Village Idiot

What's up with Carroll and all those surrogate father figures?

It's the labor law. Would need of some heavy lobbying to get it modified. Personally I don't mind Spanish clubs not being able to tie their youngsters with golden chains until they are 17, what I regret is how this doesn't apply to other nations that exploit it against us.

Sorry, I fail to see it as stealing. Surely Barca had the opportunity to keep him there? Or is there some kind of loophole I don't know about? There is a loophole. We can't offer 16 year olds professional contracts. English clubs can. Same way we lost Cesc (and Piqué, and Mérida, and Pacheco...).

David Luiz is great, but we were never linked with him. We really need a couple more CBs this summer. Our depth there is abysmal and Puyol can't go on forever. Hopefully one of Fontàs/Muniesa can make the step up too.

Seems his last injury has finally f***ed him up. Has the mobility of a tectonic plate now.

On more "Barça player going to England" news, our press reporting that Aston Villa is trying to get Gaby Milito from us (sorry brummie)

Also in 5 years time we'll be tapping him up left and right every time one of our players opens his mouth. This alone should prevent you from poaching more youngsters from us. We'll get Cesc to do it, too.

He's an athletic midfielder with good technique. Game based around power and pace, which makes me think he'll fit in England, and allows me to take some solace in the fact his dominance in our youth teams is probably because he is more developed than most other kids. [/wishful thinking] Mérida hasn't had a good season. But nobody at Atlético has. Still very young so it would be harsh to write him off yet.

Sevilla thrived under a similar policy (buy cheap, sell high) after getting promoted. They sold Sergio Ramos, Reyes, Baptista... and yet went on to win two back-to-back UEFA cups. But their transfer record during the period is unbelievable. Daniel Alves for 500k? Julio Baptista for €3m? Luís Fabiano for €3.5m?

Aye, rub it, child snatchers. Fortunately Samper has refused you. Toral's good, Samper's great.

It reminds me of all the emotional preparation my parents did every time one of my pets died ("We left the cage open and your parakeet ran off, but we'll find him")

So he's unsettled because people say he's unsettled

I love how that wage slip has become the Rosetta Stone of players' contracts. I found it quite fascinating in a perverse way. We hear about players' stupid wages all the time, but to actually see such a ludicrous version of what we all get from work made you realise just how daft they are. I loved how they deducted some piddly amount for meals.

Interesting, not too dissimilar than us then. We seem to stick with 5-a-side a bit more though. Usually until 10 or so (unless it's changed since I was in a football academy, mind!).

Premier League >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The universe dontcha know?

I personally find that €7m figure very, very hard to believe. Sevilla never sell cheap.

Cadena Ser was it?

If you get past their Real Madrid stuff, they are without a doubt the best sports daily in Spain. Used to be better under their previous ownership, though. In general it's not a good time for quality sports journalism in Spain. Best writers are found in the general press, actually. The Barcelona rags, truth be said, are pretty awful. "El Mundo Deportivo" used to be a great neutral newspaper when I was young, but it is unreadable Barça fluff nowadays. "Sport" lives in some strange parallel dimension where Real Madrid is always on the brink of relegation and we have won the CL 14 times in a row.

They make the mujahedeen look fair and balanced. One of their editorial points is that the Spanish FA conspires against Real Madrid to prevent them from winning the league, hence stuff like this.

Well I meant southern as in south of London.

Not a great time for southern clubs, it seems.

They have just issued an apology saying it was "a technical mistake" after being caught red-handed, but they surely can. How do you "mistakenly" edit out a player from a photo?

1) Xavi pass leading to Barça's first goal as published today in "As", where an offside is claimed: 2) Screen grab of the same play from Canal+ Spot the difference! http://www.as.com/recorte/20110221dasdasftb_15/LCO/Ies/Barcelona-Athletic.jpg

Yes well who else is going to buy him? Seriously lets look at the Six major teams who may want him. Man City - David Silva Chelsea - A Cole Man Utd - Evra Arsenal - Clichy Spurs - Bale Liverpool - Kon..... Oh s*** Basically if he does go, he'd go to Liverpool, let's just hope they're looking elsewhere for a LB. They have Kolarov in there, who started rather badly but it's growing into one of his best attacking assets lately.

Aye, that's what I was sort of getting at. I can only dream of what would have happened had Ronaldinho kept his head screwed on. One of the most salient things of Ronaldinho's game is that he wasn't a smart player *at all*, he always tried to play his way out of trouble and constantly ran into blind alleys, but was so ridiculously talented that he'd get away with it time after time and leave me with my jaw on the floor. In his peak he was also a great athlete, which people don't seem to remember.