Village Idiot

Problems adapting. The whole 6 month forced holiday was terrible business. Neither him and Vidal never looked like getting going. It seemed that Lucho was going to give him this season to see if he could get back to his best, which is why I am surprised to see us splurging so much cash for another midfielder. But I like Gomes; he's also young so I believe he can grow a lot as a player.

Like André Gomes a lot. Wasn't expecting this, really. I suppose this means Turan will be on his way.

We have appointed Lopetegui as Spain manager. He did a mediocre job with the youth teams, so you can write us off for the next international cycle.

Being reported by our media and Manchester local rags. It's a "will be completed" kind of deal.

City have bought Gabriel Jesús from Palmeiras for €32m. He was one of our stiker targets but just no way we were going to match that.

I think Pogba's still really raw. His decision-making is sometimes poor and it's one of those players that somehow isn't able to get the most of his natural ability. Consistently at least. But at his age the upshot is really high. I just hope that Mourinho isn't expecting to turn him into another Essien (like he tried and failed with Mikel), because he's another kind of player. Funnily (since we know what happened), Ferguson would have been a brilliant manager for him imho.

Yeah, Baptistao is still young and with lots to prove, but the performance of the other signings will depend on how much they are arsed at this point in their careers. Flores has worked with a few of them already, so here's that. If he can get them to perform, Espanyol should have a decent season, and watch better football to what they are used to.

Espanyol linked with Mata. Now that would be quite the coup for them. Besides that, they have bought quite well this season, imho. They have got a bunch of players on the cheap that were once very promising but never quite delivered: Baptistao, Piatti, Jurado, Reyes, Roberto... those are very good players for a team in their position, if they can be motivated.

Yeah, not too fussed about this. I don't think they would bother to cheat the draw for the CL group stages tbf.

Gonna save this for the awards.

Tooj's favorite footballer Sergi Samper has been promoted to the senior team. I hope he gets more chances than Sergi Roberto did.

Looks like James skipped a court appointment re: that speeding offence where he ended up fleeing from the police. It coincided with his birthday

Aye. Having an in form Sissoko playing every week in the Championship would feel a bit like cheating My feeling is that he wouldn't give a damn and be consistently poor while trying to engineer a movie in the winter. Best to cash in now.

Par for the course. The taxman isn't actually interested in jailing people, they want to get paid. They were asking for 22 months in this instance. The idea is that the threat of jail will make you cough up the cash (which Messi did). If you agree to pay and do it promptly, they will never ask for over 2 years.

Not really. Only Espanyol were reportedly interested in him. Granada are a step-up from Rayo anyway. I think bigger clubs still see him as a bit of a risk.

Sevilla sign Ganso. Flip, is he still a flop?

Will probably sign a new contract to meet what Juve was offering and stay. I loathe player blackmail, but he's key.

Yeah, Robert Fernández. He joined last summer but didn't have enough time to leave his stamp then.

Alba loves a pulled hamstring like, Digne will have plenty of chances.

We have bought Lucas Digne from PSG. We needed a backup/competition for Alba so it's welcome. I'm liking that we're buying young defenders for once, instead of Vermaelens and Mathieus.

Linked with Real Madrid in our press as a cheaper version of Pogba, but I wouldn't give it much credit.

We are heavily rumored to approach Vicente Caparrós, who's the Spanish equivalent to Fat Sam. Looks like bright years are coming for continental football

Sad for the lad, but it's best that he found out in time. I hope he can find a way to remain in the game.

Yeah, my Atlético friends tell me that even if he didn't play that much for them, he never put a foot wrong when he did.