Village Idiot

Aye, they don't. Swansea got some airplay over here when Michu was banging them in for fun, also with Rangel, Chico, Hernández... They angled for it quite heavily, mind: http://s.libertaddigital.com/fotos/noticias/650/0/spanish-swansea.jpg

El Shaarawy looked like he would take over the world, just 2-3 years ago.

He's so fucking happy in that pic

Simeone

Well, that was a fascinating Merseyside derby. There were like one or two phases of play where I didn't feel like falling asleep.

That meme hasn't made it to Spain, to be frank.

Did exactly the same. I did it with Agüero. At least he got an assist...

It's just that you don't get shown much in Spain unless you're up against the glamour sides, yet we get to see both of your matches against fucking Stoke. Weird.

On the Spanish telly! Will watch. Funnily Stoke - NUFC was shown over here too.

Madrid

No, they have been terrible today. EDIT: They just bagged their first. Great save.

Real Madrid are a shambles this afternoon

No surprise, Leicester are woeful. Aye, expected them to win this game myself. Leicester are hopeless.

I wonder about this new-found love of Ancelotti for Khedira, he clearly doesn't give a fuck. Anyway, howay Atlético!

City runing my FF weekend. It's Hull FFS.

A manager that doesn't want to be there, being allowed only to select half the players. Rangers don't do shambles half assed.

When Oviedo ran that share selling drive to save themselves from going under (I remember some people from here bought some shares, even), a Spanish sports program made a prank call to one of his advisers, trying to convince him to buy out the club. That's how he learnt of the team's situation, and ultimately decided to do just that, matching the capital raised in order to get a controlling interest. He seems pretty hands off, he's only imposed more strict governance standards (the club was leaking money), but hardly meddles in the day to day, or invests more money in the club.

How big of him, it's him who's bailing out FFS.

I just love how he always tries to sign his former players, no matter how expensive and over-the-hill they are. It's almost like he's taking the piss sometimes.

Utterly shameless by Harry. Obviously he doesn't want to be known as the guy that relegated QPR twice just a few years after he was angling for the England job.

I wish I gave a s*** about the NY teams, but they are all pretty grim. Even the Cosmos have gone and signed Raúl FFS. HBA going somewhere might solve my problem of not having a yank team I can really support. As long as it isn't Real Salt Lake. Don't go there Hatem.

Just heard Neil lennon talking about it, the kid refused to believe him as he was expecting to travel to some League 1 side or something Wait why did this happen? God knows, he was actually expecting to be sent back to Plymouth in league 2 Edit: Replacing that Vermij or whatever his name is in the reserve side. Whats the world coming to when Man Utd need to loan someone to fill their under 21 team? We do it pretty often with Barça B, tbf. There's always a hole in your reserve side that you want to plug, and there's little point in signing a player permanently that isn't likely to ever make it to the seniors.

He was gifted all right but it never really translated on the pitch. Perfect example of a street footballer, never really had the fundamentals to make a success of himself at the top level. When he was here he gave me the impression that he took everything for granted; he took for granted that he had to play, he took for granted that he had to be the fulcrum of the attack, he took for granted defences would part in front of him because he was so talented. It just doesn't work that way.

Later this month begins the trial for alleged match-fixing between Levante and Zaragoza a few seasons ago. In the bench there will be - among several others - Ander Herrera and current Atlético captain Gabi. Gotta say that, in order to get a conviction, the evidence that's been made public looks rather weak. Rumours of match-fixing in the low rungs of La Liga have been rampant for a few years, and the public prosecutor has been trying to get an exemplary conviction for ages. So far, it hasn't happened due to lack of evidence.

If I may, I don't think the problem lies in the current situation being better or worse than the previous ones - you can easily find times where the club was better or worse, as people have pointed -, it is the utter lack of willingness to at least try to make it better than it currently is.