Diego21

Kuol is in the Squad for the World Cup.

You should search the two free kicks he have scored this season. One is amazing.

Most of Atletico fans became Liverpool fans when Fernando Torres signed with them. I probably would have been one of them if I hadn't been bitten by the Newcastle's charm years before.

Yes! 15km aprox to the Madrid Center of de City.

My first team is always the rival that plays against Real Madrid.

Our best player in the Championship year. He really gave us a couple of decent years.

In my books, Scotland goes to the World Cup. (And I get paid to write about the World Cup, hahaha). PS: At least I said Fraser. Could have been worse and said Ritchie.

I think the World Cup could be a good turning point for our team. We have many players who are not going to go to the tournament and are going to stay training and recovering, continuing to train and understand how the team works. They will only go to the World Cup: Pope, Trippier, Schar, Fraser and Bruno safely. Maybe Wilson can go. And maybe Botman can go. Instead, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man United, Man City or Tottenham will have between 10 and 15 players called up for the World Cup approximately. We have a very good run of games, I think it would be important to make 2 or 3 friendlies in this time that we can win and we can recover the physical tone of Saint Maximin, Isak and company.

Sorry for the long story. The case is yes. There are sufficient reasons to open files with the Presidents of LaLiga and the Federation, but they don't. They also have audios of the President of La Liga negotiating money with Piqué for the celebration of the Spanish Super Cup (Pique has a company that was the one that got the Super Cup to be played in Saudi Arabia) saying that the President would earn more money if they went to the tournament Madrid and Barcelona (for this they have to be 1st and 2nd in the League). They also have audios of Sergio Ramos trying to persuade Luis Enrique to take him with the national team and for him to be summoned to the Olympic Games. They also have audios where the President admits that he is paying parties with prostitutes and personal trips for his family with the Federation's money. And many more things. It is a pity that you cannot understand Spanish, because a few months ago, when all this came out publicly, the president gave a press conference that he cannot miss. Sounds like a humorous monologue. PS: The President, Rubiales, is a former footballer (he played for Levante). Well, when he was at Levante, where he was the 2nd captain, an audio was also leaked between the club captain and the Levante president where they said they were going to lose on the last day against Athletic Bilbao. That Athletic had paid them for it. That the referees knew it. And that the president of the Federation (Villar, a former Athletic Bilbao footballer) also agreed.

Maybe I didn't express myself very well. The president does not say directly that Atleti does not have to win LaLiga, but literally says "Poor my friend Ramón, he thinks Atleti is going to win LaLiga. Whatever has to happen will happen so that Atleti does not win". By the way. Mysteriously, the next two games that he sent that audio, Atleti was seriously damaged and lost against Betis and Real Madrid. Against Betis, Morata did not receive a clear penalty with 0-0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNyrr1RyRvY&t=45s&ab_channel=LaLigaSantander) and Atleti ended up losing 1-0. A few days later, against Real Madrid, we lost 3-1 and it was a real scandal. (Vinicius was awarded a penalty inside the area for a foul that went outside the area. Morata had a goal disallowed for offside and then a VAR technician admitted that the goal had been legal. And at the end of the game, Morata received another very clear penalty, this time Casemiro, which was not pointed out) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6tJzKvKB8w&ab_channel=LaLigaSantander) A few weeks later, Atleti came to play against Barcelona at the Camp Nou. If Atleti won, they would be two points behind Barcelona, which was the leader. Atleti was in a great moment and Barcelona was suffering. They had a more complicated schedule. And there were only 6-7 league games left. In the 28th minute of that match, the referee decided to expel Diego Costa with a direct red card. The referee assures that he told him "I shit on your fucking mother". And in the Federation they said that the microphones had picked up the audios and that Diego Costa could be heard saying that. They even claimed that they had hired a special recording agency to study the case. They never showed the audios, although they said they were going to make them public. Diego Costa assures that he did not insult the referee. Diego Costa was suspended for 8 matches. (By the way, there are images in the same match of Messi, Suárez and Jordi Alba insulting the referee). In the Spanish League, the Federation does not intervene as the FA never does if the referee does not put it on the record. Just a few days ago, a Spanish referee recognized that it is impossible for the microphones they carry to record what happens more than 4-5 meters away. That day, Diego Costa was more than 10 meters from the referee, so there was never such a recording and Diego Costa was simply sent off for no reason.

Emery is a coach that I really like. I already said it when we wanted to sign him. I think he is a very good coach for teams that are not Top, but want to get closer to being Top. I also think that Aston Villa have a squad that can be exploited. Not perhaps to finish in the Top6, but to finish in the Top10 or Top8. Today I think they have 12 or 13 quite valid players, but the problem is that they don't have many reserves or that players who should be key (Digne or Diego Carlos) have replacements that don't have their level. I don't think Emery's impact will be immediate, but if they get Ings or Watkins to score goals, they will finish the season in the middle of the table. And there Emery will have to start building his project with the signings that they bring him in the summer.

