Village Idiot

Illarramendi sold back to Real Sociedad. Good footballer, no mettle.

Some of the transfer fees bandied about this season in England are truly daft.

Best Real Madrid sides of the past decades had the likes of Redondo and Makelele anchoring the midfield. You'll fit in well with Florentino Pérez.

Nah, I know, but it was still a huge sell for us like. Weird transfer either way you look at it tbh. Would happily have him back now that his contract has been terminated, but we'd have to seek dispensation and he'd only come in as our third best striker (we play a 4-4-2 and our current third striker is a bit s*** so would be a good option). I can see where Real Madrid were coming from, a dominating physical presence can make a big difference in that league. Overweight or not the lad's huge. They had that really tall Polish striker, whose name escapes me, who had been quite successful for their B team. They were probably looking for somebody of that mold. EDIT: Hungarian, not Polish. Adam Szalai.

Have had a lot of great craic with Celtic fans visiting Barcelona whenever we have met them in the CL. So I sort of like them.

Real Madrid only signed him to prop up their B team. They had been relegated to the Spanish third tier and they bought a few players to try to get back up ASAP (which they failed to do). He wasn't meant to play for the seniors.

They went on that great run with Kroos at CM though. It generally looked fine with him and Luka. If Kroos is going to succeed he's going to have to learn to play with Modric anyway 80% of the time. Bale's first season he was 1 in 2 at RF. Can't say it's been a failure imo. Isco at CM is dodgy aye. Kroos sitting deep is fine when you play La Liga teams that will sit back 90% of the game, but not the good teams that will put you under some pressure. Even in that good run they were vulnerable to goals from players coming from the hole. He just isn't good enough positionally for that defensive role. Real Madrid should have employed a DM specialist, but that would have meant moving one of Kroos or Modric further up, which in turn dislodges one of Isco or James. Kroos-Modric-James/Isco was great to watch* when on song, but it was a frightfully imbalanced midfield. *Not for me, of course.

They didn't have a full strength side. No Benzema means a makeshift striker and a bunch of changes to try to accommodate that fact. Once again, Pérez is to blame. How can a team of Real Madrid's stature and ambition start the season without a single backup striker?

Isco is never a central midfielder, doesn't have the positional or tactical awareness. Kroos sitting back was a terrible idea too, he doesn't have the positional awareness to be a defensive midfielder and they leaked a bunch of important goals because of that - as talented as he is creatively. Bale on the right has been a failure. Ramos as CM was a makeshift solution when they were hit by injury, so I actually don't count that one. I don't blame Carlo much, though. When you manage Real Madrid your #1 priority is to make room for all of Pérez's favorite children.

Ancelotti did play a lot of square pegs in round holes at Real Madrid, but in his defense he was forced to by Pérez's transfer policy.

He's never been an out and out striker, even when he was banging them for fun at Tenerife he played behind Aridane, a big target man.

He seems to be a bit crap, though. 2 in 10 in the Spanish third tier while playing for the team with the most expensive squad in that league.

Pot 2 of the CL: Real Madrid Valencia Atlético de Madrid Arsenal ManCity Porto That's actually stronger than pot 1. It also means we'll get one of Arsenal, Porto or (again) ManCity.

Real Madrid have sacked Finnish striker Eero Markannen from their B team after he allegedly returned from holidays having gained 18 Kg He claims it's untrue and has posted a touched up photo on twitter: http://estaticos03.marca.com/imagenes/2015/08/25/futbol/equipos/real_madrid/1440506700_extras_noticia_foton_7_1.jpg

Messi and Ronaldo going all season without scoring a single goal? Possible or not?

Messi has a higher release clause than Neymar, would cost you €250m. Anyway, Mundo Deportivo, who are the rag that the club uses to leak stuff, have said that Barça haven't received any offer for Neymar. We've been in talks with him to extend his contract, so this is just an agent ploy to get more money from us.

Marca reporting that Atlético could announce the signing of Kranevitter later today. He's been heavily rumoured to go there for weeks. Looks like Atlético would allow him to stay at River until January, so he can play the CWC.

Benítez taking a beating from the Madrid press. Always loved the smell of blood, that lot.

We were in talks for a new contract with him a few months ago but for some reason that went nowhere. Wouldn't surprise me if his agent is trying to revive the talks with these reports. I hope we get him to a longer contract, he's already great and will only get better.

Real Madrid's team bus, yesterday at Gijón: http://estaticos.sport.es/resources/jpg/2/6/aficionado-colgo-foto-twitter-1440354155762.jpg They should have put an Athletic sticker on the Spanish Supercup though

"Cristiano Ronaldo" is his first name. Dos Santos Aveiro are his two surnames.

I like Rafa a lot but he's completely unsuited to managing Madrid. James Rodríguez on the bench was a head-scratcher for me; he was comfortably one of Madrid's best players last season. James was better than Bale & Isco last season. Might be something to do with the Copa? Or else fatty's a fool. He's played a lot during preseason, unless he's tired or something I can't see that being the reason.

They have a better squad than us, despite a few glaring holes (like forward). Benítez just needs to not f*** up too much to carry the league. Loving Celta at the moment, by the way. Drawing away from home and Berizzo introduces a 4th forward to go for the win (granted, Levante were playing with 10 men, but still), which they are about to get since they are up 1-2 in injury time.

Jesé was playing uptop for a good stretch of the game and he looked completely lost.

Soldado scoring a Soldado goal. Glad to see him back.