Village Idiot

And Suárez finally breaks his duck.

Wasn't Benatia supposed to be good? Every time I see him he looks poor or makes some big blunder.

I think we won't have it easy tonight. Apoel, despite being last in the group with a single point, have only conceded 4 in 4 games.

The bat was a symbol of the old Catalan dynasty that conquered Valencia from the moors, Barça also had a bat in our very first badge: http://arxiu.fcbarcelona.cat/web/thumbnails/199_150/Imatges/club/historia/escut_bo1.jpg

They reportedly will, but it looks like it will still take a few years, and their current stadium was in dire need of a makeover (which they had been putting off, as they expected to move to the new one).

Valencia are finishing Mestalla's renovation ahead of the Valencia-Barça game in the weekend: http://fotos02.levante-emv.com/2013/07/22/646x260/mestalla-murcielago.jpg http://estaticos.elmundo.es/assets/multimedia/imagenes/2014/11/24/14168260232072.jpg

Shame for him, but not sure if he's better than either Alba or Mathieu on the left (despite the latter only being able to run 5km a game). I do wonder now with Alba, if Barcelona wouldn't be better off getting a steady more defensive right-back (the Abidal type) and play like under Pep with Dani and Abidal but with Alba as the offensive one. That would be my choice too, Alba actually has slowly been getting back to a decentish form after a terrible last season (still nowhere near the player he was during his first season with us), and given the way we play now, two offensive FBs seems a bit suicidal.

He seems to be auditioning for Polandball comics.

Looks like Vermaelen will go under the knife and I'm starting to believe he won't play this season Man, Zubizarreta didn't have enough being useless as a keeper; he had to come back to Barça and be useless as DoF, too.

Heh, just noticed Torres is 1 in 9 in Serie A. One of these days it will be revealed that he was abducted and replaced with a body snatcher.

Real clubs > Qatar Really, for a split second I thought he had missed, he looked so crushed http://img02.mundodeportivo.com/2014/11/22/GRA308-BARCELONA-22-11-2014-El_54419616404_54115221152_960_640.jpg

By the way I was really amused by how honestly devastated Rakitic looked after he scored against Sevilla

39 points with only 3 defenders and Chadli to play. Pfeh.

Now this was more like it First really good game against good opposition we've had this season, and first great Messi game in a while. Hopefully it won't be just a one off.

Rayo Vallecano have announced they are going to pay the rent of a 85-year old woman, who lived in Vallecas, that just got evicted from her house of 50 years. Classy

It's not really that; Valencia are trying to copyright an amended version of their logo and DC are trying to block it. Even as I love to bash big media companies as much as the next guy, DC aren't suing Valencia. This is how copyright law works, by the way; DC probably don't give a f*** about Valencia using that logo, but they have to be able to demonstrate a history of defending their copyright in case a real infringement arises.

That's his most probable destination given their money and ex-Barça people in their board, imho.

That makes no sense; he has no chance of getting games for the first team right now. Apparently will be loaned back to Strømsgodset or another La Liga club. Assume the clause is for when he actually ends up at Real. And when his contract runs out he'll probably won't be getting many games yet, he'll be maybe 21?

Wow. What makes you think that? It's just a feeling; he looks unmotivated and unhappy. I get the feeling that if he can't reignite his form again after two bad years (and thus leading us to trophies), he'll want to try pastures new.

By the way, I'm gonna leave this here so we can revisit it at the end of the season: I'm sure Messi will leave if we don't win anything that season.

That makes no sense; he has no chance of getting games for the first team right now.

I suppose he just got caped by his country.

Why the cape? Is he meant to be a superhero or just flamboyant?

When you look at the players who have left us recently, no one has amounted to much. If he stays here he'll start and be a legend. This is an annoying myth. I wouldn't know like, Cabaye not having a great time at PSG, Andy Carroll (nuff said) Demba Ba's big time move hardly worked out for him, Jose Enrique was doing alright for a spell but cant get in the team at Liverpool these days. Bit too early to tell on Debuchy. I'm probably missing loads like but they stick in my mind the most. All of them are now earning more money.

How much is ticketing and STs worth as a % of a club's turnover nowadays? Probably not that much given the monster TV deals and sponsorships going around. I know every penny counts, but lower ticket prices and thus more packed stadiums would probably be a positive for the clubs too.