Village Idiot

GTFI

We've loaned Denis Suárez to Arsenal. I don't think he has the character to make it at that level, but he's a very talented player. Wish him the best.

Espanyol have signed Wu Lei from Shanghai in the Chinese League. It's most likely a marketing stunt (Espanyol are owned by a Chinese billionaire) but he's supposedly the best Chinese player of his generation (150 goals in 300 games in the Chinese league), so I wonder if he can have an impact over here.

We already signed Todibo for this summer window. I really doubt we'll pursue De Ligt.

Missed having outfield Dutch players in our squad. Last one was Affelay and he didn't have much of an impact.

Mikel would walk in our midfield We already have Shelvey for that. Summer.

Also, Atlético indeed need to cut their roster in order to sign Morata.

Can't say much about him, he's barely played for Atlético. I guess a loan is certainly possible.

I have honestly not seen De Jong play outside of youtube, but he's meant to be a Busquets replacement and we need that dearly. It's just that paying so much for a youngster playing in a minor league... you have to take those gambles sometimes, I guess.

Next big thing apparently. Does that mean coutinho is off? They play in very different positions. Coutinho is certainly not fitting in, though.

Apparently we're signing Frenkie De Jong for €90m. He better be good...

Unless he bites someone. Anyway, we had both Alcácer and Munir, which were good enough (Alcácer is having a fantastic season in Germany), but none wished to remain in the bench forever. I think Valverde could have managed this better. KPB is just a bargain bin body we can throw, and I suppose we'll sign a real backup striker/potential Suárez replacement in the summer.

I've got to say your taxman is good at getting money from people, unlike the UK's.... The Spanish authorities had historically been incredibly lenient with football regarding tax - clubs had been allowed to accrue stupid amounts of unclaimed tax debt too - since no public official wanted to be the guy that sent the local club to bankruptcy. The recession made it that these kind of stuff was no longer publicly acceptable, or even something we could afford. To their credit, they have been very diligent since then and besides taking footballers to court, tax debt from clubs has been reduced massively. Ronaldo was also in Madrid today to sign off on his plea deal.

Xabi Alonso's trial for tax fraud started today in Madrid. Unlike pretty much every other footballer taken to court by our taxman (Ronaldo, Messi, Modric, Mascherano, and a long etcetera...) he's so far refused a deal with the prosecution, so jail time is a possibility.

ManU hadn't had one in 6 years! That's a bit shocking.

He's there as understudy to Suárez, but honestly I can't see it. He a striker nowadays? I remember him as an AM.

Ok, seems it wasn't serious.

We are so fucked when Messi retires. We've spent bajilions and we still have a hard time of it when he's not on the pitch, even at home against not particularly strong opposition. Hope Dembele's injury isn't serious. But it looked serious.

Stats seem allright. Having a good season apparently. It also meets the prerequisite of *not* breaking your transfer record at €15m. This seems important for this board.

I'd really like Stuani tbf. He's been amazing in La Liga (I guess he can exploit his physicality much more easily over here) and would give us another option.

Looks like we're loaning Vela from the MLS to replace Munir as understudy for Suárez.

This comeback against Levante is going to be pretty pointless if we end up expelled from the Cup...

Totally agree with that. The obsession with "his nose was 1 cm offside!"-style controversies is missing the point of what the offside is supposed to achieve.

I heard on the radio yesterday that there was a room at the Nou Camp with like one way glass, that you could watch the opps training through? have you heard that? Huh, there's loads of one-way windows at the Camp Nou. Whether they have been used to spy on rivals no idea, although I always thought it's unavoidable being watched when you train in the opposition's pitch.

Bielsa took Athletic to two finals, lost them both, and then completely blew up the dressing room. He always gives quite the ride. Love him. As others said, he set a blueprint that other less obsessive managers can apply with more flexibility and success. Pep's first years at Barça were very influenced by Bielsa's ideas. Heck, we even set up a scouting team that watched opposition games obsessively, we set up cameras at the Camp Nou that followed certain players exclusively throughout the game to analyze their movements... At one point Pep said that he couldn't keep that level of commitment indefinitely, so he's "eased" on this kind of stuff, but Bielsa is El Loco for something, so he manages to keep going...