Village Idiot

Makes me wonder who is the best player that never played for a "big" country? Puskas? Although Hungary was big back then.

One could argue Uruguay are better than both though. I don't think so. The WC was an outlier. If we want another example, that George Best fella was shite.

Diego Forlán must be crap like, only getting callups for Uruguay instead of Brazil or Argentina.

The Spanish version of the rule has more checks and balances to avoid stuff like this. Like you can't have more than 4 non listed on the pitch at the same time. There are some contractual provisions that limit "demoting" players once you put them in the squad, but that's part of the collective agreement of the Spanish players union. Also people in the main squad MUST wear 1-25 which I like (ludicrous squad numbers being a pet peeve of mine), and people not in the squad must wear 26+

It just smacks of when they put all that cheap s*** near the cash register at supermarkets and you end up buying some crap you don't need just because it's cheap. VdV shone for Madrid last season on the left of a diamond formation, fwiw. But I guess Bale owns that side.

random rant: wish zonalmarking.net put out more La Liga's games. They barely cover it.

So, with Spurs having 43346543 central midfielders, where is Van der Vaart going to fit? Is it true that they will go 451?

Hleb at 5.0... mmmmm...

We were rumored to be in for Suárez after Zlatan left but dropped our interest since he's cup-tied.

Casuals always trot out this nonsense, the VDV you're thinking of was way back in 2006. He isn't same player anymore. The VDV I'm thinking was taking the field for Real Madrid last season, when he outplayed Kaká (granted, not such a paramount achievement anymore). Certainly he needs somebody else to do the grunt work, but he's a top quality AM.

VDV is top quality, happy to see him off Real Madrid since I always liked him as a footballer.

Surely no way he would even consider going there That's my take on it, but now I'll anxiously wait until the window slams shut down here.

Impressive frontline, nothing behind to support it.

Rumor spreading that Real Madrid are trying to sign Eto'o before the deadline closes.

Drenthe to Hércules on loan.

Transfer window still open in Spain, so you can still sell there.

"AS" just reporting that Van der Vaart is close to a loan to a PL club. EDIT: I hate you lot

And I have absolutely no proof of this but I'm sure he was fan of brown envelopes too, only reason I can explain transfers like the Keirrison or Henrique ones.

What's the Barca model? Creating debts and after that buying players for big money? There's this thing about our academy... But Txiki was a terrible DOF and one of the culprits for our debt given the shambolic transfers he presided over.

Mmmm... Balagué reporting that Chelsea will sign former Barça DOF Txiki Begiristain in January to replicate the Barça model there. Good luck, he's useless and has had nothing to do with our "model" (wasn't in charge of the academy).

That's the same line we are being peddled regarding Zlatan

They will keep him at least until Jan. With Kaká out they don't have that much cover in the AMC position and Canales is still pretty green.

Apparently either Drenthe or M. Diarra will be left out of the Madrid 25 man squad if they can't tie up a last ditch sale/loan.

Benfica loaned former Real Madrid youth product Rodrigo to Bolton just a mere month after buying him...

At some point he'll get fed up with the conditions he has to work with at Everton, surely. He deserves a shot at having an actual transfer budget (Villa seems to be tightening the purse strings, granted)