FC Barcelona Discussion

[Philippe Coutinho]

(was going to post this before our SirBalon mentioned the birthday)

 Happy 60th Birthday Camp Nou. I will visit you one day. Probs be cutting a few onions while doing so cos dampness might stream down both cheeks.

This is a mate of mine's video creation: showcases the Camp Nou in all her glory and beauty, the La Liga celebration (2nd treble season) and Xavi's farewell (he was the heart and soul of Barca). Now THAT was a proper send-off for our Capitan, unlike the one for Casillas!!

Love the mosaic. One of my fave YouTube vids. Never get tired of it. Love how cules applaud Deportivo staying in La Liga due to the 2-2 draw.

6racies Xavi. Siempre.

 

Edited September 24, 2017 by 11Neymar Ousmane Dembélé11

[Spike]

15 minutes ago, Cannabis said:

Visiting the Camp Nou back in February was genuinely one of the best days of my life. It's an amazing experience that I hope you go through one day.

You're a right mess of a Toffee, cunt.

[Spike]

Just now, Cannabis said:

Go back to wearing thongs you Aussie melt.

Jokes on you. I'm wearing mine right now.

[Philippe Coutinho]

Suarez rainbow over Thiago  Some say the Bayern man is still looking for the pot of gold.

Edited September 25, 2017 by 11Neymar Ousmane Dembélé11

[Philippe Coutinho]

Can't we get a better Sporting Director than this guy? The Atletico one is AMAZING.

https://www.sport-english.com/en/news/barca/malagas-arnau-a-potential-replacement-for-barcas-sporting-director-robert-fernandez-6313768

[Asura]

So I have a question for the barcelona faithful who are aware of their history. I know about the DiStefano transfer and general franco meddling with those matters and snatching him away from barcelona despite joining them and playing few pre season friendlies. But recently I read somewhere that barcelona are no saints and that they implemented a similar plot and took away kubala from madrid, can anyone who knows more about this story let me know what happened during that time

[Cicero]

On 9/24/2017 at 7:05 PM, 11Neymar Ousmane Dembélé11 said:

Suarez rainbow over Thiago  Some say the Bayern man is still looking for the pot of gold.

Except that's Benatia not Thiago 

[SirBalon]

27 minutes ago, Asura said:

So I have a question for the barcelona faithful who are aware of their history. I know about the DiStefano transfer and general franco meddling with those matters and snatching him away from barcelona despite joining them and playing few pre season friendlies. But recently I read somewhere that barcelona are no saints and that they implemented a similar plot and took away kubala from madrid, can anyone who knows more about this story let me know what happened during that time

Yeah, read about this some years back in a book by a Catalan journalist called Frederic Porta. Infact he’s the only source on this but swears he’s seen both Real Madrid’s doucments and Barça’s. It’s a very different situation to the Di Stefano case though.

In the Kubala case Real had an apparent agreement with the Hungarian and only needed his signature on the contract. Barcelona came along and offered him more money and more important, political asylum. He signed for Barça.

In the Di Stefano case we have a whole different scenario. That was political intervention and when that wasn’t working, FIFA got involved to try and strike a deal where they would share the player two years for each and so on. Remember that Barcelona had already legally signed Alfredo di Stefano when all of this political stuff snatched him from them. 

Edited September 27, 2017 by SirBalon

[Asura]

2 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

Yeah, read about this some years back in a book by a Catalan journalist called Frederic Porta. Infact he’s the only source on this but swears he’s seen both Real Madrid’s doucments and Barça’s. It’s a very different situation to the Di Stefano case though.

In the Kubala case Real had an apparent agreement with the Hingarian and only needed his signature on the contract. Barcelona came along and offered him more money and more important, political asylum. He signed for Barça.

In the Di Stefano case we have a whole different scenario. That was political intervention and when that wasn’t working, FIFA got involved to try and strike a deal where they would share the player two years for each and so on. Remember that Barcelona had already legally signed Alfredo di Stefano when all of this political stuff snatched him from them. 

Yeah I read about the political asylum thing too, apparently Kubala had to dress himself as a russian police (or army man) to get out of hungary and sneak into spain, he also had to swim across danube river in this process of escaping. 

[SirBalon]

Puyol returns home to attend Messi's 594th official Barça game

 

Why has Carles Puyol returned to Barcelona today to watch Lionel Messi play against UD Las Palmas on an odd number like his 594th official game for the club?

The reason is that 593 were was the official amount of games Puyol played of Barcelona and Messi is about to surpass "El Gran Capitán" to move into third position as the player that's played the most times for the club.  He still has Andrés Iniesta in 2nd with 638 and Xavi in 1st position with a whopping 767 official games for FC Barcelona.

