ah….

thanks for clarifying that.

i need to get me into a cable hock ASAP. but… the fucking thieves!

i have to pay for 400 useless channels in order to watch 5.

Fuck cable.. not only do you pay, but pay for the fucking channels but to watch a fucking FOUR minute fucking commercial every 6 minutes????

The deals better here but still a rip-off.

The Kroos signing is great for Real but I think the reason for him going was mainly just his own ambition. He'd won everything he could win at Bayern and he's young and I imagine most players will have their heads turned if they know Real or Barcelona are interested. Bayern lose because they lose a great player for a lot less than he's worth.

Real will be interesting this season. They're reinforcing big time, with Kroos now in, James Rodriguez pretty much a done deal and Falcao still a strong possibility. Their midfield and attack is starting to look formidable:

Modric-Kroos
Bale-Rodriguez-Ronaldo
Falcao (possibly)

Although Barcelona's is hardly weakened, either.

Rakitic-Busquets/Mascherano-Iniesta
Messi-Suarez-Neymar

(Xavi meant to be on his way to the MLS)

And Bayern's isn't exactly shit, even without Kroos

Martinez
Ribery/Gotze-Thiago/Schweinsteiger-Robben/Mueller
Lewandowski

Hard to say which one is strongest out of those three.

if hah-mess gets into real madrid, oh mama! and with falcao?? sweet colombia! i'd really want to see that.

it's reeeeally reeeally starting to bug me how bayern and every other team out there have been poaching dortmund's best players. goddammit.

having said that, dortmund used to be bankrupt and they came back to life with a loan from bayern. now they're a publicly traded company! but yeah, the poaching probably helps them pay back their debts. they'll find new talent. they still have gundogan and hummels and reus (for now...)

re: cable. i think i found a cheap-ish "latino" package that has most things i want (bundesliga, some la liga + serie a, champions league, fifa matches). unfortunately the prem remains beyond reach at that price point (i'd need a premium package for that), so i'll have to get the mourinho vs. van gaal updates via youtube?

the commercials thing: fortunately i only use cable to watch futbol, and that's going to be 45 uninterrupted minutes every time. the rest is garbage i don't care about or i can dvr and skip the ads.

Hummels looks like he's going to Man U and Reus has been shafted by Barcelona but I doubt he'll be at Dortmund next season. Liverpool are now apparently interested.

holy mother of fuck!

i had forgotten about hummels! apparently he went to see man u when he was 17 as a birthday present-- i remember that talk of transfer now. ayayay...

i really really hope dortmund is at least cashing in as they bleed players.

They've probably been short changed on the Kroos deal and I can see the same happening if they sell Reus. Hummels should bring some money in though. Dortmund's problem is they have to rely on their youth set-up knowing as soon as a player really starts to shine they'll inevitably get tempted away by the bigger, richer clubs. But it's the same for 99% of clubs.

One of my fave photos from the WC

Mexico v Brazil

kroos went from bayern i think you meant gotze or lewandowski or hmmm... who else got pinched someone is trying to get sven bender-- maybe arsenal? too many names to remember.

i'll tell you who, speaking of youth set-up… gotze's 16 year old brother!! just moved to bayern from dortmund. true story. i mean, it's like those old cartoons where they saw off the floor under someone.

i know it's like that for most clubs, but what hurts is that their huge success in 2012-13 has translated into such a massive ransacking. dortmund has the largest and most attended stadium in europe-- it's a shame their finances are not strong.

The above photo's been chosen by the Guardian too.
As a lazy poster, I'll just put the link to the panorama made by the editor, starting with one I crave:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/...65452&index=22

Manchester City under-21 team has walked off the pitch in Croatia, allegedly following racial abuse aimed at our young French striker Seko Fofana.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/28434345

I think teams should take this kind of action more often. Not to ruin games, but to force referees, teams, fans and FIFA to take things like bigotry and violence more seriously. By 'more seriously' I mean more than getting players to wear an anti-racism patch on their shirt.

Fifa has to deal with it at a national rather than club level, the way it did with hooliganism after Heysel. These are national cultural issues that wont be addressed until whole countries are suspended from European football. Not that it'll ever happen.

I agree wholeheartedly, but I think that's precisely why clubs and players should act. It shows a stance and, ultimately, it'll embarrass FIFA and force them into action.

wow! hip priest is REALLY BACK! hello.

