SirBalon

As you can see in the picture below, Zubizarreta's keeper's top was exactly the same as the track top. Yeah, it does kind of look like an Athletic away kit they had some years back.

I've also thought the same way as you. In general (not because it's between the two) do you think of the navy one as a casual track top to go with jeans and the sort?

It's too early and unfair to judge him but right now from the very little that's been able to be seen I don't see him fitting into the system. What's more, for him to actually be a protagonist, the game would have to revolve around him. I say this for a reason which is that he reminds me a lot of Alexis Sánchez while at Barça in terms of holding onto the ball for so long and then with his mind set on a personal opening his second option (passing) isn't up to scratch. Like I said, it's unfair to be honest and very early because he hasn't even had a proper go at it. He also seems very fragile!

Ousmane Dembélé reported injured again and didn't attend training . The truth is that the news being filtered isn't related to anything muscular and istead a stomach bug, but this guy hasn't started to well in all of this. Sounds like he'd fit in well with us at Arsenal though.

I like the green one but I do have one problem with it and that is the higher collar which in summer can be a bugger... That's my only issue with it.

If you guys remember I posted about the brand that made Barcelona's kits throughout most of the 70s, through the whole of the 80s and all the way till 1994 before Kappa took over. That brand is MEYBA and I posted the fact they had been permitted to make the replica football shirt from 1992 when Barça won their first Champions League at Wembley against Sampdoria. Well now they've released two tracksuit jackets from that era. A green replica of the then goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta and the outfield players track top in navy blue. I want to buy one but I don't know which one to choose. Maybe you guys can help me out? (Remember it's to wear cuasually in the summer with either shorts or jeans. @Cannabis @The Rebel CRS @Stan @Cicero @nudge @Asura @True Blue @Spike

As Donald Trump says... “Fake News”

Also not a lot has been said about the goal Barcelona conceded against Espanyol.. That goal Ter Stegen almost saved and was impossible to save. He was very unlucky when he saves it that the spin on the bounce takes carries it.

Yeah, Cillessen is a top quality keeper and he’s shown it in the past for both Ajax and Holland... He went through a bad patch and was wrongly labelled a one spell player. He is top draw quality and he’s only conceded 2 goals in all the games he’s played for Barcelona so far.

Some bandit farmers even over feed calfs milk so as to produce what they want quickly. I’m totally against all of that mate.

That’s why I only eat sourced organic meat from my butcher because I can’t trust any of the methods anymore. As for veal... You don’t need to chain anything down to acquire veal. Veal is a cow slaughtered when very young and the problem is overproduction instead of humane methods.

Indeed! I’m all for that and also punishing cruelty to animals whichever also includes stuff that goes on at abattoirs. I love meat, but I don’t want to eat meat where the animal has been tortured or anything of the like.

What do you wear in the shower?

The cross by Suárez for Coutinho’s goal is incredible and looks a lot easier than it actually was. There’s a funny bit where Rakitić takes a wild shot which goes wide and Luis Suárez was free in the centre... Suárez goes mental and looks like Gollum in the Lord of the Rings . And the save by Jasper Cillessen on 75 minutes is total .

How much pus and blood is allowed in milk? Somatic cells are the white blood cells that are the defence against bacteria that invade the udder and can cause mastitis. Cow's milk can legally contain up to 400 million pus cells/litre. So one teaspoonful of milk can legally have two million pus cells!