Carles Puyol held an interview with Barcelona based daily sports newspaper Mundo Deportivo where he had these anecdotes to tell about what he lived through as Messi's colleague and his personal thoughts on the genius.

Messi is level with you on 593 games for the club, but he's managed it earlier than you at 30 years of age?

Leo is going fast in everything he does and he's always been that way.  I hope he ends up playing 500 more games for the club.

The ranking says that Messi is in third position right now, behind Iniesta on 638 games and in first position Xavi on 767 official games.  Do you think he's capable of going past them and becoming the player with the most games for Barça?

It's not going to be easy to be honest, but if his body respects him where injuries are concerned as he gets older and he continues to evolve in the areas of the field where he can watch his physical exertion , then it is possible.

You were playing for quite some time when Messi first broke into the team.  What was the detail that most impacted you about him when he first played with you?

The ease with which would not only read the game so as to decide beforehand on what to do off the ball, but then this incredible intuition on what the rival in front of him would do with his body movement depending on what choice he decided to make on the ball.  That for me is the genius of Messi because he like Iniesta, know and read the possibilities that can be achieved before their opponent does.  He wasn't up for fun and games even in training because he would want to be on the winning side even there.

Seeing as you were more of a veteran than Messi when he first started playing in the first team...  Did you give him any advice at the start so that his integration would be easier?

He was and is very timid...  He's an introvert and was more so then as what can only be described as a child breaking into such a team.  But the Barcelona dressing room in general has always been a very close knit group and in that sense life in the squad is made very easy for players.  Nobody is above anyone else and in that factor is where some others haven't lasted long or as long at Barcelona because to suppress how you are can only be done for so long.

Did he ever try his tricks on you in training games like a nutmeg or something to overplay on?

When he's on the filed of play be it an official game or even just training he's very competitive.  Messi doesn't know how to differentiate between what's theoretical or competition.  Most players use training to enhance their fitness or to progress in tactical or personal football areas.  Messi uses everything and did so as a kid to win!  He had all the tools, you knew there was very little to teach him even coaches in the tactical areas of football theory never said anything to him because off the ball he knows where to position himself for the good of the team.  I remember a training game once where Pep put me as a man to man marker on Messi...  Guardiola told me to use my usual method of playing as if I was in a much because otherwise we all knew Messi wouldn't play.  I have to admit I tried everything and actually got upset at the way he was treating me in what I thought was disrespectfully...  I even tried to kick him with Guardiola trying to stop the training game and everyone around us stopping and me running after him aiming air kicks at his arse.  In the end we fell down and laughed.  Obviously there was no malice from him or from me, but imagine how players on opposing sides feel when they're playing against him?

What is the thing that has impacted you the most about Messi?

Everything about him is incredible but for me his biggest asset and the detail that keeps him at the top is his ambition.  The thing is that at the beginning he was spectacular in itself.  He would take the ball and run with it dribbling past anyone that got in his way.  The only way to stop him is to foul him because not only is he technically perfect, but for such a small player he has such body strength.  Infact this is one of the features and the proof on what Cruyff said to change everything.  Size and strength has absolutely nothing to do with talent and technique.  Infact putting both features together, talent and technique will always win even in defence, but that's for a different interview (laughs).  After his spectacular years he's evolved into a complete footballer, someone that can play anywhere from the back of midfield to the front and be the best by a long margin in the world.  When I started off in football I was of the belief that work ethic and sacrifice would get you to the top...  It does!  I never really believed that talent was something you could be born with, but it is possible!  So putting both factors together you have two ways to get to the top but only one of them makes you genuinely special and that is born talent.  Messi is a genius and that's what's impacted me and everyone that knows him, has played with him or against him.  They know it!  They may say other things some of them, but they know that we know that they know it. (laughs)

Lately some coaches have started to man mark him again like they used to do at the start of his career.  You was one of the greatest defenders ever, what do you think about a coach telling you to man mark someone like Messi for 90 minutes?

It's difficult to man mark any player for 90 minutes without making any errors.  A modern defender works better with the freedom to read the game and the rivals he has in front of him.  Within 10 minutes you have a pretty good picture of how they've set themselves up and also how each individual up front moves.  Just as players playing in other areas of the field, we use what we're learning in any given game to predict and read our rival so as to be one step ahead.  In the case of Messi you have another job on top of all that which is to not only read how he runs, but also to second guess him and be one step ahead.  Now, Messi has been playing for over a decade at the highest end of football and I've seen defenders know what he wants to do and still not be able to stop him.  So if there are times where you know what he's going to do and you find it extremely difficult to stop him executing his thoughts, the ones you're seeing.  Imagine those ones that come from his improvisation!  Man marking Messi efficiently can stop him from scoring, but you won't stop him from creating because he's not just a goal scorer.  Football is best played with freedom but with a tactical plan set out too.

