Village Idiot

Dest coming on for Barça. High pressure game for a debut. First yank to ever play for us in an official game.

I presume they'll try to get a win instead of postponement.

All going well for Everton's title aspirations.

Christina Hendricks isn't from Brum is she?! Yeah, you're right, somehow I was sure I heard she was from there. Still, Peaky Blinders and brummie are good enough. EDIT: Just googled it, her dad is from there.

The only things I know from Birmingham are Christina Hendricks, Peaky Blinders and brummie, which are all great. So quietly wishing them to do well.

Like with City the other day, I just can't get joy out of these big clubs getting blown out unless they concede 8

The current mess in Serie A due to the Covid outbreaks is something that's bound to happen in our leagues, sooner or later. This season is not going to be pretty.

He barely got a chance here, but he seemed to play well in Germany before the season was halted. Given our dire need of CBs, I'm not sure we're not jumping the gun. I presume we'll use the cash to buy Eric García, who I think is overrated.

Bayern signing Marc Roca was a bit of a puzzler too.

Happens here as well, no? I don't think it's necessarily racist, is it? I mean.... can you imagine if good black players were constantly being compared to only (or mostly) good white players? It's as if to say that the likes of Weah, Drogba, etc are not good enough (to be compared to) and that a good black player should be compared to a good white player. Again, I'm white as milk so I'm possibly talking out of my ass, but I find it slightly aggravating that when we get a rising black player, he immediately has to be compared to another black player regardless. Looks to me that the media are putting people in boxes depending on the color of their skin. So Fati breaks into scene, and media go "oh, he's black, who's the last great black forward that played for Barça? Well, that's who Fati is". I've seen white players compared to Drogba, btw. EDIT: I'm probably putting too much thought into this, I admit.

Gotta love the laziness and slight racism of our media calling Fati the new Eto'o. "Mmmm... who's another black guy that scored goals for Barça? Eto'o! There you have it."

Anyway our DOF has just denied any talks with ManU for Dembele.

He has poor attitude and has been extremely injury prone. If you were able to solve these issues (a big if, but never know), he's a gem of a player.

Fati is unreal He is. Most exciting prospect since Thiago, probably.

Yesterday we played quite well against a team that traditionally gives us trouble. Coutinho was stellar. Hopefully we'll have a decent season while we figure out life without Messi (whose usage rate has dropped significantly under Koeman).

Juve - Barça is going to be really amusing with Ronaldo, Arthur and Pjanic.

Forum legend alognside Mevlut Erdinc.

Dembelé has stupid amounts of talent and he'll waste it all.

What’s the scoop on young Konrad? Does he have a shot at playing time for the senior team this season? Koeman says he likes him but we're stacked at his position, can't see him getting significant playing time. Hopefully we can find a good loan for him because he's too good for the B-team.

No idea why Barca would loan unless you provide a large loan fee. I suppose we could be desperate enough to get rid of his wages, but we will try to move on many other players before Dembele. That said, this season is probably last chance saloon for him at Barça.

Dest arrived at Barcelona last evening, so I presume his signing will be announced soon. Really looking forward to have him at the club. Always wanted to have a yank (even if he's more of a cuasi-yank) starting for us. There's also a weird rumor about Dembele to ManU for €60m, but our local press (which have a good pulse on the club for this kind of things) has denied it.

Both Mali and Spain have called up Adama Traore for the next batch of international games. We'll see who he chooses. He's been called up by Spain in the past, but he's always pulled out due to injury. We certainly could use somebody with his pace and strength on the wing.

I read a small-ish interview with him in the Peruvian press and he describes himself as a technical player that likes to do through-balls. Dude looks tiny, though!

Would love to see your chart, and I don't mean it ironically.

Incidentally, Koeman coming in as coach still puzzles me. I mean, he's been hired by a board that will only last a few more months, and most of the upcoming candidates to our presidency have been very open about having other people coming in as coach. The only way he'd last more than this season is if he somehow completely revitalized the team, but he has a squad going through a rebuild with a disgruntled Messi. He either has massive confidence in himself, we are paying him through the roof, or really loves the club.