Village Idiot

Benito Floro managing Canada was such a strange appointment. He had a brilliant spell in the early 90s, but hasn't reproduced it since, and has no experience at international level. Sometimes I pity all these low-rated national teams that get conned with our managerial hasbeens (Camacho, Clemente...)

And before froggy asks about Thiago, we return to training next Monday, so widely expected to be resolved during this week. There's no formal offer from ManU but it is understood that they'll just agree a contract with Thiago and then pay up the clause.

€27m against €30m according to our press here. So maybe they just rate Suárez more and thought that with a little more money they could have bagged him.

RM rejected their bid for Higuaín, so I guess he's getting desperate.

Barrada from Getafe to some Abu Dabi team for €10m. What a waste

Reading an absolutely chilling book from a Chilean journalist about the child-trafficking going on SA with youth football. It's shocking stuff. Horrifying. He tells the tale of how he himself was able to "buy" a young Chilean boy and then shop him around with a view to eventually sell him to an European team. You get to read about the underbelly of youth football and the crazy recollection of young footballers to get the next Messi for 200$ before anybody else does. And it isn't pretty. This is an excerpt I found online. Sadly it's not published in English, but I hope you can babelfish some sense out of it.

Aye, the new TV contract has given even the lowliest PL clubs some amazing pull, it seems.

Just found out the IFFHS has a table for this (national competitions only). Koeman first, Passarella indeed second, Hierro third. http://www.iffhs.de/?b4a390f03be4ac07cda14b45fdcdc3bfcdc0aec70aef05

Yeah I know he took pens at pretty much every club he was, but that's still a ridiculous record; he's 1 in 3 for all his career like

Was going through the CBs we have had over the years, and paused at Koeman's #s. 223 goals in 658 games throughout his career. That's just absurd for a DM later turned CB

Just wait until Martínez starts the Who?? signings from Spanish Segunda B. You'll be jumping in joy.

Rapist transfermarkt screenie I love how you can actually filter to include only rapists Rapist XI GK RB Bramble CB LB Rix CM CM Remy Evans King

Thank f***ing god he cleared that up, like.

You and Spurs are the names most commonly mentioned, but there's nothing in the "proper" media today and I just don't think he'll make a choice before the U20 C'ship has finished. He has all the talent in the world, but is very very raw. Takes a lot of wrong decisions, tends to hog the ball... kind of player that frustrates you before producing a match-winning moment five minutes later. Thing is that he was heads and shoulders the best player at Barça B, so you can sort of understand his "leave this to me" attitude. And why he has to play regularly in a team where he isn't the best player in the pitch anymore. If he sorts his attitude and football brain, he'll be one of the world's best. Personally, I don't think a team in Everton's position should go for him and develop other clubs' players, but you're welcome

Thing about Xavi is that there isn't a like-for-like replacement. Thiago is too green and I don't think he'll be ready yet, even if he leaves Barça. Cesc doesn't do well in that role, he's more of an AMC. The likes of Beñat, Herrera, etc... are a definite downgrade and - what's more important - aren't part of the setup, I don't think VdB will take them to Brazil. I think this team, with a few changes like people like Isco coming in, Alonso coming back... will be what we take to 2014.

Yeah, I imagined it would be that one, so I checked them. Nothing. Could have been one of their pundits going off a rumor and nothing else. They too broke the Bojan news and that one is all over the place now.

Nothing on my radar. However, it's very unlikely that his loan will be sorted out before he returns from the U20 World Cup.

Bojan to Ajax on loan. Done. He apparently preferred Betis but Ajax will be paying his wages in full.

Marca claiming that Madrid have reached and agreement with Illarramendi and are in talks with Real Sociedad for his transfer. Release clause stands at €30m. Bit of a puzzler this one, he's young and promising but certainly not somebody I'd pay €30m for.

That Anelka gif is gut-wrenching; he's making me feel depressed FFS

Where do you stand on it? Do you think Barca should agree, look to phase Xavi out maybe and place more trust in Thiago? Or do you not want this kind of demands at the club and feel he's over stepping his mark? Xavi needs replacement, and Thiago's the closest thing we have to that. I'd really want him to stay, but it's likely that this is not going to happen. He certainly is a brilliant prospect. That said, Thiago's coming across as a bit of a c***. He's played quite a bit these two years - more than Xavi or Iniesta when both were breaking into the squad -, and has yet never shown that he deserves to be in the starting XI like he seems to assume. He should have earnt it in the pitch instead of engineering a move. Agree with that. 15 million seems to be fairly cheap imo. I don't know if it's a clause or his contract is running short, just when i seen that figure i thought it was a nice price in todays crazy financial market. He had an escape clause inserted if he didn't play in 60% of games. That's why his price is so low. How our board agreed to this I just can't believe. Monumentally stupid to accept such a clause in the contract of a youth player. According to our media he wants this same clause inserted in his ManU contract and that's why it hasn't been agreed yet.

Weirdly, he's always been quite adamant that he considers himself to be Spanish, contrarily to his brother. Rafinha has signed a new contract, by the way. I don't rate him nearly as highly as Thiago, but seems he's going to play at Celta on loan and I'm looking forward to see if he can cut it in La Liga.

Where do you stand on it? Do you think Barca should agree, look to phase Xavi out maybe and place more trust in Thiago? Or do you not want this kind of demands at the club and feel he's over stepping his mark? Xavi needs replacement, and Thiago's the closest thing we have to that. I'd really want him to stay, but it's likely that this is not going to happen. He certainly is a brilliant prospect. That said, Thiago's coming across as a bit of a c***. He's played quite a bit these two years - more than Xavi or Iniesta when both were breaking into the squad -, and has yet never shown that he deserves to be in the starting XI like he seems to assume. He should have earnt it in the pitch instead of engineering a move.

Reports here is that he's demanding guarantees that he'll play inserted in his contract and that's stalling his negotiations with you and other interested clubs.

All my knowledge of Newcastle's nightlife comes from "Geordie Shore", but I don't think Valencia's lacking on that regard.