Village Idiot

We had a poll for the upcoming Barça presidential election this weekend. Unsurprisingly, Joan Laporta (who presided the club during the Rijkaard-Guardiola eras) is leading by around 30%. Dude is also splashing the cash in the campaign. He isn't personally wealthy, so I wonder who's backing him. Anyway, I think he'll be a disaster, but certainly an entertaining disaster. If Barça has to burn to the ground, I guess it's better to have Nero doing it.

Pedri is so fucking good. We have many, many, problems but some outstanding young players we can build around too (De Jong, Pedri, Fati)

Also, this annoys me to no end: PES is now a sponsor so Barça's social media use PES graphics instead of real player pics every time they score a goal or to announce the starting XI. It pisses me off so much

Messi scored his goal #643 for Barça, matches Pelé's record with Santos. Kinda glad he stuck around to grab this one last record (not that he wanted to...)

It's going to sound racist but I always saw him as potentially our Vuckic.

That's absolutely brilliant. Goal wasn't bad either Fucking ref booking him for it ffs. That remains the most idiotic rule in football

Messi scores and takes off his Barça shirt to show a Newell's Maradona top. Class. EDIT: The commentators are saying it's match-worn. Now the world has a shirt that was worn both by Maradona and Messi.

I've never seen Barça and Real both be so poor in a single season. I presume they'll both bounce back at some point, but Aleti has done well and has a great chance to win the title.

Oblak will play his 200th La Liga game next week. Least goals conceeded by La Liga goalies in their first 200 games: 123 Oblak 165 Miguel Reina 176 Víctor Valdés 180 Zubizarreta 186 Ablanedo 196 Arconada 197 Abel 200 Artola Some of those played behind great defences, too.

Fati has gone under the knife after rupturing his meniscus during Saturday's game. He'll miss 4 months, but it looks like the meniscus could be sutured so there shouldn't be long term consequences for his career. Dude was having a belter of a season. Hope he hits the ground running when he gets back because we need him.

You haven't missed much, really.

Pedri doing those little turns when he gets the ball to give himself more space reminds me of Xavi so much

Well, that was nice for a change.

Having a midfielder as CB is so oldschool Barça

Hard not to love a Bielsa team when they are on song. His Bilbao side was a joy to watch.

The writer of this article is pretty infamous around here, not the first classist/racist article he ever writes, and he thrives off hate-clicking. He used to write about politics, and somebody thought it was a good idea to move him to sports.

Somehow, Real Madrid look shittier than us. Will see how the Clásico goes.

Spain played really well, but were completely toothless upfront. This has been an issue the past games, so hopefully Lucho can nail down the formula. Unlike past years, there's actually quite a bit of forward options for Spain.

We replaced Ronaldo with Rivaldo, which is probably the only instance of spending big to replace a lost big player we've nailed in my lifetime (as opposed to Figo or Neymar). But there's always been a lingering "what if" feeling. His injury in Italy was tragic, robbed us of a player on par with Cronaldo and Messi, imho.

Hearing on the radio that Ronaldo was leaving while I was on holiday with my parents is still one of the indellible memories from my youth. Felt so empty at the time, never had seen somebody be as good at football in a Barça shirt until Messi came around.

This is odd, he was rather disappointing in the Spanish second division.

Can't wait for Mythic Quest season 2, that show got stupidly better with each episode.

10 years, man. I feel old.

Yeah, that's class.

The motion of no confidence against Barça's president has gathered enough support and after clearing all legal hurdles now has to be put to a vote among the membership (which Bartomeu would most likely lose). There's word he might resign before that happens.