Village Idiot

He was ours, he's class

Adama is starting for us today; as a Battlestar: Galactica fan, I hope he makes it

We were linked with him a few years ago - granted that's not a guarantee with our transfer record, but hey...

Premaradonas, even.

For all the purposes aimed at making things intense?

First options are meaningless; the player can always refuse your contract offer.

Casillas had an excellent chance of riding into the sunset after starting in their tenth CL win, imho (and his third win). He's in a very uncomfortable place now.

Diego López to Monaco. That paves the way of Navas to Madrid.

Incidentally, word is that Xavi has gone back on his decision to leave Barça this season, and will announce so on Monday. Dunno if that means he'll keep the captaincy or Iniesta will assume it as planned.

He was injured quite often, when he was fit he played. He was clearly important, churlish to suggest they won't miss what he gave them. Wouldn't surprise me if they got him on loan again though. Nah, he's staying at Barça. With Alexis sold, Suárez banned and Neymar crocked, he's probably going to be in our starting XI at the beginning of the season.

Apparently just until Christmas, when the MLS starts.

I mean, I'd be happy with buying Mathieu for something sub €10m and having him as an option in the bench. But paying €20m and making it our sole CB signing this season (he's a natural LB ffs!). Man, Zubizarreta is ridiculous, pissed me off as a keeper and pisses me off as a DoF.

Ah FFS.

Benzema complements the likes of Bale and Ronaldo very well, imho. I agree he's underrated, even the Real Madrid fans I know don't seem to like him much.

You can grow as a club while not completely replacing a single outstanding individual. They are not going to find anybody as influential as Suárez for that position, so why not just get somebody capable in there, and look to build strength elsewhere?

Liverpool are gonna get squeezed now that clubs are aware they got so much for Suárez.

Also, after selling Morata they have only one natural #9 (Benzema) and 20000000000000 attacking midfielders. I suppose there will be some more activity because they have packed some great players, but their squad is very unbalanced.

There's been talk of moving Khedira on too, which would leave them with no defensive midfielder whatsoever barring Alonso (provided they don't sign anybody).

We played our first friendly of the season against Recreativo de Huelva yesterday. Admittedly it was a weak side, pretty much Barça B+whoever didn't go to the WC, but Deulofeu was heads and shoulders above everybody else in the pitch. Really looking forward seeing him play for us regularly; the sale of Sánchez, plus Neymar's injury and Suárez ban, put him in the starting XI at the beginning of the season. Halilovic also impressed, although he did run into a few blind alleys.

He was forced by circumstances, with Pepe and Carvalho banned/injured before a Clásico. Then Varane performed so well (was MOTM) that he stuck his foot on the doorstep, so to speak.

If Man U finish above us but we get above Everton then we'll be as high as last season. I agree though, it will be very tough, you could argue that everyone bar Everton (so far) has strengthened, while we've only improved our manager - and of course only ourselves and Man U have a new manager finding his feet. Again. Your squad definitely performed below its possibilities last season, imho. If Pochettino clicks you shouldn't worry about lack of major signings.

50k pounds a year is a princely sum down here in PIIGS land, man

How so? Because again he's going where the most money is. A player with all that talent and in 10 years nobody will remember him. But his family and friends will all be taken care of. and at the end of the day that's all that matters. I'm pretty sure his family and friends would have been taken care of while still pursuing an ambitious career. A midtable PL team pays in a week what I earn in a year.

I don't either, and I have been following this club since I was sucking my mom's tits. Mathieu would actually be a pretty good backup; but paying the amount suggested for a 31 year old and getting no one else? Utter craziness, but sadly one that's not beyond the reach of our board.

Looking at this fella's stats in the first page, his minutes per goal ratio isn't *that* bad.