Village Idiot

Kaká has said he wants to leave Real Madrid. Damn time.

If you think Man Yoo's group is easy you are in for a massive shock. Leverkusen are a very good team and the only team in Germany to get something from the Allianz last year, anyone that watches Spanish football will say how good Sociedad are and Shakhtar are obviously a very good team. Honestly Arsenal and Man Utd groups are the only competitive ones there the rest are boring. Well, I wouldn't say it's a really competitive group top to bottom, but ManU has to take those opponents seriously. It will be a very exciting race for the second place though.

Love how Cronaldo didn't even come to the ceremony since he knew he wasn't winning

Groundhog Day group

Eto'o will fuck up my Fantasy team, because I *must* get him now (and honestly, should do well enough if he starts) and he'll probably be worth 9+

I really really want to see a BVB-Barça matchup before our current generation completely falls to pieces.

Meelan, so predictable

Messi wasn't even on the bench for Arsenal (injuried, but I doubt he'd have played). Although Valdés, Iniesta and Puyol played in all 3.

I fucking love Eto'o myself, I even will go past my Mou dislike and back Chelsea to win so he can boast an even more impressive trophy cabinet 3 CLs, scoring in two finals, how many current players can claim that?

It should be that way, we used to have such a policy back in the 90s (Messi was a big exception at the time) but now we are signing way too many foreigners. It's not a "SPANISH FIRST!!!!" thing, it's just that's nearly immoral to snatch these children (the parents are as guilty mind) from their countries and bring them into a foreign culture with a different language, disrupting their education, with vague and for the most part unfulfilled promises of making it as a footballer.

Real Madrid were interested in him last season which kinda surprised me, but he's looked lively whenever I've seen him. But that's probably 3-4 games .

Posting that list has made me realize that Heskey has more than 100 PL goals...

Jesus, hopefully! Can he put in a tackle? Good at crosses Always nails them.

Regarding Torres: http://www.premiersoccerstats.com/Fastest.cfm He was a monster in his first 3 seasons really.

Such a disappointment. Eto'o used to be class, like. But from Falcao to Rooney to Eto'o They shouldve gone for Suarez. Imagine a team with Suarez, Terry and Cole in man. pure Hatred FC. Torres was never brilliant at Athletico. He tended to look good against Barca but he certainly wasn't anywhere near as good as he was for those first few years at Liverpool. It's weird, but we do have a penchant for letting Atlético centrestrikers through on goal; Torres, Agüero, Falcao... I don't think Valdés has had more one-on-ones with another team than them But Torres looked extremely impressive at Atlético; he only lacked a bit more muscle and better composure, but you saw there was a great striker in there waiting to explode once he sorted that out. Something that happened at Liverpool.

And he scored some big goals too, like the one in the 2008 EC final. Hierro's record is ridiculous for a defender, not only internationally. I think he's one of the defenders with highest goals-per-game in recent times.

People should not forget how great Torres was in his first years in Liverpool just because he's so s*** now. One of the great mysteries of football this, no way his knee problems can be solely to blame for his decline. He could score all kinds of goals; playing on the shoulder, headers, running at the defence, long shots... He was almost unstoppable before 2010.

A player who based his game around pace and mobility at age 32... I haven't seen him in the past two years outside the odd European game (where he looked uninterested at best). Sure he'll score some, but not the kind of striker they should be buying. I'd understand if he was there in a backup role, though.

Will never happen, CL makes a gazillion money because it guarantees 6 relatively risk-free games of all big European sides during autumn/winter and through group seeding/fixing pretty much guarantees that all those big sides will be in the last stages of the competition in February.

Real Sociedad are dynamite going forward right now, but very fragile at the back. One of the most exciting teams to watch right now in Spain. I think they'll pay the price of inexperience and small squad in the CL, but it should be a blast for their fans. Some ridiculous possible groups given the pot setup, by the way. Real Sociedad and Naples in 4th, City and Dortmund in 3rd The current CL runners-up in the 3rd pot and fucking Porto in pot 1, how does UEFA score this shit?

Just checked, they do go into the Europa Group stages. really don't think it matters moneywise. Moneywise, nah i couldn't care less about that madras, just daft they get to the group stages of the Europa for losing. oh aye it's daft. i just thought you mentioned it as if it may have a bearing on the gomis deal/no need to sell etc. I don't mind teams losing in the playoff rounds of the CL going to the EL, there's a lot of small teams that get to that stage after winning several rounds and several minor league champions that'd get shafted out of Europe just because they are from small countries. It's not like in the group stages where a team that beats some minnow from pot 4 and loses to everybody else gets a free parachute to the EL (and a lot of times ends up winning it, hello Chelsea/Atlético/Porto) It's great for teams from leagues like Sweden, where you need to win two ties to get to the final qualifier of the CL, makes sense that you drop into the EL if you lose that game. I understand that bit but i'm more of a "too many teams in it". The Champions League is just mental now, i dont know why they bother with the Europa League. Just expand the Champions league and be done with it and have one competition. The fact that teams that finished 3rd in their Champions League groups then drop in the Europa makes it all the more stupid as it goes along. Old school thinking from me, Champions League where a team can finish 4th in their league but be the winners, isn't a Champions League. I'm a fossil tbf mind. That's a different issue though. Most of the teams that benefit from the "drop into the EL if you lose in CL quals" are champions or runners-up in small European leagues. I'm one that thinks that 4th placed teams should have no business in the CL, but then there's a larger issue of closing even more the access to the huge revenue than CL brings. UEFA should subsidize the EL with CL revenue, imho, that way it becomes a thriving ground for up and coming clubs, and makes the competition more desirable.

Torres and Eto'o strikeforce. Pity it's not 2009.

Elconfidencial.com (who have a mixed track record) running a rumour of Casillas to City.

Just checked, they do go into the Europa Group stages. really don't think it matters moneywise. Moneywise, nah i couldn't care less about that madras, just daft they get to the group stages of the Europa for losing. oh aye it's daft. i just thought you mentioned it as if it may have a bearing on the gomis deal/no need to sell etc. I don't mind teams losing in the playoff rounds of the CL going to the EL, there's a lot of small teams that get to that stage after winning several rounds and several minor league champions that'd get shafted out of Europe just because they are from small countries. It's not like in the group stages where a team that beats some minnow from pot 4 and loses to everybody else gets a free parachute to the EL (and a lot of times ends up winning it, hello Chelsea/Atlético/Porto)

Lamela is a player I hate we didn't pursue more seriously when he left Argentina. We were interested but Luís Enrique (going off our scouting reports from when he was here) brought him to Roma instead.