Out of the goals Messi has scored, which one have you felt was the most memorable?

Everyone will say the Getafe goal because of how it was so similar to Maradona's.  That was a goal which had not only his teammates in awe but also the Getafe players because they tried to bring him down and couldn't.  But for me personally there was a game against Real Zaragoza where he scored two absolutely incredible goals...  In that game he manipulated 10 rival outfield players and wasn't just a moment to remember.  I remember a game Bergkamp played for Arsenal once I saw on tv where he done something similar, but this was different for me because I was on the field.  I remember shouting out after the second goal "you son of a bitch" (laughs).  But then again everyone will have their favourite and it's a very personal choice.  That's the thing with Messi, you get options.  I remember once Guardiola put him in the defenders team in a training game and we won for the first time against the attackers.  That's how good he is.

Messi is 30 now, can he still keep on growing as a player?

Football has gone down a strange route where the media feed the fans that after 27 starts a road that leans downwards and with every year it becomes steeper towards the bottom.  Us players know that this is not the case...  The only thing you lose with age is initial burst of pace but never your top speed and then the second thing is recovery time after games or from injuries...  All that takes longer.  But the optimum age for a footballer at the hight of his physical powers and knowledge through experience is anywhere from 28 to 30 years of age.  Messi is now at his optimum level physically and from there he's translating his game into various avenues he never used to.  Messi will always keep on growing as a player because there's nothing like him playing football today.

Apart from Messi being in such great condition at the start of this new season.  How do you see the team in general?

Well they're winning every game they play so I can't really say much.  Infact they're winning even in a couple where they haven't played so well which is normal at the start of the season.  You have various highs and lows at the beginning but you want to get past that inconsistency by winning as many as possible.  So in that sense I see the team very well indeed.  Apart from that, it's a long season and many factors can change the course of how you go for the targets you set.  You can have a great side and two stupid games end up making your season seem a failure because the level is so high these days.

 

[Carnivore Chris]

I hope he was there to encourage Messi into getting this new contract signed ASAP.

 

If it wasn't for injuries then Puyol could have just been retiring around now, or last season. Unfortunately injuries took their toll and he had to retire earlier than he wanted to. Either way, he managed to have a long career and one of the most successful for any defender(both for club and country) in the modern era. A warrior who always gave 100% and a true professional, who didn't care about the fame side of football or the media attention you gain from it. You don't get many players like that anymore.

[SirBalon]

1 hour ago, The Rebel CRS said:

I hope he was there to encourage Messi into getting this new contract signed ASAP.

 

If it wasn't for injuries then Puyol could have just been retiring around now, or last season. Unfortunately injuries took their toll and he had to retire earlier than he wanted to. Either way, he managed to have a long career and one of the most successful for any defender(both for club and country) in the modern era. A warrior who always gave 100% and a true professional, who didn't care about the fame side of football or the media attention you gain from it. You don't get many players like that anymore.

My two favourite centre-backs that I've lived through are Baresi and Puyol by a long margin...  For anyone that lived through Baresi's era will see a connection there because they were extremely similar in the way they defended and their technique.  Obviously there are other defenders from past and present that I rate extremely highly but those two impacted me tremendously.  Both gave 100% in every single game and they were also gentlemen of the game which is hard while playing in a position where your job is to annul attacking talent from flourishing.

Indeed Puyol's end of his career was stunted by a series of crunching injuries which took their toll, but his career was of legendary status and also one of the most successful in the history of the game.

Just read back the interview which I had to translate myself due to it only being available in Spanish...  I've made various grammatical mistakes because sometimes it's hard to stop thinking in Spanish and you get all twisted up.  But I hope everyone gets the gist and understands it. 

[bozziovai]

i know you guys will hate me for this.     But Barcelona  was a disgrace when they opted to still play the game, even if closed doors, against Las Palmas.    The Club is a hypocrite.    The people of Catalunya has been brewing for years and for months ( for this Polls ) and we've already seen violence from the Police against the people days before the Vote.   And on the Day of the Vote, total chaos, police brutality at it's peak, the elderly and children and women aren't spared.    And yet,  FC Barcelona - the symbol of Catalan was afraid to get stripped 6 points if they didn't play.       Why ???    

