Village Idiot

Zlatan hugging the Barça players and staff as Milan comes out to warm-up

He's actually a decent keeper, but he's been shocking today, not taking this seriously at all.

Pinto

I'm so torn by Dos Santos, he looks like he should be good, but he isn't. Needs to go on loan.

According to Munich's scoreboard, our second goal has been scored by Milito, who's not even there.

I think there's a wee bit of a difference on calling a player "handy" and hailing him as one of the best of his generation He's the best "dribble and cross" winger we have.

Afellay's only been six months with us, it's too soon to give up I think. And still he managed one of the most valuable assists of the season.

Afellay always looks handy on the pitch. I hope he stays, we don't really have a winger in his mold.

Ah, I love when we pull off these set plays.

Incidentally if you're looking for a striker Soriano - currently on the pitch - is on sale and pretty cheap (/hawk)

Our lineup is decent, given the players we have available.

Our press saying that Dos Santos to Sevilla is a done deal and has been for a while, but it's been held up since Barça have a 10% sell-on clause that expires August 1st, and both clubs are waiting on that.

Been reading more Argentine press, they seem to consider Bianchi the forerunner

Sabella, Martino and Bianchi are the candidates according to the Argentine press. I'm only familiar with Bianchi who was an abject failure at Atlético (which is not unusual at that place, that said). His last stint at Boca hasn't been great either.

I have absolutely no faith in the AFA to make a good appointment.

Yeah but they need more stability, and he didn't have that much time to give Argentina a shape. Spain limped away from the 2006 WC and the same manager delivered the EC 2 years later.

Batista has been sacked from Argentina. To be frank, I think he merited at least a bit more time, since the next major tournament is still 3 years in the horizon.

Just read on it, sounds beyond weird. 5 conferences with 8 teams each, and seeded so Boca, River (heh), Racing de Avellaneda, Independiente and San Lorenzo don't play in the same one. Then there's a split where the top 4 teams of each conference go into another league to compete for the title proper and the bottom 4 compete to avoid relegation. It also looks like they won't have a balanced schedule, yank-tastic.

No idea, I'm not familiar enough with the FFP or accounting practices to judge. But I suppose not since the contract was signed when these rules didn't exist so can't be expected from Real Madrid to adhere to them. Still, it's a lot of money going out of the club (according to the newspaper I took all this from there's a similar loan in another bank that comes in at the same time). But I was surprised to learn that they themselves haven't actually paid the fee yet. It might be common practice when financing big transfers, mind. FWIW this is the article in Spanish: http://www.elpais.com/articulo/economia/Bankia/usara/prestamo/fichaje/Cristiano/Ronaldo/pedir/liquidez/BCE/elpepueco/20110725elpepueco_1/Tes

Didn't cazorla reject a transfer to Madrid a few years back? Yes. Biggest affront a man can do, he's booed at Bernabéu ever since! So why is he accepting an offer from Malaga? can't just be about £££ as i'd assume Real would have offered him a significant wage rise. According to reports, he's been offered €3,5m at Málaga, which is a big amount for somebody not playing in the top two. Villarreal need to sell, too. Regarding why he refused Real Madrid, he was never going to be more than a rotation player there and would have harmed his Spain chances (injuries ended up doing that, sadly for him). Villarreal offered him an improved contract at the time, so I guess he didn't end up losing too much.

Didn't cazorla reject a transfer to Madrid a few years back? Yes. Biggest affront a man can do, he's booed at Bernabéu ever since!

Further reading on this, and it sheds some light on how those transfers are structured, as the bank has disclosed the terms of the loan in order to use it as collateral. Apparently Real Madrid have yet to pay a single euro of Cronaldo's transfer fee themselves (the banks did), and they have been only paying interest on the loan so far. They are scheduled to pay the principal in 3 installments, in July of 2012, 2013 and 2014. Interesting.

Fun financial/sports tidbit. The bank that loaned the money Real Madrid used to buy Cristiano Ronaldo is using said loan (among other assets) as collateral to ask the Central European Bank for stabilization funds.

According to "As" Brum have offered Zigic to a host of La Liga clubs, including Betis, Getafe and Mallorca, apparently on a free. Emana on the verge of going to Saudi Arabia for €4,5m. What a waste would that be.

A lot of players usually ask to see their favored doctors when facing a possibly serious injury. They are the ones most familiar with the player's medical history anyway, so it's not a daft petition.