Started watching that a few weeks ago. Was pretty good but I wasn't properly into it.

Started re-watching seasons 2 and 3 of Game of Thrones, then I think I'll start watching Hannibal.

Will probably go back to it after that.

Season 1 is on Sky Atlantic, but it's near the end of the season at the moment. Not sure if or when it will be repeated though.

Just finished season 2 of Banshee, brilliant programme

About a jewel thief who just gets out of prison after 15 years, goes to a town in Pennsylvania to find his ex bird/former accomplice and the diamonds, and eventually becomes the town sheriff.

He has to try and take down the notorious criminal in the town, as well as facing the Ukrainian gangster who he robbed the diamonds from.

Great story, great action, fit girls, top quality.

Barca have spent absolutely loads on transfer fees themselves. Particularly with the likes of Neymar, Villa and Zlatan, plus they have the highest wage bill in sport.

Madrid, for whatever reason, don't use their youth team that much, and release the majority of their youngsters with buy back clauses if they come good, like with Carvajal.

So Spanish youngsters all know that Barca is the team to join, and therefore due to their size compared to the other teams, they essentially have the pick of all the decent Spanish youngsters.

Franco didn't particularly like football, but was originally an Atletico Madrid fan, however he grew to like Real as their success reflected well on his regime in Spain. Also, Barca have their own far right-wing element of their fan base, called Boixos Nois.

Franco was around over 50 years ago and it's a little sad imo to call them fascists when it clearly has nothing to do with them anymore, as well as the fact that it was only their success that attracted Franco anyway. It would be like hating Bayer Leverkusen for their ties over 50 years ago to IG Farben and the Nazi's, or hating us for our ties to Thatcher.

They might be in the quarter finals of the Champions League but so are the two other Spanish teams that are ahead of them in the league, plus Real are also in the final of the Copa Del Rey. So I'm not sure how that proves they're even the best in Spain, let alone in Europe. There's also Bayern Munich to consider, who I'm sure most neutrals would say are stronger than Barca.

Barca aren't a model football club either. Off the field, tax evasion by their star man, and dodgy dealings with the Neymar transfer would suggest otherwise.....on the field, well, the likes of Jordi Alba, Alves, Busquets, Neymar etc are hardly role models are they, with their constant diving and cheating. Even ones like Iniesta constantly produce fake cards and hassle the referee...........90% of the time, the lack of atmosphere at the Nou Camp makes their games almost painful to watch, plus they have shirt sponsors on the inside of their shirts. They also pretended to be all high-and-mighty by having a charity as a sponsor for many years, with the plan being all along to eventually get a real one, and therefore being able to charge extortionate money for the privilege.

Messi being injured against Bayern proved how much they relied on him after Guardiola left. If he was playing, I'd imagine Bayern still would have won, due to Barca's dodgy defence that they still haven't bothered to fix.....maybe it would have been 7-3 on aggregate or something, as opposed to 7-0.

The best team in world football that are 3rd in their league and were pumped senseless last season by Bayern Munich? Nah don't see it.

By the "fascists" and "overrated show pony" stuff, I presume you're another Barca apologist.

They're nowhere near as good anymore, hence why they're gonna change their manager at the end of the season.

Great game. Still hope Atletico Madrid win it.

There's all the votes for the Ballon D'or, which was won by Ronaldo

Not working

https://twitter.com/sportingintel

If you go on there, Nick Harris has posted it

What do you mean?

The old first division was different as the prem is less competitive.

So I've only talked about '92 onwards. Because that's the debate anyway, La Liga vs the PL.

Since '92, Utd have won it 13 times, Arsenal and Chelsea 3 and us and City once.

In the same period, Barca have won it 10 times, Madrid 6, Valencia twice and Deportivo once.

So I don't think someone can say La Liga isn't as competitive based on those figures anyway.