[Machado]

Funnily enough Barcelona is the part of Catalonia with the highest pro-Spain feeling. The 2015 regional elections prove it.

[Carnivore Chris]

26 minutes ago, bozziovai said:

i know you guys will hate me for this.     But Barcelona  was a disgrace when they opted to still play the game, even if closed doors, against Las Palmas.    The Club is a hypocrite.    The people of Catalunya has been brewing for years and for months ( for this Polls ) and we've already seen violence from the Police against the people days before the Vote.   And on the Day of the Vote, total chaos, police brutality at it's peak, the elderly and children and women aren't spared.    And yet,  FC Barcelona - the symbol of Catalan was afraid to get stripped 6 points if they didn't play.       Why ???    

 

The club didn't want to go ahead with the game, but La Liga and Las Palmas did. In the end, the game HAD to go ahead or Las Palmas would have been given the 3-0 win.

 

Get over it. You just wish it didn't happen so that Barcelona lost 3 points and your bottle job of a team would have a chance of clawing their way back into the race. It must be embarrassing at the moment for Real Madrid to have one of their so called strongest sides ever, yet be 7 points behind a "team in crisis who are heavily relying on one player".

 

Edited October 2, 2017 by The Rebel CRS

[SirBalon]

20 minutes ago, bozziovai said:

i know you guys will hate me for this.     But Barcelona  was a disgrace when they opted to still play the game, even if closed doors, against Las Palmas.    The Club is a hypocrite.    The people of Catalunya has been brewing for years and for months ( for this Polls ) and we've already seen violence from the Police against the people days before the Vote.   And on the Day of the Vote, total chaos, police brutality at it's peak, the elderly and children and women aren't spared.    And yet,  FC Barcelona - the symbol of Catalan was afraid to get stripped 6 points if they didn't play.       Why ???    

Two high ranking directors at the board resigned yesterday for letting the game go ahead...  The vice president Carles Vilarrubí and the head for education at FCB, Jordi Monés.  They were wrong to let the game go ahead only because of the amount of people that were injured but for no other reason!  Football has no importance when things like these happened.  But the club is not a hypocrite for going ahead with the game because they were threatened from various centralist sectors with all sorts of sanctions ranging from either playing the rest of the season's domestic games behind closed doors which as you can appreciate would destroy the club to actually being suspended from playing in all domestic games (La Liga and Copa del Rey) for six months.  The club had no choice but to play the game!

10 minutes ago, Machado said:

Funnily enough Barcelona is the part of Catalonia with the highest pro-Spain feeling. The 2015 regional elections prove it.

The unity sector of Catalan society is extremely silent in situations such as these and including in the annual National Day of Catalunya (La Diada) which is on the 11th of September.  You can't blame people calling for unity being silent in Catalunya to be honest and that's the way it's always mostly been.  Even when you attend Barça games you are politely told to not make a flag of Spain visible if you take one and the only reason for this is so as to stop trouble from occurring and not because the club is positioning themselves politically in terms of any type of separatism.  That part in my opinion is rather hypocritical for me.  If you've spent your history telling people that at the Barça arena freedom of expression is paramount, then you have to accept all views and sentiments.

But you're right...  IN all the serious polls ever held Catalunya would vote to stay as a part of the state of Spain if it were held seriously.

But I will say one thing though...  The wound opened yesterday in the manner the authorities treated civilians in Catalunya will be a wound very difficult to heal and anyone that was probably swaying where to put an hypothetical 'X' may have swayed to the separatist end now.

[bozziovai]

15 minutes ago, The Rebel CRS said:

 

The club didn't want to go ahead with the game, but La Liga and Las Palmas did. In the end, the game HAD to go ahead or Las Palmas would have been given the 3-0 win.

 

Get over it. You just wish it didn't happen so that Barcelona lost 3 points and your bottle job of a team would have a chance of clawing their way back into the race. It must be embarrassing at the moment for Real Madrid to have one of their so called strongest sides ever, yet be 7 points behind a "team in crisis who are heavily relying on one player".

 

honestly man, i don't really care about where Madrid is at at the table.     My statement doesn't stem from me being a Madrid fan, i'm just a fan, nothing more.      People got hurt, this photo alone says it all

 

 

i'm sure that injury comes from a blow from a policeman.     it's a sad day.

 

@SirBalon  ... i understand what you mean that football is not related to any political issue, but this is FC Barcelona, we all know what this Club stands for in Catalunya.

 

if they wanted Independence at it's truest form, then FC Barcelona should have lead by example by going against the demands of La Liga.

