Village Idiot

You guys not even being linked with a striker? Makes no sense.

Montella to Sevilla. Interesting one.

Las Palmas appoint Jémez, their 4th (!!) manager this calendar year and third this season. Lots of respect for him, but he's never been a manager that hits the ground running, and Las Palmas' situation is pretty desperate.

First time since 2009 that nobody named Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo finishes as top goalscorer for the natural year. Changing of guard?

Get in, needed a lift after the election

Which thanks to the "no round of 16 between clubs of the same nation", means that Chelsea looks fucked (or maybe us or PSG are, who knows). http://e00-marca.uecdn.es/assets/multimedia/imagenes/2017/12/06/15125965602262.jpg Maybe they'll get lucky and get Besiktas, but it's a bit ridiculous that the draw can be like that.

Pity we didn't get Costa Rica from pot 3, it would've been a SPANISH EMPIRE group.

Bale injured again. Good for us but dude can't catch a break. Something rotten with his fitness, Madrid's physios, or both.

Marcelo reaches a deal with the prosecution on his tax fraud case. 4 months in jail (which he will avoid due to our "two strikes" laws) and a hefty fine.

Also, Deulofeu is so bad he should be The Punisher's major villain in season 2. Still one month until Dembelé is back.

Fair enough. Apologies if I misinterstood you, Stifler.

Should have put this one to bed in the first half, but guess I can't complain about the result.

So we aren't a functional city? Kindly fuck off man

That 80% is more than Old Trafford or Anfield can hold, though... Camp Nou is really big - probably too much given that i.e. Real Madrid have a smaller stadium in a much larger city -, but it makes sense financially since even though we only fill it very few games a season (El Clásico and later stages of the CL), STs sell out completely. As an aside, attendances used to be better when we still had terraces - the stadium held 114.000 back then too.

Well, we haven't the greatest of the atmospheres, but the influx of football tourists on biggish games usually makes it worse than the average. The Camp Nou is really old and that's why the board is trying to find the funds to renovate it (which includes selling the naming rights).

He signs one month before he was allowed to talk to other clubs and leave on a Bosman. I was really sweating this one.

Messi benched. In Turin against Juventus. True that we need to lose by 3 goals in order to put first place in jeopardy, plus we're travelling to Valencia on the weekend, but it's still weird.

I honestly still don't understand why they didn't even attempt to replace Morata. You look at that squad and it's blatantly obvious they lack options upfront. Given us a lifeline after our own awful transfer window.

Meh. Hype is hype. We're in the CL and in a CL place. *broken record* Until we get into the new stadium and start generating the kind of revenue which will allow us to compete on a level at least comparable to the clubs above us, then I will take a CL place as a success. Teams don't play in a vacuum. The teams above us right now spent 221M, 188M and 150M on new players this summer, to add to the crazy amounts they spent in previous windows and the insane advantage they have in wage bill. We're really good, we punch far above our weight, and have done so for years. Had dinner with some Real Madrid fans this week and they're still in shock after the London game.

Heh, I have always defended Benzema's role in Madrid's striking line, but this season is becoming difficult... They have a bad conundrum. I still don't think Ronaldo is going to be as effective played as a pure #9 as if they bought a top drawer pure #9, but right now their striking line has lost all the dynamism they were famous for.

Atlético's captain Gabi after the draw against Qarabag: "The Europa League is s***". Refreshingly honest. As for Barça, we were poor yesterday. When Messi's off we have little to bring to the table offensively. That's what Neymar was about. Suárez's form is dire too.

Our press is reporting that Arsenal want to recruit our former Director of Operations, Raül Sanllehí, who's just been sacked (about time). We're talking about the guy whose responsability was negotiating most of our transfers (not target selection, just closing the deals). Why would Arsenal want to get near him? He's the dude that i.e. closed the Neymar transfer from Santos that got us in loads of trouble

Only seen the highlights, but keep thinking the team is papering over the cracks just through sheer force of will and managerial accumen - both are great, but I'd feel less anxious with a bit more quality. My worry is that a protracted sale process will prevent any January signings.

There's a milk brand under that name. Sadly don't think they will be one of the candidates.

The club will put forward a proposal for the Camp Nou's naming rights in early 2018, subject to member approval. It will be something like "Camp Nou XXXXX". Feel kicked in the balls, but I was expecting that. Sadly the sign of the times.