Village Idiot

We've loaned Alcácer to Dortmund. If he gets his confidence back he should do well there. Surprised at how poor Dortmund's striker lineup is, btw. What have they used the Dembelé/Aubameyang money on?

Absolutely no chance i’m watching that. Fun fact, it was made by a Barcelona company (nee surprise given the Catalan presence at the club). My employers actually...

Real Madrid have hijacked Sevilla's signing of Mariano, and he will now go back to Real Madrid. They do need another senior forward and he's done great in France.

Fat Ronaldo on the verge of completing the buyout of Real Valladolid for €30m, according to reports in Spain.

Newcastle legend Seydou Doumbia signs for Girona.

Pretty commanding performance from Espanyol against Valencia. Rubi looks like the real deal for them.

I'm pretty sure they won't like La Liga's US game either, they always hate it when it's others the ones that are profiting from destroying the game. I'm not sure they can do much to block it, though. Threaten to block Spain from the WC?

I really hope this is true. It's about time a stand was made against this sort of corporate sterilisation. Long overdue. It's true. They issued it this afternoon and they are threatening with a strike. The cynical and jaded football fan in me believes this will end up with footballers getting paid off for the game.

The Unai Emery bit had me in stitches, Spanish managers do this all the time

It's like Miguel Ángel Lotina in Spain. Endangered clubs would always sign him because of his "experience" in dealing with relegation battles. Of course he was an expert in them, the fucker relegated 4 clubs Finally people got wise and now he's managing in Japan, but damn the way he secured jobs was ridiculous.

What I wonder is why clubs still hire him at all.

Fun evening. Was a bit nervous during the first half because we weren't putting away the few clear-cut chances we made, but we were far more dangerous in the second half, hoying Coutinho in helped. As I said elsewhere, losing Iniesta makes it that Messi has to drop deeper to create stuff, I hope Coutinho can fill that role so Messi can be freed to just score great goals. Dembelé had a great game too, unlucky to not bag one. Hope he has a breakout season, Valverde seems to like him. Anyway, Alavés are pretty crap but it's always nice to have a good start. When Arthur came on Coutinho went further forward and I thought you looked more dangerous. I've not seen much of Arthur BUT the commentators were suggesting he would be the one to replace Iniesta (not sure if they were just saying that because he's got the shirt number). Not yet, at least. Arthur indeed has bags of talent but he is raw and struggled against Sevilla for example. Give him time though. He's a beautiful passer for sure. Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk

Fun evening. Was a bit nervous during the first half because we weren't putting away the few clear-cut chances we made, but we were far more dangerous in the second half, hoying Coutinho in helped. As I said elsewhere, losing Iniesta makes it that Messi has to drop deeper to create stuff, I hope Coutinho can fill that role so Messi can be freed to just score great goals. Dembelé had a great game too, unlucky to not bag one. Hope he has a breakout season, Valverde seems to like him. Anyway, Alavés are pretty crap but it's always nice to have a good start.

Dembelé could easily have a couple already. If he was a better finisher...

Oh, and Diego Milito.

For Spain I'd say Hasselbaink with Atlético or Trezeguet at Hércules. Both had pretty good seasons when they got relegated, too. Did Hasselbaink ever get relegated from the PL?

Didn't Aubameyang turn you down once Dortmund got involved? Harsh to blame that one on Ashley. Agree on the general sentiment though, the penny-pinching has got to ludicrous levels.

Still convinced Madrid are going to sign someone before the deadline. Iniesta is a big loss, he was our main playmaking outlet last season and we really looked more dull when he wasn't around. I look forward both Coutinho and Dembelé having a full season under their belts though, totally different players to Andrés but both should add incisiveness.

La Liga has signed an agreement with an US company to play official La Liga games on US soil. No date yet for when that would happen, but the agreement is set to last 15 years. So much

This has been a fun game. Much better as a single game than over two legs, although this is probably going to be an one-off.

Woah, what a goal Dembelé.

It's not been terrible given that Sevilla have had a far longer preseason (they are playing the EL quals), but I don't get the feeling we know what to do in midfield now that our lynchpin (Iniesta) is gone.

So weird to play the Spanish Supercopa in Morocco, ah well the trophy is a joke anyway, and having it single game should make it more entertaining.

It's like, of all the Barça players available for transfer or loan, he's the meh-est of them all. He was hyped because he was great in the Spanish third tier, but the Spanish third tier is a pile of crap. Valverde asked to get rid after just spending a couple weeks in preseason with him, and then Nice cancelled the second year of his loan after 6 months with him. The trend is easy to see. It's harsh, but the truth will set you free. He'll just be there to cover for Lejeune until he recovers, anyway.

With Rafinha probably going your net spend I would think would be at £25-30m? Any plans for Barca to sign more players? You need a LWF IMO We won't be signing an LWF after buying that Malcom fella. We'll probably sign one more player, though. We're linked with lots of midfielders. It would also not surprise me if we get a replacement for Digne. I really wanted us to get a striker, but after failing to land Griezmann there really isn't much on the market.