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Jesus Christ

No Labour MP should be writing for the Sun to begin with.

Frank Rijkaard went the final two years without being close to winning anything and the team was in a massive depression. The first thing Pep done when taking the job was to sell insignia names like Ronaldinho and Deco. The team by the end of his first season was over 70% different to that of Rijkaard and the style of play was also different. Nobody has ever taken any merit from Rijakaard's successful years. But that fallacy about his team and Pep's is just a tool used by those that want to take merit away from what turned into possibly the greatest club side ever. Definitely in its height, the best football ever seen.

Klingt nach einem kontrollierten Dauerpegel

Himmel, lebt im vietnamesischen Paradies und beschwert sich, daß der Mangel an Problemen Langweile hervorruft. Manche Leute. Oder bist Du nur unterhopft?

Great succsss.

Still going to follow.

@SirBalon, mate, I know that you HATE Neymar with a passion (lol) but consider this: The Gamper Trophy aside, Neymar was responsible for 4 of the 6 goals scored in the International Champions Cup in the US (3 goals and an assist in pre-season friendlies). I happened to watch all of them and he was the one dependable attacking threat in all those games. Always looked dangerous when he went forward with the ball, though he does misplace passes as he always does. Also consider the fact that Neymar was #1 in assists during last season's Champions League, even though we got eliminated in the Quarterfinals. There's a reason why nearly all attacks originate from his side of the pitch: he (was) the one DEPENDABLY DANGEROUS attacking threat. I'm not so sure if he can be replaced. Think about this: Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi ARE the two best club football players of ALL TIME. (I'm a club football man through and through. I do love the World Cup but club football is my real passion). That says quite a lot about Neymar when he's considered the current third best player in the world by some distance! HOW do you fill those shoes? I said a season or two ago that Neymar would win a couple or several Balon d'Ors with Barcelona. Little did I know that he would move to PSG when I said that. If dangerous Brazil wins the 2018 World Cup (a real likelihood with Germany seemingly on the decline) AND PSG makes the CL semis (at least) this season and/or the next, then it's hard to see him NOT in the convo for that most prized of personal honors. That's a real possibility now. Luis Suarez seems to have lost a bit of his touch and is now a bit injured. So again we are back to Messi being the sole dependable goalscorer? Back to the good ole overreliance on Messi? I'm not a fan of Neymar as a person but I realize what an attacking threat he brings to the team. Without him, Barca looks toothless. It's a good thing you didn't watch the 2-0 defeat at the Santiago Bernabeu, @SirBalon It was embarrassing. Real Madrid was literally TOYING with Barca at times. Like a lion toying with its prey, playing with its food. A matador with the bull chasing shadows. Barca did have a few chances but you always had the feeling they weren't a real attacking threat. Like I said, toothless. I have the first leg 3-1 loss at the Camp Nou in the Supercopa on my DVR. Watched bits and pieces of it. Gon watch it in its entirety. To see how we performed. It can't POSSIBLY be as bad as the 2-0 loss today. At least, that's what I'm hoping. (from what I saw, that shouldn't have been a penalty. So that means Real Madrid should have won 5-0 on aggregate??) Folks, we can dislike Neymar all we want, but you can't argue with his football and what he brings to the table from an attacking football standpoint. 2016-2017 Champions League Top Assists Source:[44] Top assists[edit] Rank Player Team Assists Minutes played 1 Neymar Barcelona 8 797 2 Cristiano Ronaldo Real Madrid 6 1200 3 Ousmane Dembélé Borussia Dortmund 5 769 Dani Carvajal Real Madrid 975 5 Benjamin Mendy Monaco 4 525 Raheem Sterling Manchester City 577 Eduardo Salvio Benfica 628 Thomas Lemar Monaco 895

You're right... When those results occurred I was rather entertained by all the comments and opinions all over the place via the media and football fans. For me it actually gave of a sense of even more superiority because you felt that there were people WISHING for Barcelona's time to end and that their dominance was almost perverse. But from inside Barcelona fandom, they knew they were shock results, freak moments. But now you can plainly see and even the most innocent fan new to this will observe that something serious has to be put in place. A new plan that hopefully isn't based on throwing money at it in terms of looking for the answer in the overly expensive transfer market. Too many mistakes have been made over the past 5 to 6 years with the youth setups (La Masia) with a lack of care and attention being paid to the heart and soul of the club. I've said it before, but more money and more time has been put into the women's football team over the past two years than the football structure at the club. More time and effort has been put into expanding Barcelona's brandname all over the world by employing marketing gurus and even gong so far as to buy one of the biggest business spaces in the world right in the heart of New York's Manhattan. There's the arrogance! Not anything else in the use of that word over the years because that was just envy from others at what the club had always mollycoddled which was their eternal belief on how the game should be played and how the heart and soul of every successful or nearly successful Barça side was always populated by players from La Masia. I've got a long day ahead of me today which is why I didn't watch the whole of the game last night (Supercopa de España), but the writing was on the wall. Hopefully part of what has been observed over these past two games has a lot to do with confidence although that's just scraping for hope. The pre-season looked great and it was actually Real Madrid who looked to have a lack of ideas and various cohesion problems. But enter competition because in Spain the Supercopa isn't England's Community Shield... The Supercopa de España actually means something! Even though it is right at the start of the season and three years ago Athletic Bilbao wiped the floor with Barça both home and away which hasn't been seen to the same extent in this particular tie... The club must remember that before anything resembling a panic mode enters into the system and money is thrown all over the place. None of this is Ernesto Valverde's fault though! He is a fantastic coach and actually... He's the best man I can think of for a moment like this if he's permitted to work no matter what happens results wise this coming season if it's negative in that aspect. If given time, he will work to re-establish what's needed... The problem is that he's working for a board of directors that have no confidence from the socios, the fans, the owners of the club. FC Barcelona is fundamentally a Republic and not a football feudal system... The board work for the fans and as soon as that particular issue is resolved and the right people manage to acquire everything that the club constitution asks from them so as to be able to stand for election. This board SHOULD NOT BE PERMITTED to use the club's resources to take FCB into a new era! Infact, this board should do the right thing by standing aside and calling elections for a new refreshing beginning to occur... They should do this is if they really DO love the club.

Not even the 4-0 and 3-0 losses to Bayern engendered the same "End of an Era" fears as recent developments and results.

It's not just that, it was literally the fact that their defense was just as good as their attack. The way they win the ball back, control the game aswell as produce football this world has never seen before makes them at the pinnacle for me.

OFFICIAL: Villarreal CF sign Carlos Bacca from AC Milan

Ill post this here as well, Robben speaks quite fondly of his time with you guys. Good read. https://www.theplayerstribune.com/arjen-robben-bayern-munich-letter-to-my-younger-self/