Village Idiot

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

Love Gio personally. Happy to see him have such a great sendoff to his career.

Apparently Larissa Riquelme has posed neekid for a Paraguayan mag, despite the team not winning against us. Very fine bird she is. http://www.as.com/recorte/20100707dasdasftb_20/C280/Ies/PROMESA_CUMPLIDA_Larissa_Riquelme_poso.jpg

Quite surprised to see the Madrid press pretty much sidestepping these news, thought they would prey on it like vultures. Like we say in Spain "When you see your neighbour shaving his beard, it's time to start cutting yours".

Didn't you release Pancrate already?

A bit torn here. I'd usually hate the Germans winning it again, but really I'm not in love with this Dutch side and I find myself kinda not liking the prospect of them succeeding where the Cruyffs/Van Bastens, etc... failed before them. So if we don't win it I guess I'd have Germany.

El Loco coming on

Pretty sure Sneijder has WPOTY tied up unless they crash badly in the final (and still).

Forlán in the form of his life to be honest, looks like he can't just do anything wrong.

Imho the jump from SA leagues to England is very extreme. The pace down there is very slow for the most part. Even success stories like Tévez and Masch were quite s*** the first months in England.