El Profesor

Very good player, Chris. He´s a rich man´s André Gomes, tall, a bit slow and not great defensively, but when he has the ball, he´s a great player to watch. Good, smart passer, technically way above average. The real problem for him is not talent, but maturity and his entourage. If you guys thought dealing with Neymar Pai was tough, wait until you deal with Rabiot´s mom, Véronique.

Layún to Villareal for 5 million euros. This is a very good signing for Villareal.

haha Some bizarre stuff happens in brazilian lower divisions. Including this save, on Sunday:

Barça sure does some strange deals.

It´s finally official, Arthur is a Barcelona player. Take good care of my boy, culés.

Now Barça can keep Yerry Mina if they want to, even with the arrival of Arthur. On Paulinho, well, he at least proved he´s not the worst player in the world, like many fans acted when he arrived at Barça. And he´ll be able to tell his grandchildren he played for Barça with Messi and Iniesta and won a double. Not bad. I´m not a fan of his football, but I recognize he´s a decent player.

A significant number of soldier and officials are deserting the army, and joining the exodus to Colombia and Brazil. It´s hard to envision a Vietnam like resistence in Venezuela, like Diosdado promissed. Maduro is no Ho Chi Minh, Diosdado is no Giap. The real danger is a civil war ecloding in the power vacumn, with different sectors of venezuelan society trying to position themselves in a position where they´re the ones who´ll gain the favor of the americans. But I agree, a war would be terrible.

More on: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-04/us-official-trump-pressed-aides-about-venezuela-invasion In theory, the population would support the invasion and the Maduro regime would be easily toppled. At this point, he´s highly unpopular. But wars are always unpredictable and all scenarios must be considered. After all the United States proved they´re pretty bad at the nation building business in Iraq and Lybia, and creating power vacumn is always dangerous. Different sections of venezuelan could compete to gain power and a civil war could eclode simultaneously. There is too the possible scenario of venezuelan and cuban militias retreating to the Amazon forest and the conflict could drag on for years, causing instability in the whole region. There aren´t good solutions when it comes to Venezuela, but I sure hope a war is avoided. Colombia would definitely support an invasion, meanwhile Brazil is a mistery. Trump pressed Temer´s government to give a position, but the brazilian government has been evasive so far. Pence visited Brazil last week and Venezuela was certainly a topic of conversation. Like I´ve discussed with @Kowabunga, if Bolsonaro is elected on October, it makes a venezuelan conflict more probable. He will push hard for a alliance with the United State.

Bechler confirming Paulinho said yes to a return to China.

The same as you guys. So far in Brazil, they´re only quoting Mundo Deportivo about the rumors of a return to China. If the offer really exists, you definitely should take the money.

The belgian one, I think it´s Mousa. Moussa is the Celtic one.

Mousa or Ousmane?

Great news, Antoñito! Arthur needs to move to Europe, he´s ready.

Inter is interested in Suso. They have already initiated contact with his agent and Milan is aware of the interest and is already waiting for an official offer. Players moving from Inter to Milan and vice-versa is not an uncommon occurrence. Meazza, Pirlo and Seedorf are some examples I can remember from the top of my mind, but I´m sure there are more.

Bad news for Barça, but at the same time, it may be good for the kid. At Monaco, he´ll get more playing time.

I was about to ask you it. I mean, isn´t finding job at sports media easier in Canada than in Peru? I studied with a guy who covers Atlético Paranaense for GloboEsporte.com, that´s a good gig to start, but he´s so diehard and passioned about the team that I´m afraid that he maxed out. I´d love to see him getting to national media, I´ve always liked him.

Róger Guedes is playing really well. He is the top score of Campeonato Brasileiro with 9 goals in 12 games. Hopefully he decides to move to Shakhtar or Benfica and not Saudi Arabia, he´s too good. On Sunday, he scored those two amazing goals: And today he scored another nice goal:

Congratulations for the kid @Eco .

What a goal by Nenê

I´m sure Gennarino will be a knowledgeable football fan like his dad.

I think you´re in for some bad times when Messi retires/leaves Barça. A similar situation to the beginning of the century, when Rivaldo had to score a hat-trick against Valencia not to guarantee a title but the 4th place. Not enough to outspend the likes of United, City, Real, PSG; not enough brain to outsmart those clubs. Real Madrid signing Rodrygo means a lot, in my opinion. They not only have signed a very promissing player, but also took him off your hands. This is not good.

Actually, I find this stuff interesting. Always a chance to learn through football about human interactions and dealings. But there is no news about it coming from Brazil. The last I read was from Mundo Deportivo. Barça already paid 4 million euros for the priority rights and have until July 15th to pay the other 26 million euros. There´s no clause about antecipating the move to July, so Grêmio wants a compensation of 10 million euros, while Barça agrees to pay only 3 million euros. Arthur moving earlier to Barcelona really hurts Grêmio´s chances to retain the Libertadores title, so there´s good reason to why they want a big compensation for it.

Definitely. Barcelona board does very shaddy dealings. I mean, they did alright in the Neymar case because Neymar Pai and Wágner Ribeiro, well, you know how those two are. But it seems to me Arthur´s staff is more serious and Grêmio´s board is very serious as well. Romildo Bolzan competely transformed Grêmio. You can´t help but to compare to Real Madrid. They know how to deal. I mean, see the Vinícius Jr. example. Real Madrid always held the option to call him to join the club. Easy, no drama, he´s joining them this summer.

Grêmio is a very well managed club and their financial situation is good, they´re not desperate for money. Unless Arthur himself asks to antecipate the move, Barcelona will have to pay an extra to have him in July.

I have no idea. This is a very boring transfer saga, to be honest. Barça has the priority to buy him, but it seems they´re not totally sure if they really want him nor when they want him.