Well there is no doubt he is the biggest attacking talent at Ajax since uhm Zlatan.

But I meant anywhere. For an 18 year old I mean. He already has incredible vision, technique, scoring ability, first touch, very good passing skills, light footed, the correct attitude and good speed/decent strength. Obviously still has to improve on all of that but he has all the signs. Seriously can't think of a reason why he couldn't be something really special one day. This is based on 7-9 games I've seen him play and only two of them in the first squad, so a bit early but I have zero doubts.

in b4 bosman

Not totally relevant to the forthcoming season, but here's an article on Florentino's plans to rebuild the Santiago Bernabeu.

Architects are currently working on their proposals and will submit them by September.

Hopefully by 2015 my aspirations to be socio abono will be realised.

http://www.marca.com/2012/07/23/futb...343053361.html

Antonio Conte, a couple current Juve players and players from Bologna and Atalanta are facing possible suspensions....

Hearings set for August 2

Serie A schedule is out today.

50 years to the day ago the DFB Bundestag voted 103 to 26 for the founding of the Bundesliga. Before that German football was separated into 5 divisions called Oberliga (South, Southwest, West, Nord and West-Berlin), each playing out separate champions who would then compete for the national title amongst each other.

Happy Birthday Bundesliga!

The first game day of the newly found Bundesliga was the 24th of August 1963.

Rumour is conte has agreed a plea bargain and will be banned for 3 months and face a hefty fine.

Nope. 3 month ban proposal rejected by FIGC.

Antonio Conte will go to full trial for calcioscommese. Prosecutor has asked for 15 month ban.

It's going to be a very special season indeed. Hope my Bayern can take this year's title. If Dortmund make it three in a row I'll be very impressed but also extremely dissapointed.

In my view, Augsburg will probably get relegated. I also think that Hamburg (the only club to have played in all 49 seasons of Bundesliga) will finally get relegated in the 50th anniversary season. Would definitely make an interesting story - but this prediction is solely based on superstition. I would however love to see them go down. Fortuna Dusseldorf have rebuilt their ENTIRE squad, more than any club has ever done. It's basically a completely new team from last season's promotion side and I don't think anybody can predict where they will land in the standings at the end of the season.

I'm pretty stoked for Fortuna as well, seeing as I live in Düsseldorf and all my friends are die hards. They are, as you pointed out already, rather hard to predict due to a bagillion new signings and last season's top performers leaving. I have faith in Norbert Meyer though to form all those new individuals into a team that can at least avoid relegation, maybe even clinch a comfortable mid-table spot.

The last time anybody but us did a three-in-a-row stint was Borussia Mönchengladbach in the 1970's. No way we'll let that happen this year. Even though Dortmund looks scary as ****, but we've improved a lot as well. Robben looks hungry again, Shaqiri is a potential über beast, we have two "Super Marios" (Gómez and Madzukic ldo), and our defense looks like ****ing concrete with some arrow-slits cut in (Alaba, Lahm) that add to our already scary looking offense. If we now can get our hands on a world class DM (and if he costs 40mil then so be it) everything is set for the title in the anniversary season (which, frankly, SHOULD go to no one but the one club that dominates the Bundesliga since almost 40 years now).

Only a bayern fan could write that sentence.

Reports are that Lewandowski wants 7.5m per year to sign a new contract (the amount Bayern is willing to give him) while our current top earners (Götze, Reus and Hummels) get about 4m. If those numbers are even close to true it strengthens my belief that he won't sign a new contract and will be gone next summer.

Hahaha unreal.

Entitlement issues much?