Village Idiot

"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.

What's happened to David Villa man?! Wish I knew. I would chalk it to confidence but he's a player that's carried relegation-threatened teams on his back when he was a kid. Alexis, conversely, has been improving considerably as of late, 6 goals and 6 assists in 6 games. Was even clapped off the pitch. Anyway, Villa will be sold this summer (that was always going to be the case, given his age and that he has 12 months on his contract). We'll see who we buy to replace him, we are incessantly linked with Neymar. We'll see.

Felt good yesterday after the last 10 days of s***. Surreal how easily everything clicks when Messi is in the pitch, although we were quite good in the first half and were unlucky to be behind. Anyway, this is done and dusted. If Madrid draw or lose this Wednesday against Málaga we'd clinch the title without even playing... and given how things are imploding over there it isn't too far fetched.

Madrid media have been selling Bale to Real since January. Deafening, like. Think he'll end up there, it's election year and after a failed season Pérez will need a bone for the fans.

To be expected, WBA's season is already over and Wigan are playing for their lives.

Fucking hell, admittedly biting my nails here. Why didn't I adopt ManU as my English team FFS.

The way he says "we need to play" sounds like he expects somebody else to come up with the way of doing it.

After staying for so long would be odd for him to leave in a World Cup year, would have thought personally he'd wait for the world cup then leave He'd benefit from playing against actual defences instead of Brazilian league jokers before the WC imho. I don't disagree about Brazil, but why would he go to Spain then? Dunno, maybe because most of the current world champions play there

After staying for so long would be odd for him to leave in a World Cup year, would have thought personally he'd wait for the world cup then leave He'd benefit from playing against actual defences instead of Brazilian league jokers before the WC imho.

We have next to no chance, but I hope we'll give it all. I'm more worried about the "not conceding" part than the "score 4+" one, actually.