Henry" and the  "You're going down with the euro."

So when Spain arrived in Poland they got cheerleaders and a giant loaf of bread and when England arrived a day later, they got the melodic banter of the Irish. This is why you should always show up early.

Video via Joe.ie

The Euro 12 trophy. (Reuters)

Unless you are an oracle octopus with powers behind human comprehension, making predictions is a self-aggrandizing waste of time. So here are several Euro 12 predictions that are close enough to being believable.

-Even though he's not participating in the tournament, Lionel Messi will lead the Golden Boot race with 34 goals (narrowly edging out Stewart Downing).

-Patrice Evra will try to lead the French team in another training session boycott, but this time no one will follow. He will then sit in a McDonald's for an hour, hoping that's enough time for everyone to forget.

-Thousands of fans will be shocked to see that Andriy Shevchenko still plays football.

-Mario Balotelli will end racism in Poland and Ukraine not by killing racists, but by randomly giving them cash and fireworks, thus changing their minds forever about people of different ethnicities. He will also tear up their lawns by doing donuts on them with his Maserati.

-Zlatan Ibrahimovic will blame Pep Guardiola for Sweden's shortcomings. He will then kick Euro 12 mascots Slavek and Slavko in the head at the same time.

The Netherlands are based in Krakow, Poland for Euro 12, which is also where they opened Cruyff's Court with a friendly match against a group of children. Manager Bert van Marwijk risked an international incident before the tournament even begins by allowing Nigel De Jong to play against the kids, but thankfully Nigel took it relatively easy on them.

He did still man-handle one kid (30 seconds into the video) and yank the shirt of another kid who managed to beat him (1:00 in), but everyone presumably finished the game with their ankles and chest cavities in tact. A resounding success!

This has been the Dirty Tackle of the Day: a chronicling of unfortunate events.

Sergio Ramos with a lurking Xavi. (Reuters)

Even though another Clasico-filled season is over and Spain is on the very of starting their Euro 12 campaign, Barcelona midfield wizard Xavi has decided to prod the Real Madrid v Barcelona tensions over a lack of adequate congratulations. In the past, Xavi has grumbled about Real Madrid's style of play and how he thinks Barca are under-appreciated within Spain, but this might be his silliest complaint yet.

From Soccernet:

Xavi has now risked provoking the Real Madrid players in the squad as he repeated comments he made in January and April suggesting Barca's players have a more sporting approach.

"We have congratulated them when they won," he told Canal+. "That is sport at the end of the day. We have been very respectful with them. However, I have noted that it wasn't the same in reverse."

In the interest of squashing this beef before the Real Madrid and Barcelona players must come together to defend Spain's Euro title, Sergio Ramos has penned a letter to Xavi congratulating Barcelona on their successes. Here it is...

Defending European champions Spain arrived at their hotel in Gniewino, Poland on Tuesday ahead of the start of Euro 12 and they were greeted by a very nice welcome committee. As the band played, a girl in traditional garb presented confused striker Fernando Llorente with a basket containing a large bread as his teammates laughed and applauded (about 1:00 into the video).

In Poland bread and salt are a traditional show of hospitality (usually done during weddings today), but it's unclear why Llorente was chosen as the recipient over all the other players and staff. Perhaps the girl knew Llorente likes to load up on carbs after a long journey.

Once Llorente figured out what to do with his gift, the Spanish players and coaches headed inside the hotel while Xavi stopped to take pictures of the cheerleaders.

Harry Redknapp enjoying his time in the Champions League. (Getty)

Despite finishing fourth in the Premier League, Spurs had their return to the Champions League taken away when sixth-place Chelsea beat Bayern Munich on penalties in the Champions League final. You might think that this would be painful for the club and manager Harry Redknapp, but it just so happens ol' 'Arry has decided the competition he was overjoyed to qualifying for two years ago is no longer that big a deal.

From Sky Sports:

"I think it's overrated what people say about Champions League football and whatever," he told Sky Sports News.

"People would have still gone to Chelsea if they hadn't won the Champions League this year because they know it's a club that's looking to get into the Champions League positions next year.

"They pay fantastic money. If you pay players enough money and you give them good enough contracts and you show that you're ambitious, they'll come to your club."

Psst -- saying that the Champions League is overrated probably isn't the best way to show that