Village Idiot

Even in Europe managers do get an input on transfers and sales, it's just not their final decision. I guess that having somebody like Carver NOT giving a crap about transfers is actually a net positive, but it's still a terrible attitude for a manager to have. He's the guy that sees the team every day, he should be more aware than anybody else at the club of the squad's needs.

So was I, brilliant trip. Where's your Figo gone? Me too, was awesome. I was sitting near the away fans, incidentally (I always do, cheaper seats and more banter).

More willing to fight fans than transfers. Here you have mr. John Carver, football manager.

Such a good slave he is.

I have said this a few times, but I was there the day he scored against us at the Camp Nou. He was a handful that night, looked like a genuine prospect.

Shola is certainly steady; he always plays within the same levels of ineffectiveness.

We'll play Villarreal in the Copa semifinals. That means we'll play 3 games pretty much in a row against them, like we did against Elche first and Atlético later. Luck of the draw. Should be a nice tie.

Nice read, that edition of the game is the one that turned me into an addict. Fond memories. Regarding your player positions entry, Luís Enrique *did* play everywhere. IIRC GK and CB were the only places where he never played.

Looks excited allright

Mutch was hyped to have a breakthrough season this year, it's a decent gamble for a club like Palace.

Crystal Palace's shirt is close enough to ours so that picture disturbs me greatly.

Mino Raiola hawking Pogba despite signing a new contract three months ago. http://www.goal.com/en/news/11/transfer-zone/2015/01/29/8410682/pogba-will-leave-juventus-says-raiola Such a tosser

So the US lost? That 3-5-2 tactic looks a bit ill-thought, going off my (admittedly limited) knowledge of the personnel involved.

Juanfran has always been a terrible defender, has all the issues of the winger-turned-fullback breed. And yeah, I was thinking the same tonight. "What if Costa was on the pitch right now..."

Ansaldi was arrested by the Spanish police while he was travelling to the game, Atlético on a roll tonight

We'll get Getafe or Villarreal in the semis. Villarreal are the better team and have a small lead in the tie, but we have such a hard time every time we play Getafe... Espanyol are leading their tie comfortably, would love a Barcelona final.

Gabi must have actively tried to kill someone for his red, if that is only yellow. Oh, wouldn't surprise me.

Never seen anything like it: how was it not a red? I suppose the referee didn't want to get Atlético down to 9 men so quickly. But yeah, it was a blatant red, that.

Anyone know why? There's been some fracas in the tunnel to the dressing room, they say.

Piqué is again at a good level, but Mascherano is still not a natural CB despite doing his best, and Alves is still finished. And the less we talk about Mathieu and Vermaelen the better.

We're still comical at the back. While the other parts of the team are starting to perform like they should, no amount of confidence is going to conjure up a RB and a CB out of thin air.

The point of signing people like Neymar and Suárez was to make us harder to defend against, it looks like after 18 months we are starting to use the players well on that regard.

Ney

An entertaining Atlético-Barça game!

BAH.