Village Idiot

Neymar finished fifth in the first round voting, behind Buffon. Neymar was better than Suárez overall - mostly because of Suárez's ban and the time he needed to get up and running after that. But Suárez scored some damn big goals this season. Real Madrid in the league, the PSG brace, the winning goal in the final...

Would be hilarious if, say, Liverpool or Spurs got 4th the season the PL loses its fourth spot because of teams like them fucking up the EL so badly.

Won the Best Player in Europe award. Surprisingly, Suárez finished second above Cristiano Ronaldo (just by one vote though). Although Suárez had a damn great run in the CL.

All groups are easy. Only D seems competitive.

Can't complain, Roma were possibly the worst 3rd seed we could get, but we avoided the tough teams in pot 2.

I think Arsenal can take 'em. Bayern don't seem as strong as they once were. On paper anyway. I think they look ridiculous on paper. Douglas Costa and Vidal are great buys.

Tough group for Sevilla. They can always win their third EL in a row I guess.

Says a man who soils himself at the sight of a mildly attractive female or minor football news. Anyone opinions on Silva? I don't think I have ever seen him play. Neither have I or Real Madrid fans for that matter, wasn't given the time of the day after a disappointing start.

I'm starting to be convinced that with enough time and funding, Jorge Mendes could slash Portugal's unemployment.

Valencia have signed Aderlan Santos from Braga. Repped by Mendes, of course.

Lucas Silva loaned out to OM, official.

Thiago signs a new contract with Bayern, I suspect this means Guardiola is signing too.

Wew. What's the story there? Juve agreed to terminate his contract, apparently. There's rumours that it's all part of a "Made in Italy" type of deal and that Sevilla will buy Isla off them now.

Llorente signs for Sevilla on a free.

Coentrao to Monaco on loan. Madrid clearing the deadwood.

Yeah, pretty much nobody but Guardiola (who'd managed him) thought much of Busquets while he was in our youth teams.

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.