Village Idiot

barcastuff barcastuff Both Montoya and Bartra have confirmed that, pending the signature, their contract renewal is almost agreed upon. #fcblive [via ona] Just read that after the game, glad there's an agreement. Montoya has lots of potential, he's already been in the Spain squad despite playing in Liga Adelante.

Didn't appear to be a fantastic place when I was there either. Greater Manchester and Cheshire have some very nice areas. My aunt lives there, for somebody wealthy Milan it's a great place to be. Some very nice places in the countryside too.

It's actually almost exactly the same distance.

Heh, just saw that Milan conceded a draw in the last two minutes.

Rightback. A great prospect, but with Alves in front of him there's talk he'll leave on a free.

To be completely honest, BATE are one of the crappiest teams I have seen in this competition. But it's nice to see the kids getting this kind of experience, if Deulofeu develops a better football brain he'll be amazing. And I hope Montoya stays.

Silva Mata Villa Ridiculous that Valencia could have had the best front 3 in world football and now they've none. €100m for all of them, it saved the club.

Cech has chosen today to play like old Cech. Valencia could easily have had a couple.

Mata, what a player.

Quite a miss that, Drogba.

Man, I had to say it out loud to understand it, fortunately I'm the only one who speaks English in this room.

Loan with buyout clause. However, reading a bit more into it, it looks like Milan have only agreed terms with the player, not the club. But apparently Galliani has announced it on Milan's TV channel, so the news is genuine.

And Pedro

Montoya scores for us against BATE. I really hope he resigns with us, he really is something.

Marca reporting that Milan have agreed terms for Carlos Tévez with ManCity. Talk about a top-heavy squad...

Feghouli? Having a decent season so far. First time I seem him. Seems to be a lovley player. Shame. A real shame that Valencia crumbled when it matted the most. Was touted as "the new Zidane" even though is a completely different player. Quick as f***, and not totally a headless chicken. Still young and with lots potential.

Feghouli? Having a decent season so far.

Awful defending there. Meh.

Man, Ricardo Vaz Te, completely forgot about him. Was a big prospect but always looked like bambi on ice when turning up for Bolton.

The Valencia fans are quite vocal. Amunt València!

Fault was a strong word. Maybe I should have asked 'is Villa being sacrificed for Messi?' Yeah well, he's the centerpiece of our team, but I don't think the problem is Messi hogging all of our attacking play and Villa dropping to a side. David gets involved a lot, but he's snatching at it. I seem to remember Sid Lowe mentioning that Villa doesn't get along that well with Messi. That said, I was probably only half listening to what he was saying and so he was probably taking the p*ss out of some Marca headline. A small Valencia rag claimed that, and Marca echoed it. Would surprise me if it's real, there's a lot of videos of both of them doing stuff together during travels. And they do have a pretty good understanding on the pitch, they synch their movements pretty well. That said, I have lots of time for anything Lowe says or claims about Spanish football. I am the opposite. Villa isn't as bad as Zlatan but it wouldn't surprise me if Villa finally falls out with Messi due to Messi's dictate tempo upfront. It is shocking to see Messi dictating the ball even more than Cristiano (this year). He has gone over the top imo. I don't know, as I said he's the centerpiece of our attacking play, but that's by design. When you have a player of his caliber you just want him to feature as much as you can. It's not like he hogs the ball and tries to score a wonder goal every time he gets it. Three of the five we put past Levante this weekend where from plays that Messi started but somebody else finished. Sometimes the team relies too much on him, yes, but that's a quite different problem.

Fault was a strong word. Maybe I should have asked 'is Villa being sacrificed for Messi?' Yeah well, he's the centerpiece of our team, but I don't think the problem is Messi hogging all of our attacking play and Villa dropping to a side. David gets involved a lot, but he's snatching at it. I seem to remember Sid Lowe mentioning that Villa doesn't get along that well with Messi. That said, I was probably only half listening to what he was saying and so he was probably taking the p*ss out of some Marca headline. A small Valencia rag claimed that, and Marca echoed it. Would surprise me if it's real, there's a lot of videos of both of them doing stuff together during travels. And they do have a pretty good understanding on the pitch, they synch their movements pretty well. That said, I have lots of time for anything Lowe says or claims about Spanish football.

For what is worth, I have yet to see a mainstream Spanish media - other than in the news clips relating to the name change - calling it anything else than "Saint James' Park". Incidentally, wonder if the BBC called our stadium "FC Barcelona Stadium" which was its real official name until 2005.

Aye, lots of them. Only 6 senior players in the squad.

Fault was a strong word. Maybe I should have asked 'is Villa being sacrificed for Messi?' Yeah well, he's the centerpiece of our team, but I don't think the problem is Messi hogging all of our attacking play and Villa dropping to a side. David gets involved a lot, but he's snatching at it.