Trumpet

Legia Warszawa losing AT HOME, to St. Patrick's Athletic of Ireland. That's what you get for sacking the manager who won you the league titles after many years, just to replace him with Henning fucking Berg.

Just seen Chelsea have Felipe combined too. Man, it's just boring. Come within 4 points of title, and semis in CL...then conveniently go and buy the 3 best players of the team that beat you in the CL. Have one of the best young strikers in the world...but just go out and buy a more mature, 26 year old, version of him. It's effective, wins them trophies. But so blend and boring. As for transfers, it looks like both Roma and Liverpool are offering Yedlin a trial this summer. Think it's too early for him to make the step up from MLS...perhaps if purchased by either club, he should go on loan in a less-pressure environment to get used to European footy.

^ They've spent over 20M net and it appears they won't be selling any one of note, and more likely spend even more. I think it's a very sizeable budget for West Ham and should come with some expectations. A bit like what Norwich tried to do last summer, but backfired.

WestHam have the best home kit in the league next year, and with Valencia in, have spent upwards of 20M+ net this window so far. Guess Allardyce really is under pressure to play better style.

Who could be the two that bottled it though ? My first thought is Huntelaar, ...second, maybe Blind ? Cilissen just looked bereft of any confidence when talking to Krul before the shoot-outs. No intimidating, no shit talking, he was just awed by the pressure. Hiddink is next to take over to Netherlands apparently. Hope they go back to playing proper Dutch football, and Hiddink doesn't play his Anzhi version with the Dutch.

And earning nearly 4 times more per week On bendtner to Villa, it's great. Bendtner definitely has something about him. He is unreal for the national team and I can't wait until he dicks portugal again in Euro qualifiers. Hope he can get his club career back on track. Under the right guidance (Not that Lambert is), he could be a proper late bloomer. Had a touch of Ibra about him 4 years ago, not sure what went wrong.

Marcus Christenson ‏@m_christenson 2 min. [Guardian] Lazar Markovic booked on a flight from Lisbon to England tomorrow to finalise move to #lfc. Fee €25m. Follow @nunotravassos for more updates. Is that Benfica fan lad around these days? Be good to hear his thoughts on this. No idea about this whatsoever.

52 points with no captain. Hummels and Fernandinho hopefully subbed. David Luiz with 7 points Messi or Robben captain tomorrow? Need big games from Biglia and Wiljuandhom or whatever his name is.

Forgot to pick a Captain

Late drama and red card, combined with an injury minute goal by FC Santa Coloma sees them progress to 2nd round of CL, due to away goals. Harsh on FC Banants of Armenia. Looks like all Armenian sides will be out of Europe by Thursday. Surely a record Macabi Tel Aviv face Santa Coloma in the next round.

Neymar got 11 points surprisingly. Having a real difficult time to see whether it's worth it to write off his double captaincy points and gamble on Messi/Robben.

^ British Media (Ben Smith and Tony Evans) have both rubbished it. Saying, parties still waiting for Sanchez' decision.

What is with Hummels to Man Utd stories? Another fantasy transfer, or something actually in it?

Look at me! My team buys so many players that I have transfer fatigue. Would you like to see all my hope? To be fair, getting linked to crap like Ryan Bertrand and Dejan Lovren (to strengthen the weakest part of your team) when you were a slip away from winning the league, isn't the nicest of sights...in context. As you guys would know due to Pardew, I think proper coaching and management trumps all transfer activities, Moyes made Mata look like Matt Jarvis, whereas Fergie made Fletcher look like prime Edgar Davids for a few seasons. Transfers aren't worth getting worked up for, until you've seen how they fit in the team. Only people benefitting from transfer windows are attention whores like Harry Redknapp, Felix Magath, Indikayla and such.

^ Trust me it's a lot more fun than following transfer rumours and such during the summer. I'm a socialist, so fully on board with Platini to encourage developing football infrastructure in lesser countries. Just seen this Welsh team in EL named "Airbus UK Broughton" ...How do people come up with these names

Tremendous day for Kazakhstan football. All 3 representatives beat their EL opponents in the first leg (2 of them away from home !!). Tromso is destroying Estonian representative 5-0 away from home into second half. No wonder Estonian coefficients are even lower than those of Luxamburg. On another note, Gibraltar's first ever CL appearance ended up in a 1-1 home draw vs. Faroe Island champions yesterday. Plenty of more games to be played today.

If this game doesn't convince Americans that football shits all over their so called national sports, no game ever will. Incredible game.

De Bruyne and Van Buyten subbed in for Helliche and Matuidi before the game. 29 points won instead of 9.

15 Saves by Howard so far. Must be getting 20 points minimum alone for this.

Lucky whoever has Howard as their keeper...

Genuinely love all those first rounds of European football. I first started following them last year, after having a look at UEFA Coefficients. It's a great observation how a smaller nation can develop their country, rack up the coefficient points, and get more representatives as they move up the ladder. Every win gets them points and matter. Love studying football in developing nations, the formula to success and improvement looks so easy on paper, yet so few of them actually execute it properly. Be interesting to see smaller countries whose national team has come leaps and bounds (e.g. Iceland) can replicate the same in club football. I remember last year a Kazakhstan team was a 90th minute Celtic goal away from making group stages of Champions League. Gibraltar team play their first CL game tomorrow. Tromso (The team in Spurs' group who got relegated from the Norwegian league last year) is again in EL this year. Fewest number of Yellow and Red cards in the league last year got them a spot. That's their excuse sorted in case they fail to gain promotion.

Champions League starts tonight. and same with Europa League. Notable ties of tonight: CL FC Santa Coloma (Moldava) vs. Banants (Armenia) La Fiorita (San Marino) vs. Levadia Tallinn (Estonia) EL Shkëndija (Macedonia) vs. Zimbru Chișinău (Moldova) Sliema Wanderers (Malta) vs. Ferencváros (Hungary) Jeunesse Esch (Luxamburg) vs. Dundalk (Ireland)

Michael Laudrup appointed as manager of a Qatari club. Says: "This is close to the final stage of my managerial career and will be either my final or penultimate job as a football manager".

Captain Hames Rodriguez scores 2 goals from midfield, gets 14 points only. Cuadrado 9. Thought James would get more points...still not sure if I should risk the captaincy to someone like Messi, they'd need a hattrick to better James' 14 points.

Can we reset the score for the new season ?! This thread doesn't look quiet the same without Parky's name in the title. Suarez doesn't affect Liverpool though. I am convinced he'll be off to Barca as soon as the result to appeal from Uruguay's FA comes out. Tough shit for Luis Enrique and Mes Que Un Club. and reading Lugano stuff, it's certainly something in the Uruguayan water. I don't think I can quiet capture how they combat issues without visiting Montevideo. Soon enough hopefully.