Village Idiot

Hopefully he starts firing on all cylinders after today.

He could still be playing in a real league, at least he's leaving quite the highlight reel while playing in Japan.

Dembelé has so much talent, sadly I'm starting to believe he won't make it here. His tactical nous is near zero, and needs the entire team to support that - that won't happen at Barça. He's a (much) better version of Deulofeu.

Thank fuck for this.

Used to be a dream of Pérez to take him to Real Madrid. But that was 15 years ago, when Wenger's stock was at its highest.

Ongoing police raid for corruption of the previous board of the Spanish FA. Several arrests. About time.

Conte to Real Madrid has fallen through, according to several Spanish media. Solari to take over as a carekater.

Apparently Chelsea are being difficult and are threatening to enforce a non-compete clause they had in Conte's severance. I suppose Madrid will have to pay up.

Lopetegui must be the unluckiest man on Earth regarding how his big breaks have always ended up in tears. When he was a goalie both his debut games for Real Madrid and Barcelona were a disaster and condemned his career at both clubs (his debut game for Barça is one of the worst goalie performances I have ever witnessed). Then he faints during his first day as a talking head for the Spanish TV and loses the gig. Then he goes to become a fairly promising manager but loses the Spain job in the eve of a WC (although that was his doing) for the Madrid job, which he has lost a mere two months into the season. Then again, he's got many big breaks. So I guess he can't complain.

Marca saying Lopetegui will be sacked in the morning and Conte is already travelling to Madrid.

Well, this was pleasant. Off to get pissed.

Poor sod, he has some kind of big job curse. When he was a keeper he managed to play for both Real Madrid and Barça and had absolute mares for both in his debut game.

Pérez? Nah. He has no credible rivals. Plus the next election isn't scheduled until 2021 IIRC.

They have issues beyond the manager but not that's not enough to turn them into the least prolific Real Madrid side in recorded history.

If we keep this up this means Lopetegui is sacked. So a defeat is probably the best result for Real here...

FIFA have refused to grant permission to La Liga to play games abroad. The FIFA Council has resolved that domestic league games have all to be played within the organizing FA's territory. After the refusal of the Spanish FA, the PFA, the Spanish government, and this, that's quite a few forks stuck in it. Apparently La Liga will take the issue to CAS.

Just what Barca needed imo, he's closer to a Xavi/Iniesta style player than the likes of Gomes, Turan, Rakitic, Paulinho ect. Rakitic is amazing - I would never put him in the same category as Gomes, Turan and Paulinho Rakitic is great indeed. One of those players that never puts a foot wrong. Paulinho did decently well, too.

Barely seen much of Barcelona this season, how was he last night? He looks very comfortable and all, but looks so heavy Looks like he can barely move at times. FWIW, they have put him on a training regime to make him lighter. He bossed it yesterday, he was our standout player.

Arthur Can't believe we got one of those "who?" signings from Brazil right.

Most people during the assembly complained that it looked more like a brand than a crest. The debate was quite illuminating, with the board defending it in purely commercial terms (easier to reproduce, cleaner, etc...) and the members speaking out for tradition and heraldry (some of the colors that get changed in the new version makes it that the shield would no longer sport the official coloring of the Barcelona city crest). They said they removed FCB because lettering is hard to read when the shield is printed in small sizes. What kind of reason is that? We have changed the club badge several times through history, so this one will happen eventually. It will just take some time to sell people on the idea, and the board has made a really poor effort of it this time. I mean, their speaker actually said that they wanted to de-emphasize the Barcelona city crest - we are fucking Futbol Club BARCELONA for fuck's sake

Barça's membership assembly has refused to adopt the new crest proposed by the board The board said that they'll put forward a new, different, proposal. That will probably be next season, though.

Zamora fighting hard to get an entry into the all-time awful football kits

And just a day after Alba puts on a master class at Wembley, Luís Enrique leaves him out again of the national team. I have lots of time for Lucho, but god does he hold on grudges

Cheapest Barça season ticket is something like €150 - up top at the away end. A steal since I commonly get those seats and they're serviceable for what you get to watch, plus banter with away fans can be great sometimes. For a little over €1000 you can get pitchside seats. Note that there's something like a 5-year waiting list to get those, so a Barça ST is really hard to get. But they are really cheap given the product. It's one of the most salient advantages of being fan-owned, since if the board raised prices they would get sacked in the next election.