Village Idiot

Big congrats, I've been a member of this board for like 10+ years and I know how much being back in Europe in a big way means for you all. That's where you belong. Hope we get drawn together and we can share some pints when you come to town!

They have been sacked. That was completely beyond the pale. I mean, sadly our racist fans are sort of part of the landscape, but the VAR people targeting him is like, what. The whole thing is disgraceful. Maybe it's the kick on the arse the league needs, but it's not the first time we get a major incident like this and after a time of dropping the hammer, things go back to regular programming.

FWIW, what's being said over here is that he wasn't going to be given much money to spend.

Second best thing to happen this week is that Alemany has broken up negotiations with Villa and looks like he'll stay at Barça. Gotta love being second choice after Aston fucking Villa but it is what it is.

Did you see the pitch invasion? Of course it was. Probably most of our more, ahem, global fans won't care, but at the local level it is very much alive. We all have friends, family, or workmates that are Espanyol fans, and football banter is an indelible part of those relationships. That said, it's not helped by the fact Espanyol have been so historically shit for decades now. When I was a kid they were always an upper midtable team with top6 aspirations and that made the rivalry much more competitive. But they are still very capable of playing spoiler (the Tamudazo!) and they are always pumped up for that. Rivalry with Real Madrid has always been higher though, even when I was young. Espanyol do have an issue that many of their newer fans are actually local Real Madrid fans that have Espanyol as their second team (old school Espanyol fans don't give a fuck about RM). I think that may hurt the club in the long term.

I don't think it's solely on him. The issue was playing too many unathletic players in the defensive unit. If we'd surrounded Busquets with pace we'd been fine - instead we played him with Piqué and Lenglet.

I hope he goes somewhere that's not a complete joke of a competition - the MLS would be nice indeed, but my bet is the Saudis, the money is way too silly to refuse. Anyway, I know he has a (deserved) reputation to be a bit of a tosser, but he was one of the best holding midfielders of his time, and a key to our success. He's still an incredibly smart player that can be very useful in a less demanding league.

Wish we were the Kubala, César, Basora, Ramallets Barcelona again.

LaLiga changed their FFP rules to prevent us from doing what we did last summer. So we kinda have to.

Personally I don't think he's world class, just about a tier below that. But we live in a world were people like Tony fetch nearly €100m.

Because we're broke? And yes, he's been great, particularly in the past months - it took him a bit to get integrated into the side.

It's in the bag, isn't it? Would love to get drawn with you next season Because that means we won't be banned

What the fuck is going on?

Yeah, they're still in the hunt for a CL spot.

Joaquín has announced he's retiring at the end of the season - at the age of 41. He's just 7 games away of becoming the player with most LaLiga games of all time (it's currently Zubizarreta). Given that he plays very little nowadays (his role is more of a victory cigar), and there's just 9 games left, I fear he'll miss the mark. Legend, nonetheless.

So Laporta appeared before the media today. I'll spare you all the bluster and attack lines. It looks like the club's defence against the allegations has been distilled basically into two items: 1) That the hiring of Negreira's son was legal, and that the work he performed for the club (referee reports and advice) was real and not used to conceal a bribe to his father - the club claims they have hundreds of those reports, and also videos, which will be supplied to the court. 2) That if any moneys were diverted to other uses, that was done without the club's knowledge and approval (this was as an expected line of defence to spare the club as organization and blame just rogue individuals, and it has precedent in our legal system if certain conditions are met). It would sound far more convincing if they hadn't waited so long. If everything was above board, why not say so the day the allegations surfaced? Anyway, we'll see.

After a long wait, Laporta is finally going to address the Negreira scandal this Monday. We'll see what kind of explanation he gives - he can't go "this is Bartomeu's fault" route like with everything else, because he was part of it too in his prior stint as president, the only reason he's not indicted himself is because of the statute of limitations. That said, the case file is public and so far there's no evidence of actual referee bribing - don't get me wrong, we didn't give that money to Negreira out of the goodness of our hearts. but it will make the harshest penalties more difficult if the prosecutors can't uncover a smoking gun. That's for the criminal case, of course, outside of that UEFA/FIFA will do what they will do.

Spanish anti-corruption law can still do us in, although the burden of proof for getting the heftiest penalties (barred from taking part in sports competitions or downright dissolution of the club) is pretty high. The criminal case will take years anyway. But even if we get away with it, it's still embarrassing and a dark blot on the club. Hard to feel pride these days.

Man, will all that's going on at the club, this has probably been the most "whatever" Clásico win I can remember. Hard to muster happiness these days.

He needs legs around him for it to work (Piqué did us a massive favor by retiring since Xavi insisted on playing them together), but his ability to make the right decision is still uncanny.

Busquets was missing. We have a hole at DM since we still rely so much on him to stabilize the defensive unit. And he's probably leaving in the summer.

Well, I meant on the pitch. Off the pitch we're a disgrace and we're not going to get better with Laporta in charge.

Thoroughly enjoyed the game despite the not-so-good result. Pedri and Gavi will be missing the return leg so it will take a monumental performance to win at OT... I feel we are in the cusp of really being a great side, but there's just something missing.

Here it goes, as I say it's probably geolocked.

What's the highlights policy nowadays? Can't find the forum rules anywhere. Want to post a wonder goal from Spanish second division, from an official source (might be geolocked I guess).