Village Idiot

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.

Another goal by Iñaki Williams, I don't know how Athletic manages to extract so much talent from a 2 million population.

And as I say that, Depor concede after a Krul-esque kick from the keeper. 1-1

Jonás handed his first start of the season against Levante, and managed to notch an assist in the first half. Depor are doing very well so far this year.

That guy should still be playing for Newcastle. At least I hope this callup vindicates him.

Benzema officially charged as an accomplice. How does a millionaire get embroiled in the blackmail of a NT teammate? (they reportedly asked for 150k). Makes no sense.

Benzema has admitted to the French police that he was part of the blackmail scheme, according to all the Spanish press (including the serious one, so seems legit). Apparently he would have been a mediator, and talked to Valbuena in order to put him in contact with the blackmailers. Valbuena then related this conversation to the police.

Benzema reportedly spending the night in custody. So it seems serious.

Spanish media are all running with "arrest", but they love a good sensationalistic headline. One has to take into account that the niche that The Sun fills in the UK, is filled by sports rags in Spain.

Benzema seems to be a slightly smarter version of Nile Ranger. How many times has he been arrested for stuff already? He's got a looong rap sheet of driving offences both in Spain and France, plus that underage prostitute thing and now this.