Village Idiot

Personally, I think that if Athletic gets a decent result here (1-1 or even 2-1), San Mamés is going to murder ManU.

Fergie hurting there

Outplayed and outsung. Lovely. Now score another.

GET IN

I love Athletic's attacking movement. Bielsa

Susaeta, don't try to do a Messi... you had enough space to bring that down.

Awwwww...

Athletic fans singing "Florentino, son of a bitch" in Spanish Good boys

http://i.imgur.com/yaFo8.jpg I don't get it, did I praise Sunderland unadvertedly?

Cantona: "Catalonia would have won the World Cup too" Not true but

Plus Stoke have spent a truckload for a non-Top 6 team. Limited resources my arse. Such a scary thought.

Man, what a deluge of great goals at Atlético - Besiktas. Great shot by Simao 3-1. Didn't celebrate it, classy.

And another by Adrián, 3-0. What a goal. Messiesque.

Atlético looking like Brazil 1970 at times there. 2-0 up after half an hour with two great goals by Salvio.

Amortisation is based on the value at the end of an intangible asset's life. In the case of a player's registration, that is worth zero because the player can leave on a free. If you take a physical asset costing £10m which could be scrapped for £2m and had a life of 4 years- then you would count £2m depreciation (more or less same thing, but for tangible assets) per year until it was worth its scrap value at the end of its life. It is simply a way of allocating costs over long periods. If a company spent £100m on new kit that would bring them huge revenues over 10 years- why should they suffer a huge loss in the year they bought it? This method ensures that costs and benefits are fairly allocated. This is also not what a player is worth- its just what is on the books. We're at liberty to sell a player for more or less- it's purely an accounting methodology. Fair enough if we're talking about equipment and vehicles etc but it barely relates to the value of a footballer if at all. The idea is that this is an objective accounting methodology, which also allows to spread costs predictably. If you are going to adjust your books according to an estimation of a footballer transfer value, how do you decide what value to put in? Footballer market value varies VILDLY throughout time and depends on so many unpredictable and non-objectivable factors, it wouldn't be a good way to run a business. Predictability and reliability is key in accounting. Again, Messi has a value of 0 in our books, too.

That makes him a very meh signing imo, now if hes bought to play alongside Van Persie( either on the left, right or behind him) or in his place when he needs a rest or injured. Then its a fantastic signing. Would still be a decent signing like. Of course, there's a certain risk to Podolski - from what I gather, he's a player who's been pretty much indifferent at club level these past few years (compared to his international exploits anyway) so he probably will need time to settle. If this is the case then he probably won't be Van Persie's replacement as such in the short term (if RVP does go that is) but can see being a capable replacement in the medium/long term. Podolski has been quality for Köln again these past two years. I think it is a very good signing if he's not RVP replacement and is employed as LW or behind him. I find the financials of the deal (100k/w ) a tad ridiculous but not the player itself.

It's the recommended percentage by FIFA. I don't know if it's a sane percentage for a generic business, but football is crazy.

Wait, you're 5th best with a 60% wages to turnover (which is the recommended percentage), where does that leave the following 15? And I thought La Liga was fucked

Not sure what this means Means Tiote is currently 'worth' about £2m. Aye, it doesn't represent market value. Messi is marked as being worth 0 in our accounts IIRC it's derived from the transfer fee paid, games played, years remaining of contract and possible clauses in the contract (loyalty fees, etc...)

Think it loosely means "have a snack" (literally "hit the hunger"), remitting to the fact that La Bombonera means "chocolate box" Ace poster indeed.

When you go to the opera you don't scream while the musicians play Nah, I won't deny that the atmosphere at the Camp Nou isn't great. Always been like that, though, except in the big games.

After watching it on the telly while I lived in the US, I almost thank god that my visa expired and had to come back to Barcelona. I miss New York, but Messi and the others make up for most of it.

He's the best player I have ever seen (and that includes Maradona), but well, I guess I can be biased. Without a doubt the greatest in our shirt, though (and that includes Maradona). Think I'll tell the GF I want children only in order to tell them I saw him play live, so they hate me for the lucky bastard I am.

Great article by Sid Lowe on Bielsa's methods at Athletic: