Village Idiot

Unless you're Mike Tyson, I don't think so. I think certain parts of Spain pronounce it differently. For instance, you often hear of people saying "Thara-gotha" but rarely of people saying "Ibi-tha". I pronounce both the same, and I would say any Spaniard will pronounce both the same. What you may find is that some regions will make a stronger or softer "th". (Mine is naturally softer due to Catalan being my first language and I tend to overcompensate and indeed talk like Mike Tyson).

I had completely forgotten that Curtis Good existed.

Yeah, it's early preseason. Starting a player only usually means he has better fitness than others at this point. I guess I will need to cry foul when Lucho benches Messi in his first preseason game (and he will).

Good thing he plays for Sevilla and never worked under Cathro, then.

Danilo Barbosa signs for Valencia on loan from Braga. He is, of course, repped by Jorge Mendes.

He should be able to do better than that at his age and after this season's form. If he's doing it because he's a fan, kudos to him.

No resale value, surely? Anyway, he's excellent on his day. Just massively erratic. Needs a lot of managing off the pitch, too.

They seem to love our discarded prospects. He should be decent if he can make the switch to the PL though. Quick and with good feet.

I'm surprised that's not more common tbh. That's how it's done in Spain by most clubs. However there's an unwritten rule that it goes to the most senior player in the squad (understood as more seasons/games for club) and it's rarely broken. For example, the Barça squad are going to vote for captain in August, and I can tell you right now that it's going to be Iniesta, Messi and Piqué - our three most senior players. There's just a small chance that Masch could sneak in there - and he'd be the best captain of the lot. Club captains - at least over here - also represent the squad in talks with the managing staff or the board, so having the support and assent from the players is a must. Having a manager appoint the captain is very alien to our football culture and Mou, for example, created quite a stir when he tried to have Ronaldo appointed as Real Madrid captain.

Decent prospect, but surprised to see the likes of Roma or Inter after him.

Racing doing a decent job of it. They never spent much though. The "YOU'LL DO A PORTSMOUTH!!!" tantrum is about spending so much that it will cripple your finances and send you to football oblivion. Depor were close to do that, but they steadied the ship.

Without La Liga money and their debts, they will do a Portsmouth (I need to find a Spanish equivalent for that).

CAS has upheld Elche's relegation to Liga Adelante, due to outstanding tax and wage debt.

One of the things I love (I shouldn't) about Messi, is how he won't pass the ball to somebody if he thinks he's s*** Took two seasons for Alexis to get out of Messi's "you're shit" list.

I haven't seen as many games as you but for example, against Stoke he ran like a headless chicken trying to win the game by himself (and to his credit, he scored).

He tries to do more than he is able to, to the detriment of the team. I see him lose position often and try to many risky moves from midfield. He would be fine if his play was more restrained.

Because he's a decent player. So you'd have him start over anyone else we have at CM? What I meant was, with everyone fit, he'd have a place in McClaren's first team. That's how I interpreted 'first choice'. I could see him and Wijnaldum working well together. Are you high? About 5'11. Quite tall if I lived in Southern Spain. Duh, I'm 6'0. But you're from the North (Barcelona I assume, or are you like our own prawn sandwich parade-manu?)... Yup, Barcelona born and bred, but nowadays average height is pretty much the same all over Spain. I'm tall for a Spaniard, though.

Yeah, and then the captaincy will go to Colback.

Because he's a decent player. So you'd have him start over anyone else we have at CM? What I meant was, with everyone fit, he'd have a place in McClaren's first team. That's how I interpreted 'first choice'. I could see him and Wijnaldum working well together. Are you high? About 5'11. Quite tall if I lived in Southern Spain. Duh, I'm 6'0.

Just realized that if you went by Spanish captaincy customs (seniority), Shola would have been club captain during most of the current era. It would stay on Coloccini now.

Big scary fucker, I like that. Anybody seen him play for Forest? http://i.gyazo.com/12195e3f5e680a559d21132721456e94.jpg

It looks ludicrous in hindsight; but SWP was s*** hot back then. 2005 is when Chelsea paid a shitload for him IIRC. Cronaldo wasn't still Cronaldo either.

No, August 22nd. They tried to move it to the 15th, but the Spanish FA vetoed it.

Fixed the link. Anyhow. Draw this tuesday. Can't wait for football to be back.

Wouldn't surprise me if they agreed to sell him for 40m and then added QPR's share on top.