Village Idiot

The pakistani-owned supermarkets are supercheap and open late hours.

You can live, eat and party in Barcelona pretty cheaply tbf. Just go to the local places and avoid all the ex-pat/tourist oriented stuff. All the joints in el Barri Gòtic for example are hip-cool and look like the preferred spot for foreigners, but are overpriced as hell.

Madrid and Barcelona are terrible for pickpocketing/stealing. They expressly target foreigners too. Got a couple of wallets stolen myself.

I tried to take to the New York team when I moved here, went to games and shit, but never got the passion juices flowing. I admit it's hard.

Oh I'd not open a sports bar, a nice little place in the vein of Taller de Tapas will do for me and the Mrs. Great place that. Damn, I miss my city.

Brit community in Barcelona is great, I personally love them sports bars in Ciutat Vella.

He's 32 and past it. I could see it when you were in the CCC but certainly not in the PL. Mint player during his prime, mind, best one those f*****s ever produced.

CF Badalona (Spain third flight), since mom is from there and I actually played for them at youth level for a short while. Been to a lot of matches when I was a teen but nowadays I just check on them from time to time.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1863/world-cup-2010/2010/07/01/2004165/world-cup-2010-diego-maradona-are-you-nervoushh

"forward Rafael Van der Vaart" aye, looks like a researched article.

Indeed, we'll never know but Vincento Del Bosque may well have saved Zlatans Barca career. Nobody such as Jeffron or another youth graduate who could make the step up? Don't really rate Jeffren myself. Decent player mind, but looks like mid-table La Liga material. Currently we don't have any forwards that look to step up just yet, just midfielders (Thiago, Dos Santos) and defenders (Bartra, Muniesa). Assulin looked like an amazing prospect two years ago but he's stalled since then and it looks like we are letting him go.

Four semis? That's the same record as Spain then.

After seeing Villa's performances on the wing for Spain, if we keep Zlatan I'll consider us sorted. Maybe we'd need one more body but can be some promising fellow instead of a high profile signing. Villa - Zlatan - Messi (Pedro/Iniesta)-(Bojan)-(Pedro)

Most of that debt comes from the mismanagement during the Gaspart era in 2000-2004. We went from no debt to €200m in that time iirc. True that Laporta has been spending freely as of late, however, Rosell has openly said he's going to be more conservative.

We have been linked with a €20m move for Özil these past days. Probably just random linking with any high-performer in the WC, but it's been reported by a variety of sources in Spain and it's true we are in the market for a winger.

I never understood why Hodgson got this terrible rep, after what amounted to just a bad half season with Blackburn. Compared to the ease managers like, say, Dowie are given chance after chance...

I don't think we have ever had so many members of the Spanish squad playing (or having spent a significant part of their careers) abroad. I think people like Torres, Arbeloa, Piqué and Cesc have improved immensely from the experience

That was quick from Dave, almost superhuman.

That's the great thing about La Liga, you can tune in to teams like Tenerife, Almería, Málaga, etc... and they play some darn entertaining stuff, while their PL equivalents go the way of Stoke. Incidentally my favorite non-Barça game of the season was the Fulham 3 - ManU 0. Fulham played some magnificent stuff that day. The pace and tempo of a PL team with the precision of a continental one. They shat over ManU from great height.

Cruyff bashing Brazil: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/story/_/id/804264/ce/uk/&cc=5901?ver=us Legend

Incidentally Yayá's transfer deal with City has fallen through and they'll have to restart talks with the new board. Apparently the deal we had expired on the 28th.

I don't know, Liverpool are obviously broke and in threat of losing their few stalwart players, but this is probably Hodgson's last chance to manage a big English club and I fancy him to make the most of it, not just plugging along.

Barry and Bridge stick out like sore thumbs. They've signed Boateng though so Bridge wont be starting. Still think their defence isnt to the standard of the rest of their team like. 50m defence at that

To be honest I could easily become obsessed with her too.

Well, there's some returns. Players that don't make the grade are sold to other clubs, even the ones that leave because they don't have pro contracts (Arsenal ) still command tribunal fees that cut down the yearly costs.