Village Idiot

Shaw is out for a month, in case you haven't been following. Heh, he's marked as just "doubtful" in the game, thanks for the heads-up. Will get Debuchy as a placeholder, I think.

FIFA can ban Suárez from the competitions they or associated FAs organize, it's their prerogative, but they are absolutely nobody to bar him from training with his team. Regular courts would have had a field day with this.

Joined Krul, Mannone Shaw, Filipe Luís, Ward, Rio Ferdinand, Van Aanholt Fàbregas, Ramsey, Mata, Sigurdsson, Davis Costa, Lukaku, Remy

s***, the jig is up. I'm actually a mackem, marra.

€120m was their entire budget for last year. Lower than your revenue with the new TV contract, I believe.

That's a great video.

I was wrong, Messi. alongside Mascherano and the Brazilians, are not in today's squad.

Afellay to Olimpiakos seems done, too.

To be frank the oppo are quite crap. At least Messi should have a field day in the second half.

Litmanen being homaged before our friendly against Helsinki

True, but honestly most players do not have the mentality to think, " I am not good enough for the top level and should stay at a smaller club for playing time". They genuinely think they can make it at these clubs. Rodwell for example had probably 100 appearances for a big club and was an England international at 21. What reason does a player like that have not to be ambitious? I am of the same opinion; if you believe you're good enough, there's no reason to reject an offer from a big club.

*insert guy tumbling his desk meme*

I also believe that Hitler was a quite evil man.

Haven't seen enough to be honest. In general I'm not too optimistic, since the squad looks imbalanced to me, but at the same time I do trust Lucho.

Don't think he's what you need at all tbh. Think he's very suspect positionally and has poor concentration levels. That's my assessment as well. We just can't buy CBs.

He's been heavily linked with us. I'm undecided.

I must be blind, but I still don't see this "3 at the back" formation we're supposedly going to play. Yesterday we played with Alba-Piqué-Bartra-Montoya at the back for the majority of the game.

Why are Monaco selling so many big players? The rich fella backing them stopped funneling money?

We lost 0-1 to Napoli because of a keeper blunder, but I'm starting to see what Luis Enrique wants to implement. Shorter possessions, more risks taken going forward. It's a bit closer to what we played in 2008, although the players aren't used to it yet (this is just the second proper preseason friendly anyway).

Michu at Napoli? I really haven't been paying attention to international transfers this year.

I mean, our FBs have pushed up a lot, but they always do that. There's been speculation in the press about Luís Enrique going 3-4-3, but if he plans to do so he hasn't done it today.

We haven't been playing 3-4-3. It's been 4-3-3 both halves, closer to 4-6-0 since most of our natural forwards are all injured/on holidays/banned for biting people.

Another year at Barça B; he's just spent a season there, and playing at Liga Adelante it's a fairly good level for a lad his age. He looked pretty assured today, mind, but it's just a friendly. Hoping to see him get at least a few first team games this season before stepping up next. Still absolutely stand by this too : He impressed me and many others, including coaches and scouts, massively. He will be a world-class player, mark my words. He's my favorite young player at Barça (even more than Deulofeu), I'm really looking forward seeing him in our midfield in the years to come.

Another year at Barça B; he's just spent a season there, and playing at Liga Adelante is a fairly good level for a lad his age. He looked pretty assured today, mind, but it's just a friendly.

We've played much better in this second half, Rakitic-Xavi-Samper in midfield :wub: Tempo's been much quicker, too. I hope this is how Lucho wants us to play.