Anyway, the Spanish League is in a very difficult point for the teams that are looking to be at the top of the table. I explain. Up there there will always be Real Madrid and Barcelona. Even in his worst years. In Spain, the President of LaLiga (His name is Tebas) is a recognized fan of Real Madrid and since he has been in office (more than 10 years) he has said that the League is only interested in Real Madrid and Barcelona being 1st and 2nd. Then, there is the president of the Federation (His name is Rubiales). Rubiales, who is the one who controls the referees, gets more money per contract if Real Madrid and Barcelona are 1st and 2nd than if another team does. In recent weeks, many audios about Rubiales have been leaked. In them, for example, Atletico de Madrid was called 'Pathetic' from Madrid. They have also taken audios of him saying that he had to do everything possible so that Atletico de Madrid did not win La Liga (in 2018 or 2019, I don't remember) or insulting teams like Villarreal, Seville and Valencia. So you know that Real Madrid and Barcelona always occupy two places. Since Simeone arrived (a blessing), Atleti has been in the top 3 for 10 years in a row. Unthinkable before he arrived. So you only have one spot left if you want to fight to get into our Big Four. And there are Sevilla, Valencia, Athletic, Villarreal, Real Sociedad... Sometimes Betis. They are great teams, with great seasons in the Europa League and even the Champions League, but only one of them can enter. The difference is abysmal between the first 2 and the rest. The budget of Real Madrid and Barcelona is more than double that of the rest of the teams. Atleti, third in the League that won the title two years ago, has a Salary Limit closer to Girona (the one with the least First Division) than to Real Madrid and Barcelona. Until a few years ago, the television distribution in Spain was as follows: 600 million, of which 150M went to Real Madrid, 150M went to Barcelona, and the remaining 18 teams shared 300M. That was seen with players who were very good and had no place in Real Madrid and Barcelona, they had to go to England. It happened with Fernando Torres, with Silva, with Luis García, with De Gea, with Xabi Alonso, with Cazorla, with Mata, etc etc etc. We have had a sort of Scottish League for 20 years. In that sense, I understand that Emery may be seduced by the Aston Villa project, as he was seduced by ours on his day. Aston Villa does not have a bad squad and, with the renewal of Douglas Luiz, if they recover a good Coutinho again and they promise good players next year, then perhaps they will not think about entering the Big Four in 2 years, but yes to fight for Europa League places in a team that pays him more and allows him to sign players.

You're right. In fact, Emery saved a great second part of the season and the semifinals of the European Cup. I remember that, when he was about to sign for us, I commented that it would have been the best moment for Emery and that it would also have been good for Villarreal (they took away his large salary and we paid the clause), because I think I remember that then in the League Villarreal was approximately in 13th position and that at most it could fight at the end of the year to finish in the Conference League position (that's how it was). And in the European Cup, honestly, the logical and normal thing was that they were eliminated in groups, or at most in the round of 16, but in the end they managed to do a great job and finish in the semifinals. As I read back in the Mirror, Emery disliked two things about the Newcastle contract: 1.- that there was a clause by which he could be fired if we went down to Championship. 2.- that he knew that Eddie Howe was the other candidate and Emery thought he was much better and with more cache than Howe and did not understand Newcastle's doubts.

I will always say the same about Mitrovic. It didn't work out here, but I would love for him to have been able to perform, especially since he is a boy who wanted to play here and who did so despite having offers from other teams in a better position. He entered the team very badly the first year. I remember that he was booked in his first two games in the first two plays and that shortly after he was sent off and there he began to be seen as a Bad Boy. Then there was the fact that the equipment was not working. Anita and Colback were starters, Thauvin didn't work out, Mbemba and Steven Taylor played a lot of minutes because there were no other options... From that year only the performances of Ayoze and Wijnaldum were saved. And of Townsend later. Still, Mitro had 9 goals and 4 assists in about 2,000 minutes. Not bad at all for a team that generated so little in attack and ended up relegated. In Championship something similar happened to him. He started late and badly because the first games he was suspended and he couldn't play in the first 4-5 days. And then when he wanted to get on the team, he found out that Gayle was scoring goals. And certainly, Benitez's style suited a quick player like Gayle better than Mitrovic. Rafa always played like this if he had the option. When he had Salva and Oliveira (shorter) on the squad in Valencia, they played before Carew. At Liverpool he took a team with Morientes and Crouch, but as soon as he could he traded them for Kuyt, Bellamy and then he signed a fast player like Torres. At Inter Milan he sent Diego Milito to the bench (who had just been the Best Player in Serie A and Champions that year of the treble) to play with Pandev and Eto'o nothing more. So it's normal that the team wasn't cut out to play for Mitrovic and that he didn't stand out here. In addition, let's add that he was not 100% mature and that he had sometimes childish attitudes on the grass. I imagine that he would also have them in training and Benítez did not like that.

God save Eddie Howe. https://twitter.com/StoolFootball/status/1583029186582544384/photo/1

I only hope that the club can grow very quickly and be fighting next season to play in the Champions League. In fact, I hope that this year we end up playing in the Europa League and we can make a serious investment that allows Bruno to stay. The boy is too good to be in a team that doesn't play the Champions League and I'm not sure how many years he could go without. It is true that the Premier League has 6-7 very important teams and that only 4 play the Champions League (this year Arsenal or Manchester United are out, for example), but at least Bruno has to see that the project is to fight to be there. In addition, surely, after the World Cup in Qatar, it will start to be much more important with Brazil. Which will make him a highly appreciated player by the best clubs in the world.

Of course Forest is today a bad team with 22 new players and that doesn't help. But Lodi is a disaster defensively. Yesterday Maddison knocked him to the ground on the first play up to two times... On the last goal, he turns around when Maddison is crossing down his wing... I've been seeing him for three years in a row in a fairly serious defensive team like Atleti and I don't remember him playing games on the side in which he hasn't had mistakes or oversights that are a goal or almost a goal. In fact, I only remind him of one game where he was incredibly good defensively and it's a duel against Liverpool covering Salah in a masterful way.

What a great success it was not to sign Renan Lodi

Does anyone know if this girl is a Toontastic user? Ask for a friend.

We need second attack line to get scores. Joelinton, ASM, Almiron, Fraser, Willock or Bruno. If not... Would be very difficult.

Who?

I was thinking about injury but could be both

If we look at his history, he will probably be unable to play 2 full games in a row for Wolves. It's reality.