Village Idiot

Messi out for season, apparently. (Un)fortunately our season is already finished, too.

Anyway, thinking some Spain-based managers Montanier hasn't yet signed an extension. And he's just been linked with Rennes, surely you could beat Rennes? JIM has done wonders at Levante and there's hints he'll leave. He plays no-frills counterattacking football with plenty of kicking, but he's been ridiculously effective managing that team of hasbeens and rejects. Pellegrini seems destined to City, a pity. There's Pepe Mel, too. Got a modest team like Betis playing some fantastic stuff and is about to qualify them for Europe after several solid seasons from them. Can't see him leaving that place just yet, though. Sandoval has done something similar with Rayo, too. I personally adore his upbeat attitude, even when facing big teams like us or Madrid he plays gung-ho attacking football. But for some reason I can't see him working abroad; comes across as a good old fashioned working class god-fearing Spaniard that wouldn't adapt too well to life abroad. Oh, and there's this José Mourinho fella that's looking he'll get the sack too.

Benítez hasn't been afraid of taking time off until a good job appears. I think he'll come out of Chelsea just fine, particularly if they win the EL, and probably won't need a job right away to keep his "status". And all in all, I just can't see your board making a particular effort to convince him, money-wise.

Coutinho was brilliant for Espanyol, was flabbergasted when I learnt that Inter weren't using him at all and sold him to Liverpool. I admit that I thought that perhaps he was the kind of player that needs to be the king of the mice instead of the tail of a lion, and that maybe he'd flounder at a team where he wasn't the top dog, but he's been great.

Shit, was genuinely eating my nails last night. Internet was down until thismorning and for some reason they left out your game from the PL highlights... "Congratulations" on staying up. You'll be better next year.

GTFI Fucking Espanyol twats though, now I lost my right to abuse them for a year. Great scenes in Barcelona last night.

That's not true man, it's because then it would've clashed with La Liga games, which would have sucked.

Remember when we played ours in April because of CL fixtures. Ridiculous.

Is it an election summer? It is, and there's lots of turmoil over there right now. So he'll go for a glamour signing, but 100m is just stupid. I agree with what Mole says about Beñat, you should go for him. He hasn't had a great second half of season so the hype has quietened a bit and he wouldn't be so expensive.

"Marca" claiming that Real Madrid are prepared to bid up to €100m for Neymar :lol: Can't be true. Even for them.

How are you feeling post-Bayern, VI? What's the mood like around the Barca camp/fans etc? Gloomy, but the league win has softened it. The fans took it better than expected, the side was even clapped off the pitch despite the 0-3. Press and pundits got the knives out, though. The flipside of it, is that it might hasten our board to get the people in to stop the slow rot of the past two seasons and reinvigorate the side, but you look at our transfer record and well... it ain't too good.

Most of our papers linking Villa with Spurs today, for €8m-€15m depending on who you read.

He probably won't rate him based on that as he's usually quite bad in derbies. I am still undecided on Courtois myself tbh, he organises well and has very good box presence but i find his shot stopping and reactions to be very poor. How weird I think the exact opposite of him

When a footballer that's facing health/personal problems is said "to be playing his toughest game". So overused - at least in the Spanish press - I almost puke every time I read it.

http://estaticos03.marca.com/imagenes/2013/05/09/futbol/equipos/real_madrid/1368058038_extras_noticia_foton_7_1.jpg

I'm guilty of underrating Rooney myself, but at the end of it all he's a great player. He's just built up so massively by the press, that he's never going to justify the hype. But take that away and you can't deny what he brings to the team in all facets of the game. Hell, I'd love him at Barça. Suspect Madrid will bid for him though, being election year and Rooney long been a favorite of Pérez.

Ronaldo misses a pen. Shock.

Puyol has denied the rumor through his twitter account.

I find it hard to believe. Aye, an injury prone defender pushing 35 is *exactly* what Milan need. As pointed out, and despite Puyol being an absolute legend, it would be a blessing in disguise. He's essentially been "gone" the entire season due to his injuries. He still puts out a good game when fit, though.

What about Ancelotti? Just signed a new 2 year deal hasn't he? The best manager potentially available would be too get Jupp Heynckes. Proven record, used to pressure cooker environments, not an utter bellwipe. Isn't Heynckes 70? Wouls be just a stop-gap. Some people are talking about Solkjaer over here...

Pretty sure Mou has already agreed to join Chelsea. But I would love to see the looks on the faces of all those Chelsea fans chanting for him every game since December if he dumped them and went to ManU instead

I don't mind it as much; it's an option, and we've used it this year with Villa central and Messi wide (against Milan at home, for example). The problem is that Villa aside, who's on pretty erratic form, we don't have any other player that's comfortable in the box, or running into it. Loads of times Messi drops deep and creates stuff for Iniesta or Alexis to sky it, or for nobody to make a run to create space.

The court's buffoon, Cesc Fàbregas. To this day I still wonder why Spain or us use him in that role. But yeah, that's what I meant with my posts, we need to be more flexible. A pundit compared it to a drug, we're so fucking addicted to Messi that the team plays as in a drug withdrawal when he's not there.

Xavi and Iniesta hold the throne Messi sits on.

one man team, tbh. I think it's more a case that we've built ourselves to get the best off the best player in the world, and when such player isn't there, stuff like Bayern happens. We need to be more flexible.