Village Idiot

We're swapping Ciljessen with Neto from Valencia. Odd deal. Anyway, good for Ciljessen. He's class, and deserves to start at a good club instead of warming our bench.

That's my take on it. I wish at least their deaths serve as cautionary tale. What Reyes did was stupid.

Apparently he was driving at twice the speed limit. Why are people so daft? Sorry for him and the family.

SUITCASES? Proof of funds :frantic:

Apparently one of the matches under investigation is the Valladolid-Valencia that ended 0-2 and clinched Valencia a CL spot. For what it is known Valencia wasn't involved in the fixing - it was some Valladolid players involved in betting - so I guess they should be safe.

That's a bit OTT. We do have squad issues, but nonetheless we have quite a bit of talent beyond Messi - they can't compare to him but then again nobody can. Valverde hasn't used it effectively due to his very conservative style. De Jong coming in will help a lot with our midfield, who's frankly in need of talent and young blood.

I'm all for sacking Valverde. He's made us boring and yes we've won the league but our two CL exits have been embarassing. But fucking hell, Roberto Martínez? That's just to appease the fans since he's Catalan and we have an election in two seasons.

Oh fuck please not Roberto Martínez. Anyway, looks like Valverde is getting the sack today.

Why's he 'a dodgy sheikh'? I'm mostly going off the reports of his failed Liverpool bid.

Still got a really bad feeling about this guy. Nothing can be worse than Ashley (NOTHING), but a dodgy Sheik wouldn't be that much of an improvement... Like we say in Spain "bread for today, hunger for tomorrow".

Several footballers of Spanish first and second divisions arrested by the Spanish police in relation to match fixing. Nobody particuarly known, mostly players in relegation stragglers (most match fixing alegations usually involve these kind of teams).

Pic looks like Mourinho wearing an arab robe. Obviously a windup

This is ancient and at least over here it resurfaces every few years, he apologizes, says he has no issues with homosexuals, and everybody moves on until the next time somebody picks it up.

Wait, Dave left? Shit.

Maldini was definitely the more complete player. Amazing defensively, pretty good offensively. There have been better attacking LBs than him (both Carlos and Alba, for starters), but nobody that I've seen brought such a complete package to the table.

God, this was fantastic. We're going to be so shit when Lionel retires.

The Spanish FA have approved the new formats for both the Copa del Rey and the Supercopa. - The Copa del Rey will be much more like the FA Cup. Single game ties on the pitch of the lowest-ranked opposition (draw if teams belong to the same division), except the semi-final. Roster of teams taking part expanded to reach all the way down to the fifth tier of Spanish football. Awesome change. - The Supercopa will be now contested by the League and Cup winners and runners-up (4 teams total). It will now be contested after the winter break, instead of being the opening game of the season. Crappy change for a crappy competition. There are strong rumors that the FA intends to ship off the competition abroad because €€€€€€.

We've won the league.

Former Barça prez Sandro Rosell absolved from money laundering during his dealings with the Brazilian FA (that was before he became our president). This was one of the legs FIFAgate, and reading the sentence it sounds like "dude was probably dirty, but it's not proven beyond reasonable doubt". He's spent two years in jail awaiting trial...

The Spanish FA is in talks to hold the Spanish Supercopa in fucking Saudi Arabia, for the next 6 years. Fuck this shit, fuck it with fire.

Nice goal by Aleñà.

I guess the weight of the shirt thingie gets lost in translation and doesn't make sense in English It's a pretty common retort from Spanish PFMs.

Espanyol posted a 20,000 attendance today for their women's team, playing against Atlético (who's leading the table). Can't really compare since this was a one-off, but the men's team is averaging 19,000 this season.

Hate those "you have to feel the weight of the shirt" managers, they're the footballing equivalent of Nigel Farage

Hey, that's our excuse!