There’s a report this morning on various of the main Spanish sports portals that is supposed to be leaked information. Apparently when Barcelona had finally agreed with Liverpool for the transfer of Philippe Coutinho, the English club made Barça wait just over a week because they were supposedly scanning the market and Liverpool apparently set their eyes on Real Madrid’s young Asensio as the replacement. Asensio has a buy-out clause of over €700m so obviously they weren’t going to just come to an agreement with the player and totally buy out his contract. Instead Liverpool had been tipped off that there are a number of disgruntled players at the club with Asensio and Isco being in the mix. Ever since Gareth Bale came back from injury it’s been back to basics with the old “BBC” being the ever presents in the first team selections by Zinedine Zidane. That reduced one slot in midfield so as to make that front three prong... Long before had Asensio been relegated to the bench after his glorious start to the season and then Real’s best player in the first half of the season (the only player on a high level) Isco, had also been demoted to sitting on the sidelines to watch the games. So Liverpool turned into the sly fox sniffing around for a wayward chick so to speak which is cunning from them and forced Real Madrid’s President (Florentino Pérez) to act quickly in an unusual manner which sounds a lot like promises and something that isn’t usual in high end football. The president allegedly spoke to the two of them and told them that the only reason Benzema, Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo would be first team choices if fit was because they were being made showpieces because at least one would definitely be departing at the end of the season. Now, this has a lot of logic behind it because there’s been a lot of speculation surrounding the possible departure of all three and the only reason one of them didn’t leave in the summer or even the January transfer window is because Zidane himself put his head on the chopping board and told the president to swing the axe because he would go due to the fact he would be staying loyal to all those that got him to where the club are which is three Champions League titles in four years... Very understandable and very honourable from Zinedine Zidane who is thought to coach with a mentality like when he was a player and that gives a lot of credence to the rumour of him giving Florentino Pérez this ultimatum. Obviously this also seems to mean Zinedine Zidane himself will be gone this oncoming summer of logic is united to it all with this rumour on the “BBC” being dismantled.

