Village Idiot

I hope he thrives there, always one of my favorite players when he was in our youth setup. Not the fastest, not the flashiest, but will always try the hardest.

Those 3rd/4th place games are so utterly pointless. And this is one for a pointless competition in itself.

Doesn't he have a release clause anyway? Honestly, with just a fraction of your TV contract you could probably buy the whole of Eibar, free transfer Lejeune to yourselves, and then chuck the rest away.

It's just a glorified loan where the receiving club has skin in the game. If you believe that loans are abused, that's a perfectly fine position to have, but buyback clauses aren't a different kind of evil than those.

This is going to be an annoying transfer window if they struggle to get a CB from La Liga's smallest team over the line.

As a Barça fan, I paid 10€ for a stuffed croissant and ended up not eating it.

Also, that screenshot reminds me that they are officially introducing their new shield as of today.

Probably has a bunch of opt-outs.

We have his nephew Simon Ameobi on our books The dynasty lives on!

It's the first time we do this kind of deal, Spanish press has always compared us unfavorably to Real Madrid on that regard, who're really good at monetizing their youth products.

Everybody says Milan want to keep him, and he wants to go there. We'll see. I find him infuriating. Hugely talented, but seems to take the wrong decision every single time.

You think Barca will go for Cabellos from Betis? I'd love it, but he seems Madrid - bound.

We've bought back Deulofeu. We'll just move him on.

He won't be moving. He'll play for the B team, which just got promoted to Liga Adelante.

That's actually quite unprecedented I think. My children are both half-Basque through their mother, and because they had not grown up in Pais Vasco, they wouldn't be eligible to play for Athletic even through their mother. It wasn't enough alone to be an immediate blood relation of a person born and raised in Pais Vasco. I admire their club for their strict eligibility policy and the fact they have never been out of the top division in their existence, even spawning Atlético originally as a reserve team. Amazing they're still competitive in today's global market. Then you have Laporte who only had Basque grandparents and Amorebieta who was born in Venezuela. Amorebieta moved to Bilbao when he was a kid, so I think that one's fair. Laporte is far more slippery. Actually I don't think they can justify that one at all.

That's actually quite unprecedented I think. My children are both half-Basque through their mother, and because they had not grown up in Pais Vasco, they wouldn't be eligible to play for Athletic even through their mother. It wasn't enough alone to be an immediate blood relation of a person born and raised in Pais Vasco. I admire their club for their strict eligibility policy and the fact they have never been out of the top division in their existence, even spawning Atlético originally as a reserve team. Amazing they're still competitive in today's global market. Yeah, the fact they manage to stay in the top half of the table consistently with their restricted transfer policy is a small miracle. Pity* they haven't managed to bag a trophy during the Bielsa/Valverde years, which have seen them appear in several finals. *Not really, since they have lost most of them to us.

He's staying put. That's just last minute brouhaha to get a better deal.

More than anything, I think there needs to be a plan in place. Many times it seemed that Penfold et al just went for whatever player they managed to find at a cut price, ending up with a players that were decent on paper, or at least decent gambles, but the squad made little sense taken as a whole. The relegation season was exasperating on that regard. Now, if there's anything Rafa has in spades, is plans.

Yeah, even when you actually splashed the cash, in the relegation season, it was spread around a bunch of mediocre players because DEALSSSSSSS.

Athletic have signed a guy from Mali for their youth teams, after he spent two years playing in the Basque low leagues. This has created a bit of a stir among their most purist fans. Are they pushing their homegrown rules?

Barça promoted to Liga Adelante. I honestly don't like B teams in the second tier. I don't think it will be particularly helpful in bringing through more players, either.

I suppose they took that video during some "dead" leg of the parade, but it's still funny as hell

The endless tides of excited Getafe fans surround the open top bus as the city comes to a stop to celebrate their La Liga promotion. https://www.facebook.com/futbolwaltrapa/videos/1386431268077310/

Watching the second leg of the Liga Adelante promotion playoff between Getafe and Tenerife. 2-1 at the end of the first half, absolute cracker. Nail-bitter for the fans* *For the sake of the argument, let's assume Getafe has fans.

Yeah, it would kill one of the largest sources of cynical gamesmanship. Probably needs a lot of trials, though. Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk