Village Idiot

Wikipedia says he's Forest's captain, would they really sell him to a promotion rival?

Mali have so many good players, yet they ALWAYS fail to do well. I mean in 2008, they had Nigeria and CIV in their group so they were up against it, but there is no way they should have failed to get out of that group. Ghana three minutes away from the quarters, but if Burkinabe score, they will be out. African teams don't seem to play very often, do they? Do they have the same amount of friendly, quals, etc... fixtures that European players have for example?

He's a talent, but he's not going to figure for the first team yet. And it's going to be hard for him to make it here, he's pretty much a fox in the box kind of player, and you can see how hard it is for Bojan to get playing time in that position (and Bojan makes a decent winger in a 4-3-3 which I don't think Rochina would be). But he just got promoted to our B team and just recovered from a serious injury, so it's still a bit early to tell.

Did you take into account the 2 keepers in your prediction?

I've heard Canales signed a new contract with Racing with a €10m buy-out clause, is this correct? And if so, could any team bid €10m and Racing can't turn it down? Yes, all professional athletes have these clauses by law in Spain. That's why it sucks to manage low-level spanish clubs in FM So why don't all clubs put €1bn buy out clause on every player so they can decide whether or not to sell him? Because I assume a bidding war between Real, Barca and British clubs would bring in more than €10m to Racing, wouldn't you think? Well, the players have to agree to the amount when signing the contract, so they naturally won't allow unrealistic clauses. In the case of Canales, also, the contract had been pre-agreed before his eclosion and triggered automatically after he played a number of games with Racing's first team. There's also a limit of how high a clause can go compared to what the player earns. Highest clause is Cronaldo's with 1000M (which is probably illegal but nobody won't bother challenging it), Messi's is a very distant second with 300M.

I've heard Canales signed a new contract with Racing with a €10m buy-out clause, is this correct? And if so, could any team bid €10m and Racing can't turn it down? Yes, all professional athletes have these clauses by law in Spain. That's why it sucks to manage low-level spanish clubs in FM

Also, on our daily dosage of baseless silly transfer paper talk, we've been linked to Rooney while Real have been linked to Gerrard.

Madrid are negotiating with Racing's prez for the transfer of Canales, meanwhile Canales' dad is in London to talk to Arsenal, Chelsea and ManCity. Bets is on Madrid since his dad is afraid about him going to a foreign country at such a young age, and Real would agree to loan him back to Santander.

I'll take Seydou Keita back, thanks

Well, you were pretty dreadful most of the night if I dare say, I think you can take that result. I think you can take solace in the fact you never quite looked like having a clue in the final third yet you nicked a couple.

Hughton time

Ameobi doesn't have his head in the right place tonight.

And screw you lot, I'm starting to care about this.

Awful defending, surrounded by 3 players and no challenge from none.

Both teams are leaving acres of space which makes it fun to watch, but I reckon you'd both get mauled in the EPL playing like that. Oh, are you playing Lou Reed at HT? Quality.

This ESPN360 stream has such a huge delay that every time West Brom get the ball on your third I just reload this thread to see if I they end up scoring.

What the hell, WBA scored that goal two minutes later here

Grand, it's on ESPN360! I'll be watching. Good luck magpies.

Barcelona sports rag "Sport" reporting that we are "very close" to sign Moses. They aren't usually reliable, though. Is he really that good?

I love Roberto Martínez since he's a Catalan managing in the Premiership But god, sometimes he talks too much! (Remember the Allardyce comments? Although those were hilarious)

Giovani Dos Santos was the new Ronaldinho Every short Argentinian is the "new Maradona" Maxi López was "the white Drogba"

Rooney and Lampard are easily techinically brilliant. The only thing holding Rooney back is his unintelligent movement off the ball. Rooney has *no* off the ball movement, he is just always attacking it. It's a pretty big part of his player personality though, so it's going to be hard to correct it.

Just curious, who are the best according to you, then? I gather Essien is one of them (an agreeable proposition)

To be honest Cesc would have never went on to be so good had he remained at Barça. Spanish midfielders are typically not great goalscorers nor are they expected to be (Xavi and Iniesta chip in around 5 a season), and his stay in England has moulded him more in your tradition of box-to-box midfielders. He's a hybrid mutant mongrel that will take over the world and eat our children.

When I say Gerrard's game is limited is that he is a player that can only finish plays, not create them. He is "just" a goalscoring midfielder, but he doesn't dictate the play of his team unless for that you mean grabbing the ball and lunging forward in mazy runs (at which he is excellent). He always struck me as the kind of player that has incredible ball handling skills and shooting but doesn't see much further than his nose. Lampard and Fàbregas have a larger set of skills and are better examples of a really complete box to box midfielder.