Village Idiot

Blatantly holding out for compo from Crystal Palace.

I wonder who made the calls this time?

It's the only way; you can't have the previous manager - who very much wanted the job - demoted and made the new guy's assistant. It's an awkward situation for everybody involved. Pay him up and kick him out.

Luís Enrique extends his contract until 2017. Great news.

That and probably because they don't want to be stuck until January with Montoya or Douglas Yeah, that's the right answer. Personally I think this season has been his swan song, but we had little choice given our transfer ban.

I'm gonna hate it so much when he becomes shit/retires. Football won't be the same. It will be like being in your forties and happily married with children, yet unable to forget the time you dated the most beautiful girl in the world.

Yep. I was fearing Bielsa to West Ham, Carver to us and Sunderland to get someone decent. None of those have happened To be honest Bielsa is a manager I would love to have in my league but not managing my team. Amazing personality and playing style, but things seem to unravel rather quickly for him.

Neymar has been instructed to be more selfish. Last year he was always looking for Messi and it didn't work.

Can't say I know anything about him as a manager. Wikipedia doesn't make him look too impressive but it's certainly not the best way to evaluate a manager.

It will be Bielsa, only for Allardyce's theme music to play while he makes a run in and powerbombs Bielsa.

They are favorites to go up. Maybe Valladolid can frustrate them, but they should comfortably beat any of Girona or Zaragoza at this point.

That's mustache-twirling villainy, these guys will stop at nothing

After seeing our first kit in the flesh these past days, I think I will be able to live with it. The away one with stripes only in the back is disgusting, though.

This reminds me that Michael Ricketts must be the case of most brutal nosedive in a football career in recent times.

6/10 too. Surprised to get that high but I got in a couple of guesses.

You could say that about almost every attacking fullback in a successful team. Piqué and Busquets cover for Alves all the time. It's not a bug, it's a feature. For example, one of Madrid's biggest issues this season has been the lack of cover for Marcelo, since Modric and Kroos aren't proper DMs and can't perform that role effectively.

Dutch footballers always have the best names around, imho.

This kind of s*** happens in loads of discount retailers over here too. Put an artificially high fake list price, slap an "outrageous" discount, sell.

Nobody can't get near Roberto Carlos or Maldini at LB, imho.

I think he was even better at centreback, imho. Dose Cannavaro-Thuram and Gallas-Thuram partnerships for club and country...

Not a rightback though, which is what we were talking about. And yes, he's a very good player.

How does it feel in comparison to the others? This is the one I have enjoyed the most, certainly. However a large part of that - besides it being part of a treble - is due to the fact I'm back living in Barcelona and the buzz is incredible. I was living abroad for most of our current era and it's great to be in town living a season like this one.

http://www.starsandstripesfc.com/gold-cup/2015/5/28/8683457/gold-cup-2015-copa-america-centenario-2016-fifa-corruption Copa América Centenario in danger because of Concacaf arrests. This would really suck, I was looking forward to that tournament. I hope they manage to put it together.

His release clause is €25m. Madrid press is saying 18+4, which sounds better. We always get mugged anyway, I'll try no to get too p*ssed about it. He's been amazing this year, if he's not a one-season wonder, it will be worth that.

A proper Champions League run. Of course, we weren't Spanish champions ourselves...