Village Idiot

Not too many? Besides the awfulness of playing it in Miami, of course. We don't have a history of playing Girona so honestly it doesn't feel that special after the novelty of the first season. It's obviously huge for them. I hope they manage to establish themselves in the top division, mind. It's been ages since we managed to have 3 Catalan teams regularly competing at the top. That said, they have had a rather mediocre transfer window, and Sevilla snatched their manager. I've never rated the new one (Eusebio). A lot will hinge on Stuani having another stormer of a season, or Doumbia bringing in another source for goals.

Nah. No rivalry whatsoever. Pretty much every Girona fan also supports Barça to some degree.

Apparently Girona plan to fly all their ST-holders to Miami. Good on them, given the circumstances.

Yes, they fines are larger. The tax office has been cracking down on footballers a lot these past years: Ronaldo, Messi, Mascherano, Alonso, Mourinho and a long etcetera. In Spain, your first prison sentence with a maximum of 2 years is on the house. This is often used on tax cases; the prosecution offers less than two years in jail if the defendant pays up.

Entered a plea deal for tax fraud in Spain, 1 year suspended prison sentence and €3.3m fine.

Wow, just noticed that Borriello signed for Ibiza, in the Spanish Segunda B.

That's the biggest thing it takes away from the game, unfortunately. With regards to teams having X amount of appeals, could this not be abused to give a team a breather when they're on the ropes? Say we're winning 1-0 and the opposition are all over us in the dying minutes but we have two appeals left. Could we not just appeal any two decisions to force a stoppage and allow us to regroup? It seems open to abuse. You have a point regarding abusing challenges, I guess we could draw on yanks' experience with video refs on that regard. But overall, the occasional stoppage for VAR is a price I am willing to pay given how much we gain. Far fewer games decided by badly called penalties, offsides, cards, etc... It's so much more satisfying. Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk

I'm always skeptical when larger-than-life former footballers take over clubs without managing experience, but I really hope it works out well for them. Lots of time for Fat Ronaldo.

Another week of la liga, another week of almost zero ref drama. Really liking this. The only issue was the red card in the Sevilla derby but that was a subjective decision. VAR can't really help there. It's still weird to see players celebrating two minutes after scoring because the ref wanted to check VAR, though!

Well, that was fun.

Celta were really impressive against Atlético. They have assembled a great team for a club not playing in Europe (or the PL). Aspas, Maxi, Lobotka, Sisto...

Looking forward to play Spurs. They have been one of the most impressive English teams in Europe these past years. Valencia are fucked, unless the wheels truly come off for Mourinho at ManU.

Well, the things that have been still called incorrectly are usually because the referee chose not to review them. I think a limited appeal system might help here. Then there's also plays that are so close/subjective to call that are always going to be controversial. But so far I'm really happy with VAR in La Liga, will see how it works throughout a long competition (i.e. if defenders have to adjust since we're having more penalties being called).

So far so good with VAR in La Liga. We've had quite a few key decisions called correctly thanks to VAR, and it makes the game just much more enjoyable knowing that. It's still far from perfect. Still believe we need a system like the NFL where teams can also formally ask for a limited number of reviews, instead of just the ref.

From wikipedia: We still have some questionable anti-blasphemy laws in our books, but not at that level!

We're keeping Munir, he fits the system best. Alcácer was always too static. Nonetheless, we really need a proper replacement for Luís Suárez.

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