SirBalon

I’m currently in the process of doing a total rewatch of every Star Trek series ever made up until arriving at the present with Discovery and the new one Strange New Worlds. Boy am I having a Great time doing this.

I hate time-wasting. We had it done to us by Newcastle Utd at home and more recently against Villa until that particular game turned on them. We did indeed apply that form of cheating yesterday. I said on a thread a week ago or so that many don’t get annoyed enough with that type of cheating until it’s used on them.

The Leicester City v Arsenal game brought us more of that shit refereeing or should I say VARing. It's becoming quite nauseating. Important 3 points for us.

Totally agree and Madonna's 80's (plus some of her 90s) music is where she ceased to mean anything to me. But I'm an 80's kid and as far as I'm concerned there hasn't been a decade like it where music is concerned. The amount of legendary tunes from that decade are too many to mention.

Tbh mate, I'm a bit old for things like Reggeaton lol. But even back in the day when it came onto the scene in Spain, I found it to be quite misogynistic. Treating women like they're some kind of experiment tool.

I haven't listened to Spanish music in quite some time and I don't know why. It is a catchy tune.

You still into your canutos!!! lol

One of the most poignant events in all of that was when he appointed Francisco Rufete (a past Valencia star) as technical director for sport and the club saw improvement. But the players Rufete was bringing in were being sold on within the following transfer window. Rufete went public when the fans started to place the blame on him and then a month later he was fired. we’re talking about a personality (Peter Lim) that doesn’t understand all of this and tbh, the Valencia CF fan club were told by both Bancaixa and local government that they’d done their due diligence on Peter Lim and that he was the worst possible option. In the end they gave into fan pressure and the rest is history. This guy is using the club as a guarantee for authenticity in Europe. It’s not unusual. The same is occurring on a much larger scale with Man City and PSG, the difference being that the Qatari consortiums are a lot cleverer and more in tune with the stupidity of us football fans.

Perfect

For sure. They got to two Champions League Finals in a row. Lost one against Real Madrid and the other very unluckily against Bayern Munich. They had a golden generation plus hand picked world beaters from all over the place. But they overspent and didn’t invest the money they were earning wisely. They ended up owing a Spanish bank (Bancaixa) an extortionate amount of money and started to sell all their assets (top players) all over Europe. Then when they should’ve been solvent, the then President Juan Bautista Soler (who was gifted the club by his father who was a major shareholder) absolutely ruined the club 5 fold. Enter the auctioning of the club by the creditors (Bancaixa) whilst it was being protected by local government who were paying the interest rates (to be returned). Then came Peter Lim who paid the debt but has never really cared about the club and here we are unfortunately. It’s a HUGE club with immense support. But it’s never recovered its former status.

I agree with the lament many Valencia fans have been vocalising. But they DID march on the regional government building back in the day (I witnessed it as I was living there at the time) to push local government (La Generalitat Valenciana) into giving up their protection ownership of the club and hand it over to Peter Lim. They’ve conveniently forgotten about this particular detail.

Madonna has some totally iconic tunes. She’s completely bonkers, has been for years. But her music is legendary.

Madonna is never old!

Football is corrupt on almost every level, particularly up top and in every league everywhere. But this lot along with PSG have been manipulating the financial rules for years + some. I'd be very surprised if the correct punishment is administered. Juve just had a 15 point deduction and in the past they were relegated for other examples of corruption. 10 years of corruption is a hell of a long time. So did it take the authorities 10 years to ascertain the proof? Why weren't they caught red handed 9 years ago, instead of letting it roll on? Why can't they have every honour won in that time of benefitting from illegal measures to compete, stripped? Something has happened... Someone (or a group) have obviously joined forces and scared them to tell all and we have now seen it all come to light. It's been 10 years ffs!

Unprecedented for sure. What he’s done surely puts many to shame imo. It’s not as if he’s on his last legs either. The guy has played at elite level and before he made this decision he was a vital part of the Cádiz game. Really hope this can be the start of Depor’s recovery. You guys belong clashing with the big guns in Primera.

You must be happy about what Lucas Pérez done to return to Depor?

I fu*king play for free... I play lots of things for free and even pay to play. Then there’s work.

So, it’s €108m Orpheus Media has apparently purchased 20% of the media rights for Barça’s games being transmitted in south-east Asia for the next 6 years. I really don’t need to say anything here on this one apart from adding Jaume Roures’ statement just now when he was quizzed quickly as he departed the Camp Nou. (Not that his statement is required here) ”I’ve just given a helping hand to the socios who aren’t to blame. Not to this board or any board. This club needs to stay in the hands of the socios and they deserve to see this team play in full this year.”

So, the latest news is that the fourth lever has been purchased by Orpheus Media which is behind many of Europe’s leagues (including Serie ‘A’) intercontinental tv coverage. The company is owned by Jaume Roures a Catalan/Spaniard that has been on the Barcelona board of directors on four separate occasions. I think Barça have pulled a fast one with this if it’s all true.

Note that both Sergi Roberto and Dembélé were re-signed after the year’s cut-off period which means that they won’t be accounted for in the annual financial report for both the LFP and UEFA until season 23/24. This is a tactic that PSG have been using for a few years now.

Apparently (just seen the alert on my phone so don’t know more than that as there is no article as of yet) Barça have pulled a fourth lever and will apparently be able to register the new players PLUS Sergi Roberto and Dembélé (who had both run down their contracts and were officially re-signed as new players under the rules).

That’s more than 6 years as an Argentinian in waiting. You’re now eligible for your citizenship application I’m sure.

Yeah, I watched it. Also watched his performance for PSG the other day. The chap has still got it.

I announced myself Argentinian when I was a teenager. I’ve got family in Buenos Aires even though I’ve only ever been there once in my early twenties and I was too much of an twat to experience anything other than the churrasco and the nightlife.

Yep, that’s the basics of it with Atleti. They also sold the Vicente Calderón which was prime renewal location in Madrid for years. The area they acquired for the old Olympic Stadium where the Metropolitano now lies was already theirs. They’d acquired that at a cut down price years before. There are a number of features that took them to financial stability when they looked dead and buried. Amongst the many things they cleverly did, what you mention was one of them. But for that one to occur, they needed a great coach. But not just any coach... they needed a figure in the similar fashion to that of Luis Aragonés and that icon was Diego Simeone. His passion for that club is felt by the fans and the unity it created carried faith along with it. When fans have faith in you, they also have patience.