Village Idiot

La Real have a great team this season, but Villarreal looked extremely dire yesterday.

Valverde's work in bringing through Iñaki Williams makes me think he can handle a player like Dembelé.

We absolutely needed a forward that can run at defences with pace. We could wait for i.e. Coutinho, but somebody in Dembelé's mold was a priority once Neymar left.

Hope it goes spectacularly wrong, purely because of the fee. I foresee an ACL in the first season.

He played second striker for Sevilla, or lead the line when they went just one upfront.

Levante have offered a €3m fee+wages to take Lucas Pérez on loan, according to Spanish press. Can't see this one panning out.

I think we'll land both for a combined fixed amount close to Neymar's cash, and then €80m more or so in addons that we'll figure out later how to afford Dembelé is confirmed as €105m upfront + undisclosed addons (rumored to be €30-€40m)

Ridiculous money that I don't feel comfortable with. Really exciting player putting that aside.

Random transfer of the day: Aquilani to Las Palmas.

I guess that defence will be similar in level to the ones he faces in the MLS But seems pointless to bring him in instead of using that bye game to test younger blood. Why not Sandro?

FFS, I wouldn't say "no" to having Jovetic in our bench

Jovetic would be fantastic, but I can't see him not going to Sevilla after they made the CL group stage.

David Villa called up for Spain. Wat.

I like Dembelé, I just think it's utterly crazy money for a 20 year old, and a massive risk.

Mbappe will probably go for slightly under Neymar money, so no.

To be frank both announced they were going to sue each other regarding the loyalty monies as soon as the deal happened. It's just come to fruition this week.

Should have took advtanage of their easy group last year and got their coefficients up. Yeah, life's really though in pot 3.

Yeah, I almost put him on midfield because of that. Van Gaal

Ok group. The usual tough team +2 bottom feeders. I hope we can shape up before playing Juve.

Samper loaned to Las Palmas. That's a great club for him, I hope he gets playing time.

Impressive set of clubs he's played - or not played - for.

We actually tried, but he rejected us because he didn't think he would get in front of Neymar. Now that's no longer a problem!

He'd just be a better Ayoze, imho. Probably need another profile.

Second largest transfer fee of all time, largest by a Spanish club...

25% IIRC? That's €30m right there.