Village Idiot

If we pay him when we resolve his contract with Barça it will count all of it towards this year, which will probably make us run afoul of the spending cap. I think that what we want is ManU to shoulder that.

Well, it's not really a pay cut, rather payment deferments. We are limited in our yearly spending by La Liga due to our beleaguered finances, and that's the only way to be able to sign people while not running afoul of our spending cap.

By all accounts the guy now in charge of football business (Salvador Alemany) is really good - and for a change our deals and transfers are mostly sensible. I am worried about Laporta's ego-driven short-termism, he already had his financial director resign a few months ago.

We have sold 25% of our La Liga broadcasdting rights for the next 25 years to a yank fund for something like €600m. There's a saying in Spain "bread today, hunger tomorrow", that's what this is. I love the signing, getting Dembelé back on a short contract with a pay cut (I find the whole affair hilarious after he was demanding 30 million/year last december, which nobody offered) is also a good bit of business. Unsure about Lewandowski - absolute top drawer of a player, but I don't think we should be spending 50 million on a 30+ player in our situation.

I haven't invited Birmingham to play.

Why are we made to suffer so much?

Well, Pedri (not a La Masia product) is simply amazing. And there's Fati, Gavi, Nico... And having Xavi as a manager gives a connection to that era - not dissimilarly to how Guardiola had Cruyff as his mentor. I think there's plenty to look forward to. We're broke, though!

Strong talk that Busquets will leave for the MLS after this season. When he goes it will only be Piqué remaining (who's also strongly linked with a move out) who was in the team during the Guardiola glory days. Well, there's Alves too but he hasn't been in the squad continuously.

Thank, it looks like he'll take on Piqué's role, then.

We've signed Kessiè (Milan) and Christensen (Chelsea) on frees. Can't say I've followed them. Any opinion? Also, Dembelé remains unattached after nearly a week, confirming that nobody (rightfully) wants to meet his astronomical demands. There's talk we may resign him in a short contract, which wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

I remember Colo getting massive stick in his first season.

We drew yesterday and secured second place in La Liga. This is important because it gives us a spot in the new Supercopa, which is rather lucrative thanks to your overlords the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Given how dire things were looking before December, I'll honestly take this. Getting kicked out of the EL left a bit of a sour taste, we were on a high back then and it seemed we could go all the way. But ultimately this squad still needs lot of work, and we are not out of the woods financially so there's little room for big signings. Nonetheless, we have a spine of very talented young lads, which makes me optimistic for the future. Heck, even with our issues I think that if Pedri manages 40+ games next season we'll be up there. He's that special.

Gotta say I never watched R9 live, though. I was a penniless student back then and he left after just one season. Also, I'll curse covid for robbing me of one last Messi game before he left

Cheick vs Arsenal. Incredible goal to cap an incredible comeback. Honorary mention to Lovënkrands vs West Brom on account of how emotional it was.

Piqué and the Spanish FA have found themselves in a bit of a pickle. Piqué runs a sports event company, which partnered with the Spanish FA to create the new Spanish Supercopa, played in Saudi Arabia (hooray). The Spanish FA got hacked a few weeks ago, and some whatsapp convos between Piqué and the FA president have been leaked. Piqué's company is getting a phat fee (but this was known), but what has drawn public attention (again, this was in the contracts, but it wasn't widely known), is that the Saudis pay more money if Real Madrid or Barça qualify. Essentially, if Barça finishes second instead of say, Atlético or Sevilla, The FA gets 8 more million. That's the kind of stuff that will throw the integrity of the competition in doubt.

Massive touting. It's being said that around 20k STs are directly or indirectly controlled by touts. Touting is extremely lucrative, Barça STs are very cheap compared to other big European clubs, and demand is sky-high. This has been an issue for decades, but the club has never dropped the hammer on it because STs are votes. Laporta has announced it will move to digital personalised tickets to make it harder to resell tickets outside of the club free seat system. Will see.

Possibly? Or the PL. You keep being mentioned in the articles, but I think it's more "let's link player XXX with all the clubs with money".

We're finally extending Araujo's contract. He'd been linked to the PL given that he had a pretty affordable release fee (€50m). Would have sucked if we lost the first competent CB we stumble upon in quite a while. Now only Gavi and Dembele's need new contracts and we'd have secured our young spine. I'm not confident on extending Dembelé, though, he's just asking for too much money given our financial situation.

Will see about Dembelé. We're still very constrained by our financial situation and he's asking for a lot of money. Still think he's Premier-bound, or maybe PSG.

Also, my current boss - whom I despise - is a RM fan. It's going to be a really nice day.

He's been amazing. I thought he was a meh signing, so happy to have been so wrong.

Man, I'm *this* close to taking my pants off.

Patrick Van Aanholt. Now that is a name I haven't heard in a long time.

Christ, Pedri's insane.

You bet! What a difference can managers make, right?