Especially with teams with national identities. There was the potential for that with Barcelona getting Rakitic and letting Cesc go, but I never heard whether there was any backlash there. Maybe keeping Xavi diluted it.

Khedira is a really good player; I'm surprised you're so cavalier about letting him go. You're okay with counting on Kroos and Modric to win the ball in the midfield?

I'm sure you're ecstatic about James - he looked good against Atletico. They wore him down, but he'll get used to that level of physical play fairly quickly, I think.