Village Idiot

Messi in the squad for El Clásico. Unsure about the game. We haven't been that great, but the dudes upfront are in magnificent form. On paper, Real Madrid have a better team, but Benítez seems to be hamstringing the team so far.

I researched a bit the "merger" news and indeed it seems that the Portuguese League is pushing for it. However, I really can't see La Liga going for it for the reasons I mentioned. I'm really against the whole superleague concept, even if it would be class from a big club fan standpoint - since we would make the cut - it would totally suck for the small, storied clubs that would be sacked off as a result. We should work towards propping up the small clubs in big leagues and the smaller leagues in general. UEFA should be more socialist and spread the wealth. For starters, redirecting CL money to the EL so clubs playing in the European second tier could seize it as a chance to grow, would be something easy and with meaningful results.

There's nothing on our media about this. As a fan it would be really cool, but it would suck for all the teams that would find themselves relegated because of it. Also I don't think UEFA would give us more CL/EL slots so big clubs wouldn't probably want it either. For these reasons, I doubt this is real.

Those two events are not compatible.

Looks like they averted a massacre. And a terror attack too.

Shocking stuff that. Grim times. In other news, Messi was back in training yesterday. I guess he'll be on the bench for El Clásico.

Odegaard has been pretty shit for Castilla too. The insane hype is doing him more harm than good.

32 is not even the beginning. Sad news.

Martin Jol was a good riot too. Didn't he use to open entire new threads around Spurs buying youngsters and such?

Jerôme Champagne sounds like a comic-book made up French name too.

f*** me that's Liverpool FC levels of wankery I know, but I like to indulge in Barcelonanism from time to time

Ronaldinho just named Neymar as "his natural heir".

Sacked now.

I love that about Neymar and Brazilians in general, Messi would never go for that solution, even if he too ended up scoring.

Eusebio the Spanish quite good midfielder, not Eusebio the legendary Portuguese striker.

Moyes to be sacked from Real Sociedad in the coming hours/days. Eusebio heavily rumoured to be his replacement.

Barça goals since Messi got injured: Suárez 10 Neymar 10 Rakitic 2 Sergi Roberto 1

I think James Rodríguez is a top top player but he needs to stay uninjured for a long period. IIRC he was also rather injury-ridden at Porto. Ronaldo is a shadow of his former self.

Nice.

Real have a better squad than us, but Benítez is really helping us out. They have been pretty uninspiring so far this season.

Sure I read he's got strong links with Albacete football team EDIT: Turns out he's the owner Yeah, he started playing football there and bought the team when they were in dire straits. Gave them money for nothing? It's an area famous for its potatoes, so he'll be getting chips for free.

Sure I read he's got strong links with Albacete football team EDIT: Turns out he's the owner Yeah, he started playing football there and bought the team when they were in dire straits.

Who would win between the Basque region and Catalonia do you think? Is that a serious question? Why woudn't it be? They play each other quite often and the games are usually draws. TBF they don't play quite often at all, while it's usually draws I don't doubt for a second if both had to play on the international stage that the Catalan team would be more successful. Catalonia have bigger names but they're largely aging (Valdes and Xavi). Basque have more depth and better strikers. Basque team would probably be stronger if you include the French basque region (the Basque national team only includes the autonomous region within Spain.) Fair enough, was thinking more in terms of last decade or so. I mean Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets ends that for me. Yeah I'd agree 5 years ago the Catalan team would be stacked. Iniesta's not Catalan btw. He played once for Catalonia but that's only because they sometimes have guest players (Cruyff and a few others have played as well). Aye Had forgotten about that. Isn't Bojan catalan though? He is, despite the name. Strong "Catalan redneck" accent too

Iniesta has lived in Barcelona since he was bairn (and he moved for football reasons), but he was born in La Mancha. I wouldn't count him.

Valdés Bellerín Piqué Bartra Alba Busquets Fàbregas Xavi/Sergi Roberto Aleix Vidal Sergio García Bojan/Deulofeu Not too shabby. Pity about the lack of strikers though.