CHOULO19

Yes, but even more crucially, a whole lot of this guy:

That 2011-12 Barca team was by far the best I have ever seen even if they lacked pragmatism. It took incredible leadership and just immense raw desire for us to knock them out. Not to mention a whole lot of luck.

Hey, I don't agree with any political party in Lebanon! I'm a political hipster, I oppose them all Nah, it was assumed that I am in political agreement with the club that was paying the fans because my family name implies that I belong to a certain religious sect. It's more fucked up than you can imagine, but I got to watch a good game of basketball and got a free drink on top of it Dunno about Seif, I think he still lurks around but probably busy or something.

Among our loanees this season, he's arguably doing the best so far this season. Nailed on started for Stuttgart and doing well. If we are going to bring back any of our loanees next season, it will most likely be him or Omeruo.

Haha The hooligans! We only do it for blind religious/sectarian tribalism

That's very true and I know that all too well from here in Lebanon (I was once paid to attend a basketball match and cheer for a team because the opponent was backed a political rival of theirs!) but I just think that in the cases of the more popular leagues, especially in modern football, once all the money and capitals come into teams they are bound to get globalized because it makes no business sense to limit the product to single demographic group when you can target and sell to all. It's basic capitalism. There's a Lebanese song by a popular communist artist that translates to: "You should learn secularism from merchant/capitalist. He'll rip you off regardless of your religion!"

Hmm, you can argue that politics have indeed been separated from the premiere league for example.

I know and it completely boggles my mind. I genuinely believe he has all the technical and physical abilities to become a top CB.

Nothing I've not seen in a Beirut derby. There is a reason that stadiums in Lebanon are not allowed to have seats unless they cannot be removed For the past few years here, football matches have been played without spectators and basketball matches only allow home fans "out of fear of civil war" as the police put it...

I don't think we need "one for the future", we have plenty of those in the CB department. CB is the only position where I felt we weakened over the summer. JT is not getting any younger, the new system makes it impossible for Cahill to have as good a season as last, and we sold David Luiz without getting a replacement (no, Zouma is Kalas' replacement in the squad, at least for this season). Hence, I think we need a CB who is a finished article and who will be ready to lead our defense (don't mean captain, but rather organize) in a year or two. I like Jones, but he'll need a lot of work to get his career back on track and is a bit of a gamble. Of course it would be great if we can get an established CB, but since not a lot of those are available on the market, I'd give a shout to Ranocchia. I've always admired him and I think he would be great value for money.

I have very little background on this, but that is one of the most biased illogical and poorly written political articles I've ever read!

To be fair to the players, they did manage to calm things down between each other, it was the fans that messed things up. Fair play to Kolarov, as well.

I expect that the hang-over will be pretty fucking terrible with a crying baby waking you up at the middle of the night! I've got the drinks: Wait, that's not gonna be enough: Better... There we go. Perfect!

Yes, we'll call it the "Important better than you people" club!

Shirley is sick, but he should be fine for the weekend.

@iceboy, keep the politics for the politics thread, please. No need to provoke any of our Serbian members. Thanks.

Damn!

That's 5-4 on aggregate if I'm not mistaken.

Get it? Man, I can't even pronounce it!

Congrats, guys! Let's party

Out sick for Germany's match tonight. Hope he recovers swiftly.

Nope. There's another one next month. It's the gift that keeps giving...

PSG are a different story. The owners are related or something. In effect, both are run by the Qatari government, so they practically have the same owner. I heard that one of the commentators said that the Arsenal game will be broadcasted live which would mean no Chelsea. Not 100% confirmed yet, though.

I know it would not end his international career, I was just hoping he would be dropped to the bench for next month's matches. The more the Spanish media are convinced that he is not the man to lead their attack, the better for us...

No you're right. They favor Arsenal because they have close ties to Wenger who works for them on a regular basis and City who like them are owned by Arabian gulf oil money. They're always trying to shove them down our throats even though neither team has any real fan base even close to Chels or utd.