Kostas

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?

Thanks Justin. Any advices before I watch this?

Proving a point. Whether that point is that Torres is finished or that at his age Drogba is of no use. How did McEachran perform? I'm mostly interested in his ability to keep the ball under pressure and frequency of passing forward as in the game against Portsmouth I was quite disappointed..

Have a quick recovery friend..

Thanks for the report Alex, well written and very informative as always. Hope someone will post extended highlights as I had to miss the game.

touché

Nothing wrong with the emoticon itself but it's being abused. We should inform users of the ability of either repping a post or nodding their heads in agreement. Then again I'm sure we'll see plenty "+1" posts if it is removed.

3 hours 30 minutes.

An excellent write-up on how Villas-Boas prepares for matches.

Both. Considering only transfer fees is an extremely limited way of looking at football economics. Wages have to be accounted if you are serious about discussing the business that modern football is.

I'll take that as a "No".

Have you watched enough games of them to be making such a claim?

I don't believe that. On the other hand I bet we'll have half of the forum patting themselfs on the back for not turning into drama queens once he starts performing again.

Explain.

Been meaning to say this for months. Do we really need the :goodpost:emoticon?

Dunno about the rest of you guys but I'm scared shitless.

Then for the love of GOD stop it.