Village Idiot

Talks between La Liga and the Spanish Players Union have collapsed after the basic agreement they reached in August to head off the strike. There's talk that the Union will call for a new strike.

Is it really "forbidden" to have a club manager double up as national manager? Other sports do that, and Mou asked to be allowed to manage Portugal last season.

Anyhow, absolutely love playing another Cup final against Athletic.

Easily achievable, just follow the Tottenham model. Jack up admission and season ticket prices to ridiculously high levels and have a fanbase mug enough to keep on filling the stadium. Out of curiosity what's your average ticket/ST price?

Aye, international friendlies are trite, particularly when they take away a weekend of proper football.

Deloitte money list. http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2931/go-global/2012/02/09/2894853/the-top-20-clubs-in-footballs-money-league Any chance of you appearing there in a few years? (NUFC placed regularly not too long ago)

Always feels great making it to a final, got aome masive srinking so indulge me a bit. Great banter with the Valenia crowd.

They are also threatening to seize some assets owned by Spanish companies down there. What's up with them?

Toral sacked after losing to Villarreal yesterday. Pity, I always liked the way his teams play and he worked a miracle with Racing last season. But things really weren't working out at Sevilla for some reason (well, they are a squad in marked decline too). That also means Sevilla won't probably pursue Dos Santos' signing anymore.

It did look really ugly live. But at the end it was only a very nasty looking gash on the knee, without ligament being affected.

It was only a bad cut, looked pretty ugly but no ligament was affected apparently. He's a doubt for the cup semifinal this wednesday, but that's it.

Dunno, with Alves on the other side I always liked the balance a more defensive-minded LB like Abidal gives us. But Alves isn't getting any younger himself and having somebody on that role on the other side would be great. Still, I'm sure we can't afford Bale for the amounts that have always been linked with him (and Spurs do drive hard bargains).

Just saw the highlights, what a magnificent goal from Cissé. Happy times with your strikeforce, it seems. Enjoy See you next year at the Camp Nou

Lots of rumors floating around regarding a trip that our DoF has reportedly made to London. Apparently, depending on the source, he has held talks for Bale or Van Persie. Van Persie would be just what the doctor ordered (pity he isn't younger), but surely Arsenal would rather sell him to Spurs for a bag of crisps and a framed photo of Sol Campbell than us?

Apparently it's indeed but a flesh wound. People were fearing there might be ligament damage since he couldn't even walk... he'll probably still miss the Valencia game (sigh) but at least it's not another long term injury to add to our loooooong list. Yesterday we played well, although we almost were left to rue our lots of missed chances. But at least we are creating them unlike against Villarreal. Tello was great, paciest player I have seen in our shirt since Eto'o's prime and a change from the cliché Barça player. Very direct. And Thiago really has managed to mitigate my fears about Xavi retiring. So at least the future's bright. Somehow, Messi still managed to score and assist a goal despite having a very indifferent game.

Our appeal process is a joke, it just looks like they decide on a coin throw. Well, actually they don't. They usually only overturn cards that didn't affect the outcome of the game (i.e., the aggravated side ended up winning), they almost never rescind a card that would imply that the ref changed the result.

I agree with the change, always wanted something like this to happen because a penalty+sending off just kills off a lot of games. The only problem is that it may encourage cheating inside the box, since you aren't risking a sending off you'll rather do whatever you can to stop an obvious goal. I understand that if it's cynical the sending off will still apply, but that's asking the ref to use his own judgement in situations that aren't that clear.

in addition to that injury? has been started training again? Caused by training on Friday. Probably rushed back too soon by Wenger. Arsenal seem to get an abnormally high number of longterm injuries especially for a club that is supposed to excel in sports science. They often rush back their star players, out of necessity. Apart from RVP or Wilshere, what star players?? Fábregas last season is a great example of what I say, got crooked soon after they rushed his return because they needed him so badly.

in addition to that injury? has been started training again? Caused by training on Friday. Probably rushed back too soon by Wenger. Arsenal seem to get an abnormally high number of longterm injuries especially for a club that is supposed to excel in sports science. They often rush back their star players, out of necessity.

wut?

A guy called "Manolas" should sign for a Spanish club. Such a waste of great cheap puns. (means "wanks" in Spanish...)

Coutinho to Espanyol on loan. How has he been at Inter? Could be the kind of player they need if he delivers on the hype he had. As a side Espanyol are very solid but completely devoid of any attacking nous.

Martin O'Neill bidding for Kevin Davies, you can't make that up Suppose Heskey is the plan B?

Saturday was quite easily one of our worst games since Guardiola took charge. Completely devoid of any attacking movement, penetration or anything. We were truly awful. I know we had lots of injuries, but lining up with two fullbacks as side forwards was madness. With Messi dropping back for his withdrawn role there was absolutely nobody making runs into the box to make stuff happen. Tello did far more in his 15 minutes on the pitch than Alves or Adriano in the entire match.

Ferran Soriano, who was Barça's treasurer under Laporta, has managed to add another notch to his belt by bankrupting Spain's second largest airline, of which he was CEO.