Village Idiot

Luís Enrique new Celta manager. Really looking forward to that.

Spain - Haití in front of an empty stadium, glad I'm not the only one that doesn't give a fuck about this shit friendly.

They wish. I played for their youth setup when I was a kid. They are my only true "second team", and always my first serious save in FM

It's a pretty weird clause to be honest. Dunno what would stop, say, Betis from trolling them with a €8m "offer" to force them to pony up.

It's not that. Sevilla have to pay the player a bonus of half the biggest formal offer he gets for him, in excess of €8m, if they refuse it. The actual clause is €20m. Anyway, I don't think it's a player that you need right now.

I'll never be able to like Villarreal, when I was a kid and they were still in Segunda B they had some very cunting behavior in the games against CF Badalona (my neighborhood's team) and that bitter feeling I associate with them somehow is always there.

Very little wrong in the choices of both these two, tbf.

Laudrup is ridiculous, third club in a row he'd leave after a single season iirc.

I like Cuenca a lot, insane technique but maybe a bit weak. Best crosser of the ball we have, imho. His problem is that he's been crocked for a year. Roberto is one that I think could adapt well to England, but you seem stoked in the cm department, and he isn't our usual tippy-tappy midfielder - he's more box to box in the English mold. Cuenca wants to go to Ajax, but they won't pay wages in full so we're looking around.

As Sewelly says, that assist alone was worth the transfer fee.

There's a bunch of players we're looking to sell/loan: bartra, afellay, dos santos, bojan, cuenca. Rafa alcàntara, sergi roberto... Make your pick. There's also Villa/Deulofeu but those aren't too realistic.

I keep hearing that this or that player aren't Arsenal level so much that I wonder if that bar shouldn't be revised downwards.

Because if you want to take something from Barça, is our transfer policy.

Work to knock down San Mamés started today, a piece of Spanish football history gone.

Honestly, I fail to see how a side that scores lots of goals is automatically "creative". Milan were all about exploiting Sheva's and Kaka's athleticism through Pirlo's long range passing. It's counterattacking 101. It's not bad, I'm not shunning it, but it wasn't a particularly intrincate side. There's a swathe of difference between good old catenaccio and dynamic counterattacking too. Again, his style suits Real Madrid perfectly so I think it's a good move for them.

Morata should have handballed or something, Spain isn't allowed to score from set pieces. Predictably stale performance from our U21s, after all the hype and the quality throughout the squad I'm getting the same feeling as before the London Olympics (which featured a few of these same players). Anyway, they seem to be getting 4-6-0 quite well at least

He was excellent yet not in Baresi's class. As Deuce said, Italy have produced some outstanding defenders. I go back as far as Facchetti ,Scirea and the monster who had the most ironic name ever, Claudio Gentile. All class but Baresi for me is the best. Scirea man, he would get my vote. Although I admit I was a kid back then so my memories might not be the best. Such grace, though, the ball somehow always ended magically at his feet. And he had Gentile to do the dirty work.

Ancelotti's Chelsea were just a neat and mean counter-attackin outfit, which fits Madrid's squad anyway.

Ancelotti to be unveiled next week as RM's new manager, according to Onda Cero.

I thought he was 6 He's always been #6. But he's an overrated bruiser that achieved legendary status by lingering around in the squad and kicking some shins in CRUUUUUNCHING tackles to the delight of home fans. Suppose it's like if Liverpool retired Carragher's shirt. Maaany better players to do that before getting to him. Anyway, it's probably just for the show, since La Liga restricts first team squad #s to 1-25, so if they want a squad of 25 players they'll need to give #6 to somebody.

Valencia have retired #6 in homage to Albelda. Yeah, I'm puzzled too.

Reports here in Spain taking for granted Everton are appointing Martínez. Neil will be happy.

Why? The Spanish top goalscorer leaves La Liga to go to a relegation battler in the PL, instead of - say - leading the line at Atlético or Valencia.

To be frank 17m would have never landed them Negredo given the season he's just had. And they probably tried to get him instead of Carroll. I know it's Allardyce we're talking about, but even him wouldn't pair two tall strikers together.

That looks like an awful policy, if you ask me. Ajax do the same. Pretty damn sure that would be grounds for a workplace mobbing suit here in Spain. Demoting a worker to pressure him to sign a new contract with you? No way that can be legal.