Village Idiot

The only thing you lack is a genuine target man option. I think the idea behind the signing of Zlatan was to obtain this, however the management clearly didn't realise that Zlatan is actually a pretty poor headerer of the ball and has never in his entire career been a target man. I don't think it was the heading power what we were after. In his first (good) days at Barça we'd lump the ball in the box and he would bring it down to his feet with amazing technique. If we need a target man option it has to be a squad-ish player, the problem with Zlatan is that he ultimately didn't fit the way we played and he was meant to start every game. Seeing Villa buzzing around making runs and switching seamlessly with the other frontmen has really made me realize what we were missing last year. Larsson was a great target man for us on this mould.

I'll keep Villa for now, thanks. Not sure we are capable of lifting a ball more than 6 feet high anyway.

Rooney is completely in tatters. What the hell has happened to him?

FFS I can't do this. Go Arse!

Wilshere was having a good game though.

Haven't seen a player going from so brilliant to so shit in 18 months since 2008's Ronaldinho.

I don't, and I ordinarily "support" Arsenal out of the Big 4, but... I want Cesc

I'm so torn on this game. I'll just go neutral I guess.

Cyclist called José Enrique Gutiérrez aswell! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Enrique_Guti%C3%A9rrez Rather common Spanish names, though (José Enrique / Gutiérrez)

Just came back from work and saw the news. Absolutely made my day this

We do have that in Spain too. Barça and Villarreal have their B teams in the second flight (and Atlético and Real Madrid had theirs too recently). Regulations are that you can call B-registered players to the main squad at will, with a limit of 5 in any given squad. B teams can be promoted up to a division lower than the main squad and they can't play in the cups. It's been invaluable as a way to give competitive football to our top talents, while keeping them "inhouse" (so, say, Thiago can train with Messi/Xavi/Iniesta during the week and then go play against the likes of Betis or Celta).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/38225000/jpg/_38225094_sabrosa220.jpg

I think they are looking to pull a Maxi. He's on high wages and finishing contract, they aren't going to offer a new one in the same terms so rather get a little cash.

Averages to around 1 pass every six seconds.

Jerome always struck me as a pacy forward.

I noticed that

I need to find an English link for the ongoing Mourinho/Dani Alves feud. It's like the unstoppable force against the unmovable object, but in cuntishness.

I suppose his wages would be too high for having "worth a punt" status. Strikes to me he needs a manager with the patience and man-management skills to sort him out.

Yes. And depending of the vowel used, it indicates a different kind of laughter ("jijiji" = giggle, "jojojo" = guffaw, etc...)

The first thing I do after a Barça victory is scour that well known site for Roy Hudson commentary, that Back to the Future reference Trezeguet 8 goals in 12 games. In any other year he would have been in the running for the pichichi.

Simao to Besiktas in January, will keep Quaresma's company.

I guess they are using the novel definition of top "half" as Top 6 that I have started noticing lately.

Mental place, this.

I suppose he'll sit out the cup game, so it's a couple weeks between the Barcelona derby and the Levante game the day after New Year.