Village Idiot

Fine. I will concede this point. People have unique genetic characteristics, some of which may be beneficial to sport. I don't believe that genetic traits are more important to developing top athletes than repetition, acquired knowledge, or learning environment, however. When you get both right, you get Messi. When you only get one you get Pedro or Michael Carrick. Anyway, the begining of this discussion was the fact that I believe promising athletes, whatever the reason for their "potential", will see other sports as better outlets to potentially make a living out of them. You need to rise to the very top level in the US (the MLS) to make a living as a footballer, that's not the case for kids playing in Spain or England. That allows us to "absorb" more potential players that want to play football professionally. I'm reminded of Mendieta, who was an accomplished junior track and field athlete until he switched to football because he wanted to dedicate himself to sport but it was impossible to do that in athletics in Spain (while you probably can in the US).

Isn't Shola reportedly a beast in training? Call it what you want, some brains/bodies are just "wired" better to learn and develop some activities, athletic or otherwise. Otherwise every player that "tries hard" would become world class. You still need to work hard, but that's not the only factor.

It got to the point where I'd have chipped in for a pay raise so he remained at Real Madrid and kept dragging them through the mud while not really achieving the trophy haul to justify it. I'll sort of miss the entertainment, Real Madrid fans I know won't.

And that's something he was born with, or at least instilled into him from a very early age. Stuff like focus, speed of thought, determination, etc... are traits than make or break athletes, not just long legs or arm reach. Pretty sure people like Xavi or Iniesta - certainly not physical portents - would have excelled at other team sports if football wasn't their choice. A lot of your young players won't practice day and night because they don't think it's worth it putting football before other things at the moment. That said, the MLS is certainly well run and on the long run it'll probably be able to attract and develop better talent. We're all dead in the long run though.

Good signing if he's over his homesickness troubles. City don't have a single pacey winger worth a damn, for all the money they've spent. Probably means Negredo's staying.

Not places like NYC, Chicago or LA (if you don't want to get mugged twice a week), though. It certainly doesn't make football a tempting career path for a gifted athlete.

Brilliant striker, but has absolutely no mettle. All this "he's not the focal point of the attack" is pretty bollocks, imho. He was easily one of the top strikers in the world last year with Cronaldo guzzling up Madrid's attacking play. He's prone to loss of confidence, and just lacks the will to fight when things don't go well for him. You watch him play and you'll realize that just 2-3 bad performances in a row and he sinks like a rock, he needs to be heavily babysitted and Mourinho had just stopped bothering this year. It's a pity (well no, since I'm a Barça fan), because on full pelt he's just a joy to watch.

As someone has suggested, part of the youth development problem is getting the young promising athletes to choose football instead ofthe other yank sports... pay at the lower end of the wage pyramid of the MLS is stupidly low, an imho puts off potential stars that choose another sport were "making it" looks more likely. You can barely sustain a family in a metropolitan area with some of the wages dished out at entry level ffs.

I know, actually I have yet to see him have a good game against proper opposition. We don't have the kind of money reported in those David Luiz rumors. I think he's not the defender we need either, too much like Piqué in style. We should look for a long term Puyol replacement.

Aye, way to die after reaching the seashore, so to speak. They mounted an amazing comeback during the last months of the season and they just whimper out like that in front of their fans. Anyway, always had a soft spot for Celta so I'm glad they were ones to survive.

He's much better now and seems likely to leave this summer for a new challenge, that's if you believe reports in Spain of course. Those reports are correct (Sevilla need money and it's either him or Negredo), but I think it's a huge gamble for a foreign club to buy him. Great little player, though, if a bit unconsistent.

Must've been hard, your devotion to José is commendable.

Kit makers just run off their templates for their non-big teams, without giving it much thought. We actually got recycled stuff until we started being *really big* in the mid 2000s and Nike got arsed to actually design our kits.

That seriously looks like a washed-out clown shirt. My condolences.

Yeah, they still have a blue bird on their badge. Also their seats in the stadium are all blue and the owners have said that will not change. Because Malaysians can't buy stadium seats off the club store. Yet.

Apart from Carroll, which was a pretty absurd offer to refuse, I don't think your owner has a history of doing that.

Loan, then purchase option.

I have always thought the whole Cardiff rebranding thing was just about changing their badge from some shitty looking bird to a DWAGON!!!! and from blue to FIERY RED!!11111. It feels so tacky, it made me instantly dislike the team for some reason. How did the fans take it?

Every time I see Beardsley I wonder if he ever met Leo Messi's mam in a trip to Argentina with the English national team.

Tbf I've lost count of the amount of players that story's attributed to. Bramble and Dyer are particular favourites to say that about in Ipswich. I swear I have heard that story attributed to half a dozen different Barça players throughout the years, too

Well I can promise you those income won't be accurate come next season, people tend to forget that better players brings more sponsorships and makes the club more attractive for the general fans visiting Monaco. I have no doubt their economy will go backwards for many years just like City, Chelsea, PSG but at the same time it's shown that you can buy success... Chelsea and ManCity are not even close to break even. Even with sham sponsorships like City's.

Reminds me of a forum I posted way back where a dude patiently weaseled his way into admin-ship and then proceeded to ban everybody.

I predict all the German-Americans in the squad will defect at half time. Still, the US needs to play more games like this, pity it can't be in a competitive environment.

They said the same when Agüero moved. He's been banging the hattricks for Real Madrid like.

Only got themselves to blame for that, easily one of the worst managed clubs in the major leagues. However, if they managed to qualify again for the CL next season, things could be on the up financially. They've been ran in a pretty sensible manner these past two years and they have paid off a huge chunk of their debt to the taxman.