Village Idiot

So it looks like the board will sign Koeman and try to use his popularity to kick the can down the road and avoid calling an election. Sigh.

Well, it's kinda weird to have the CL running while the transfer window is open. Regarding Valencia, they have failed to qualify for the CL and covid has hit Spanish clubs hard. Real Madrid aren't signing anyone and we have to sell to balance the books and unlikely to make any signing of note.

€6.5m is the pricetag for Coquelin before addons, according to local press. That makes no sense for Valencia, it's borderline fiduciary breach

We had one positive in our preseason camp today (the guys not in Lisbon).

Villarreal and Valencia now in talks regarding Gabriel Paulista. Villarreal hiring Emery and buying Valencia's spine on the cheap is really odd.

This covid schedule is a bit mad. We're still on the CL quarter finals and clubs are signing players and starting preseason.

They didn't? Although this Segunda season will be litigated to kingdom come, so who knows.

Correa & Vrsjalko. They can survive that. Everybody else has tested negative in a new set of tests and are cleared to travel to Lisbon.

I just checked the Zaragoza local press and according to them they have postponed the official announcement until they finish the playoffs, but he's signed to them since July 1st.

Two unnamed Atlético players down with Covid (rumor is that they are both key players). After defeating Liverpool that would be tragic.

Messi et al aren't the issue. It's just that the team has absolutely no shape and that's not something you can fix with a hot streak of form.

Under Valverde we were dull and unidimensional but at least the positioning was there. Setién has managed to give us the tactical nous of a sunday league team.

We're so wretched, how such a collection of actually talented players can play so badly never ceases to amaze me Ah well, Bayern will tear us a new one and that will be it.

Luque

The whole Deportivo - Fuenlabrada fracas is getting nastier. Now it is confirmed that Fuenlabrada traveled to La Coruña knowing the risk - one of their players tested positive before the trip, and they failed to isolate the rest of the squad as close contacts. The regional authorities now want Fuenlabrada to comply with anti-Covid regulations, which would force them to quarantine the entire squad for 2 weeks - they are supposed to be playing the promotion playoff next week - and take them to court for endangering public health.

Apparently the whole squad of their opponents has tested positive for Covid-19. That maybe a rough translation though, and it may just mean members of the squad rather than the whole squad. 7 players. Rumors are running rampant but apparently they partied wildly (breaking La Liga's rules to prevent contagion) after beating Elche the other day. Night parties are becoming one of the main vectors of contagion over here, because you get a bunch of people drunk and bunched together in a confined space, being careless. There's also suspicion Fuenlabrada traveled to La Coruña knowing they had at least one contagion.

They'll be gone this time next year. Their term expires next season and they are just a hair more popular than Covid right now.

Yep, that's the reason. We're also getting some cash on top of Pjanic (not a huge amount €10m according to Spanish sources). We were treading water financially (what with spending stupid amounts in bust after bust) and Covid has put us in a pretty bad spot. Arthur is technically brilliant, but I've become convinced that you can't build a midfield around him, nor does complement De Jong well. He's too timid, needs to get more involved in play and be more incisive. Maybe he will grow in Italy though. He has plenty of time.

Ronaldo-Messi arguments are so 2010s. We need new ones, pronto.

C'mon guys get this done. When Messi retires I want to latch onto you to prolong my 15 year streak of football bliss.

Yes please. Is he past it now? No, we just need the cash.

Rafa loves his workhorses. Not surprising.

Common story in all the teams he's managed in Spain. He's a "down to business" type manager who's never done much babysitting of players. It doesn't always work, mind. It didn't at Real Madrid where managing the dressing room is as important as the tactics.

Yes please.

Ah true! Should use name+first surname at all times. Not full names otherwise we should do the same with Spaniards/Argies/etc..... (Andrés Iniesta Luján, Lionel Messi Cutticcini...) Tim Howard Daniel Alves Sergio Ramos Stefan De Vrij Jordi Alba Alessandro Nesta Andrés Iniesta Alessandro Del Piero Ole Gunnar Solksjaer (meh) Romario De Souza Alfredo Di Stéfano Manager: Ottmar Hitzfeld