--

re: photos, all those are amazing. originally i was going to reply to demonrail's posting with something about "mexi-bras" and ended up thinking about the unruly mexibro picture, and eventually lost track (ah, to have adhd can be such fun!).

of the guardian ones posted i think the most mind-blowing to me is the van persie one, because when you look at the static image and try to extrapolate the physics of it (speeds and trajectories and all that) you start to laugh and what he did.

anyway, re: racists. good job walking out. stick them with the ticket price and make them hurt. i'm all for banning whole countries.

Hey !@#$%!. Your name has just forced me to learn the keypad on the new laptop, thanks.

The great thing about the Van Persie goal was his awareness of how great it was. Most players would have put their arms out to soften the fall then got up and run around like a lunatic. But he knows that the flight and the landing all add to the aesthetics of the thing.

Ew, West Ham are in the running for Valbuena, one of the stand-out players for me in the WC. Can't see quite how he'd fit in with Big Sam's 'style' but Carroll looking like he'll be out for another 4 months (after injuring another part of his foot!) means he can't afford to risk building everything around him again.

I don't see Valbuena being interested in going to West Ham.
He plays for a big French club that's had titles to its name and is a regular there. He became champion with Marseille in 2010 and has been there since 2006.
He's 29, his career is not on the wane yet. Plus he might consider Alou Diarra's transfer to the London club.
Loïc Rémy moved to QPR... who would?... when he no more was a regular for Marseille, with the idea to use his move as a platform for a bigger English club. Hence his medical at Liverpool. Which failed.

Anyway, WH signed Enner Valencia, which looks great.
He'll play there a couple of years and move on probably.

And for the addicted, the Premier League Fantasy is back!
http://fantasy.premierleague.com/
It's for those who are stubborn enough to shuffle their team during a whole season.
I built my team quite rapidly, which is odd - the past years selection was a heartache. The rules are simpler than those of the World Cup. There will be less points. The bonus system doesn't work here the same way. Don't expect a defender whose team's been beaten 2-0 to score 9 points...

I have not created any league yet, because I'm lazy (I was automatically drafted into the Sonic League and PaulyB's Liquid Football when their heads generated their squads).

Oops, I was completely wrong...
Marseille is letting Valbuena go and he has to pick between QPR and West Ham apparently.
So there's more cash at QPR -or there was - but the team has yo-yoed between the top league and the second tier, and still looks to me as a bunch of people in it for the money, whereas West Ham remains a consistent team.
In what do they consist is another subject though.
I reckon Valbuena and Valencia up front could look good, if the Frenchman is well accepted, as it's easy to pick upon him. Plus I liked the keeper used for the end of last campaign. Can't say good things about the creativity of their midfield though.

Too bad there's noone left to sell at Southampton in that department.
The Saints have agreed to let 5 of their regular starters go, and two more are supposed to be on their way to Tottenham...
Plus they have a new coach, the grrreat Ronal Koeman (what a player he was)... Mayhem ahead.

I was surprised too, mainly that a bigger club hasn't come in for him, either in the Prem or elsewhere. Both WH and QPR have to represent a step down for him career-wise. Cautiously optimistic about the Valencia move though. Not so cautious about the player but whether Allardyce can get the best out of anyone whose name isn't either Carroll or Nolan.

Southampton are screwed unless their youth academy can deliver again. I'm getting odds of 9/2 for them being relegated, which I'm tempted to put a few quid on - even though I ultimately hope they do ok.

I'm in another FF league but I'm happy to join any other leagues anyone wants to set up.

i thought valbuena was great in the world cup.

QPR?!?!?!?!

LUKAKUUUUUU!!! m

^^ for your sake and that of all everton fans i hope he's regularly a more exciting player than he was this past summer.

i didn't see him w/ chelsea last year, so i only knew him from the great hype around him, and he certainly didn't live up to it.

Nah he was on loan at everton all last season. When he's on it, he's brilliant, and to make it better he's only 21 so he's gonna keep getting better. Especially under Martinez.

oh, i see! congrats then.

do you know martinez is a commentator here on… what channel… ESPN? he comes across as a very smart guy. between him and van nilsterooy they dissected matches brilliantly during the world cup.

Yeah I heard he was doing the commentary in America for the world cup. When he's on Match Of The Day over here he's always an interesting guy. He knows his beans I'll say that.

Gideon Zelalem is getting THAT much closer to becoming a US citizen and joining the USMNT team ;)

Me too.

