Village Idiot

'f***ed' Aye, how will you cope with only Messi, Neymar and Suarez to choose from up front for 18 months? Our starting XI looks great and for the most part they should be allright for 2015 too - Alves notwithstanding. But we don't have much depth. This weekend we started a kid that one year ago wasn't even playing professional football. The problem is that we can't "stock up" as Dave said - by signing twice the players now - without ruling afoul of FFP rules for this season - don't laugh, that's what our board has said. So we don't really have a large squad right now. That of course, calls into question spunking 80m in a single forward, but hey, it's us.

Daft question, but what happened to the transfer ban? It's taking effect in the next two windows, barring our appeal to the CAS (which is unlikely to be successful). Ah so they're letting you stock up first. That's helpful for you. It's not like we've done a wonderful job of it. We'll be fucked next year unless some of our academy prospects make it.

Daft question, but what happened to the transfer ban? It's taking effect in the next two windows, barring our appeal to the CAS (which is unlikely to be successful).

Di Maria's not really a winger though. His best form for Madrid came on the left side of a midfield 3. He also played there for Benfica. I see no reason he can't play in a midfield 3 or 4 diamond in a similar (but more offensively effective role) to his old team mate Ramires. This is how they played at Benfica: http://www.zonalmarking.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/benfica-saviola-aimar-ramires-cardozo-diamond.jpg Only Jose Mourinho consistently played him as a winger at club level. Quim That was a hell of a team, actually. Pity they still haven't figured out how to appease Guttmann's angry spirit.

What's more damning is the fact you've already signed 3 strikers this window - 4 if you count De Jong as one - yet you still find yourselves in need.

Di María added for 9.5, which is less than I expected, but then again he isn't such a FF points machine - loads of assists maybe. Will wait and see what kind of impact he does.

Also, Cuadrado apparently doesn't want to play fullback so we've given up on him.

We've signed Douglas from Sao Paulo for €5,5m Ah well, at least we haven't been taken to the cleaners this time.

You shouldn't. Rayo's football was always about pressing up the pitch and harassing the opponent to launch a counter close to their goal; workrate is an offensive trait too.

His end product isn't all that, but he destroyed a lot of teams with pace. Also good workrate.

Lass was excellent a couple seasons ago. Seems to have stagnated though.

If a player drops in price one week he can't go up the same week. The algorithm used by the site protects the player from further fluctuation. Wasn't aware of that. Good to know.

What's this protected lark?

To be honest, I have heard him talk highly of ManYoo before this.

From goal.com (I know...)

Needs more. This looks like a Game of Thrones cast photo. http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article9691817.ece/binary/original/Real-Madrid-black-kit.jpg

Me too, but I'll pass for this price, unless he starts banging them in left and centre.

Fuck me, he got 13 England caps. How did that happen?

Looks like Simeone will only serve 4 games of his ban in the league, the other 4 in the Spanish Supercopa - if he gets to play it again.

Yeah, I remember froggy defending Cleverley quite stubbornly on here

Hope you manage to put it up even if it's just an away game.

I'd understand if you thought they were paying too much and so on, but never been impressed by him? Was Reals best player for the 2nd half of the season last year and this while everyone was wanking over Bale's performances. Di Maria is a great player, the only problem is that just like Özil he sometimes fails to impose his quality in a game and disappears. The World Cup was an example where he failed to live up to expectations and I think Man U might be asking for too much from him by paying that fee. He's a great player and no doubt he'll improve them, but I'm not sure about that fee. He was great in the WC, have a word with yourself Yeah, they probably paid 30m too much, but fees are stupid these days.

Atlético drew with Rayo yesterday, in a game that highlighted why imho they won't be in the race this season. They still struggle to create chances outside set pieces, and this season they don't have a red hot Diego Costa to bag the 1-2 clear cut chances they manage to create. And bouncing balls off Raúl García's arse to score isn't going to work every time. They are still incredibly hard to break down, as seen in the Supercopa, and thus they will get results against the big guns. But the problem is that I see them struggling to win games against smaller teams that will set themselves up in the same way Atlético plays against Madrid or us.

62 and up to 8th in the N-O league Need to get rid of Filipe - of course he'll then start next game and get a CS.

Carroll hasn't set the world alight in the same period. Looks like that was a cursed deal.