Village Idiot

Actually I'd say that both Real and Barça will be weaker this year with new management and some squad issues (lots of youngsters over at Real, some aging key players at ours), but everybody else in La Liga is selling their best players. Gotta balance out that national debt I guess. No way Soldado is worth €30m by the way.

Spurs closing onto Soldado, Valencia ask for €30m, they are offering €24m.

Good read that. Don't think he did himself any favours last season otherwise he probably would've had a chance. Unless he's gone somewhere since leaving Athletic I think he is still without a job. Might end up going back to Newell's. Bielsa is far too unpredictable/unstable for long term planning at a club. Crazy genius that he is.

Well, I like that a lot. We'll see if it works. I still can't forget that utterly unwatchable Paraguay side though (but they did get the job done).

Neither do I, it looks like a massive gamble to me

it annoys me tbh since if they cared so much why leave. Its what really annoyed me about the Fabregas to Barca saga since the comment was he wanted to "return home" but why did he f***ing leave in the first place then if he loved the club so much Arsenal were miles ahead of us at the time he left. He just left for a better job opportunity. You can still love the club and look after your career. I know football is emotional for us, but those are professional careers too. My customers didn't call me Judas when I left the last company I worked for...

Thiago has released a goodbye letter to Barça, thanking fans etc... actually pretty heartwarming. It's just PR, I know. And most likely he hasn't written it myself. But hell, I love when at least they seem/pretend to care.

Typical yanks, they ignore foreign countries even when they score.

Wait... wait... you can change the squad in the middle of the tournament?

Is that why Bayern picked Barca? That's why *we* picked them, it will be our first and they have played a lot of friendlies already

First friendly of the season, you always pick shit opposition for that so you can play at a canter.

Given the reactions in this place, I'm starting to believe Ashley makes those heel appointments to put over Pardew as a face.

Yes, that's him. "New Rafa Márquez" in FM parlance.

Our DoF has two assistants, fwiw.

Actually their valuation is €40m. Ridiculous, but Benítez seems bent on getting him. Madridista cunt. Espanyol have turned down a bid from an unnamed Premier League club for Héctor Moreno. He's a CB, so I doubt it's you.

I bet he wishes you could glory hunt internationally too. Oh you can. A bunch of people over here supported Brazil/Netherlands/whatever in the times where Spain was crap.

So, Martino seems to be one of the frontrunners for the Barça job. What kind of manager is he? Reckon he can make the switch to a big European team? I'm not too sure about getting a SA manager without experience in Europe, like.

Heard anything about AVB being linked? No. Frontrunners are apparently Luís Enrique and Martino. Celta have denied any talks with Barça, though. An unproven (in Europe) Argentinian manager...

Do like me and sign Neymar (just).

It seems like a pretty minor appointment, I wouldn't get too worked up. DoF's aren't supposed to spend their time touring grounds though, they have scouts for that.

Imho Liverpool are doing the right thing in moving him on and getting a promising younger keeper in before his decline becomes too steep.

Catalan TV claiming Luís Enrique is the chosen manager. It'd be the more sensical appointment. Knows the place, has worked already with the youngsters and even played with some of the heavyweights (Xavi, Puyol) when they were just breaking through. He has enough personality to walk into a star-studded dressing room. I think he did well enough at Roma, given the circumstances.

News: joeyt loves willy Sometimes I just can't keep up with this place.

Tata Martino added to the rumours list, although I suspect that's only because he's a Newell's legend.

Apparently Luís Enrique has a clause that allows him to be released of his Celta contract if Barça came in for him. Our president has said that we'll appoint a new manager "early next week".