[SirBalon]

12 minutes ago, bozziovai said:

honestly man, i don't really care about where Madrid is at at the table.     My statement doesn't stem from me being a Madrid fan, i'm just a fan, nothing more.      People got hurt, this photo alone says it all

 

 

i'm sure that injury comes from a blow from a policeman.     it's a sad day.

 

@SirBalon  ... i understand what you mean that football is not related to any political issue, but this is FC Barcelona, we all know what this Club stands for in Catalunya.

 

if they wanted Independence at it's truest form, then FC Barcelona should have lead by example by going against the demands of La Liga.

FC Barcelona has never in their history positioned themselves politically in any manner whatsoever.  They have freedom of expression their and YES FCB are a Catalanista football club but that has nothing to do with being in favour of separatism from the state of Spain.

[Stan]

14 minutes ago, bozziovai said:

honestly man, i don't really care about where Madrid is at at the table.     My statement doesn't stem from me being a Madrid fan, i'm just a fan, nothing more.      People got hurt, this photo alone says it all

 

 

i'm sure that injury comes from a blow from a policeman.     it's a sad day.

 

@SirBalon  ... i understand what you mean that football is not related to any political issue, but this is FC Barcelona, we all know what this Club stands for in Catalunya.

 

if they wanted Independence at it's truest form, then FC Barcelona should have lead by example by going against the demands of La Liga.

i think everyone deplores the sheer brutality the police showed to citizens. Humans, actually. It's detestable the actions they showed. But this picture does nothing to add to your argument because of the fact everyone knows they acted out of order. 

[SirBalon]

I have to edit my previous comment...  Under Joan Laporta's tenure, he as an individual used the club as a political voice and he was censured for it by the members amongst other things.  I edit this because I said AT NO MOMENT in the club's history, but I forgot Laporta had gone mental in his final two years as president.

[bozziovai]

3 minutes ago, Stan said:

i think everyone deplores the sheer brutality the police showed to citizens. Humans, actually. It's detestable the actions they showed. But this picture does nothing to add to your argument because of the fact everyone knows they acted out of order. 

what i'm trying to convey here is "unity".   The votes are out, not official coz some of the Ballots were confiscated, but it's a very strong 90% Vote for YES.    I know the game has already been played, nothing more i could do, but still, they should have shown ( the Club ) that they are behind/supporting this Independence Referendum. 

i posted that photo out of sheer anger,  i'm utterly disgusted to what they did to that old woman.  ( i should have posted that on the thread in the politics section )

[bozziovai]

11 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

I have to edit my previous comment...  Under Joan Laporta's tenure, he as an individual used the club as a political voice and he was censured for it by the members amongst other things.  I edit this because I said AT NO MOMENT in the club's history, but I forgot Laporta had gone mental in his final two years as president.

i'm glad you mentioned that one coz i was about to talk about it.    Yes, that's the "era" i was talking about that the Club has a sort of political stand or political representation.

 

anyhow, for the sake of everyone involved, i just hope that the Spanish Government will try it's best to mend this tension against Catalunya ....  i should go to the politics section.

[SirBalon]

Just now, bozziovai said:

i'm glad you mentioned that one coz i was about to talk about it.    Yes, that's the "era" i was talking about that the Club has a sort of political stand or political representation.

 

anyhow, for the sake of everyone involved, i just hope that the Spanish Government will try it's best to mend this tension against Catalunya ....  i should go to the politics section.

The club is 118 years of age, about to be 119 years and two years in 119 of one individual using the entity for his own future political career has NOTHING whatsoever to do with what the club has stood for throughout its history.

Plus you seem to have failed to read the reasons as to why the game eventually went ahead...

Read again and tell me seriously what FC Barcelona should've done!

 

[bozziovai]

1 minute ago, SirBalon said:

The club is 118 years of age, about to be 119 years and two years in 119 of one individual using the entity for his own future political career has NOTHING whatsoever to do with what the club has stood for throughout its history.

Plus you seem to have failed to read the reasons as to why the game eventually went ahead...

Read again and tell me seriously what FC Barcelona should've done!

 

yes, i've read it, sorry for the late reply for it.    it's nice of them to have stepped down in defiance of La Liga and Spain.

[SirBalon]

Just now, bozziovai said:

yes, i've read it, sorry for the late reply for it.    it's nice of them to have stepped down in defiance of La Liga and Spain.

Not just that...  In that same post I told you what the sanctions from centralists parts would've been if FCB had not have played the game.  The sanctions ranged from playing every domestic home game (La Liga and Copa del Rey) this season behind closed doors to actually being suspended from playing any domestic game for 6 months.  That would've meant elimination from the Copa del Rey and relegation to Spain's second division.