Village Idiot

Exactly. Watching football all day long for 2 weeks in the summer whilst getting drunk with your pals, it's f***ing great. Man, the 1994 WC is almost like my threshold to adulthood on that regard, I could make one of those boring autobiographical artsy movies, but with Roberto Baggio, Romario, Hristo Stoichkov and spanish women.

Can't fucking wait either. Chances are I will be in Spain for the summer (or permanently), so for once I'll be in the right timezone

i was wondering that VI, i'm sure you debt is something like 400M or something? Guess the Eurosport hack just dropped a bollock when writing the article. Maybe it's because we had no bank debt at the beginning of last season and the guy mistook it for overall debt? (we have taken loans since then to cover a few non-football things). i seem to remember a number of spanish clubs had trouble paying their taxes a few year back, is this still the case? Oh yes. Overall tax debt of Spain's professional football is €600m. We are current as of this year, after paying €60m that our 1990s board tried to evade

Mallorca likely to enter administration at the end of the season, with short term debt totalling 40m. That would jeopardise their bid for CL football next season (they currently sit at 4th place with 5 games to go)

Mallorca's president has admitted that administration looks the only way out for the club. Would be a good place to fish in. Although can't think of players that would be a good fit for you (they are either old or you have that role well covered), and Valero is still in contract with WBA.

i was wondering that VI, i'm sure you debt is something like 400M or something? Guess the Eurosport hack just dropped a bollock when writing the article. Maybe it's because we had no bank debt at the beginning of last season and the guy mistook it for overall debt? (we have taken loans since then to cover a few non-football things).

I honestly couldn't think of one we could realistically get. I also don't see much chance of them buying any strikers, that's how I think our squad will look. Goals are very expensive. You're not going to get a "proven" goalscorer for less than 10m. You'll have to take gambles. That said, a lot of sides manage to stay up without one (see Bolton, Wolves, probably West Ham...) Again my squad was taken with some sense of realistic in terms of what I expect our club to try and achieve. Was only supporting your point. Getting a proven 10+ goals a season striker will cost you a big chunk of your transfer funds.

I honestly couldn't think of one we could realistically get. I also don't see much chance of them buying any strikers, that's how I think our squad will look. Goals are very expensive. You're not going to get a "proven" goalscorer for less than 10m. You'll have to take gambles. That said, a lot of sides manage to stay up without one (see Bolton, Wolves, probably West Ham...)

What about Tuncay? He's class and doesn't seem to be able to hold a starting berth at Stoke no matter what he does.

Conversely, he could potentially have a field day with defences so up the pitch like in the prem.

It's supposed to be on his leg though. That was after he explained he did not have it on his arm. Haway man do you really think he was playing word games when he denied having it on his arm. No idea, but he's hardly going to admit to it, even if it was true, whilst he's at ManU. I have no idea if it's true or not, like. http://www.mediastorehouse.com/image/nicky-butt-paul-scholes-teddy-sheringham-and-dwight-yorke-pose-in-the-dressing-room-with-the-inter_45084.jpg Not on display in here, at least.

Explains his season tbf.

Wow, 9 minutes injury time in the Hull game. Is this Dowie-time?

know you mentioned it the other day, but rooney playing in the middle up front would give you some of the movement and hassling of eto'o and as well as some of the touch and hold up play of ibrahimovic. would also be able to fill in out wide too as he did for man utd when ronaldo was there. not going to happen but it would be mouth-watering to see him in that side. Indeed, FM-tastic thought anyway.

Again, I still defend the decision to get rid of Eto'o, but obviously what he brought to the side hasn't been replaced. I think not taking into account that last season was Henry's swan song was a worse mistake.

Yes, I do. Although Pedro isn't far from Henry's record last year. (19 goals so far, versus 26 from Henry last season) What positions will you be looking to bolster in the Summer? Left wing, rightback (Alves has no understudy bar Puyol), ideally leftback but doesn't seem we'll go for one. And then there's Cesc... we don't really need another midfielder of his type just yet, although it would give us room to play with Iniesta on the wing, or giving us an outlet when Xavi is man-marked.

Yes, I do. Although Pedro isn't far from Henry's record last year. (19 goals so far, versus 26 from Henry last season). We should get a player that is a bit more direct than our ballplayers. We are degrading into Arsenal sometimes.

i still dont get why real sold him and sneijder They were signings of the previous president, who Pérez hates beyond belief. Stupid ego. God knows I'd have had both at our place (Sneijder maybe we would have trouble fitting).

I clicked this link expecting it would read "...one more season" and I would find you lot raging and screaming. Now I'm disappointed. My ManU supporting friend also used to think he was one of your best players.

It's pretty customary to do that in Spain. Considered unsporting to keep playing if the other team is down to 10-men.

We have the least amount of against goals in La Liga by a country mile... Incidentally, MoN names an unchanged squad against Hull.

Didn't these chaps rip you to pieces last year in their Championship preview?

Mourinho > Pep, rather. Inter did what we all expected they would do, I was expecting Pep would have a counter (he isn't shy to change tactics when playing strong opposition, see the past Clásico), but he didn't. And please don't call me fickle since I still worship the ground that he walks, but he isn't always right.

In the first league-winning season (51 goals). They scored 71 the second time, two years later, just one goal shy of top-scorers Madrid, who came fourth. The fitness thing largely holds true for his Liverpool side, too. Our form under Rafa has almost always improved as the season goes on, and we have typically hit the business end of the season firing on all cylinders. Notably, in 2005, we went into the Chelsea CL semi with more or less a fully-rested squad at full fitness, while Chelsea turned up knackered and missing their wingers, because Mourinho had been sending out his A-team week-in, week-out. You're quite right that it's more effective in Spain, though. Apart from the very high fitness of EPL sides, overall, over recent seasons, the leading teams simply haven't dropped enough points for our great season-end form to compensate for the slow start. Does he get the same stick he did in Spain for his zonal marking? Up to this season your defensive record was pretty good (and it is pretty decent this year considering your table position). He got mocked often here with the "grass doesn't score goals" thing.