Village Idiot

Falcao fit?

Wow, that Dutch squad is underwhelming, hadn't realized they were amidst such a talent drought for their standards

But hardly surprising tbf, he hasn't been involved in the squad at all. They are not going to randomly call him up now. Argies always good for a few insane call ups. Yeah I know it's not surprising because he's never been involved. But he's comfortably better than the lot they routinely take. Absurd how he's uncapped.

Caballero being overlooked by Argentina is criminal tbf.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR2TIkQp23Q

Let's not forget that Atlético have a bigger debt than Barça or Real Madrid. They'd be a corpse by now if not for their success during these last seasons.

Had wondered where Shola would be off to. Which one do you think has been the best in their colleagues V.I? Torres? While playing for Atlético? Hard to say - Costa and Falcao probably are the ones that almost singled-handedly have won them trophies (unless Atlético f*** up both of their two upcoming finals). Forlán and Agüero on song were simply delightful to watch. Torres was good, but didn't really become one of the best in the world until he moved to Liverpool. As a striker, Falcao remains one of the best finishers I have ever seen in the flesh. I remember one of his Atlético teammates saying that they could throw an A/C at him, and he would manage to put it on the back of the net.

The names look amazing but most of them haven't had great seasons to be honest.

Their debt repayments are pretty big. I actually expect most of Costa's transfer will go to serve debt. Baptistao seems quite mentally fragile (this is just his second season in pro football too), and looks to have broken down under Simeone's intensity. The Betis loan didn't help - that club has been a cesspit of negativity. There's a quite good player in there, so hope he can get at least a good loan. But being again king of the frog pond like he was at Rayo wouldn't help either.

It wasn't just the final. Throughout the tournament we looked more fragile with only Busquets holding. We also looked more fun since we had one extra player going forward, but Del Bosque is about winning.

Well, I said "find" because people like Costa or Torres weren't multimillion transfers. Agüero was expensive but unproven, too.

We'll play with two deep midfielders, that means Busquets+Xabi. We tried only one holding mid in the ConfeCup and you saw what happened. Can't see Xavi starting every game - he's no longer doing that even for us now. That's where Thiago or Iniesta could go.

I think both Juanfran and Carvajal will be there. We are only carrying Albiol as extra CB and Martínez isn't even a natural, so my guess Ramos will only be used as RB in an emergency. Villa won't make the list, he's had actually a rather indifferent year. One of Llorente/Negredo will be cut. If Thiago is fully fit my guess is that Cazorla won't make it. If not, Thiago will be cut. Dunno who the 7th man could be. Injuries could play a part too.

Spain preliminary squad: Porteros: Casillas, Reina, De Gea. Defensas: Juanfran, Carvajal, Azpilicueta, Ramos, Piqué, Albiol, Javi Martínez, Jordi Alba, Moreno. Centrocampistas: Xabi Alonso, Busquets, Navas, Xavi, Koke, Cazorla, Thiago, Silva, Iturraspe, Mata, Iniesta, Cesc. Delanteros: Diego Costa, Pedro, Torres, Villa, Llorente, Negredo. No Isco - some people here wondered if he'd malke the list - or Arbeloa. Didn't know Thiago was already fit. 7 will now have to be cut.

Wait, the mackems are letting Poyet go?

Wonder if Atlético will keep their streak in finding strikers: - Torres - Forlán - Agüero - Falcao - Costa That's quite the list of #9s.

Wouldn't surprise me if they obtained an extension to his loan.

Too many teams imho. The talent gets diluted too much.

Where does Pardew stand in the list of longest-serving NUFC managers?

I haven't followed García's performance at Brighton, but he really was one of our hottest managerial prospects. He's very ambitious, maybe a bit too much. He left Barça because we wouldn't make him manager of the B squad just yet, and seems to be leaving Brighton after failing to get promotion.

Is the new name a suggestion than Other Clubs' Transfers will be the only transfers to happen this year?

Is this true? / Was doing the rounds in Spanish forums the other day, I checked and it's true

Last time that: 1) Atlético won la liga 2) Real Madrid won the EC 3) Austria won Eurovision It was 1966. :frantic:

Would you rather Barca won the league and Real the CL or Atletico won both? Would you rather Barca won the league and Real the CL or Atletico won both? No way, I'm not that small time I want my team to win trophies.

Man, if we somehow end up winning this... No way this team can beat Atlético nowadays though. Particularly when Atlético can just sit back and protect the draw while we exploit their counters - like they already did in our CL tie.