Village Idiot

Interviews with players/managers and transfer exclusives, plus pushing club merchandise through the papers, which drive up their sales (do you do that in UK?). Madrid and Barça very effectively use those to beat their local press into submission. They certainly don't get any transfer exclusives, and the interviews consist almost entirely of Steven Taylor saying "We'll do it for the fans", no merchandising stuff. I can't see any benefit that the paper gets from it honestly, yes the NUFC coverage is a big selling point of the paper but real journalists shouldn't need interviews with players to manage decent coverage. I can't think of anything more boring than reading a local rag interview with a player. For sure, most interview pieces and similar are inane fluff, but a lot of people buy into them. Lazy journalism does sell. Ultimately, a big share of any club's support wants to read they are the best (even when they arent, or particularly when they aren't), and this kind of "journalism" serves that, and serves the club's board interests at the same time. And there's also the indirect bribes of flying journos with the players in away games, junkets, and other perks.

Interviews with players/managers and transfer exclusives, plus pushing club merchandise through the papers, which drive up their sales (do you do that in UK?). Madrid and Barça very effectively use those to beat their local press into submission.

Pretty sure Valdés has it done with Mónaco.

Off to get drunk and celebrate. Good luck in el Clásico de Norteumbría tomorrow

The stadium singing the anthem a capella, btw, goosebumps

Important win, despite Messi being clearly off-form and our fitness not really being great. Madrid were awful until the last stages of the game, wonder what whas Ancelotti thinking with that weird starting XI. Ramos in midfield

I think Real needed that type of player and have done for some time, but he, along with the other attackers don't really agree with Ancelotti's favoured narrow system. They'll sort it eventually, though. They already have the better version in Cronaldo. To me, they have way too similar players getting into each other's way. And lost people like Özil or Isco (who's not started today to make way for Bale) that fed him.

We're looking exhausted already. Damn.

A bunch of rich people striking over their tax rates. Man...

So he's lived there since he was 5 and he's just only got his green card? Jeez.

Biggest issue to me is if he receives an offer from Europe and has to leave the country without fulfilling the 5 years residency requirement. How long has he lived in the US?

Huh? What's the motive of that ruling? Looks random as fuck.

That's so much us 3 years ago Pep, come back!

Greece will go through in some infuriatingly boring way, like drawing 0-0 at home and 1-1 away.

Saw this posted in an Atlético de Madrid forum: http://www.colchonero.com/media/galeria/4/3/7/9/8/o_atletico_de_madrid_submundo_historia-7258973.jpeg http://www.colchonero.com/media/galeria/4/5/7/9/8/o_atletico_de_madrid_submundo_historia-7258975.jpeg And a few Spanish ones: http://www.colchonero.com/media/galeria/4/4/7/9/8/o_atletico_de_madrid_submundo_historia-7258974.jpeg "CF Barcelona" That was one of our all time best squads though.

Nice to have a reason to cheer for Zlatan again

What an awful proposition if NUFC was targetted, though. I lived in a city with an RB-owned team and the whole setup oozed tackiness, and a complete disinterest in engaging the local support. And MetroStars didn't have any kind of tradition to begin with...

Didn't that German team they bought keep pretty much their name, badge, colors et al? They just added RB to make it RB Leipzig. EDIT: I was wrong. It wasn't even named Leipzig to begin with, plus: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fd/RB_Leipzig.png/200px-RB_Leipzig.png

I suppose it's a "fans are the twelfth player" kinda thing.

I know it's easy to say, but we still are terrible at penetrating these kind of teams.

Unleash Messi pls.

Nervous about our match. El Sadar is always one of the toughest away days for us. Good to see Puyol starting a game again

I agree that in this case they are totally wrong and are doing themselves a lot of halm, but I don't agree that they shouldn't exist. Some professions are institutionally racist or, at least, the representation of certain sections of society is so low that a special interest group is justified. Justified in order to accomplish what, promote segregation? Erm, no. Promote the progression of a group who are otherwise marginalised, suffer from prejudice and have nobody to speak up for them. For example, ethnic breakdown of UK judges in 2012... 94.9% white. Oh, right, well in that case they're doing a fine job. Really making a contribution. They should probably disband then, and stop trying. These groups may be overbearing and even slightly histerical sometimes, but they do bring visibility to real problems.

Jose has stung me too much with his chopping and changing of the 3 AM's. Oscar is definitely better than Michu so far this season. Ramsey and Barkley are very similar in form, position and inexperience. I hope we do well! Sturridge or Ozil captain? I've not done that well with the team so far but I reckon it's underachieved. I went for Lukaku captain, Sturridge is the logical choice but I just don't like having the mixed feelings when/if he scores! Look at it as a little bit of comfort if he does. I've captained Suárez myself.

Heskey was a goalscoring machine in the A-league FFS EDIT: From Heskey's wiki: Heskey Cam