QPR's manager Harry Redknapp is infamous for overspending on players so I wouldn't be surprised if Valbuena goes there solely for that reason. But I'm still surprised a bigger club, say at the upper-midtable level, haven't gone in for him. Although I'm equally surprised Marseilles want to drop him - although I'm basing that on how he did in the WC.

ow, man, i'd like to join that prem fantasy league, but it seems high maintenance and i won't be able to watch the prem anyway-- how will i guess?


valbuena had to be good in order to be picked for his national team, right?

must be a ton of money they're offering both him & marseille to let him go-- but i thought ligue 1 was flush with arab prince petrodollars as well?


haven't seen him at arsenal. i actually haven't seen him anywhere. is he really good?

Bertrand is best placed to know the details but what's most weird to me is that both Arsenal and Liverpool were looking at him pre the WC then apparently cooled off afterwards, which is a bit like saying you've gone off Tim Howard after watching him against Belgium.

He's only 17 but there's some serious hype around him. A lot of the claims are absurd. One I heard recently was that he's a good a passer as Xavi and as good a dribbler as Iniesta!! But he's obviously got something. (Unless they meant the summer 2014 versions of Xavi and Iniesta) Either way, Wenger's meant to love him.

If even a fraction of the hype surrounding this kid turns up then he is indeed something..

Mmmm... there's cash galore at PSG and Monaco only.
It's taking time for rich blokes from abroad to approach the French market - too many taxes make it not so interesting, and there are always those people trying to point out that your club shouldn't spend more that it earns (contrary to Spain - Real Madrid: a € 541 million debt, or England - the marvellous Glazers lendig money to the club they own - Man U - so that Man U pay them back with tons of interests - £ 356.6 million debt).
Club owners in France have waited for their foreign foes to fall down due to this weird handling of money. After such a collapse, they would have reigned over Europe. Eventually, considering it will never happen, some have thrown the towel completely, handing the key to their teams to Qatari owners and the likes.

Marseille has appointed a new coach, Marcelo Bielsa, held as responsible for Chile's way of playing - they were quite successful during the world cup.
Why wouldn't he want Valbuena I don't know.
Valbuena is 3 feet tall, his first club near Bordeaux did its best to avoid giving him a contract when he was a kid. He struggled to get a place in the squad at Marseille too. Yet...
Oh! I get it! I don't watch that many games from the French ligue 1, but it was reported that he had had a poor season (that didn't show for France).
And it appears that the club has to sell because they need money. Their deficit is a € 16 million one. Which is unacceptable.
He is about to reconsider his snubbing of Dynamo Moscow.

Interesting article about the popularity of Prem and La Liga teams' in the US

http://www.theguardian.com/football/...erpool-arsenal

Whenever I would read all those lame "think-pieces" about the rise of futbol in the United States the circulate every World Cup I would think to myself, "Why are they only measuring MLS or USMNT, why aren't they including the obvious? How the biggest growth for futbol in the US is cable-satellite subscription to the Euro leagues."

THIS is a better measure of American support for futbol. The key to American sports, is Americans only want to follow the BEST. Canada has American-style football league, Japan has thriving baseball leagues, there are surprisingly talented basketball leagues in Spain/France/Argentina BUT Americans watch the NFL, the MLB, and the NBA because those are the top in the WORLD at those sports. So it follows logically that Americans watch European league futbol rather than MLS because THAT is the best in the world.

By that measure, American support of European futbol, I think its fair to say futbol's popularity in the US is growing.

Makes perfect sense.

Exactly the same thing happened here in the 80s with the NFL, when we started getting live games and highlight shows. It developed a massive cult following, and a national league did emerge, but the fact was you'd see plenty of kids walking around in Bears, or Dolphins or Raiders shirts but none of any English teams. It even generated a national weekly magazine, First Down, which I used to buy religiously. It had maybe two token pages on domestic stuff but I think they even dropped those towards the end, so they could focus solely on the NFL (which I know was all I was interested in reading about).

this was all great info and i didn't thank you earlier for posting it

Right lemon pies, I've created a league if you want to join.

844072-326007 is the code for the premier league site

I expect it to die after 2 months, but whatever. Oscar Schindler has been quoted as saying "this list is an absolute good" regarding my team selection. Truth.

actually sat down and watched an entire LA Galaxy match last night and it was actually PRETTY GOOD even though it finished a 2-2 draw. Galaxy should have won though, they had 23 shots and 10 corners to San Jose's 3 shots, but the Earthquakes scored two really good goals on takeaways. To be sure, I thought Galaxy's goalkeeper sucked yo