Village Idiot

Well, calling them flops is a bit harsh. Sneijder/Robben was a moronic decision and it was pointed at the time of their sale. Gio was a success for us, Van Bommel was fine for us but he wanted to play more and asked to be sold, Huntelaar flopped (and in Italy too), Heitinga was decent for Atleti and his sale was decried by fans, Van der Vaart has been muted but has had a decent season... Bouhlarouz is just pretty awful

Guess they thought he's just not a PL player and preferred to cash in his great season.

Villarreal just announced the signing of Borja Valero from WBA. Good signing and good move for him after shining for Mallorca this season. Fee undisclosed as of now.

Money talks, but if I was Sneijder I'd be dying to stay at Inter at least a season to add the CWC to my resumé. Tin cup it may be, but the chance to add it to your trophy closet is rare to get.

Haven't found the Hellboy one, but here's El Niño promoting "xXx" http://www.colchonero.com/media/galeria/4/6/2/3/0/o_atletico_de_madrid_27_at_madrid_vs_sevilla-80326.jpg EDIT: And the Spiderman one http://www.ofertasfutbol.com/imagenProductos/zoom/ATLETICO%20PRIMERA%20SPIDERMAN.JPG

Plus the Barça boys won the EC in summer 2008 and then proceeded to do the treble in 2008/2009

Has happened in La Liga occasionally. I even remember Osasuna having a different sponsor for home and away games at one point. Atlético had that hilarious deal where they would promote movies, and they had a different movie logo on their shirts every month: Spiderman, Hellboy, etc... They even changed their pre-season tournament trophy name to "Hellboy Trophy" for that season

Get that stadium name changed for a couple of m Actually it was chosen in a popular vote by club members, Betis fans are just mental Although Betis were on a high at the time so I can understand they got a bit carried away. I just read that Lopera has included a clause where the name will remain unchanged unless they pay *him* €5m.

Was thinking that if Spain wins surely Xavi will get WPOTY (Sneijder if the opposite happens). That would be great, no Spanish player has ever won it and it would be damn fucking time.

Ruíz de Lopera has sold Betis for €18m to Bitton Sport (which I have never heard about before). He will be missed as he was the most entertaining owner since Jesús Gil, although Betis fans will probably sigh in relief.

Enrique talks with a bunch of phrases that a Spaniard wouldn't use naturally in that article, mind maybe his command of English is that good.

Is it going to happen in our lifetimes? Who are the most likely? I'd guess the US and West African teams are the ones with more upwards potential, but for some reason I think it's still going to take a lot of time until it happens. African teams in particular seem to increasingly pack some true talent, even starting to move from the "scary big f***er playing DM" cliché, but there are big gaps in their lineups. On paper the US has the most potential. Big economy and population, but football has way too much competition and given how poor the MLS still is, potential world class athletes will go to other sports where wages are better. MLS growth has been steady, but slow. I guess you need a big base of players in the strong European leagues. Argentina and Brazil are great exporters, and one of the things they have going for them is that not only their stars play abroad, even pretty average/developing players ply their trade in mid-table/lowend teams which really gives them a great pool. That doesn't seem to happen with African or Asian nations, where most of their players abroad make up their NTs.

Hasn't Eduardo just gone to Genoa?

He also gave debuts to a couple of small midfielders while at Barça. You might have heard of them.

Ok, his second spell was awful, but Van Gaal was quite successful in his first Barça spell. We played thrilling stuff and won a double and another league title. Plus watching Rivaldo play was stuff of dreams.

Quick short passing turns me on, what can I say. We do it better at Barça though.

Why people underrate Capdevila so much I'll never understand. Maybe it's because he doesn't play in a big club, but he's a very solid defender. Ramos is way shakier defensively.

Also, to people calling us dull, etc... the main problem is that Del Bosque is a way more cautious manager than Aragonés was. So we play with two DMs and without midfield players pushing forward, since counterattacks have always been our main weakness. Our forwards are outnumbered inside the box and that closes passing outlets from Xavi/Iniesta and others. But he's got the job done.

Man, I have been trying to find words or images to convey how I'm feeling after this. I'll just leave it at f*** YEAH. Mastering pigs sounds cool too. Imagine taking over the world with your own slave-pig army.

He's just out of a fairly problematic knee injury, I think it's understandable. I assume Villa goes to the CF and Pedro to the left. He could have put Silva there but Pedro is much more direct.

Man, who whould have thought 12 months ago that Pedro would be starting a World Cup semifinal, madness how his career has progressed in so little time

Pedro starting instead of Torres acording to Marca.

Sorry, genuinely forgot the other Semis yet to be played. Just assumed the Germans were in the Final. Nah it's fine, quite loving how everybody seems to take for granted Germany is going to twat us, should line up the football gods on our side