Village Idiot

Mascherano to be sent off tonight.

Benzema and Özil off for Diarra and Granero. Seems Mou only had money at -1.

New TV deal coming up, let's see if it has any effect (not a big makeover but there's more redistribution)

Barça -3 is quite a bet

Zaragoza should get a drubbing tonight, they are extremely dire. Hopefully somebody rescues Ander so he still plays top flight football next season (he needs to bulk up too). Thoughts on tonight? Should surely be putting Sociedad to the sword, guess it's just a case of how resilient they are as to whether they can keep the score down? I'd usually find that a pretty poor situation that things seem to be so predictable yet watching you lot play at your best is a sight to behold. They are being quite good this year, fresh off winning the Basque derby and finding themselves in the upper half and impressing so far (watch Griezmann tonight) That said, we should obviously win. They also have one of the worst away records against Barça of La Liga (12 defeats on the trot or something like that).

Zaragoza should get a drubbing tonight, they are extremely dire. Hopefully somebody rescues Ander so he still plays top flight football next season (he needs to bulk up too).

My cunning plan worked. I rule. Hey, it's a tough commute from the boondocks of Ohio! Ah, I knew there was one US Spurs fan, but couldn't remember which one it was. :-[ I like Leffe. He's a Spurs fan in the US on a Newcastle board. Respect. Only VI appear more random, but he's got the Sir Bobby connection so it's not. Yeah, used to live in Glasgow and was friends with a couple of Newcastle fans there. Best (wo)man was from Stakeford. I'm on a couple of Spurs boards, obviously, and use one or two others but, you know, this forum is really, really good. For us intelligent oldies, you know. Most Barcelona forums I lurk are remarkably more boring than this one. The English Barça boards/gloryhunter covens are particularly cringe-inducing. The only Newcastle fan I met before coming to this place was a guy whose two heroes in life were Shay Given and Josif Stalin. My best english friend is a smoggie though, and funnily he spends more time talking about your lot than Boro (which he prefers not to mention).

Fair enough, I'm not the best judge of human behavior, but he always struck me as just an overly rash/candid person.

I can confirm that. As well as that when Llambias told the players Hughton was sacked you could hear the shouting at Llambias from outside the training ground dressing room, an apparently Barotn was going mad. And apparently Hughton got sacked because Ashley couldn't trust him in the transfer market, Hughton was a good coach but not a manger and too soft on the players since Calderwood left. Apparently Calderwood was the disciplinarian. I'm an ITK now! Did Llambias tell them that? "He's too easy on you lazy cunts"

A move to Barca should help...? Daily flights to Buenos Aires! But Real Madrid are the ones looking for a striker right now (plus I can't see us ponying up what ManCity is going to ask).

Not saying he is the father of the year or anything, but he's always been a very emotional person and I can perfectly see this affecting him, particularly after spending a week with them.

Well, I for one admit that as a person, Tévez doesn't really have an easy situation. His ex-wife will never allow to move her daughters closer to him, so he has to travel all the way to Argentina in order to see them. It's not all about money (particularly when you don't have to worry about it).

Mourinho was almost screaming for Real Madrid to sign another striker yesterday. Wonder if Tévez might be tempted to try it in Spain, since he doesn't even speak English to begin with. (I hope not!)

Ugh, the white patches. Spoil such a great striped shirt.

shockingly no Death by urine poisoning.

Just watching La Liga highlights and Getafe's Albín got sent off after taking his shirt off during a goal celebration while he was already booked. Gotta be thick Still, earned his team 3 points

You got me there.

Can I make fun of his English since I'm a Spaniard and thus it won't be racist?

Looks like George W Bush to me. Stuff of nightmares.

Sevilla sinking against Almería... 1-3 Piatti

Pardew's smile just gets me

Wrong shirt!

In another chapter of "let's link Real Madrid with anybody kicking a ball", today's turn is Pavlichenko's.

As said, it's a conspiracy theory, but the idea was suspiciously floated during the first galactico era by some of the Madrid establishment mouthpieces (that Madrid becoming a PLC would make them bigger).

There's always been this conspiracy theory around, that Pérez wants to buy Real Madrid outright by forcing it to become a PLC (his net worth is €2b). But fans would run him through a thousand sharp stakes if he did.