Kostas

Robinho v2? At least from where we are standing.

What does BST stand for?

May every post on Bielsa stay in this thread. Amen.

I think it's down to the club being on tour and the manager having to deal with the press and generally talk a lot more often than he normally would at Cobham. Of course AVB is not the charmer/diplomat/bullshiter that Ancelotti was so he may be more blunt or revealing about some things.

I'm not sure we understand the market in the same way. The rise of wages, taxes and TV deals etc has contributed more to today's prices than all those deals put together, IMO anyway.

A single deal could not hope to affect the market to such extent, no matter how important it is for us.

Care to bet?

Normally I'd ask if this really needed it's own thread but there's no need to under the current climate. He's almost certainly talking about Courtois and Oriol

He's going to the U20s? Another to one to watch then.

Talk about horrible timing..

Very surprising. Not due to his age or his performances but mostly because of what he costs the club. I guess if he is less involved in the first XI than what he was the club could avoid paying his huge bonuses.

Did you expect the head of the team with the highest wagebill in the English football to come out and say our squad is shit and need mayor changes? What is it with people believing everything managers and presidents say about their plans? First it happened with Ancelotti and now this.. On a second thought I doubt you really believe everything that comes out his mouth but if you need a convincing argument you'll have to try harder. The Fulham comparison is laughable, Fulham actually needed those results while we are only playing games for fitness and marketing.

Hopefully for the same reasons Ancelotti did, less pressure, less risk and more time on the ball. He's also probably more suited to the defensive mid role than any other midfielder apart from Mikel.

Thread #2141231

It was mostly his face and some of the goals he scored for Ajax but yes his pathetic attempt of exploiting football's rules did play a significant role.

Think they were poached by Arsenal and ManU as their contracts were running out. Not that it matters Henrique's point was too simplistic.

They pay their wages and develop our players?

Announced on the official Atletico Madrid website [link]. A season long loan.

Think Terminator X has posted that somewhere. If anything Torres deserves slating for making us desperate enough to create videos of every good moment of his.

Quite a few very good points have been raised but I'm afraid I won't join any side. Some understandably preach faith but as I myself had trouble with zolayers when he first told me something along those lines in 09/10 I'd rather preach patience. I'm sure the pessimists now how early we are into pre-season but the general consensus that as soon as Ancelotti was sacked we were going to go on a buying spree has distorted the perspective of even the most reasonable of fans. I won't presume to know what Andre or the Board think or do at the moment so I can't really slate them for anything yet. For all we know we maybe working in the background for a couple of players, it's not like we don't have enough evidence to be absolutely sure that the media (our main/only source) know fuck all about what the people that are running the club think. If we haven't improved our squad or our play tremendously by the 20th of August when the serious squad and prediction threads should pop up I know I will go on full-scale rants in every single one of them. For the moment I just enjoy thinking that, as GodZola said, AVB is experimenting with the established players and picking the young players that will be in his plans.

If Gordon can get a Championship loan surely PvA and Bertrand can do better.

I despised Suarez before even he knew he would join them. Perfect match.

That was a loan, which he returned from. No. Andre Villas-Boas said he won't.

Finished watching the game. Nothing to get excited about but it didn't warrant all that drama. Our midfield in the first half was nonexistent. Torres, as dissapointing as he was, had absolutely no support. Lampard was invisible. The second team got our forwards more involved and our attacks looked more organised. AVB said that we switched to a 4-♦-2 and it was evident as our attack linked much better with the midfield. Surprisingly Sturridge was less involved than usually. Generally controlled the game but without any penetration. Meh..

I presume there is a minimum of appearances in the contract otherwise we wouldn't have loaned him. But don't Atletico trust Asenjo at all?