Village Idiot

Rather have Silva, we need a wide player, and he has more years in him. Abel (Atlético's manager) will probably get the boot soon, I reckon. Better now than later, I say.

Villa scores his 5th in 4 (same as Cronaldo) but Valencia go down 2-1 to Getafe at half time.

AC Milan lost 1-0 against Udinese. Oh boy.

I don't know why, to be honest. I came to this board when SBR died, always admired the man and I wanted to see what impact the news had in Newcastle. Afterwards, I sort of found you a fun lot. Also you're interested in world football which is something you don't usually find in most club boards. Also, while born in Barcelona, I have been living in the USA for the past years so I do hope my English is good!

First real challenge is Sevilla away in two weeks IIRC. We face Valencia away the following week.

Villarreal are going to be poor this season, they failed to qualify for the CL and that has aggravated their financial problems (punching above their weight). I expect upper midtable from them, with a chance of going lower than that if the manager fails. Still, if Real gets 4 or 5 past them, the Spanish league will have officially reached Scottish PL-like joke proportions

This Notts County business is so going to end in tears (for Notts County fans).

When I played non-league football, one of the teams in the division (eventual champions) was captained by Vicente Sánchez - a complete unknown to you but former FC Barcelona captain. Guy ran circles around us even if he was 40, but I had the best day of my life (I was the goalie) and we sneaked a 3-2 win after I stopped like a half a million shots from him. Also one of my school mates was a centrehalf that eventually made it to the Spanish Olympic team, and played at Villarreal in La Liga, but his career took a nosedive shortly afterwards.

Why have they been given an extension? La Liga does that on some circumstances, where you lose a player for the entire season for reasons beyond your control ("out for the season" injuries being the most common one). You have to sign a player that plays in the same position of the one you lost. In this case, they lost one of their midfielders on the night of deadline day to Zaragoza given a buyback clause, and La Liga gave them 30 days to sign a replacement since they couldn't have planned for it (and they are disputing the way Zaragoza triggered that clause).

Depor has been given a special permission to sign a player outside the window, and apparently they are going after Giovanni Dos Santos from Tottingham. The extension La Liga has given to them will expire at the end of the month.

As said in another thread I played PES against Raúl Tamudo (Espanyol's centreforward and all-time topscorer), since we had at the time a mutual friend. He tore me a new one (always been more of a FM guy). Also, in one night, at the same party, I met Andrés Iniesta, Rafa Nadal and Pau Gasol. None of them were famous yet (well, Gasol a little). I used to live in Cesc Fábregas' hometown, and my brother knows his family and has spoken with him on occasion (not the nicest person in the world, he tells me). Guardiola lives in my parents' town, when I go there, I usually bump into him. My parents buy their meat at the same store as him.

He is either a good decent professional or incredibly thick for throwing away that deal. Leaning towards the later. Also I don't think that a team can sign a released player after the window's shut, that would be ripe for abuse.

Just confirmed, 1-2 weeks with a sprained ankle. Here's hoping Henry finds some form.

They lad Angel Rangel who they signed Terrassa looks a good un. What level are Terrassa & where Catalonia are they based? Terrassa are Spanish Segunda B (third flight), the town of Terrassa is 30 km north of Barcelona, Xavi's birthplace sporting-wise, though, they are famous for field-hockey. An absurd amount of players of the Spanish field hockey team (several times world/olympic medalist) comes from Terrassa.

All decent players from the Spanish third flight, it's very easy to get those on a free, so I guess it was great business for Swansea. Can't believe Jordi Gómez starts week in week out in a Premier League side though.

I was thinking about this (well, kind of) when I was in Barcelona in the summer; how many in Barcelona supports Espanyol? They have a pretty decent following actually, but it's massively dwarfed by FC Barcelona. On anecdotal evidence, I'd say one in 5-6 football fans in Barcelona is an Espanyol fan. But they are pretty much a non-entity outside the Barcelona metropolitan area. @thespence: Dani Jarque was born in Barcelona, you won't find many Espanyol youth players born outside the city or the immediate towns. He was also born from Spanish immigrants, which is were Espanyol finds a lot of their fans. EDIT: I got players mixed up, but Raúl Tamudo has actually the same story, lives in Santa Coloma (adjacent town to Barcelona), and born to Spanish immigrants. Also super-nice fella, I met him and played PES with him a few times.

Apart from our scouting network, we benefit from a huge catchment area. Every kid in Catalonia (me too, but I was useless) dreams of playing for Barça. Madrid, for example, has Atlético in the same area (and even if Real is the bigger club overall, it's much more split inside Madrid city proper).

We didn't buy Messi or anything, his father has relatives in Catalonia and moved there with his son given the Argentinian crisis. He trialed for Barça and we offered him a spot. He was 13...

Yes, he went down in the first game of the season, but he should be on his way back. We kinda can use him, since he looked way more up for it than Henry.

Amazing goal by Oscar Serrano 1-4

Messi again, out of nowhere. 0-4 He gets subbed after the goal, and the Racing crowd claps him as he heads for the tunnel...

Guess Guardiola's playing it safe, hopefully it's just a knock. Xisco warming up for Racing EDIT: Xisco in.

Messi puts the ball on the net but is (correctly) ruled offside.

Zlatan

Beautiful one.