Village Idiot

Yep. Him and Tuchel appear the standout candidates. I don't believe De Boer would even be remotely interested. Wouldn't surprise me if he's eyeing our bench, to be frank (de boer).

I really can't see your board looking at Laudrup given his proven record of not getting along well with most chairmen he's worked with.

Atlético's chairman has just said that they needed the investment to sustain day-to-day operations. They are so fucked.

Anyway, Atlético went full Atlético tonight and, contrary to past seasons, we managed to win. Slightly optimistic. I miss when playing Atlético was always a guaranteed goal fest, they are such s*** storms of a game nowadays.

As a player I think he's incredible. Absolute prick though of course. I kinda like that nob head element, it's like classic WWE heel Nah man, Busi has the charisma and mic skills of The Great Khali. We can rally behind Alves because he's so great at being a c***, Busquets is just dull.

His Málaga side was turgid, but he used to be a pretty positive manager.

Athletic Club - Real Sociedad rivalry really isn't that vicious. It's strong, but pretty civil. Just watch the atmosphere in any derby game. Illarra is already hated anyway, that move can't make him less popular than he already is.

Marca reporting that Athletic Club have bid €20m for Illarramendi.

Up to 40th in the NO league, and in the top 200 among all Spanish players. Pity that next week looks a bit grim; most of my best performers are having hard fixtures.

73 . Mirallas has made me a happy camper.

Footballing-wise, Laudrup was a success in every team he managed in Spain, and he dealt with some shithouse setups. Problem is, as said, that he never seems to be able to stay longer than a season without falling out with somebody.

Needs an airport sighting or two.

Could have easily ruled himself out. That actually made me think he's still in the running.

Fucking hell, it's been nearly a month. Taking the piss.

Nihil notitiae/Sine notitiis? My latin is rusty.

Spanish media aren't giving a fuck, tbf

It's funded by the sale of the Calderón, which sits on pretty valuable land. They paid part of the price using football tickets, though What they going to do with the Calderon? Always a shame to see an iconic, city centre ground fall by the wayside. Skyscrapers, of course. http://estaticos04.elmundo.es/assets/multimedia/imagenes/2014/07/17/14056221064359.jpg New stadium will be in the outskirts of the city, and closer to the white part of town than to the traditionally colchonero neighborhoods. It's gonna suck, but I guess it's the way forward long term. The Calderón was old and couldn't be upgraded given its placing near the river and atop a major road.

It's funded by the sale of the Calderón, which sits on pretty valuable land. They paid part of the price using football tickets, though

Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin has bought 20% of Atlético's shares for €45m. That's interesting. Atlético's finances are all kinds of fucked up (the success of the past years and ensuing big ticket sales have probably saved the club), so they need shoring up if they want to mount a continued challenge at the top.

Aston Villa are trying it now, with the signing of Carles Gil. He was a Valencia player but made a name for himself impressing at lowly Elche on loan. And you got Ayoze.

La Liga is more open, there are very few teams that set themselves out negatively every game, even if they are in the bottom half. Only Levante and Granada do that consistently (and Levante were pretty sexy when hitting a counter when they where at the top of their game 2-3 years ago), and with Caparrós sacked I expect Granada to become a bit more positive. That makes the league more watchable throughout, although not necessarily "better" in terms of which teams are stronger. I just find that there's an Alan Pardew mindset in a lot of teams in the PL, where negative tactics are seen as paramount to keep teams up, and the only way to keep teams up. Plus the whole "give thanks that you're in the PL" mantra. People are forgetting that we watch football to have fun.

With yesterday's win, and assuming they lose their game in hand against Real Madrid, Sevilla will be on 39 points after one half of the season. It's their best tally ever. Emery

Messi's been great on the wing again. Doesn't seem to diminish his impact in the game and makes him and Suárez harder to defend. Need to see it in more games.

60 points with Foster and Wisdom to come, which I don't expect to do much. Decent all in all.

He'd need to win the CL, to be frank. Thing is the current board will lose the election at the end of the season, and the new guys will probably bring their own man. Lucho would need to do exceptionally well to force them to retain him.