SirBalon

And Real Madrid have to know about this?

Sandro is the superior defender... Infact Marcelo's defending is substandard and isn't anywhere near one of the good full-back defenders in the world. He needs cover and the guy who plays beside him at centre-back is the one who covers for his defensive errors. This is part of the reason for so many of Sergio Ramos' bookings with Real Madrid... A great example of this situation where Marcelo goes awol in defensive duties was the previous 'El Clásico' at the Santiago Bernabéu for Barcelona's winning goal... Marcelo failed to recover a simple position on where he was situated and let Sergi Roberto drive through midfield with the ball opening up the pitch on both flanks. In saying this... No left-back in the world attacks like he does which is why I mentioned that facet in the post relating to his contract renewal. He is the best in the world at that and perfect for Real Madrid because of the demise of Cristiano Ronaldo as a player that can force the left-side of the pitch. The Portuguese player now plays as a full-9 through the middle leaving the whole flank for Marcelo who exploits it unbelievably.

Parsons Green is generally a nice area, so there should be quite a number of Gooners living around there.

The London Ambulance say that of all the injured people they've attended to there are none in critical condition or with a life threatening situation. This is good news considering everything.

An emotional embrace between Quíque Costas and Andrés Iniesta Who is Quíque Costas? Born in Vigo (Galicia) in 1947 and played 169 times for Celta Vigo, 170 for FC Barcelona and 13 times a full international for Spain. He played at centre-back and coincided with Johan Cruyff as a player. For many that moment was one of the turning points in the fortunes of FC Barcelona and their transition in the "Cruyff Project". Both Quíque Costas and Johan Cruyff hit it off straight away becoming great friends forever and even when the defender decided to call it a day in his football career, Cruyff persuaded him to stay on at Barcelona and not return home to Galicia. Cruyff had a plan, a big plan for the future of the club and Costas was a major player in that plan. At the petition of Cruyff who was still playing for Barça, Quíque Costas wasn't permitted to leave the club and kept on as part of the training staff. Many evenings did both Johan and Quíque stay on after training where they began to plot something special... What was it? The plan was to resurrect the meaning and emphasis, to make La Masia the corner stone of the club. Quíque Costas admitted in an interview years ago that even while Johan was still playing for the club, he kept on telling him that he (Johan) would one day become head coach of Barça and that God had told him in a dream that I (Quíque Costas) would become the general caretaker and controller of FC Barcelona's youth system from top to bottom... La Masia. Quíque Costas deserves a whole post on his career as the head of La Masia but this isn't the moment because the reason I'm writing about it is due to an emotional reunion between one of his many pupils on a curious day which seemed pre-ordained as destiny. Quíque Costas worked in total for 43 years for FC Barcelona, but some years back he decided to call it a day and return to his homeland of Galicia where he lives in peace and quiet in a rural area near the city of Vigo. But he was asked to return to the club to lay the first stone of where the new Ministadi will be built... It will be called The Johan Cruyff Ministadi and is where the youth teams including Barcelona 'B' (incidentally Costas coached Barça 'B' for 20 years) play their games. Quíque Costas didn't refuse and travelled to Barcelona to do his duty, his final duty for something that he was told to do four decades ago by a very special man... So the tides turn, so the world revolves in circles because the circle in all its forms rules everything on our beloved planet. Andrés Iniesta didn't know that Quíque Costas would be there and tears of emotion soon ran down both their faces as they spotted each other and embraced. There's an anecdote Quíque Costas once told about "Andresito" (Iniesta) on Jose Ramón de la Morena's late night radio show, El Larguero years back; "I've had many kids under my wing while l was the guardian at La Masia but Andresito was something special. He gave me many headaches as an infant player but one particular moment sticks out. Andrés was known to miss his parents so much that he would somehow manage to escape La Masia where he would then be caught by the staff roaming the streets close by crying. But one particular evening I overheard the kids talking about a particular movie which I think was Indiana Jones or something like that. Knowing what Andresito was like, I hung around the office at La Masia a couple of hours more. How he managed it I don't know because my office is right above the main entrance of La Masia and he somehow managed to escape (laughter). I never got to find out his escape route but it certainly wasn't via the main entrance! He was 9 at the time I think, he was sneaky (laughter). Anyway... One of the boys knocked on my office door and said that Andrés had once again gone missing... We searched everywhere and just as I was about to call the Mossos (regional police) I remembered the conversation about the movie so I went to the local cinema where we would take them from time to time and there he was inside watching the movie with a bucket of popcorn that was bigger than him". The last time both Iniesta and Quíque Costa met was at Johan Cruyff's funeral, and here we have an emotive meeting where emotions ran high and possibly many many memories.

Who votes for these things? Infants writing names down at nursery using crayons?

It's absolutely retarded with no correlation to football.

