Village Idiot

I don't know where it comes from to be honest, hence me being worried. It's Laporta saying goodbye on a high, increasing his "legacy" leaving the financial mess to whoever comes after him (who'll get blamed for not having funds). c***.

Oh, I actually found the interview. Reading the transcription. EDIT: He says that all our signings will be closed within a month, but he doesn't mention Cesc. The transcription I found looks incomplete though, but I don't think they would cut that part out.

There was an interview with our Sports Director saying they were "working on it" but nothing else, and off his words it looked like far away from a done deal. Haven't seen anything reported about Laporta. Just checked the webpages of Catalonia's most important radio networks and nothing on them.

Shambles if it's for that much really. We actually walked out last year when they asked this much and went for Zlatan instead. Fortunately this board is leaving this season, I think they are losing touch with reality. EDIT: Latest reports say €42m. Still a bit too much.

It was a gray area, so most refs just let it stand. Now it will be clearer.

About time.

Got me thinking of Shola for some reason Except Bojan's already had a 10 goal season at the top level

Bojan's 19. No hurry for him to be a starter really.

Can you see Zlatan staying for more than another year? I'm not even sure he'll be there come September. Also, what do you make of Bojan's development? There's something about him that tells me he won't cut it at the top level. And that's the sort of level we have to really be comparing him to due to the astounding success Barca have of bringing players through. Easy there... I don't expect every youth product from our academy to be world class! He's surprised me this season. He started badly and got progressively worse... but when he got his chance after Zlatan's loss of form he grabbed it and has had a great finish to the season. He has great mobility, isn't afraid to run at players... he sort of Eto'o lite. We have never, never, never produced a good striker but I'm sure he'll be at least a good squad member in a great team. I can't see Zlatan staying at the club if we sign both Cesc and Villa. I'm still really not that sure about Cesc coming though.

Iniesta seems to miss 2-3 months ever year due to injury, plus suspensions, rotations... as said Keita does get a lot of games. Again, it gives us alternatives. Our starting XI has always been scary, but look at our bench and a lot of times we don't have anything to bring on if somebody isn't having a good game or stuff just isn't working. I'm not saying that Cesc is coming to sit on the bench, just that for the first time we can play around depending on form. If Pedro isn't having a good patch, put Iniesta in the wing, if the opposition is shutting Xavi down, put Cesc alongside him... there are a lot of games where I wished we had the tools to do that. What I'm having trouble seeing is where Zlatan is going to fit if Villa also ends up coming: Pedro, Bojan, Iniesta, Villa, Messi, Zlatan.. a bit too crowded to keep everybody happy.

I don't think Tomassi did, I think Tomassi did it for the basic minimum wage you can pay a player. Youth player wages or something like that? Tomassi was a classy guy incidentally, one of my favorite Italian players. Even grabbed the train to go to Valencia to see him appear for Levante once.

Just saw this photo today, made me smile http://estaticos04.marca.com/imagenes/2010/05/17/futbol/liga_campeones/1274118273_0.jpg

I could wear my Barça Henry shirt to the Bull Arena and be the ultimate gloryhunter-eurosnob.

To be honest we'd probably take a bag of chips for him. But his wages are surely too big.

No, no... the first link is what he said after his first season with us. The second is what he just said today after his season at Stuttgart. Still, looks like a good sport when things don't go his way.

In 2009: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1200026/Former-Arsenal-star-Alexandr-Hleb-slams-Barcelona-coachs-squad-tactics.html In 2010: http://www.soccerway.com/news/2010/May/17/hleb-criticises-gross-after-barca-return/ Has Hleb always been such a bitter c***? Anyhow, we need a place were to offload him again.

Our General Director has said that we are "very close" to finish three transfer deals. Note that he didn't specify signings, so one or more of them could be sales, probably the Henry to MLS being one. He's also denied that, as of now, the club is looking to sell Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Touré's agent (who's a nutter) making a lot of noise that he's leaving the club this summer. I hope he doesn't.

Aye. He transformed the club completely. Not only because of the trophies he won, but because he set the way Barça is expected to play, he gave us our footballing identity.

Aye, we are living through a golden age of the club. Before the summer of 1990 we were barely "best of the rest" in La Liga, I wouldn't have believed that 20 years later we would be in the position we are in, playing the way we do, admired by so many. I still blame this man: http://members.fortunecity.es/mariosh/Jugador_es_archivos/BCN2.jpg He showed us the way.

Not an option from NYC! Anyway, now that La Liga is over I'll plug again Diario As' excellent stats section for your amusement, perusal, and examination of possible NUFC transfer targets. It's in Spanish, but babelfish should be enough to understand what they mean and it also has a section for CL stats: http://www.as.com/estadisticas/

If Juan Pablo Ángel and Blanco were MLS superstars, Henry will rule that place.

The ACN should have taken a three year gap while switching schedule instead. According to the BBC article, the same qualifiers willl apply for 2012 and 2013, which means they will have the same contesting teams Not sure where they'll fit the additional qualifiers, I'm not familiar with the current calendar but do African teams have dates in the FIFA calendar to fill?

That's Jonas and Coloccini off to Liverpool then to help him settle. Gotta love how this reads like "f*** my life, being with my wife and kids every day" Interesting to see so many high-profile Argentinians struggling to adapt to England. Tévez first and now him. Jonás and Coloccini seem to be doing fine, though, and haven't heard anything from Insúa or Di Santo... So guess it's just those two...

Valencia are being quick about their business. Today they announced the signing of Ricardo Costa from Wolfsburg. I lost track of him since his Porto days, but apparently he was loaned to Lille so I guess things haven't been working out for him.

Mexican press (yes I read that sometimes) reporting that Spurs are on the verge of completing a swap deal with Galatasaray for Arda Turan, with Dos Santos going the other side plus 5-10m quid.