Gary Lineker interviewed by “El Lobo” Carrasco Gary Lineker who was in Barcelona this week to pick up a couple of career recognition awards also took the time to do an interview with one of his ex-colleagues and very good friend at Barça, Francisco José “El Lobo” Carrasco. The truth is that Gary Lineker travels to Barcelona various times during the year with his family where he has a house and attends as many Barcelona games as is possible due to his work commitments as a presenter for both the BBC and BT Sports. Gary Lineker never pulls any punches and is always straight forward with his opinions as everyone knows, especially on social media where he’s very active. So the interview contains quite a few headliners as is per usual with Lineker. It’s 30 years since you left Barça after 4 years at the club. What memories do you have of your period during those years as a player? “How time flies. My best memories as a footballer are all situated at Barcelona and it was the greatest experience I had by playing for the greatest club in the world. My first three years were excellent although my final year wasn’t as good but the fans always loved me and continue to do so.” You were formed as a footballer at Leicester City “And nobody outside the UK had even heard of Leicester City when I played there. Winning the Premier League has put them on the world football map forever. From Leicester I went to Everton and from there to the Mexico World Cup in 1986.” You had a pretty good World Cup in 86 “Yeah, I scored a few goals.” Only Maradona had a better World Cup than you “Indeed, but I scored more goals than him and today that would’ve won me the Ballon d’Or (Laughter). Then I arrived in Barcelona.” You’ve always been a centre-forward. When did you detect that you were different in that way to the rest of your colleagues? “As a youth player my coaches soon told me that I didn’t have the talent to dribble and take on players naturally but that I was very intelligent at detecting where to position myself between defenders and was cold without nerves at receiving the ball between players bigger than me. That part came natural to me and wasn’t taught where as far as they were concerned were the attributes needed to form a centre forward and that’s how it all started.” I think you’re the only player I know of that has never been issued a yellow card let alone a red. Is this true? “Yes, as far as I know I’m the only one and one of my colleagues and great friends at Leicester who had a great career later on at Arsenal almost finished his career without a booking, Alan Smith... But he got one in the end and I beat him (laughter). I was always calm as a player and detected very early on that arguing with the referee which is the main reason strikers tend to be booked for was pointless. I just concentrated on getting that next chance to try and score and would forget about anything I perceived as an injustice from the referee almost instantly.” How do you see football these days with respects to how football was in our day? “A lot more pressure from all quarters which everyone that watched football back then and now will know about. But from a player’s perspective the biggest change are the pitches. Nowadays almost everywhere you play has great pitches and not like in our day where only the biggest clubs could afford to keep a pitch in pristine condition. A great surface helps footballers to be able to reproduce their talent.” Let’s get on to Barça. Everyone knows your sentiments towards the club “I consider myself a true Barcelona fan and so are my three sons... None of us were born in Spain and obviously I have a reason to feel the way I do because of having played there. But my children have all been brought up with the significance that club creates in your heart and we watch every single game and go to some when we can at the Camp Nou. Two of my sons are also Leicester City fans and one other seems to have been born confused and is a Man Utd fan (laughter).” Neymar departed and everyone thought Barcelona would suffer but they’ve returned to the top “Barça were more attacking motivated with Neymar and it looked like that was a big blow. But those that really know about football knew the team would be more balanced now which they are and thankfully they brought in a great coach in Ernesto Valverde. The moment he was appointed I knew he would balance things out. Now they play a sort of 4-4-2 to the naked eye although being Barça it’s not really a 4-4-2 and a lot more complicated than that which I won’t go into. But that has ironed out any defensive issues and then there’s Messi which is like playing with 13 players.” It’s probably a stupid question, but why are so fascinated with Messi because you are very vocal and public with your comments? “Messi can do four or five things in every game he plays that I didn’t do even once in any game throughout my career. He’s incredible and I doubt we’ll ever see anyone like him again because he isn’t a gymnasium product as he’s pure natural talent. He’s the only player that for me beats Maradona, he’s better than Maradona was.” I feel the same as you and I played for four years with Maradona. You arrived the following year after he went to Napoli but I know that pre-Messi for you Maradona had always been the greatest in the history of the game. What differentiates the two for you? “They’re kind of similar in many aspects but the biggest difference of all are the numbers with the two of them. Messi does it in practically every game he plays while Maradona didn’t always do it in all of his games. Messi dribbles, passses and scores in the same quality mannerisms Maradona did, But Messi has scored many more goals without even being a natural goal scorer or a striker. Messi has been and is the best player by a long margin ever since he became a main feature at Barcelona and we’re talking about over 13 years at the top and Maradona didn’t manage that. They say that Maradona won a World Cup and that Messi hasn’t, but Messi has won 4 Champions Leagues and Maradona didn’t win any European Cups. Put it this way, it’s something to debate and it’s one that I am willing to listen to where they feel Maradona was better than Messi, but that tells you that only Messi can reach a debate relating to Maradona because as I always say, playing with Messi in your team is like playing with 13 players in your side. You’ve seen Coutinho a lot at Liverpool. What do you think about the signing for Barcelona? “I love him, he’s a fantastic signing for Barcelona and one that you understand why Barcelona put so much effort into signing. Infact there have been more renowned names Barcelona have gone for in the recent past and didn’t put so much effort into signing them when it was being made difficult. He plays the Barcelona way and you can almost see in