Malenko

Nigeria surprising the hosts.

What I've been reading is Al Hilal (or rather the country of Saudi Arabia), apparently, would be happy enough with having him there for one year. Good publicity for the league and country. I'm sure there's more to it, money and otherwise, happening in the background, but from a pre-Saudi football world's perspective he'd sign for a season and then leave on a free to Madrid and be there just in time for the following season.

If it goes through that's what's going to happen. He'll be there for a year before moving to Real Madrid.

I expect they'll face Italy and then either Norway or Japan. Not terrible teams, but still not to the USWNT level and then you're already in the semis. Then things can get tough but I still think they're the team to the beat.

Regardless the US are still the team to beat. I'd be very surprised if they don't reach the semi finals at least. Anything else would have to be considered a failure, imo.

Cunt

I believe it was right before it. Plans change if the situation changes obviously. And the situation did change, so maybe Mbappe will be announced in 2 days, who knows. But a few days ago he did say that wouldn't happen this year.

A couple days ago Florentino said he plans on signing Mbappe in 2024. I know it doesn't need to be true just because he said it, but he did say that.

PUP are really good live.

I like it a lot. I've done a few through the years.

- They suck! - 20 bucks - Where do I sign? 😄

What about The The? Would it be: ?

Is Real Madrid interested in Nagelsmann? I've only seen the same 4 names over and over again since January and now that Tuchel is gone, there are only 3 left: Raul, Xabi Alonso or Pochettino. I mean, I suppose they didn't expect him to be gone from Bayern, so it could make sense, but I just haven't seen it anywhere.

Yeah, obviously Tebas would love Madrid to have both Haaland and Mbappe and since it didn't happen he's not happy. Real Madrid's salary cap allowed by the league is actually higher than PSG current wage expenses. Theoretically they could get both if the players wanted and if both salaries were kept decent - as in a level below astronomical but still ridiculous. All that is true. However, Barcelona would still have Messi if it wasn't for La Liga. The french league hasn't enforced UEFA FFP on PSG who broke it in 2013/14, 2015/16, 2016/17, 2019/20, 2021/22, probably this year too. So even if there's a breach according to UEFA as it was the case, the french League does nothing about it. Other french clubs such as Lille filed complaints to the french league to no avail. They have good lawyers. They find ways around it, mostly reporting extra income through sponsorship deals, many through companies owned in part by Tamim bin Hamad's close circle. They appeal. They win. Nothing gets done - besides fines, I suppose but they won't care. Obviously Barcelona could and would try to do the same. They have enough money and could appeal to UEFA and manage to keep Messi, but there's not much you can do if the governing body of your own league won't allow you to play it. If Barcelona kept Messi they'd be breaking UEFA FFP as well. No doubt about it. It's just obvious to me Tebas doesn't care as much about a team that "hates the country so much they can just leave and never play the league again" as he cares about his own. I obviously know he was saying this out of spite and it's not something he wants to happen. From a financial standpoint the league needs the clasico or it will lose a lot/most of its value. The bottom line is he didn't waste his (or La Liga's) time complaining about PSG signing Messi (Barcelona did and lost) but he does about Mbappe. The weirdest thing about living in Spain even though I've been here for many years now is how transparent everything is. I still get surprised when I see titles like "Let's win the league!" in one of the main newspapers but people complain about it while accepting that this is how it is and has always been.

I saw Bad Religion with Suicidal Tendencies and 3 others a few days ago. It was pretty good but I'd seen all 5 multiple times and it wasn't the very best I've seen of any of them.

La Liga (pretty much Real Madrid) are reporting PSG to FIFA, French authorities and the EU. Does that help a bit? Anyway he's complaining that no club should spend 600M euros in salaries alone. I actually would like something done about this because it just assures rich clubs will have all the best players and while obviously that's been like that for a long time it's undeniably getting worse every year. But why is La Liga complaining? La Liga's president is a Real Madrid fan as are most people in power in Spain. Also a far-right clown who's very anti-catalonia. He'd like to be able to force PSG to keep their salaries at a cap the same way he did with Barcelona but has no jurisdiction there. So he tried to appeal to international governing bodies to see if they'll force the French League to do the same.

Go Luka!

I don't think Kane will go to Madrid simply because I never even see his name anywhere (I did last summer a tiny bit but not since). If there was any interest, such a big name would have been mentioned by the local press often, at least the same way Haaland or even Pogba were mentioned every single day and they didn't get those either. The press makes up stuff that eventually doesn't happen. This is the opposite. I can't imagine such a big signing going under the radar. Mbappe will obviously be their main goal this season. Bale is leaving. Rudiger and Fran Garcia are done deals with Marcelo leaving and Tchouameni supposedly not far. I suppose if they don't get Mbappe they may try someone else and Kane could be an option, but to be fair they need a Mbappe much more than they need a Kane.

Half of them look made up though.

Week 34 Matches; Aston Villa 2-2 Crystal Palace (Sun 15th 2pm) Leeds 0-1 Brighton (Sun 15th 2pm) Watford 1-4 Leicester (Sun 15th 2pm) West Ham 0-1 Man City (Sun 15th 2pm, Sky) Wolves 0-0 Norwich (Sun 15th 2pm) Week 35 Matches; Arsenal 0-1 Everton (Sun 22nd 4pm) Burnley 0-0 Newcastle (Sun 22nd 4pm) Crystal Palace 0-0 Man Utd (Sun 22nd 4pm) Liverpool 1-0 Wolves (Sun 22nd 4pm) Man City 2-1 Aston Villa (Sun 22nd 4pm)

Pistons legend Bob Lanier dies at 73.

It's just my short experience but I haven't seen anyone with an irish club shirt in the 3 years I've lived there and there were 5 Dublin clubs in their premier league or whatever it was called at the time. It was mostly GAA, Liverpool and Celtic with a bit of Man U thrown in.

Regarding this, we've finished the first season. Took a while because we went on holidays for a couple weeks. I liked it a lot. Most importantly my girlfriend liked it. She loved the season finale. I'm always afraid she won't like the wrestling related things I show her, because all my previous girlfriends felt I wasted too much time watching something as silly as pro wrestling - to be fair, they weren't wrong. We've been together for 9 years now, and she has shown countless times that she actually enjoys watching it, maybe not the unhealthy amounts of wrestling related content I watch but still. She even bought a Rey Fenix t-shirt. Despite all of that I'm still afraid she won't like these things because none of my ex-girlfriends did. Ok, I went very off-topic with this, but it's just that it really makes me happy that I can actually watch these things with my partner instead of always having to do it whenever they weren't around so as to not bother them. Looking forward to season 2!

The avalanche are so good. I don't mean because they just beat the predators since that was predictable. They looked good throughout the season and since MacKinnon came back they look unstoppable. MacKinnon obviously one of the very best in the league. Cale Makar is ridiculous. Rantanen, Landeskog, Kadri, Devon Toews are all really good. More guys like Burakovsky, Nichushkin, Erik Johnson, Kuemper back at the level he was before the pandemic with the coyotes, even guys like Byram even though he's s very young and hasn't played a full season yet or Lehkonen since he arrived have great shifts. I can see them having some troubles with the best teams in the east but they'll be fresh the next few rounds if they keep this level and that would be an important factor if they get to the final. I don't think there's anyone in the west apart from Calgary that has a good enough D to stop their offensive power and they'll get less rest days. And that's assuming they even beat Dallas, which I still assume they will eventually, even if the stars are giving them a run for their money.