Village Idiot

This PL show I'm watching is the silliest thing. They play a stupid SFX related to the team's nickname every time there's an update in a game: a magpie for ManCity - NUFC, a cannonball for the Arsenal game, some heavenly music for Southampton... The girl's pretty fit though.

Love how he looks like three sizes larger than the others in the 'shop

If Messi scores it will mean he consecutively scored against the other 19 teams in the league. Absolute madness. Ronaldo has scored against all the teams including his own #FTC ( not consecutively though) Somehow I think it'll be one of those games where we won't turn up. People seem to be packing for Paris already, plus lots of injuries at the back. Celta are turboshit though.

Eric Abidal in the squad against Celta de Vigo

...and ensure English domination in Europe. Like this year, oh wait.

No details yet about the precise formula used to calculate it (and tbf it will probably have to go through lots of negotiating) Using the current amount that RM/Barça get for their contracts right now as a baseline, the last club in La Liga would get €28m, it currently gets around half of that.

Reports that the Spanish government is working on new regulation that would force collective bargaining for TV rights. It would be enforced starting 2016-2017 season. The % of money every club would get every season would be accounted according to 1) their "historic importance" 2) their TV audience 3) table position The club with the lowest size of the pie would never get less than 1/5 of the highest. Interesting, if they really pull it off. Spanish Government

The prospect of a relatively tin pot club like Norwich spending 10m on a striker makes me realize how far ahead the PL is above everybody else money-wise. Fortunately, few clubs use it sensibly.

True but it is always a bonus to have somebody who can score regularly. I would argue that with Villa Spain at least have somebody with a history of scoring at that level. Did he play as a striker in the WC? Didn't go to the Euros. International football is more about a strong defence, a midfield that can control games and holding your nerve using this combo. Balotelli was probably the star striker last summer. He scored twice. While true in the case of the last Euros, Villa was in storming form in 2010, and Torres was at his best in 2008 (5 years ago already?).

Either Aussie or wholesale pie maker.

Constant was abysmal in the Camp Nou leg of the CL. Can't be that hard to be better than him.

That Wondolowski article is pure yankstats, loving it Friend of mine in NY was always telling me that football won't make it in the US because it can't be distilled into the sheer amount of "objective" stats as hockey or baseball. Give'em time.

Plucky Stoke doing the best they can with their limited resources.

Somebody caught Michael Johnson on vid it seems.

People already going full hysteria in Spain about the possibility of us not qualifying. This is such a silly nation.

Even if you got a bargain fee, I don't think he's worth the wages he's getting at Liverpool.

Never showed a great deal when starting for Racing Santander on loan. Granted it's harder to look great when you're surrounded with shit, but he's always looked to me as a decent, but nothing else, player. Good defender but slow and a bit of a bottler, and certainly miles behind Rio (on his prime at least). But I haven't seen him in Portugal.

Is Adriano still injured? Re-injured himself last weekend

As CB, surely. Only average-ish in midfield. But he's played little. Never understood that signing; I understand the role he's supposed to fill, but not the money we spent for a backup.

Not good enough for ManU unless he's improved lots since he moved to Portugal.

Oh well, hopefully Zlatan stays banned for the first match. We should get Adriano and Alba back for the second leg.

There will be a revolution if we don't qualify for the WC. Football's like the only thing working in this country. Don't think we'll be able to field a first team defence against PSG with Alba's injury to add to the list.

One and only: http://en.archive.uefa.com/competitions/ucl/history/season=2002/round=1637/match=1038235/index.html Actually sat pretty close to the away end that night; I usually do that since those are the cheapest seats and that means more games I can attend. I almost didn't make it, though, since the game had been postponed due to torrential rain (something extremely unusual over here), and I had to make arrangements to get the night free since I worked a night shift at the time. Ameobi looked quite the prospect that night, one of your best players.

Your USAF base in Spain gave you this: http://www.wwe.com/f/wysiwyg/image/2012/09/20120914_Light_Kane_OldPartners_HOMEPAGE.jpg No footballers though, soz.

Didn't quite a few of them play for the German youth sides?