Village Idiot

And we are going to hold a WC in that god forsaken place

Happy that you can continue to mock England for their big posturing and not delivering, as per usual. You can say 'typical england' with a smilely and bait the rest of the English born forum legitimately. *clears throat* Typical England

As an amateur Eire fan, how am I supposed to feel about this result? I need guidance from the vets.

Russia are really really shit. Putin will need to double up on bribes and threats if they are meant to do something of note in 2018.

I remember a time where Sterling's game seemed to have a little more to it than just pace. What happened?

Aaaaand he takes another one. He's not even good at it?

Lovely start by England by the way, very entertaining to watch. Rooney seems a bit of a relic in this team though, the game is bypassing him completely.

Spanish commentators are completely puzzled about Kane taking corners too. Why is he doing that?

More De Gea leaks today... some whatsapp screenshots with a convo between De Gea and the protected witness. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ckne8DtXEAAzuyd.jpg:large They are actually pretty harmless, but in them "De Gea" reveals he set up another party with 5 ManU teammates.

Much better second half. God I love Euro summers. First the Euros, then the Olympics

What an unsurprisingly turgid game.

He hired a guy that ran a trafficking ring to provide some girls for his mates. Did he know that the guy was running a trafficking ring though? If he was just trying to get some hookers for his mates then fair play like. I'd do that for my mates. *shrugs*, the guy was a prominent pornographer, that's about it. I guess Muniaín and Isco (if confirmed) seem to be in bigger trouble if the sexual assault accusations pan out.

Could you link us to a Spanish paper carrying it please? Not coming up in searches for me. These are the guys that broke the news: http://www.eldiario.es/politica/Gea-Muniain-pornografo-Torbe_0_524948592.html

He hired a guy that ran a trafficking ring to provide some girls for his mates.

De Gea, Munain and an unrevealed Spanish footballer involved in the investigation of a prostitution and women trafficking ring. Apparently De Gea would have hired the services of an infamous Spanish porn impresario in 2012 to procure girls for Muniain and the other footballer. De Gea wasn't present during the encounter, and the women were allegedly raped. One of the girls is now in protective custody and has allegedly testified against them, and apparently there's proof (calls and whatsapp activity) that would back up her story. All our media - including the serious one - is carrying the story, so it's likely true.

Barça have settled with the Spanish taxman re: the Neymar signing tax fraud. Barça will pay €5m and the prosecution will withdraw criminal charges. This should also wind down the other Neymar court case, since the settlement means the €40m sign-on bonus we paid Neymar is considered a wage and not a transfer fee. Neymar had been sued by former part-owners DIS claiming that they were entitled to part of that bonus.

They are saying that Uruguay made a blunder and registered him for the game as "injured" even though he was healthy so he was barred from playing. I'm fine with them crashing out, more rest for him this summer.

We'll see. I honestly can't see him as a top tier player at all.

But we suck in the transfer market. We only get right the "pay loads of money for obviously great player" buys.

He's decent, but nowhere a €40m player. It's one of those cases where great coaching has made him look better than he actually is - Villarreal's defensive coaching is probably second best in the league after Atlético. He's a physical beast, very intense, so I can see why Mou would dig him, but he's prone to moments of madness and far from the finished article. Honestly I don't think he's shown anything to command that pricetag, but I guess ManU have way too much money. I will take solace on my Espanyol friends pulling out their hairs since they sold him for merely €5m last season, though (they'll be getting just €2.5m for this, it seems.)

Absolutely flabbergasted that somebody would pay €40m for Bailly... Bailly!

Colombia didn't get out of second gear and was never in trouble. It was a pretty dispiriting performance by the US, to be frank. Yay my insomnia

Bartra to Dortmund, €8m. We are such shitty sellers. Great club for him anyhow.

Got paid €600k in bonus for Madrid winning the CL

decent reputation as a coach? Not really to be frank. He only coached in some minor Spanish clubs before going to work in Qatar. I guess Benítez is interested in the methods he may have learnt/applied there. It's supposed to be state-of-the-art stuff.