Tag Archives: Barca

In Memory of the simpatico Terry  Venables

  The former England, Barcelona and Tottenham manager has died aged 80.   I owe to the personable Terry Venables some memorable times together during which his  colourful  insights  provided me with the material for two books of mine that came to be enjoyed by fans  around the world-The Hand of God and Barca. It was Venables that told me how he resigned himself to losing Diego Maradona from his squad soon after taking over the management of FC Barcelona in May 1984. While there had been speculation that  Maradona …

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Messi in the Time of Covid

There was much tear-jerking comment on an Argentine radio earlier today about the love Messi feels for Barcelona, and the sadness he feels for his friend and neighbour Luis Suarez who has been told he is surplus to requirements by new coach Ronald Koeman. Appearing on the same programme I felt compelled to introduce a touch of reality on the Messi/FC Barcelona saga. The current story involving Messi and Barcelona   is one of egos, politics and greed, a less than edifying  example for  a world suffering dislocation, deprivation, suffering and …

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Barca’s Sad Night

Compared to the heroism of the ‘Remontada’ against PSG,last night’s defeat at the hands of Juventus was sadly a much more mundane affair. It was huge of Barca fans in the Nou Camp to wave their flags and chant for the team as the final seconds ticked away, but the occasion did not really warrant it. Barca was crushed i their own stadium.You don’t expect that in the Nou Camp, let alone in the Champion’s League. Last night’s match showed Juventus magnificently resilient in defence and Barca less that heroic …

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Barca’s Disgraceful Night

Watching FC Barcelona crashing to defeat in Paris last night gave me  a distinct  feeling of déjà vu. This was no ordinary defeat, but an abject surrender by a team with some of the best players  in the world and Messi representing  a club that prides and markets  itself  on the basis of its  integrity. Not since the Allianz Arena in April 2013 had  Barca been more humiliated by a better European team and its own total lack of moral fibre. There is a justifiable   sense of desolation if not …

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Cristiano vs Messi: An imagined rivalry?

Cristiano vs Messi: An imagined rivalry? When it comes to sport, there is nothing like an iconic rivalry to fuel  the global popularity of football. This past weekend, Cristiano  Ronaldo and Lionel Messi fought their latest battle to  be considered the world’s best player  in war of attrition that has lasted more than a decade. But this was no gladiatorial duel  consciously played out in a  frenzied colosseum,  but  a commercial construct which had the two star players separated  over   a distance of thousands of miles and playing in  different …

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Cruyff- Dream Maker

When people ask me , an anglo-spaniard- born in 1953 in Madrid a few hundred yards  from the Bernabeu,the year of Di Stefano’s arrival,  why I am a Barca fan, I mention Johan Cruyff. Hearing the news of his death brings back those heady days of the mid 1970’s when I first fell in love with FC Barcelona thanks to the flying Dutchman who later created Barca’s a  ‘dream team’-one of several as it would turn out- thereby leaving an enduring legacy. For if in  its political and cultural dimension …

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Serrat en Londres

Era alrededor del 1984 que estuve por primera vez en  un concierto de Joan Manuel Serrat entre lágrimas y cantos, acompañando cada palabra y letra que recitaba, abrazado con mi mujer y con los que nos rodeaban. En esa época vivíamos la decadencia terminal del régimen militar en Argentina, ese junta que había hecho desparecer a unos 9,000 para luego provocar una guerra esperpéntica con el Reino Unido en las Islas Malvinas – dos calvos luchando por un peine, decía el viejo Borges. El Serrat de esa época quería ver …

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Thugs should have no place in football

Professional football is not just any sport- at its highest reputational level , it is a money-spinning machine , a show-room of celebrity, as well as talent, of dubious politics, and even less morality, and with enormous social impact, for better or for worse. Players and those who manage them should not be allowed to behave like thugs. Their conduct is one that not only impacts on fans in the stadium, in turn fuelling the most violent and prejuduced attitudes that they may be prone to, but also disrupts domestic …

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