Village Idiot

Suárez is leaving a midtable PL team for one of La Liga's top dogs. It's not that big of a deal. It was more worrying when Cronaldo left ManU for Real Madrid. Anyway, this signing pleases me. With Mourinho leaving their cuntishness levels were going to drop by a significant amount.

Aspas is a very talented player, but also phenomenally thick. With good coaching he could bloom into a very decent forward though.

He seems a bit prone to wild swings, right? I remember his first season with West Ham in the PL, and they looked great. Fuck, even Marlon Harewood and Reo-Coker looked like decent footballers And then he got sacked in the next season after what I think was their worst defeat streak since the war or something like that.

Apparently Atlético's Chairman has flied to London, so there's more substance to the Benteke link, although maybe they are aiming for another PL striker.

Dungeons and Dragons Somehow I always identified myself with the cowardly knight

We won't sell both Cesc and Thiago in the same transfer window, and the second looks more likely to leave right now. Anyway, Benteke to Atlético is the current rumor du jour. I've never heard that link before, and it makes a lot of sense, so I'm willing to give it some credit.

You guys look like you had a blast Wish Barça did something like that, there's a fan kickabout at the end of every season but you have to enter a draw to get elected and it's you alongside a bunch of strangers who also win the draw, not your friends.

Yup. It also shows what utter bollocks this Financial Fair Play rule is. When does this come into force btw? Next season. I'm sure people have been saying next season for the last two seasons. Some parts of it are already in effect, that's why Málaga got banned for example. The "must balance out accounts" part of it starts in 2014/2015 taking into account balances from 2011/2012 until that year IIRC.

Yup. It also shows what utter bollocks this Financial Fair Play rule is. When does this come into force btw? Next season. The one in 2014/2015 I mean.

There's 4 teams vying for 17th place now, would've been better if Osasuna/Granada failed to win so 16th and 15th would've been in play too, but certainly we'll be in for some drama. My money's on Zaragoza staying up.

Our press seem intent in linking us with tall/strong strikers, personally I think it's just silly season paper-filler, but you never know. There isn't much in the pot if we have to sign Valdés' replacement and a CB.

I've thought about this sort of thing before. Imagine the likes of Newry City when they still existed. If I were a billionaire and was willing to spend a large chunk of my fortune on the club, what players do you think would realistically come and play in the Northern Irish league? How far would it actually get them like. I can remember Shelbourne holding Deportivo to a 0-0 years ago. Imagine getting Newry into the group stages of the CL. I smell a Footie Man save brewing up... Every FM player in this town has tried that s***. I have had saves with some two-bit leagues where I've won the CL, but the Northern Irish League? That'd be some shit Can I piss you off a little today? We've been linked with Bony (alongside a host of other "plan B" strikers).

No.

I've thought about this sort of thing before. Imagine the likes of Newry City when they still existed. If I were a billionaire and was willing to spend a large chunk of my fortune on the club, what players do you think would realistically come and play in the Northern Irish league? How far would it actually get them like. I can remember Shelbourne holding Deportivo to a 0-0 years ago. Imagine getting Newry into the group stages of the CL. I smell a Footie Man save brewing up...

How so? At least Monaco have some sort of history to them, while Man City, Chelsea and PSG were big(ish) teams before hand anyway. While Anzhi are paying big money so their players can live and train in Moscow and just fly in to Makhachkala for their games (a distance equivilant to our players living and training in Florence) while being surrounded by large amounts of security. Anzhi's home games in Moscow are usually hilarious, they have all the feel of closed-doors friendles. I didn't watch the EL game you played there, but I might wager a chance NUFC fans actually outnumbered the "home" fans.

The thought of all those players in Ligue 2

I was just eating hazelnuts and one came up bad.

The good thing about stuff like this is that it might end showing up top-level football as the rotten cocoon it has become (yeah, yeah Barça fan and all that) and something might be done about it. We'll see about FFP...

Falcao for €45m to Monaco a done deal according to As/Marca. €14m per year in wages.

Betis striker Rubén Castro arrested for allegedly beating his wife. Cunt.

Is Monaco's scouting department an old poster of 2011 Porto's squad?

Surely you can though? Just can't hit it off the post for yourself to score. I went with the header thing. Cruyff and Neeskens took that famous penalty where he passed it, so unless the rules have been amended since then both the passing and the off the post (which is passing) should be right.

6/12, better than I expected to be frank. Maybe I got right the ones that people claim are badly coded since I don't have a clue

Not really. Ashley has pleasantly surprised us with acquisitions before (Cabaye, Sissoko, MYM). And considering the rumors of Benitez wanting to stay in England, it wasn't so far-fetched to think we might've been in the running. Certainly had a better chance of landing Benitez than Mourinho, Pellegrini, etc. Robin Van Persie is a more realistic signing than Cristiano Ronaldo too. Benítez was never going to take a job without European football, or a team that just had as dodgy a season as yours. Way too much risk for his standing within the game. Would have been different had he crashed and burned at Chelsea and needed to bounce back, but after putting them in the CL and winning a trophy there was no need to rush for a job.

Xavi and Puyol's contracts run out around that time (2016 and 2015). Get the feeling Xavi wants to be a one-club man, though. Puyol might give it a crack.