Lionel Messi's display against Juventus doesn't make UEFA's XI for the week Messi controlled the game, played in midfield and scored two goals... Messi played a Xavi type role but then turned into a Neymar to revolutionise the game. Max Allegri the Juve coach called him a martian, an extra terrestrial while Gianluigi Buffon said that whoever disputes he is the greatest player ever knows nothing about the sport. This after his all-round performance against Juventus. He conducted the orchestra and also added his little ounce by scoring two goals, the same amount of goals as Cristiano Ronaldo did against APOEL... Yes, APOEL! Infact no Barcelona player made the fantasy XI for the week.

He said only today; "As far as I'm concerned I'm a Real Madrid academy player". You're right about Theo and he's a marvellous prospect. Many said that they should've done with him what they done with Asensio at Mallorca which is to leave him there on loan. What's for sure is that Marcelo is basic for Real Madrid right now and is a protagonist in their attack. He is very important and thus this particular contract. Unless something untoward happens I can see him being a Roberto Carlos at Real or a Dani Alves at Barça that plays his best years where he is.

OFFICIAL: Isco renews with Real Madrid CF until 2022 Yesterday it was Marcelo who put pen to paper on a new extended contract at Real Madrid until 2022 and today Isco done likewise. In the light of how things are working in the transfer market after the departure of Neymar to PSG from Barcelona, Real Madrid are taking no risks and have placed a hefty €700m on his head as a buy-out clause. Real Madrid are the only club at the moment that have officially reported Paris Saint-Germain to UEFA from Spain due to how they're run in a fan based ownership which if made legal in the way PSG signed the Brazilian, they know they won't be able to compete due to not being owned by an individual. Isco will present himself in front of the media tomorrow afternoon with his new improved deal and next in line is Marco Asensio who is rumoured to have agreed a €1b buy-out clause.

I've written about Sergio Peña in the past. He is talented.

Yeah I remember Callens.

It's no surprise that Peruvian players are being touted with the campaign they're having in their World Cup qualification games. I haven't heard anything about it but it wouldn't surprise me to be honest because they're the typical clubs that find good players (certainly Sevilla although without Monchi it isn't the same). Villarreal are also good at this but he didn't make it there.

Marcelo renews until 2022 with Real Madrid Real Madrid CF have just announced that Brazilian right-back Marcelo has renewed with the club until 2022. Marcelo 29 years of age has played 415 games for Los Merengues and is chasing down his idol and fellow Brazilian Roberto Carlos (who he replaced) with 527 games for the club. Marcelo joined Real Madrid CF at the young age of 18 and has formed himself into one of the best right-backs in the world. It's only a matter of time before he passes Roberto Carlos at Real Madrid.

It serves Real Madrid right to be honest because they'd messed Morata around for quite some time and now the player has searched to create his own future based on him!

Nélson Semedo is actually beginning to look like a bargain. Barcelona got him before the market went mental although he wasn't exactly cheap. The full-backs are extremely important for the way Barcelona play and having that right-back position inhabited by a genuine right-back is incredible.

Messi also had an issue with Cristian Tello. Deulofeu has a bit (but not as much which is impossible) of the Jesé Rodríguez in his character... It has worked against him in the past at Barça and it could work against him in the future if he doesn't sort it out.

Umtiti's top! Plus it seems the French defender wants something more than just friendship from Rakitić hahahaha

Valverde is completely different to Luis Enrique though. Plus as you can read a bit in that article (there's a lot more in that story though), the history between Luis Enrique and Quíque Sánchez Flores goes way back and Luis Enrique doesn't forgive easily.

Neymar would be screwing.... I bet he'd think "I thought I'd gotten rid of him"

Since France are letting in all the stray cats of Europe... Maybe they could let us at Arsenal play Ligue1?

The latest on the Arda Turan story is that he is refusing to sign any loan deal to Galatasaray. He wants to stay in Spain and won't even contemplate any deal elsewhere for whatever the money. Talking about money... Taking into account the games he's played since arriving to Barcelona, he's worked out a €1m per game!

RAC1: Arda Turan goes on loan to Galatasaray for two years According to Catalan radio station, RAC1, Barça's Turkish international Arda Turan could be on his way to the club where he started his professional career, Galatasaray. Barça tried to sell him during the summer transfer window, but the player didn't want to leave Spain and was hoping an agreement could be made between Atlético Madrid and Barcelona for a move in January. But no deal was sorted out and now it seems that he may have accepted a move back to Turkey on loan and Galatasaray for the next two seasons. Whether or not this is just rumour because the Turkish transfer window closes tomorrow, what's for sure is that Arda returned to Barcelona injured after playing with his national team. https://www.mundodeportivo.com/futbol/fc-barcelona/20170908/431123263969/ultimo-dia-para-encontrar-una-salida-para-arda-turan.html

Did he say why? Because I'm willing to give every man and woman the benefit of the doubt if they have a good argument. Why does he think 70% of Arsenal fans are imbeciles?

hahahaha It is funny... Go here mate: