Village Idiot

That David Squires cartoon of a football fan being miserable throughout his life? That's the life of the Espanyol fan. Espanyol have upped up the cuntiness in those two games, I guess Galca tries to be a Simeone for them.

Hunter doesn't write for Spanish media, so honestly I wouldn't know. Sid Lowe is the only foreign La Liga journalist that I actively read. Everyone should, by the way.

How "well-respected" Graham Hunter really is? I honestly find that incredible.

FWIW Zidane's record at Castilla is 26/17/14, which isn't that great (and he's been backed, they got him Odegaard for example). However, he had a torrid first season as a manager, with lots of off-the-field issues; they have been much better so far this one, once he's settled into the role.

Yeah, us and Madrid could be managed by a monkey flinging s*** at a tactics board and we'd still finish 3rd at the very least. Sad about Rafa.

Damn, I just came back from a loooong day at work and I find Benítez has got the sack

Decent result, wasn't really expecting that.

Isco is a media darling and a favorite among some of their fans, no way Pérez sells him.

0-0. Not gonna be the most pleasant first day of the year at the office. (yeah, I know, don't hate on me)

Hit the post twice thus far, we aren't winning this, are we?

This feels like an old school derby. Ugly, angry, and pretty crap footballing-wise.

First in a series of 3 Barcelona derbies coming up. This seems to happen every year, we draw a team in the Cup which we are set to play in La Liga and play them 3 times in a couple weeks. Last season it was Villarreal and Atlético.

http://www.francefootball.fr/mag/ballon-d-or/2001_1.jpg That's enough to class him as a legend, as much as you can disagree with him winning that.

James Rodríguez has apparently escaped arrest by fleeing into Real Madrid's training facilities after he was caught speeding 100 Km/h over the limit. Footballers are so dim

This article may not look football-related, but to me it shows that the huge contracts that have driven football during the past years are just not sustainable, and that sooner or later we're gonna see a nasty crunch. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/12/28/disney-has-a-money-problem-that-even-star-wars-cant-fix/?hpid=hp_regional-hp-cards_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fcard

Fair enough

Neville's notched just one win in 5 games, and that was against a Segunda B team. He seems obsessed with that 3-5-2 which is pretty alien to our football culture.

Wish we got some MLS dudes playing in La Liga. I get why most choose the PL, but surely the Spanish-American players should adapt easily?

Panenka? He slipped. Watching it on a dodgy stream? Seemed to me he had stopped on purpose, but yeah, he slipped. Watching it on the telly, but I'm working at the same time. I have a deadline tomorrow. FML.

That's more like it.

Another pitiful panenka pen. Neymar Why don't we just let Suárez take those?

He's done decently, but he really should be scoring more. Griezmann is pitching in, but Jackson and Vietto haven't really got going either and they need more goals from their strikers imho. The difference this season is that they seem to be getting goals from all over the pitch instead of one striker (Falcao, Costa, Griezmann) carrying them through the season.

That's probably the end of Canales as a top level player, I fear. Too many serious injuries and this one looked horrific, too.

Yeah, good goal that.

Bruma is looking like Pelé, and he's actually quite pants. Dunno what Real Madrid are playing at.