SirBalon

Some hard hitting comments from Barcelona’s latest signing Yerry Mina on the day of his presentation... “I define myself as a very calm person with a lot of patience. I know it’s a cliché, but I’ve come knowing that I have a lot to learn and I will be learning from the best at this club” “My father was a goalkeeper in his younger days and my uncle was the head coach at our town’s club where he initially put me in as the team keeper. My father even bought me a pair of beautiful gloves... In my first game I let in 8 goals and I just kept on crying and crying all the way home. My uncle told me not to worry and that we would try a new position... That wasn’t the problem, I didn’t care about playing and only cared about having been a disappointment for my father who was watching from the stands.” “On the question about who I owe my career in football to which has led me to the biggest club in the world, well again it will be another cliché but I can only speak about my personal life which is my childhood and the sacrifices my parents went through to bring up a family. My father would be away for a month at a time working in the fields collecting fruit and my mother would work nights and arrive at 5am where she would sleep for 1 hour and then be ready for when my brother and I would wake up so as to do all the chores she’d have to do which was also to take me to football and be there for me. We were all very hungry when I was a child and the very little there was to eat my father would put it on both my brother’s and my plate without my mother seeing it happen. My father would be very tired from his long work stints in a very hard laboured job, but he said that he ate a lot of fruit and didn’t need that which obviously my brother and myself didn’t believe and would make us cry. I owe everything to them and when I gave my father my first proesssional pay cheque so he could take our mother on their first ever holiday, he went down on his knees on what I deemed to be in a kind of reverence. I cried and picked him up saying that no matter what I ever achieve, what they had done for both of us will never be as big.” “We used to play in the road because they didn’t allow us to play in the local park due to being so poor. I only had one pair of shoes which were for school so I would play barefoot so as to not make my parents buy me new shoes. The boys that did have shoes would laugh at me and step on my feet on purpose making them bleed. But I loved playing so much that I would just wipe some saliva from my mouth to take the blood off and keep on playing. One of my best friends gave me the first ball I ever owned... A truck had run over it and burst it, so his mum bought him a new one and he gave me that one which all the skin from the leather had been worn off from playing so much with it. I didn’t care though because it was the first football I had ever owned and when my father came back from one of his long stints working the fields, he fixed the ball for me and we inflated it at the petrol station. It wasn’t perfectly round anymore and my father was disappointed at his repair work, but I told him it was perfect which made him laugh as he knew I was lying.” “What did my parents think when Barcelona contacted me? Well my father ended up in hospital because he fell and hit his head on the kitchen table. My mother started to cry and I think she still hasn’t stopped crying since... The truth is that I have already helped my family a lot before this move, but moving to Europe and on top of that moving to FC Barcelona is something very big for South American players. When you achieve this, you know your hard work has reached its maximum level.” He then goes on to speak about Barcelona and the players he admires at the club. We’ve all heard that stuff before so I won’t add it. For me it was that heartfelt story about his childhood which is something you don’t tend to get in these things and only mere references which we’ve all heard before. He’s not the first player that makes the big time coming from extreme poverty, but it’s the first time I’ve personally heard so much detail told on his presentation day. I watched it live and it almost had me in tears to be honest...

These are some of the social media reactions to Cristiano Ronaldo being awarded the best player award for the month of December... Some of them are actually from Madrid fans and Madrid based media like Deportes Cuatro presented by none other than Manolo Lama.

Spain’s equivalent of April’s Fools Day is on the 28th of December and it’s called Día de los Santos Inocentes. I read about the award for December for Cristiano Ronaldo and I think even Real Madrid fans thought it was a joke. But how many undeserved awards has he had though?

Don’t worry... We wouldn’t get into an argument over that.

I spend most of my time drinking beer at the bach huts too and eating cripsy calamari with alli-olli.

Italy also has some dodgy beaches and some beautiful ones especially in Sardinia and Sicily. But for me Spain has some incredible beaches like La Concha in San Sebastián and Las Catedrales in Lugo. The thing is that most people here in England only know the south of Spain.

Yeah! Especially South-Eastern England mate... You swallow some of that water by accident while messing around and you’re wretching for 10 minutes.

Do you have a pier with an arcade in it, dark green water that tastes like thick seaweed soup and shit weather?

They also practically didn’t spend last summer. Yeah, they’ll soend big alright and there’s stories of a €400m bid for Neymar which would definitely mean Cristiano Ronaldo leaving. He won’t stay where a player that’s searching to be number one is playing in the same team as him.

Ousmene Dembélé out injured again. This time for 3 to 4 weeks. Will be touch and go if he makes the Champions League first leg against Chelsea.

