Village Idiot

Due to our labour laws, a player would be free to walk out of a contract at any given time. The "release fees" are actually penalties that the player agrees to pay if he does so.

€250m indeed. Cronaldo is something ridiculous like €1000m (would probably get thrown out by court if push came to shove)

They always do. Atlético hasn't won a league game against Real Madrid since 1999 IIRC. Massive derby bottlers.

Good appointment for them like, they got a bit of cash behind them haven't they? Yes, not massive amounts. They have an Arab owner now who wants to invest, although sensibly.

http://www.gifsoup.com/view/14342/tiger-woods-fist-pump-o.gif Hole in one.

Sad, but at least he'll be able to keep working in the game.

Yanks don't have balanced schedules in their sports, so they don't place the same value on them as we do. The playoffs make it that the fairness of regular season placings isn't that important.

Well, I for one I expected a more traumatic selling process, and possibly a less reliable owner (this guy has run a successful sports franchise already). I understand what you mean, but Henry didn't really meddle in the Sox business, he just hired people that shared his views and let them run the place, and he hired them from within the sport. He's always struck me as a sensible person. I'm not saying that you're going up again, you've lost a lot of ground these last few years, but your situation board-wise is a marked improvement imho.

Some pretty mental valuations in this thread. Cole for 8m? Puyol for 10?

I don't know, Shaun Wright-Phillips' "devastating runs that will make Italians and Germans cry" surely made me chuckle But yeah, he more or less nailed the spine of England's NT.

To be honest I do think you got off relatively scot-free given the circumstances. The new owners may or may not splash the cash, but they have done a decent job with the Sox and I'm sure they won't drag you down at the very least.

Would he? Harry is the shining example of a chequebook manager if there's one.

There has to be a dodgy mobile vid of this. It'd be a stroke of PR genius to improve their image! Reminds me of Laporta getting smashed and utterly wasted after last year's win against Real Madrid. Except we *do* have photos of it

Málaga have signed Pellegrini as their new manager.

Cover of El Mundo Deportivo today http://www.elmundodeportivo.es/gif/20101104/04porbn.jpg

Wasn't the sale a goal for the Pool either? Got rid of a bunch of debt and those useless owners.

When have Madrid actually signed a young talent? Other then the Canales kid at Santander i can't remember one (and look how he's turning out so far). A certain mr. Higuaín. Also Gago, Drenthe, Marcelo, Robinho... off the top of my head.

So much hate! Was always a hard tie this. Shots Rosenborg: 20 Atleticó Madrid: 6 FFS Two were on open f***ing goal as well. We f***ing raped them but just wouldn't shoot our load inside them, Skjelbred, Annan and Henriksen were on f***ing fire. I can understand the anger then... can you still get through?

So much hate! Was always a hard tie this.

Somebody should fabricate a false Geordie ancestry for this dude.

Was just watching the Spanish telly and some pundit was spewing "FACTS" about the Milan-Madrid game yesterday, and he ended with "This is the first time that a 37 year old has scored a brace in the last 30 minutes of a game against Real Madrid" f***ing revelation that like, gogo punditry

Such a magnificent tosser

No please, he's in my FF team. Let's say a Fàbregas brace and a Shola hattrick for a 3-2. Deal?

Didn't they give some weird Super-Duper-Football-Genius-Bestestest-Of-Them-All Award to Beckenbauer just because? (They are German).

Was even worse with that two group phases system. What a joke that was.