Village Idiot

After being linked with 20m+ moves for the likes of Maicon, Cole, Thiago Silva... they end up with Carvalho at 7m. Reality setting in even at that place, I guess. They are still sitting at about €60m net spend for the season, mind.

He may try to do an Owen Coyle and jump mid-season if they manage to string a few good results.

Gerrard giving interviews after being at the pub, apparently: http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_6304418,00.html

Bremen have denied any agreement over Özil.

That might explain it then, although Friedel doesn't really have that much gas in the tank to start a career at a new club.

Some Belgian fans gloryhunters have named their newborn son "Barça" http://www.elmundodeportivo.es/gif/20100809/mellamofcb5006.jpg Boy's face is priceless.

Saw that in the MON thread, weird move for Fulham to go after such an old keeper with Schwarzer in goal.

Just saw a guy in a Spanish footie forum claiming that Newcastle are a lock for Europa League, bless. Sometimes it seems that most people outside England are still stuck in the Robson era when they think of you. Personally, I think that if you maintain stability and team spirit you'll edge it (avoiding relegation, not Europa league).

Given your financial position, where is all this money coming from? Reports of our demise are greatly exaggerated. Even though, our net spend so far is just €10m, surely we can afford this. Still a bit of a pointless signing. I appreciate his pace and athleticism - which we lack in the side - but still looks like a kneejerk signing after missing on Cesc.

He's on his last year so it's the kind of money I'd expect.

Well, now both Barcelona rags are reporting we have agreed a €10m fee for Özil, and the club is waiting on Guardiola to give the go-ahead. Surprising development after promoting two centremids from our B team. I'm afraid this might be a political signing.

This is weird, so soon before the season...

From our part, Hleb is yours if you take the wages. Herein lies the problem for you I guess.

Nothing in our media about it.

Maicon deal definitively off, according to several sources and Moratti himself. Great player, don't think Madrid needed him.

His father is Mazinho, WC winner in 1994 with Brazil, who now resides in Spain after he played for Valencia and Celta in the mid-90s. Thiago was born in Italy while Mazinho played for Lecce, but has lived in Spain since he was 8 I think. And yes, he's an AM.

I was also a big fan of his dad. One of the best DMs we had in La Liga. It's also great that Thiago has chosen to play for Spain (at U-19 level at least).

Thiago, Dos Santos and Fontàs have been promoted to Barça's first team. This means that we'll buy a DM since Oriol Romeu (who was tipped to take that position) will remain another year at Barça B. Probably rules out a move for Özil too (Dos Santos and Thiago play central midfield). I love Thiago Alcántara, can't wait to see him play more regularly. Madrid rumored to be after a #9 after Mou (rightly) complained about their depth in that position (only Pipita and Benzema, if you don't count CR7/9). Maybe they shouldn't have sold Rodrigo then...

zinaldo, are you Ben Arfa?

He would revitalize Newcastle's gambling industry though. I swear he kept our casino in business all by himself.

He won't score 10 goals. He will be everywhere on the pitch (although not always where he should be). He didn't grab games by their neck at Barça but it wasn't his job there, I reckon he has the character to do so if necessary. And he's better than that lot. Pablo Ibañez is past it.

Camoranesi

Real Madrid just passed €1000m in gross spend since Florentino took over back in 2000. Here's a nifty table with it broken down by season and player, for your amusement: http://estaticos01.marca.com/imagenes/2010/08/09/futbol/equipos/real_madrid/1281330797_extras_noticia_foton_7_2.jpg

MLS is the standard of a European "second tier quality" league tbh. i.e. Scando leagues, Scottish league, Ukrainian league and so on. IMO. It's Henry that's playing cack. I'm aware of what standard the MLS is, to say its second tier quality is generous, perhaps the top players are, but teams overall, not too sure. Ljungberg had his one decent game a season today. I watch the MLS almost every round due to being a nocturnal b******, and I also watch the odd random European league match-up from time to time because, well, it's football. Combined with watching the Scando leagues often I'd no doubt say the better MLS teams would slide in easily. The lesser teams would probably struggle. The issue with the MLS and overall player quality is that they have very small squads in the first place, which usually means a mixture of say, 30% good players and 70% filler. I dare say you know all this already, but yeah. On topic though, Henry have been nothing but shocking since he came over IMO. He should boss the league even on the decline. Henry retired the day he won the CL, imho. Never seen such a vertical decline from one season to another. And yes, main problem of the MLS is that they have expanded too quick and talent is way too diluted, so squads are full of cack that degrade the standard of the league. Should get better over time, though, of they manage to fix their youth system and start paying decent wages to squad players.

We are in talks with Bremen regarding Özil, although Guardiola will make a decision once he gets back from China. He seems to prefer just to use our youngsters and wait on Cesc. Özil looked a bit unconsistant in the WC, but I liked his pace and energy. When you take Messi out of the side we are quite one-paced sometimes.