your mind’s eye how he will fit into their way of playing seamlessly.” The debate in Spain where Coutinho is concerned is what his best position will be at Barça? “His best position is what you guys in Spain call an interior left because in England we call anything that plays near the side of the pitch a winger (laughter). He can play in various positions in the attacking element of the midfield but that one for me is his best position.” But Iniesta plays there “Not a bad player to have playing there ey! (laughter). Indeed, but they can rotate as Iniesta plays out his final years.” Talk to me about Iniesta and Xavi “You mean Iniesta, Xavi and Busquets! They’re three of the greatest players of all time. A World Cup, European Championships, Champions Leagues, league titles, Copas del Rey and many other trophies. They’ve been the greatest midfielders of all time for me and very little comes close. I’ve always thought about that moment where Messi almost chose Spain over Argentina and what the Spain team would’ve been like... They would still be winning every international tournament today with the amount of talent Spain has at its disposal. But Messi playing for Spain with those three at international level would’ve been something unbelievable. That Barça side was special!” Leo has had a lot of problems while playing for Argentina “It’s clear Messi or anyone can’t play on their own. But Messi has practically played on his own for Argentina.” Cristiano Ronaldo has competed with Messi over a good part of his career. How would you describe Cristiano as a footballer? “Without a doubt he’ll go down as one of the best of all time and the second best of the last 10 years of Messi’s 13. All athletes notice age creeping up on them and in football this is also the case. He’s come down quite a bit but people still want to watch him and that’s what counts. He’s very professional and plays for the team. But he loves to score goals a lot more than I used to it seems and you notice this when one of his teammates scores and he doesn’t.” You never used to get upset “For sure... Whenever one of my teammates scored I felt it as mush as they did because we were searching for one thing in common which was to be victorious, but he seems to be obsessed with scoring and has forgotten about football. At times those gestures he makes when things aren’t going personally well for him but the team is doing well isn’t nice to see, but in the important moments up till now he’s nearly always been there.” Everyone knows you’re very active with social media and lately you’ve been very critical with Benzema in a controversial manner. Why? “Let’s get this right... I think Benzema is a top goal scorer. He plays well for the team and especially plays well for Cristiano (wink), but for me there are various other strikers in Europe that are better than him. I was criticised a lot for my comments on Benzema by the Madrid media and elements within the Madrid Camp, but I’m only talking about the art that I know, the art of a goal scorer.” Do you think England has the capacity to win the World Cup? “Not to win it, I can’t see that. But I can see us being more competitive than in recent international tournaments for a while. We’ve had Lampard and Gerrard but in the last 15 years we haven’t produced a great singular individual player apart from maybe Rooney. Now we’re getting better and have more competitive players such as Kane, Sterling and Delle Ali, all good players, and we’ve got some very good youngsters coming through that have won their respective international tournaments which in Spain you all know very well what that’s about and how important it is. It’s very early to say with them but I’m sure we’ll be better off than over the past decade. I think we can reach the quarter-finals but there are quite a few sides better than us.” Which ones for you? “Spain, France, Germany, Brazil and of course Argentina.” You rate France higher than Belgium? “Well they’ve got various top players like De Bruyne, Carrasco, Hazard and Vertongen. But there’s always a but with them isn’t there.” What do you think about Argentina? “They haven’t got a great team but if Sampaoli can get them organised, with Messi anything is possible, even the impossible.” Germany? “They’re always there.” What was it you famously said about Germany? “(laughter)... Yeah, football is a sport where 22 players play and Germany ends up winning. It was a joke I made in 1994.” Do you think it will be Messi’s last World Cup? “Hmmmm... Maybe! Who knows but what will football be without him. People in other leagues don’t take his existence on the football pitches presently seriously enough. Because they follow other teams in other leagues they don’t think it impacts them, but I guarantee you it does. But what can you do, when his time comes, that’ll be it and we’ll carry on.” Here in Spain we got to see how you reacted when Barcelona beat PSG 6-1 in the Champions League and Sergi Roberto scored that vital sixth goal. Those images of you going crazy I would think made it all over the world. How did you live that game? “Wow! That was one of those football moments that you rarely get but make football folklore. Nobody thought it could happen and even less than nobody thought it would after PSG scored that goal. I had Owen, Gerrard and Rio Ferdinand in the studio with me and even they went crazy because that’s what those football moments do to you, it’s something that only football can do in my opinion. The truth is that I must’ve affected them even more and those 3 goals in 6 minutes had me so pumped up that they were also euphoric.“ Which moment had you more pumped up. That game against PSG or seeing Leicester City win the Premier League? “There’s a difference. The 6-1 was a moment of explosion, a mythical football moment of utter disbelief. But Leicester City winning the Premier League is a miracle, it’s something you couldn’t write when the season started or any season in the English game as it is now. Even though seemingly impossible, Barcelona’s 6-1 being Barcelona at the Camp Nou is thinkable and poossible. Leicester winning the Premier League isn’t and if that season was to be repeated with everything identical coming into the final 10 games of the season, everyone would bet against Leicester doing it. That’s called a miracle!” Football is something special isn’t it? “Ignoring the fact we’ve both made a living out of having played the game, we have to say that it is indeed a phenomenon. It moves the masses, it can get people that in normal everyday circumstances are absolutely average people that go about their lives in a normal fashion without hardly ever getting flustered. But come the weekend or an international tournament, they turn into maniacs! (laughter)” @The Rebel CRS @Stan @Dan @Cicero @Spike @The Artful Dodger @Cannabis