It really annoys me when people say this, it is simply not true. La Liga is as competitive as the premier league the only thing different is that they have two clubs who are over years have been on another level to the rest of the league but it would be the same if Real or Barca played in England they are well ahead of anything else in the premiership as this season are Athletico.

Spot on.

Man Utd have 13 premier league titles. The next highest has 3. And the Spanish league is boring because two teams dominate?

People say that the PL is the best league because you get more upsets etc but that also ties into what you're saying about Real and Barca being better than their English equivalents. Athletico Madrid would probably be in the top 2 this season if they played in England.

And Arsenal went unbeaten in one year....Mourinho's never lost a game at home...three years ago Utd won 18 of their 19 home games.

It's just as competitive as the prem.

I quite liked the Phantom Menace. The 2nd and 3rd were dreadful.

New series hasn't been as good. First three seasons are unbelievable though, second in drama's only to Breaking Bad imo.

The Welsh have been getting all arrogant in the media and seem convinced that he'll take them to a major finals. I can't remember Giggs doing it who was top quality himself.

I like when British players go and play overseas. I know the likes of Lineker, Gascoigne, Hughes and Keegan did it and it's a shame that it's a rare thing these days.

Next game against Real Madrid though.

I've heard it was a belter. Will have to wait for Champions League Goals at 10.

PSV vs Milan is a really good game. PSV play some great football.

Villarreal are playing Brighton in a pre-season friendly at the Amex on July 27.

Life is good to me sometimes.

Lucky result for them on the weekend.

PSV vs Milan - Sky Sports 1 - Kick off 19:45 - Champions League qualifier - 1st leg

PSV against AC Milan: Sweet, Willems, Rekik, Bruma, Brenet, Maher, Scarce, Wijnaldum; Depay, Matavz and Park

PSVMilan our starting XI: Abbiati, Abate, Mexes, Zapata, Emanuelson, Montolivo, de Jong, Muntari, Boateng, Balotelli, El Shaarawy

Yes, that's the same Rekik, he's now on loan there.

There's also -

Lyon vs Real Sociedad

Pacos Ferreira vs Zenit St Petersburg

Viktoria Plzen vs Maribor

Steaua Bucharest vs Legia Warsaw

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/aug/03/bayern-munich-pep-guardiola

Interesting article about the early stages of Guardiola's reign at Barca.

Whatever happened to Dimitri Mascheranas? I used to hear good things about him.

Mon the Brazil.

Oscar should have done better then.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=njNh9D0Wjdw

Has anyone seen Oz?

I'm almost finished The Wire and I'm gonna need something new.

Kane was one of my favourite wrestlers growing up.

Remember him dominating a Royal Rumble one year.

Good luck to him.

I read up on it first and it said the first 6 aren't as good but gets better with episode 7, which unsurprisingly is about Gob. Then it apparently stays good.

I watched episode 7 which was good and episode 1 which was alright. I'm not really considering it as season 4, rather a form of spin-off. For me, there's no point comparing it to the other series because it will just make it seem worse.

Why do you like Grasshoppers Zurich CLB? I'm sure it's mentioned earlier on this thread but it's over 20 pages long.

Fiorentina used to be my foreign team. Mainly because Batistuta was the man on Football Italia on Channel 4. I remember being genuinely upset when he went to Roma when I was younger.

Then Valencia became my team. I was in Spain watching them vs Real Madrid in a restaurant with the chefs who were all Valencia fans. Most of them spoke English and asked me who I was supporting. I said Madrid I suppose, but they were like every foreign person supports either them or Barca, you should like Valencia.

I took their advice because Valencia pretty much played them off the park, with Albelda and Baraja stopping everything along with Roberto Ayala, and then attacking with players like Kily Gonzalez and Pablo Aimar. They were great to watch and have been ever since.

Ricardo Carvalho. Titles with Chelsea and Madrid. Champs league with Porto

Yea I had a feeling there was another one. But like with C Ronaldo, when I was asked this over a year ago he hadn't won La Liga yet.