Village Idiot

It's the same bank that loaned them the Kaká and Cronaldo money (which they are still paying back). It's the former Madrid state bank, it just doesn't look clean to me to have the state indirectly funding football clubs (we're guilty of this too), if it was such a good business they'd probably have no problem securing the loan from a private bank. This is the same bank that almost repo-ed Valencia a few months ago, incidentally. That said, Madrid have just denied this and said they are paying it from their own pockets in 4 installments.

Bit of a scandal going round as it's been revealed that a nationalized bank that needed the biggest bailout of our financial history has loaned Real Madrid the Bale money. Oh Spain, I do recognize you.

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRUGUC1FHQr-nDGZQhyHhf6jUWXstVGOukuUTphWo7C4UHfKIgNCg

Guy in the picture looks like me but with shorther hair

To be fair to Owen, his minutes/goal ratio while at RM was the best in the squad. Going by form, he should have been a starter but he wasn't nee Ronaldo or Raúl (who was already in decline and coasting on his status within the club). That's why I thought you had staged an amazing coup when you signed him.

I just love how it starts as a cheery piece congratulating Bale for his signing and whising him well, only to quickly degenerate into a depressive tale of isolation and loneliness that reads like a sucky sequel of Lost in Translation He does have issues.

Half the Real Madrid squad lived in the same high-standing neighborhood in La Moraleja, with plenty of expensive for-rent houses with the swimming pool, etc... he craved. Why the fuck didn't he move there? I'm just picturing the rest of the Real Madrid squad not telling him about it because they didn't want him to move in with them

http://estaticos01.marca.com/imagenes/2013/08/11/futbol/futbol_internacional/1376239256_extras_noticia_foton_7_1.jpg

We should have been in for Sakho, imho. We'll deepfully regret letting yet another window pass without a CB.

Voted for ..., will give 3 points to his team.

I dropped Mirallas, but might pick him back again as soon as he looks like picking form. Huge potential imho.

102 / 1784 minutes. You're welcome. Thank you, Mr Sandow http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQD_5ypgLhpsnsFfH8ghDBHjIBSFXx_pyZmiVSM8jXkuNf6SCe6nw

102 / 1784 minutes. You're welcome.

Touré's a doubt, so it's not far-fetched.

"Please Alan, tell them I tried really really hard". So childish the whole affair JFK looking for the most half-arsed way out to save face, Alan agreeing to it because he'd do his darndest to keep on this job fully knowing nobody is going to employ him in the top flight if he's sacked. My respects for putting up with this farce.

There are so many fucking Sissokos going around that I just lose track on who's who.

Lukaku isn't playing next game (it's against Chelsea), so for now Remy's best. I picked him since I play in a drafted league and it was now or risk losing him.

Spurs attack isn't clicking at the moment, and their new players might need time to gel. I'd go with Sturridge or Benteke instead of Soldado.

Can't get Özil without crippling the rest of the team, think I'm getting Lukaku and Sakho though. Also, IIRC, players newly added to the roster will have their values frozen until the next gameweek. So I don't think you can play with their prices.

The year at Real Madrid was puzzling, comes with the hype of the next young superstar, spends the season sulking, missing training and being completely useless the few times VDB decides to put him in the pitch... and then he single-handedly destroys Bayern in the CL semis.

With Lukaku upfront converting those million chances Neil claims they are creating (haven't watched them yet), they look very good right now.

That finish against us for Chelsea, in the league cup, is still one of the best I've ever seen. Fantastic player really, possibly something mental that has stopped him being a world beater. Wouldn't consider him a failure though, much worse dramatic falls than his. I sort of admire that he still managed to carve himself a career at the PL after being sent to Turkey, where footballers go to die. He signed for Bolton, showed his ability there and ended up winning the league at Chelsea and becoming the league's top goalscorer. Not one of the best as some expected but surely a good career. He was instrumental in Madrid's CL win too.

Still a bit of a puzzler to have Lukaku sent to Everton, he'd be nailed on to start every single game for Albion. Probably Mou wants him to prove himself in a team that isn't utterly pants, though, it's easier to be king of the mice.

I want royalties Barcelona should sue over that alright still what the hell West Ham in what possible way are they "more than a football club" (its also one of the things that bug me about Barca but lets not get into that) It's just what it meant for the Catalan population throughout the years (could go at length with examples), it wasn't coined - and certainly it doesn't mean - as a way to affirm superiority over other football clubs. It's something I'm quite proud as a fan tbf. The phrase was coined in the late 60s, when we were utterly s***. And very proud of it you should be If there is to be any club worthy of being "mes que un club" then it's Barca. VI is correct, it's nothing to do with superiority at all, it's around social history, Franco, Spanish civil upheaval and a view point on it and taking a stand. The Barca story is a truly great one. You'll make me blush. Let's not carried away, however, it's not like we became a social protest force (we'd have been shut down the day after, for starters - although the club was indeed banned under another Junta in the 1920s). But little things, like people organizing clandestine gatherings during matches (you had to ask permission to organize any kind of gathering in a public place, but you could easily disguise that in the terraces of a stadium holding 100,000 people), the Barça anthem being a Catalan anthem in disguise (as affirmed by the original author), so people could sing it at the stadium at a time where the proper Catalan anthem was forbidden (and people were sent to jail for singing it in public). Heck, one of our presidents was shot during the war and the whole squad had to flee to Mexico. It was mostly an example of an oppressed society using whatever outlet they could to (in a limited way) express themselves. Spent a day at Camp Nou a few years back, really really enjoyed it, was in the museum for three hours alone wife wasn't best please but there you go. God bless Joan Gamper Are you from Barcalona VI? Or just supporting? Barcelona born and bred The museum's an amazing place for a football lover, regardless of whom you support.

And Moyes likes his battering rams in the hole, Kagawa won't get a game there. In the wing, maybe, like how he used Pienaar and Even Arteta at a point.