Village Idiot

Is PSV covering his wages in full? Can't see them being able to, even if Van Ginkel is in "PL fifth-choice" wages.

We've signed Nelson Semedo from Benfica. Jotenko? Means we've stopped pursuing Bellerín.

Oh FFS I guess they didn't want to outright buy another CB since you have already a few, but a loan deal that was never going to work out.

We used to do that a lot too. First game was always against some local amateur team, more for fitness than anything else. But we dropped it as soon as pre-seasons turned into yet another cash cow.

This is even funnier. Sevilla are claiming that Vitolo's reps had signed a contract extension yesterday.

Spanish border police boarded Cristiano Ronaldo's yacht off the coast of Formentera, while he was in it with some friends. Reportedly just to check some papers.

City pays 4m for Bernardo from Boro and then loans him out to Girona (which they own). Rumour is that they'll be buying half a dozen footballers to help keep their new Spanish feeder team in the top division.

Las Palmas pay Vitolo's release clause and joins them until January. Love the way Atlético are using them as their front men

Now that you drop that name, they reportedly want somebody that can perform the Seydou Keita role in the squad. I just think dropping 30 million in a player from the Chinese league is a retarded way to go about it if you really want somebody of that profile.

Literally the player you don't need; who gave the green light for all your crap signings last season? Barca don't half sign some crap players 'at times' Roberto Fernández, our current DoF. We've just appointed a new General Manager though (Pep Segura), he's supposedly Valverde's man inside the board. Incidentally, he managed Liverpool's youth football under Benítez.

So, apparently we're deadly serious about Paulinho and close to finalise the signing

Stealing Fulham's signings

Still remember the fuss when Mou tried to strip Casillas of the captaincy. The whole thing went against tradition (in Spain managers don't chose captains), and was just a way to show he had the biggest dick in the dressing room.

That net figure is dire. Thriftiness can bite back at you. Even disregarding relegation (and that's a biggie), the players Ashley should have bought for 20m 2-3 years ago, now cost double that.

I thought Mitrovic looked promising enough in his first season, 9 goals in a first season ain't shabby at all for a young striker that's just arrived to the league, but he managed to go backwards in the C'ship. I have soured on him a little, tbf, I thought somebody with his attributes would dominate that league, yet if Benítez hadn't struck gold with Gayle we'd have been f***ed.

Not Newcastle though.

I suspect many clubs will have spent more in transfers fees in the last 5 years than in their entire history.

Truth be said, "As" supports Bild's numbers. We'll see I guess.

Cheaper than Sigurdsson Marcla claims it's €60m total and the option is mandatory. Still, James was brilliant under Ancelotti, it's a steal in today's market.

We're not supposed to be able to. We got relegated at the worst possible time. Yep. The system is very clearly stacked in favor of a select few teams. Time for a transfer fee cap across UEFA. I agree with that, would love to see not only a transfer cap but a squad size cap, including how many youth players to stop the top elite hoovering up all the talent and loaning them out, that or a maximum number of players any team can loan out, say 2. that will put a lot of young players off joining them. A transfer fee cap will be pointless unless you add a wage cap too. Money saved on transfers will end up on wages as that's how clubs will compete. Anyway, not gonna happen. But it's getting ludicrous.

That's not true. The dynamics of the position change a lot when you're on your wrong foot. Navas in particular was terrible on the left for Sevilla.

His delivery has always been erratic, but if used well Navas can be really effective. Also, how is 1.5m a problem in this day and age? Even assuming AS is reporting after tax wages (as is the Spanish custom), that's like 50k a week?

Adama Traoré was an extremely frustating player. Scary pace and power, but plays with the blinders on. Given the fact that he hasn't even nailed a starting spot for Boro I don't think he's changed much from the player he was at Barça B. I can see his sheer athleticism being an asset to throw from the bench, but not somebody I'd feel comfortable starting in the Premier League, really.

To be fair we were pretty far from being best in the world when he turned us down.

Valencia have bought Neto from Juve, which means that Alves is gonna get sold.