Village Idiot

Mascherano is better than any other non-Argentinian DM in that list though. Mascherano-Cambiasso-Sneijder would be a fearsome midfield and very in line to what Benítez likes in the center of the park. Shades of Albelda-Baraja-Aimar really.

They are getting good value this season I think, instead of all the stupidly high fees they have been paying these years (and which got them in the hole they are now).

Soldado has been unveiled by Valencia today. Hope he does well there, he's been steadily improving as a player these last three seasons since he left Madrid and I think he can be a very good striker. Plus he's a Valencia lad which is always nice for them. He should have been in South Africa instead of Mata, in my opinion.

I have seen Silva to *insert random big club* DONE DEAL too many times this transfer window. I honestly can't picture him going to Italy.

Liverpool owners, they fire their manager who walks into the European champions, and who knows who will they get now

One day I'll list the nicknames for all the Chilean footballers. They're just great. Too late now.

We (Catalans) have a donkey...

Cronaldo and Robben in the same team. They would have needed 3 balls. Never been much of a believer in that they did wrong by selling Robben (he's much improved at Bayern, he never was much effective for Madrid), but they did need a real left winger. Sneijder was a whole different thing, though.

Reckon nothing will come out of it but... http://www.goal.com/en/news/10/italy/2010/06/09/1966327/inter-risk-scudetto-coppa-italia-revocation-as-figc-investigates- Apparently since Genoa's owner was banned by serie A he could not have negotiated the Motta and Milito sales. Would be very silly if Inter could lose titles to a technicality.

http://estaticos04.marca.com/albumes/2010/06/09/fotogaleria_nueve_junio/1276101611_extras_albumes_0.jpg This is so not going to end well.

Who? Actually updated reports say that they are giving them *four* youngsters Marcos Alonso, Alipio, Rodrigo and Sarabia. The latter two are supposedly the bees knees, great record at youth level. I suppose they are including buyback clauses in all of them. But still it's funny how little they care.

They can use a natural left winger, however. It's a good signing. Funny how quick they are in getting rid of what supposedly were two of their most promising youngsters though.

Marca reports Real Madrid are about to sign Di María for €30m plus a couple of Madrid's youth prospects.

Atlético have sold their third keeper Roberto to Benfica, and there's a rumor they are talking a swap deal Simao-Luisao.

The head of the consortium that's trying to buy Mallorca has said that Luís Enrique is their first choice for the managerial post

Gotta love how they add Henry in the list even though he still has a year of contract and they write down "but for the right club the Catalans are willing to negotiate" which is the definition of a non-free transfer

Any of the New Yorkers in the board that can recommend me a pub to watch the USA - England game that is *not* Nevada Smiths? That place is going to be unbearably crowded and I want to take some American friends that are not football fans to a good pub experience. I mostly go to Spanish places to watch football so I really don't know many.

Hungary are actually going forward, they hadn't really been decent in decades and made a decent show in WC qualifying in a pretty strong group. At the same time you got teams like Bosnia, Slovenia and Slovakia - who were a joke - being decent nowadays. It comes and goes, the fact is that without a strong domestic league is hard to mantain continued success.

Can King play twice a week with his dodgy knees?

Cesc is seen more as an impact sub since he's more forward going that Xavi and Iniesta, who control games better.

According to Valencia's coach, they are "close" to sign Soldado. Best replacement for Villa they can get in my opinion.

Good sendoff. Now let's do the business when it counts for once.

Pedro with his first international goal

Aye, we're fucked if he misses out, we'll be forced to start Fàbregas instead