Gary Lineker was in Barcelona last night to pick up his Repsol Extraordinary Achievment Award which is also sponsored by La Liga Santander. The award is for his footballing achievements during his career ranging from being the top scorer in the World Cup in 1986 Mexico, 329 goals in his career both at club and international level and the fact he never received a booking during his entire career. Lineker is eligieable for the award due to having played four years in Spain for FC Barcelona. A fluent Spanish speaker and an ambassador for Barça wherever he goes.

We are designed to eat meat, fish and plants... It’s in our make-up and there’s nothing wrong with it as long as the slaughtering of animals is done as humanely as is possible and more. I admire and am all for the protection of animals in terms of torturing, bad treatment in any manner. Meat tastes great and so does fish... The reason behind vegetarians and even more so with vegans that they search for others to do the work for them in terms of enhancing ingredients to create flavours is because they crave something that’s within them, something natural and something that nature designed them for. I have no time for ethics in this sense and have very little patience to listen to them to be honest. They can live their own lives as they like because they’re not hurting anyone by doing it but I do unfortunately for them have an opinion on their lifestyle and I accuse them of being stupid unless it’s for rare health reasons and I would bet most of them are adjoining themselves to a fad, a fashion of sorts. Good luck to them while I order or cook myself a prime piece of beef with blood oozing out of it because I enjoy it as much as they do, only that I am more practical and intelligent than them and will act upon it. What do these people suggest we do with all the cows, bulls, chickens, sheep, lambs, pigs and whatever other animal is mass bred for consumption? Do they expect farmers to look after them for nothing? For them? They can do it if they want the world to join in their twig eating form of nourishment.

It would be fun to see him go to war with everyone though.

The latest rumours are Luis Enrique. Who knows, Conte may yet stay at Chelsea because it sounds more like he will want to leave than anything concerning the sack.

Already knew about this as he was interviewed on a Spanish radio station two days ago (obviously with a translator). Also knew quite a bit about him while at Arsenal. He will learn alot but as for winning a place in the Barça first team squad, he’s going to really have to work hard.

It’s spoken but Castilian is the predominant language by a massive margin but then again it’s the same in the Basque region. Very few people speak Basque although they all understand it (the Basque region) and most know how to speak it although hardly any do. In Navarre it’s a minority that understand it. These are curious factors because I’ll give you another... Regional television is big in Spain and watched as much as the national channels. But something strange happens for example in Galicia 100% of TVGalicia is spoken in Galician while on ETB (the Basque tv channel) hardly any Basque is used and very few programs use it... Mainly the late night movie which hardly anybody watches because the national channels have the better programmes on at that time. TV3 (Catalan tv) is probably 75% in Catalan but the prime time programmes are all in Catalan but they do have Spanish presenters on some and will mix the language on a programme. So there we see something visible! Basque is mainly spoken in the very small towns and villages of the mountains and for example in Catalonia everywhere other than Barcelona Catalan is the predominant language spoken which on the one where the city of Barcelona is concerned is very much due to the fact there’s a lot of immigration there. In Galicia you’ll find almost all young people speak Galician even in the major cities while middle aged people will speak Castilian and the older generation Galician. Again in rural areas including the mountains it’s 100% Galician and very few even understand Castilian.

That’s not all that expensive for an imported beer is it?

According to Mundo Deportivo Arthur will sign for Barça and accepts to be loaned out for two years. https://www.mundodeportivo.com/futbol/fc-barcelona/20180203/44478679420/arthur-acepta-fichar-y-estar-dos-anos-cedido.html