SirBalon

Official: Aberlardo Fernández is named as the new Deportivo Alavés head coach after Di Biasi was sacked the other day. This is an interesting appointment after all the good work Aberlardo done at Sporting Gijón before he resigned. I can't wait to see what he can achieve.

Down south, yeah mate, better sunshine and better food.

I said last season that De Bruyne was the only player that understood Guardiola's system out of all those he had. He's a brilliant player and will be a great asset to Barça when he's ready.

I thought Overmars had already signed... Sanllehi is not a techincal director at all, he’s a chief negotiator, one of the best of not the best in the world. He needs a team around him and needs a technical director above him. Answering to a head coach is bordering on the insane and stupidity.

Sanllehi is used to working with football people and he’ll back Overmars (and vice versa) against anything where Wenger gets involved in their liasing with scouts. The only worry I have is that Sanllehi has never worked in a club where shareholders have an overpowering say in final decisions. I can only presume that they’ve guaranteed him that the techincal team that’s being built will be able to work without any interruptions or adhering to allowances.

This my friend, is a massive coup! Trust me! if he's permitted to do his work without anyone from the shareholders getting involved, he will bring in the biggest names without a doubt (obviously providing the money is there). He was the one who convinced Neymar to forget Real Madrid who had even done a medical with the Brazilian and come to Barça. His contacts range throughout the footballing world and is the roaming finaliser in any massive deal. With the appointment of Marc Overmars and now this, I can see we're building a team of intelligent, professional experienced people in the world of the transfer market.

I can believe this one although with things like these I prefer the youth players to be given the chance first. Eriksen is a fine player... But for me too similar to Rakitić. I don't understand?

I didn't choose that option mate because out of the two diminutives that one makes me a slighter bigger "gilipollas" than the other one!

Nicolás Claus?

Diminutivo: “Gilipollín”

You could say "Jorgito"... Remember that for many names there are also many diminutives and for example my name "Antonio" you've got "Tony (or Toni)" (the one almost everyone calls me), "Toño", "Tonino", "Antonino" and probably other variants I haven't mentioned. "José" for example has "Joselito", "Joseíto" and the most popular, "Pepe".

Yes mate, it's the diminutive of Jorge (George in English). I've always found it strange that in Spain we have various diminutive of names that are as the original... There are even some diminutives that are longer than their originals.

Apparently collecting stalks is all the rage in Bath these days. People are actually breaking into other people’s houses to steal them and banks are now charging to hold them in safety deposit boxes.

I knew the girl next to him wasn't disgusted at the fact she was eating acid. Look at her face once again... It's the green man's hands at work!

True, but while I believed the stories back then that Messi was holding out to sign so as to see if a vote of censure occurred, I've now kind of changed my mind for various reasons in relation to certain comments he's made recently (most recent five days ago through an Argentine tv interview) and other news relative to this. I have no idea what's happening to be honest and the latest I know is that his previous deal (the one he was meant to have already signed) has apparently been revised to give him an Iniesta type deal for life. How much of this is true I don't know because in recent months after the fiasco of the summer, there's no proper factual news being leaked from the Camp Nou. They've done something to dig out the moles it seems and the only things that are released seem to be stuff the club is doing on purpose and making it look like leaked news.

The guy in green is the biggest plonker of them all in my view... You can see he's suffering tenfold but continues to destroy his gut.

This... (didn't bother quoting the rest) is old news Teso! This was before Benedito tried to get the signatures for a vote of censure which he would've gotten had he not gotten his dates wrong and under the club constitution lost almost a week's worth of voting and was left without enough time to get the 6,000 signatures to start the process. His ineptitude robbed the Barcelona fans of a decent candidate for election... But considering that ineptitude, one wonders now if he was really good enough anyhow. Anyway... It's old news, over 3 months old.

(going off topic for this particular thread) By the way... Plenty of stuff regarding how crooked Florentino Pérez is with all his political persuasions has been going on and yet Teso has forgotten to keep us informed on that one. Infact Florentino is going through the court system for 6 different counts of varying issues revolving greasing of politicians, tax evasion and weighing with political influences for monopolising tv rights. I could've been posting this sort of crap for over a year and a half on the Real thread but to be honest, it's quite boring because corruption will always exist in countries like Spain.

How many times has the debate on the Barcelona board been had popping up on all sorts of threads including this one (the one it belongs in) and no Barcelona fan has ever supported the present board (I know of none)... So what's the point in go through the same debate again unless something new happens?

10 points ahead and worrying! Florentino must be scratching his eyes out then and asking someone to revise the new contract he gave to Zidane to sign!

They had more or less the same amount of friendlies as Barça I think (except for the European Super Cup) and lost most of those.

What a bunch of plums! What is food?

I would be very surprised if Real Madrid don't come into form sooner or later because the players are there. There are various hypothesis as to why this has occurred but to be honest Barcelona have won every single game except for one in La Liga (one was a draw away to Atleti) and the same has occurred in the Champions League (one was a draw away to Olympiakos) and that's not easy to live with. The difference between both Barcelona and Real Madrid has been that Barça are scoring goals when it matters while Real Madrid's attack in the shape of Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema has been woeful! All that in Barcelona's case with Luis Suárez off form until yesterday away to Leganés. For Real to win La Liga now is very difficult because at this stage nobody in the history of La Liga has ever clawed back a 10 point deficit to win it. But there's always a first for everything and that can't be discounted although Barcelona losing 10 points from here on in with Real Madrid not tripping up once more is something verging on the miraculous. Also add to this which most people are forgetting because they're concentrating on just the fact Real will at some point come into form and that is that Real Madrid have exactly the same points as Atlético Madrid... It's strange that Atleti are getting lots of criticism (maybe the fact their Champions League campaign has also been very strange counts) while with Real it's been more a case of let's wait and see without the major ripping into you usually get from the Spanish media. Yesterday's Madrid derby between Atleti and Real is a case in accordance with this mindset because the best two chances of the game came from Atlético Madrid (Correa and Gameiro) while Real dominated possession but only testing Oblak once properly.

I forgot to answer these bits mate... No I don't but who knows what can happen... As Jimmy Greaves used to say; "Football's a funny old game" and never better said!!! This has been the biggest problem and that's the psychosis many Arsenal fans have been living because of how much they have Wenger on a pedestal. Read back a few times your sentence and think for a minute, think clearly and with objectivity! I'll put it simple and quick... How many bigger clubs (MUCH BIGGER CLUBS) than Arsenal have lost coaches over the years and employed new ones continuing to be competitive? Yes it's a gambling bet for sure, but that's the name of the game. I don't subscribe to settling for mediocrity. I constantly search to better myself every day and many times I fail but I learn from those failures and don't commit the same mistake again.

There's no frustration anymore mate... Look at my posts this season. I want him to stay! I want him to stay no matter what happens.