Village Idiot

Sporting slapped with a transfer ban in La Liga, due to outstanding wage debt.

Yeah, weren't they supposed to pay a huge fine to the football league if they got relegated?

Whenever I have seen Konoplyanka he's been top drawer. Probably a bit of a ball hog, but massively entertaining. I guess that with the new TV contract even unfashionable PL teams can offer massive wages to bring in real talent.

You really should, scrap that Gold Cup farce. I hope the Centenario Copa América goes ahead. The f***ing Gold Cup. I would love it if we just had one massive America tourney. Yeah, that would be tastic.

You really should, scrap that Gold Cup farce. I hope the Centenario Copa América goes ahead.

For Brazilian standards, that's not good at all imho. Tardelli and Firmino upfront? Dat midfield too... Defence looks good, though, even taking into account you're missing the likes of Silva or Marcelo. It's probably your strongest line. I saw that Rafinha is on the standby list. Given the season he's had, he has no business being near the Brazilian team.

No. Inter's interest came in many years later, when he had already played for the first team even. Messi reportedly refused because he thought he owed it to Barça to stick with them. There was a story about Messi's then manager getting a job at Madrid (the city) while our chief scout was still trying to convince the board to pay for Messi's treatment, but that's all there was to it afaik.

Interview with him up at Short List. http://www.shortlist.com/entertainment/sport/lionel-messi-talks-champions-league-copa-america

The way I see it Ashley sort of promised to leave if he won something, right? So two reasons to celebrate.

Espanyol are reportedly in talks to sell a controlling share to an American investment fund. That would be a terrible move for them, imho. Investment funds are there to make money, not to win things.

Looking forward to watching this; game times are much better than the last time for us Europeans

I suspect the club will probably pay some poor wages to managers/staff and they make up for it by dangling the carrot of a long contract. Carver got 1 million for 5 years of contract? 200 000/year seems quite on the low side for the assistant manager of a premier league side, and a quite established one at that.

If only he had some kind of influence in a decision-making body of the club that could change this. Something like a board of directors maybe?

Real Madrid have now denied releasing Casillas.

Good piece. Love that Fairs Cup trophy photo.

One of my favorite ever players

I remember a game we played in this very same stadium (Zorrilla), a decade ago, with a thick fog you couldn't see s***, yet it wasn't called off. You probably need a Mad Max apocalypse scenario to get a game called off around here. Being physical is Valladolid's game. Get up close and personal and make things rough for the opposition. I think they went a tad overboard today though, I guess it's the occasion.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed. If Araujo and Viera can keep up the form they've been in over the past month or so, we'll have a great chance. I'm a tad wary of Girona but I think they way they blew it yesterday will have affected them massively. Araujo just scored after 10 min in the away leg against Valladolid. Looking good. The pitch How has it not been called off? Lack of dates, I presume. Still, it's pretty rare that we call off a game in La Liga; I have seen games being played in far worse conditions.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed. If Araujo and Viera can keep up the form they've been in over the past month or so, we'll have a great chance. I'm a tad wary of Girona but I think they way they blew it yesterday will have affected them massively. Araujo just scored after 10 min in the away leg against Valladolid. Looking good.

We have a similar setup, where a committee of three people run the football side of things, and report to the board proper which takes care of finance, marketing, PR, etc...

Two football men and two stooges; I guess Charnley gets the tie breaker vote so not much will change, but at least there will be some interesting voices in the board meetings.

Such a comically contemptible organization.

Apparently Bilic wants Barça B's Halilovic on loan.

De Gea had already starred in an EL final FFS

Casillas agrees to terminate his contract with Real Madrid, according to our public telly. Obviously making room for De Gea, but I wonder where he'll end up.