Village Idiot

It'd be s*** if you found a Tiote though. Wouldn't imagine his clause would match his real value, which would mean that we would lose him for peanuts compared to what he's worth. In that instance you'd probably offer him a new contract with higher wages and a higher release clause after 3 months or whatever I'd have thought, not that the player would have to accept. We just had to offer a new deal to Busquets, whose release clause was a "mere" €30m. Reckon Busquets, albeit he is class for Barca, would be fairly average if he moved elsewhere due to how suited he is to playing for Barca. That happens with a lot of our players, but it's the point of our youth setup really.

loads of people go on what they remember in the press and he was slated in his first season (deservedly some would say). loads of people are adamant we play with a very high line cos it was mentioned in the citeh away game so they think we do it all the time... we don't. loads of peole last season thought alan smith started off grerat cos the press said so...he didn't. Yeah, that was what I thought, they were mostly talking out of hearsay/faint memories from his first season/assumption that any CB playing for you must be total s**** by default.

It'd be s*** if you found a Tiote though. Wouldn't imagine his clause would match his real value, which would mean that we would lose him for peanuts compared to what he's worth. In that instance you'd probably offer him a new contract with higher wages and a higher release clause after 3 months or whatever I'd have thought, not that the player would have to accept. We just had to offer a new deal to Busquets, whose release clause was a "mere" €30m.

I think Coloccini is still under the radar, I was talking about NUFC with my couple of English friends and they still thought he was rank.

Are the values of the release clauses generally quite well known? In public, and amongst clubs? Yes of course, they are public.

It'd be s*** if you found a Tiote though. Wouldn't imagine his clause would match his real value, which would mean that we would lose him for peanuts compared to what he's worth. Happens all the time. You have to offer a new deal to the player to increase his clause. Racing tried that with Canales, but he refused and went to Real Madrid for €5m.

I don't particularly think players are more loyal in Spain. If a bigger club comes knocking, they'll ask for a move. Our release clause system tends to reduce the drama, though, since there's already an asking price in place for any player (clauses tend to be reasonable outside the big clubs/stars)

Because he chose Croatia?

Atlético were heavily linked to Rakitic in the first half of our season an ended up signing Juanfran for twice that amount of money instead

Mou scouting Lyon.

Only way they can conceivably score tbf

Milito looks scarily out of his depth this season. Hope Abidal plays there against Arsenal.

Well, can't win all the time.

Asturians are pretty hardcore about their team (Oviedo or Sporting). Luís Enrique said today that he couldn't honestly wish Sporting to lose tonight.

Local (more or less) lad, son of a miner... pretty sure he'll go back there after he leaves us.

Guaje

El Molinón is the oldest professional stadium in Spanish football. Classy place.

Need to sack off Masch. Mascherano is a liability. Does fuck all of value and he's always on the verge of being sent off.

We are sucky tonight. Has to happen at some point I guess. Afellay completely out of place in that position, rather Pedro comes in.

Marca claiming Arsenal have set a €65m asking price for Cesc, without installments or players. Canales likely to go on loan to Getafe as part of the deal to re-buy Dani Parejo.

Is Balotelli fit for this? Read last week that Mancini aimed to have him back for the derby.

No way!! Spurs would because they're a big club but west ham no way especially seen how they'll be a lower division club(I hope so anyway their fans and millwall's fans are knackers)! You've just made me check the C'ship table to see if Milwall was in good position to get promoted. I shudder to think what would/will happen with these two clubs in the same division. Bunch of twats.

haway man dave, they're both awful. Caicedo at city was nothing short of terrible, and let's be honest the standard of defending in Spain is terrible an'all, other than barca/real. He's just not the type of player we should be looking at building our attack round. Similarly with bendtner, overrated, overpaid, over-confident. 10 goals in 16 starts is a false representation of his season and performances. Factor in the number of sub appearences and shots to goals ratio and you quickly visualise the player in hand. He's crap. With the players around him at arsenal he should be scoring 20+/season and contributing far more in terms of general play. How many footballers have you seen play? If you think they're good then I can only summise that you've only ever seen two players play football and have complete tunnel vision Man, I really wish we had Spanish sides playing English ones more often in Europe to put that cliché to bed. It's beyond tiresome now. Quick fact: 1053 goals were scored last year in the PL, 1031 in La Liga.

Stonewall pen if there's one: http://www.marca.com/tv/?v=jp8iQ0d0zOl (hopefully not geotagged)

Their place.