Village Idiot

He already clashed with Touré's agent at Barça. This feels like a Wrestlemania rematch.

Trophies rock. At the end of the day, sooner or later you're gonna get promoted.

Javier Saviola signs for an Andorran team. Weird. http://en.as.com/en/2016/09/19/football/1474290081_181415.html Some sources say he signs as player-coach, others in a coaching role only.

Valencia have been trying to neuter the ultra groups at Mestalla and those are lashing out.

It's their Super-Saiyan forms

Celtic was one of the worst teams I have ever seen at the Camp Nou. And I have played there with my mates. Absolute pub-level defending (rather ball-watching).

Why did that get him in real trouble? He antagonized the Madrid press from day one. You need a decent amount of bullshitting to survive in the often toxic media environment there. Plus he didn't blame referees or unloyal players when results soured, unlike some other former Chelsea manager...

I always appreciated his no-bullshitting in interviews while taking over at Real Madrid, but that got him in real trouble at that place. Wish more managers were like that.

Well, that was a jolly night of football.

would make sense. Made a lot of noise mind so fair play to them. Was quite a few dotted around near me below their official section too. Got quite heated (in a good natured) manner after they won it. They are always very lively, indeed. I love when Betis come to play tbf, since they are feisty on and off the pitch.

Betis have a large "away" following due to the significant Andalusian emigration to big Spanish cities. They always show up in numbers at the Camp Nou, too.

Kharma dictates that both my teams can't do well in the same season, so I guess Newcastle's promotion will come at the cost of a trophy-less Barça season. God, yesterday was awful.

Which makes it more weird that Real Madrid have been barely active this summer. Atlético at least has done loads of business. I guess they can string the CAS appeal until the Jan window, but not much value there.

We should do Championships with boxing rules. Now the belt would pass on the Swiss.

Slightly related, I always find it funny how Italians are officially the largest foreign population living in Spain, where in fact most of those are Argentinians with Italian passports that have immigrated straight from Argentina. That includes loads of footballers plying their trade in mid-level teams.

"Senderos is a child of Serbian (Zorica Novković) and Spanish (Julián Senderos) immigrants." And yet it's true! Who would have guessed? Besides France, for obvious proximity reasons, there was a very large Spanish immigration into Switzerland during Franco times, to perform menial and industry jobs. Also Germany. That's why there's so many Swiss and German players in that list. In more recent times England has been a favorite destination, so I guess in 20+ years there might be a George García up there. I think they are jumping the gun a bit with Lallana (I think he has a Spanish grandfather but that's it).

I guess I'm being woooshed here since it's a perfectly Spanish surname... Not a bad list of players, although I would probably only have Aubameyang and Carrasco in the actual Spanish squad.

Marca just ran a "Descendant of Spanish immigrants" best XI. Not too bad. http://e00-marca.uecdn.es/assets/multimedia/imagenes/2016/09/05/14730690858248.jpg

Lots of talk that Aymeric Laporte is going to switch to Spain. That would be a huge boost to our CB options, which aren't too good after Piqué/Ramos. I'm actually really surprised Laporte doesn't have a single France cap at this point, he's class.

If I'm not mistaken, Santi Mina, Rodrigo and Munir are the only "senior" forwards left in Valencia's squad None is really a classic #9, more the Neymar type than the Suárez type so to speak. Mina and Munir are promising but very green. It's gonna be sink or swim for them and the team.

I assume there's some obligation to loan, otherwise it's utterly puzzling. Why loan your first choice keeper? Diego Lopez has joined them on loan. Missed that. Him and Roberto are a decent pairing of keepers even when losing Pau.

I assume there's some obligation to loan, otherwise it's utterly puzzling. Why loan your first choice keeper?

Heh, pity he isn't managing a Liverpool team, the "Sgt Pep" moniker is just excellent.

He was pretty good as an impact sub during Málaga's resurgence in the second half of last season. They were reportedly trying to get him permanently but I don't know what happened. I think this guy could be a shrewd move, imho.

I guess he'll compete with Ganso for the lazy #10 spot, can't see Sampaoli playing them together too often.