Just from a curious point of view... Brief small news in Spain after this weekend. After the way results went this weekend, Real Madrid are closer to the relegation zone than Barça. With Messi’s goal against La Real he is now the top scorer in the 5 big European leagues in history... He’s not even a striker! Berizzo was sacked by Sevilla when they he had them 5th in La Liga, in the second round of the Champions League and in the Copa del Rey. Montella doesn’t seem to have started well! Cristiano Ronaldo has allegedly sent an SOS to Manchester United and the Premier League as his disastrous season continues. Eternal Real Sociedad captain, Xabi Prieto yesterday admitted that while injured he bought a ticket to go and watch Messi live at the ground at the Santiago Bernabéu against Real Madrid. Mauricio Pochettino interviewed on a Spanish radio station last night isn’t as adamant as he used to be when asked about the possibility of coaching Real Madrid when asked; “Who knows, who knows where football will take me in the near future” José González (ex Granada and Cádiz coach) takes over from Míchel at Málaga after their disastrous first half of the season. Unusual patience for a Spanish club finally ends!

I was only telling you mate... Just between me and you.

The connection between Nudge and humidity is another of those erotic moments I’ve been going on about that can turn up mate.

I hate throwing food away too because I get a massive guilt conscience. I get that from my upbringing to be honest and being brought up in a Roman Catholic houshold bread is almost deemed sacred and I still remember my father kissing it three times when it was obvious that bread could no longer be eaten before throwing it away. My brother and I would call our dad (affectionately and with humour) “the human trashcan” because of his obsession with eating leftovers as much as he could so as to not let it go to waste! But as for bread that’s been previously frozen... I went out with a girl many years ago (in Spain) where her mother would buy three or four large breadsticks because in their house they ate a lot of bread. So as to not go to the bakery a number of times she would freeze some of that bread. All I can remember is that the bread when defrosted has the texture of rubber and somehow tasted humid, or felt like it did. Some things are just not meant to be frozen in my personal opinion. But I admire the fact people do these things so as to not throw food away considering the state many people are in financially in most places.

But bread is not really innbedded in Japanaese culture though, is it?

The question is, why do you buy it? Or are you into freezing things! Having lived in Japan so long I suppose it’s normal you don’t eat too much bread.

This is the bread I always buy from Gail’s.

I take food seriously mate and for me that’s the most important thing for a family. Waitrose has some decent stuff and even their meat is decent... But I buy my meat at my local butcher which is one of the best in London... I’m lucky to have it so close to me to be honest.

We have great bread in London at least if you’re willing to pay an arm and a leg for it. Gail’s bakery does magnificent sour dough bread which is the one I buy at Waitrose. You also have their own bakeries in a few areas.

I was getting turned on by the crescendo in Tsubasa’s words as they reached the final sweet moment!

Go on then... I challenge anyone to show me where in Özil’s senior career he’s been anything other than a bit part player? Where’s all this originating from ey? Where is all this hooh-hah on Özil come from because at the top level of football he has never managed to offer consistency consistently... Never! Some take these types of statements as being a slant on Özil or a lack of recognition for his undoubted talent. Bit what if we look at it this way... Yes he’s very talented, but he can many times be lazy, many times be unconcerned and definitely doesn’t offer the quality he can most of the time. What if he’s a player you’re paying like a world class game changer but never takes the bull by the horns?

And some were laughing at the fact some Arsenal fans would be all riled up at Wenger staying on and signing a new deal. Shows how much they care about the club that for their detriment they would rather have a situation to laugh at fellow fans they disagree with or find distasteful.

He isn’t an entirely La Masia product but he did stay at La Masia and that’s why he’s referred to in that manner and more so if ended up at Real Madrid where they’d smother that in their faces from the Barcelona end press.

Tuchel hasn’t been mentioned but Löw has although until the end of the World Cup that one would be impossible. Tuchel wouldn’t be a bad choice but at Real Madrid you don’t only have to be a tactical coach but fundamentally a man that understands and can mollycoddle massive egos. I think they’ll keep him (Zidane) on until the PSG game hoping that can be sorted.

Good post from the tactical side of things and there are some factors you’ve written about that the media has echoed in Spain. But there’s more from some journalists that are very close to some of the Real Madrid players and they’re saying that Zidane doesn’t vary his game plan for each individual game and that the resistance training practically doesn’t exist. But don’t read too much into anything that may seem like they’re bitching about Zidane because they love him and they’re the ones that are keeping him in the job unequivocally and unanimously. Florentino Pérez has been hesitant to wield that axe he keeps in the top drawer in his office desk and due to the revolt that occured when Ancelotti (another they loved) was fired, he’s having to bite his tongue. The pressing is indeed terrible, the players want to win games in the first 10minutes because they’re anxious and the midfield is all over the place. Kroos, Modrić and Casemiro are awful this season with Marcelo being the worst of the lot and Ramos getting booked or being sent-off in record numbers (I think he’s already broken world records in that sense). Only Isco has been the shining light on amazing form before Asensio was strangely ostracised and having his confidence broken. Infact all the players brought in the summer are hardly getting a chance which is a far cry to how Zidane administered the whole squad last season especially the second half of the campaign where the “second string” were playing better quality football than the first XI but where all were winning games, sometimes well and sometimes in injury-time because not everything was roses by a long stretch last season and many forget this due to the fact they done the La Liga title and Champions League double. There’s a lot wrong there and the problem is that nobody knows who could be brought in. Florentino Pérez wants Pochettino but the Spurs coach won’t go yet. Apart from him the only option is to bring back Mourinho and THAT all the Barcelona fans are hoping will happen... That or Zidane being kept on.