Village Idiot

We need those January signings (I'm including Turan and Vidal in here), like there's no tomorrow. The team can't cope in the last 15-20 minutes.

He was pretty good in the first half, but our whole midfield got overran during the second.

Leverkusen Sorry I'm having a bad headache tonight.

Ter Stegen had a great game today, he needed that. We played with the kids+Messi so Stuttgart were on top of us for long stretches of the game.

I have no idea who this Kaptoum lad we are playing is.

The award is merely two years old. And yes quite funnily it has never gone to a Barça player, which has been cause of derision.

Heh, just came back from having a few beers with friends. I even had NUFC notifications turned off from my phone as I was expecting the worst. Congratulations What a fucking weird club though.

All in all, we've played all the top teams in La Liga at their place (Madrid, Atlético, Valencia, Sevilla) and managed to emerge from that run being top. Given that we'll be at home against them in the second half of the league, I'm cautiously optimistic. Arda and Vidal will add much needed depth.

Yesterday's game shows why we need Arda and Vidal so badly. We controlled the game and deserved more goals, but in the last 20 minutes or so we looked jaded and there wasn't any decent sub in the bench (granted, there are some injured players too), that's when Valencia was able to break the game.

We are looking tired and Lucho isn't doing any sub. I think our lack of depth is showing here.

He didn't start the season well - like most of the team -, but he's coming around.

Gerrin.

Third sitter we miss this half. Meh.

And have only conceded 6 goals! That's Cholo for you. You might not like his playing style (I don't), but he's damn good at it.

"Making someone's bed" (hacerle la cama) is a Spanish idiom for making someone fall, or undermining them. It's used often in football for accusing players of trying to get a manager sacked, by underperforming in games.

Like we say in Spain, Chelsea players are really busy making Mourinho's bed (trying to get him sacked).

Dunno what to think of this game. Valencia seem to be in disarray, but we always have a damn hard time at Mestalla.

So Phil's in charge then? No, Voro.

Neville won't yet be in Valencia's dugout when they play against us tonight. He never won a game against Barça as a player (he only played Barça 4 times, tbf). Rivaldo tore him a new one in that crazy 3-3 game.

Madrid expelled from the Cup by the FA. The club's appeal should be resolved next Friday.

Some guys that I work for have run a simulation of the current La Liga TV deal, and Marca has published the results: http://www.marca.com/2015/12/03/multimedia/graficos/1449131702.html Left side is the old TV money, right side is the money given under the new collective contract. Note that Real Madrid and Barça lose €30m each. First column on the right: fixed TV money. Second column on the right: prize money. Third column on the right: awarded through TV audience and stadium attendance (this one is obviously rigged so Barça and Madrid keep some advantage) The season isn't finished, so they are using last season's results for the prize money calculation. Overall figures are set to increase next season, since the new contract is expected to boost TV revenues by around 50%.

Real Madrid are going to base their defence arguing that they weren't communicated effectively of the fact that Cherysev was banned by the Spanish FA. The FA supposedly sent out a fax to all clubs back in July with a list of all player bans carried over from the previous season (with Cherysev in it), but Real Madrid claim to have not received it. A ruling is expected tomorrow (Real Madrid could still appeal).

Depends on how much he speeded (jail time triggers when you go 70+ km/h over the limit), but yeah.

In Spain you don't go to jail if your sentence is below 2 years and you have no priors.

In other big La Liga player in jail trouble news, Mascherano has settled with the prosecutor for 800k and a 1 year of prison time for fiscal fraud. Since he has no priors he won't serve the time. Settlement has still to be approved by the judge.