Village Idiot

Benzema >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Vela/Bendtner He's hardly a troublemaker in the dressing room. Seems to get in a fair bit of mess outside of it though. He just needs a caring manager, Wenger would be ideal for him.

There's no way Benzema will leave Madrid in January given their lack of depth there and Higuaín facing a potential long spell in the sidelines.

Larsson for 2m is a steal. You should hijack that move.

Lass.

tactile?

Apparently after the Clásico and the Ramos incident Xavi went out to Diarra inside the tunnel and gave him the ball of the match, telling him "since you haven't seen it the whole match now you can have it for a while". Sometimes he's such a magnificent c***

Spanish press reporting today it's Barça who has tied up Neymar. It's starting to sound like those bad sitcoms where the protagonist has agreed to a date with two girls the same night.

We would be like brothers/fellow harem wives.

Dunno, maybe it's different in Spain but when I was a kid it was just impossible to set up regular football during the summer months in the team I was in. Too many people left during july-august.

What about holidays? Summer is fine for the occasional football camp, but you won't muster enough attendance/focus with the kids being on holidays imho. Doing football during the school term is a great way to fit it into a routine and works as a great release from studying. At least is how it worked for me (granted, I didn't become a world class footballer).

Who is actually rating him at all? Funniest thing is that the Barça youth team they filched him from had a ton more talented players. Thiago, Bartra, Romeu... yet they ended up with Pacheco. They might not have agreed to a move, but it is still funny.

Who did they say that about?

Somebody needs to buy Rossi before too many people realize he's finally turning into a cracking forward.

He's much better in a central AM role though. He started his career as a winger but isn't his best position imho. Can imagine cos of his stature he'll never be given a run through the middle by a coach like Mancini but you look at players like Nasri who have been playing centrally after initially being played left wing for the same reason. He's been fantastic. I don't know about La Liga but in Premiership the smaller players are often used on the flanks. Silva has looked decent buzzing around the wings, I've probably only seen a diluted version of him in that case. The little I saw of him in Spain he was playing the wings. He still plays in the wing for Spain, given our glut of talent in the central midfield. He started as a winger, and Pep actually tried to sign him in the treble season to perform that function. Valencia started to give him more and more freedom until he became a central player when Mata broke through. He is more able to run play from that position than in the wing. Mata-Villa-Hernández with Silva in the hole was absolutely mouth-watering to watch when on song. The lithe number 10 isn't rare in Spain: Caminero, Valerón, De La Peña...

He's much better in a central AM role though. He started his career as a winger but isn't his best position imho.

I just can't see him operating alongside Silva though, they are so similar in so many aspects, unless they envisioned a pure CM role for him

Funniest thing, all of our current crop of homegrown wonders were scouted/signed under a board that ended up being chased out of town (and rightly so). !! there is hope! When did Carroll actually burst into scene? Four years ago or something? (I remember him being a substitute in a UEFA cup game). This policy needs years to actually reap results as youngsters are scouted and developed. I really don't think Ashley wants to be here that long.

Obinna was intermittently brilliant at Málaga, very intermittently though.

I'd love it if somehow he tricked some foreign club into signing him. The culture shock could be legendary.

Loony transfer rumor of the day: City to bid €100m for Iniesta http://tinyurl.com/2aska5g

Funniest thing, all of our current crop of homegrown wonders were scouted/signed under a board that ended up being chased out of town (and rightly so).

They already have a couple Real Madrid trainees keeping the bench warm (Canales is way better though), dunno why he would want to go there. A La Liga loan would be much better for him.

Just found out the Inter game is shown live this afternoon. I wonder if I should watch for the potential train wreck (and I admit I haven't seen Inter play this season since the European Supercup).

Hey, VI, how do you think Antoine Griezmann will do at Real Sociadad? Few times I've seen him, he's looked very promising. I'll admit I was was wrong in my first post. Thought Hines would be good after seeing him last season. Noble and Colison will stay where they are. Yeah, he's very promising and already one of Real Sociedad's key players. Very fun player to watch too.

That's an amazing atmosphere for a youth game, class