As anyone who reads some of the comments on my blogs will know, I have an obsessive follower. He follows me continuously so as to conduct an unrelenting campaign of criticism verging on defamation whenever I write anything positive about FC Barcelona- which is quite often, I admit.
I can reveal that ‘Captain Terry’ –for that is the alias under which he pursues me on the web- is known to me as a good friend from childhood on any other subject but football- otherwise I would have set the dogs on him by now. He is Anglo-Spanish , like I am- but happens to be a life-long supporter of Real Madrid and Chelsea FC-whereas I am a fan of Barca, full-stop. That is the crux of our problem. It is evident that Captain Terry and my uncompromising exchanges are not simply about football rivalries- and Barca’s matches against FC Chelsea have become uncomfortable grudge matches just like their encounters with Real Madrid have always been- but have to do with a way of looking at life as played on the pitch and beyond.
Both Florentino Perez and Ramon Abramovich, the president of Real Madrid and the owner of Chelsea FC respectively, are businessmen who want to see quick returns on their investment. There is of course a distinction to be made in so far as Real Madrid is not financially owned by Perez but by its members whereas Chelsea is owned by the Russian. Nonetheless Perez has imposed his will as much as Abramovich has done, and sees Real Madrid like he sees his multinational construction company ACS- a necessary predator. Players and managers are simply cogs in a money making machine which in turn is supposed to bring ever greater conquests at home and abroad. Style and conduct come second to achievement. The ends justifies the means. Be on a trophy conquering side, and you will be a superstar. Cease to oil the machinery, and you are out on your ear, before too long.
At Real Madrid, Mourinho-who moulded Chelsea in his image before going on to forge mental and operational synergies with Florentino Perez after Italy- has survived because he has delivered some success, although were the Spanish club to fail to go beyond the quarter final of the Champions League and lose La Liga to Barca, then Mourinho would almost certainly be given his marching orders just as Di Matteo has been given his at Chelsea. Mourinho knows this which is why he has been preparing a return to the Premier League for some time. Don’t rule out Chelsea, eventually.
At both Real Madrid and Chelsea , human beings are as dispensable as faulty widgets, as Vicente Del Bosque discovered some years back. But the problem with this hire and fire , this conveyor belt policy, is that a club that pursues it risks losing any sense of collective identity, team ethos, philosophy and style of play-in short, it risks disintegrating leaving nothing but a core of frustrated, thuggish fans.
Which is why I would be very surprised if Pep Guardiola would allow himself to be hired by either club. ( Man City offers a more complex proposition with former Barca men now in the club’s management structure). Guardiola owes everything he was, is, and has become, to FC Barcelona, a club that has accepted Qatar’s sponsorship, but can still claim to be about much more than just winning and making money . It is a club with a set of values that have to do with integrity, generosity, and creativity and inseparable from the political context it finds itself in.
Guardiola, let’s not kid ourselves , is no aesthete. He lives currently in a luxury Manhattan apartment, loves his family and luxuries, and expects money to pay for it all. But either Bernabeu or Stamford Bridge would kill his soul and his reputation-that is my faith. And I know Captain Terry will want to prove me wrong and that Rafa Benitez will want the Chelsea job if nothing else but to prove he can make Torres help win trophies again. The Russian would warm to that. After all, Abrmaovich spent a lot of money on El Nino, the player Benitez originally tempted out of modesty.
Jimmy Burns has thrown the gauntlet down and Captain Terry has no option but to respond and defend his honour.
Firstly let me put the record straight and as a lifelong friend of Jimmy, my first and only love has been Chelsea. Real Madrid is an adopted team when I came to live in Spain, a very secondary one compared to the team I first went to see play in 1965, a stones throw away from where I lived in the royal borough. Madrid is a new love in my life, as Barça is to Jimmy. Way back I remember long arguments we had as to which London team was better, Spurs or Chelsea, and let me allow you blog followers to guess which of the two was the Blue fan, and which one followed the then magnificent Cockspur team…. 🙂
I mention this as I feel certain view points and opinions are coloured in only one colour in these blogs, and truth is bent to accommodate suppositions.
Let’s take the core argument: that Madrid & Chelsea are just money making machines and Barcelona is the epitome of ethical conduct.
I just want to make one point here and that is money plays a massive part in the Barça make up. Every year for the last 5 decades, Barcelona has bought players for the new season, often the best in the world, and at vast sums, including: Maradona, Ronaldo, Cruyff, Neeskins, Laudrup, Koeman, Romario, Kluievert, Rivaldo, E’too, Stoichkov, Lineker, Schuster, Figo, etc. etc. Much of the current team has been purchased on the open market, so forget the Masia myth, as many, many players came after parting with much money: Villa, Piquet, Cesc, Alexis, Marcherano, Song, Alves, Pedro, Adriano, Abidel, Kieta, etc., etc.
Players as widgets? Look at the 2011/12 season:
– 9 players bought for 52 million euros (Cuenca, Ibramihovic, Cesc, Alexis, Thiago, Henrique, Sanchez, Keirrison, Caceres, I & Hleb)
– 10 sold for 42 million euros (Keirrison, Hleb, Ibramihovic, Jeffen, Milito, Maxwell, Bojan, Henrique, Caceres & Sanchez)
Ask Keirrison, Hleb or Ibramihovic if they felt like they were treated as humans or widgets.….
My point is all the BIG clubs spend money, including Barça, they have to, in order to remain competitive. One of the ways to generate money is sponsorship and of the three, I would say the Qatar Foundation is the most unethical source of finance of all if compared to Samsung or Betwin! Every Barça shirt is a reminder of a regime that is a one party system, bans homosexuality, suppresses the rights of women, etc. A club with integrity and values? Come on Jimmy, your beloved club receives money from a very dubious source, with an appalling record on human rights….
Finally on the ethical point, isn’t ex Barça President Laporta being sued by the current Barça President Rosell for massive misappropriation of funds?
Thugs? I often go to the Bernabeau and I would hardly call their fans thugs. Yes a few Ultras like one finds at the Nou Camp, but pretty harmless. Chelsea maybe, they always have been since the late 60s, and that has little to do with Abramovich!
Well Real Madrid & Chelsea have very clear identities and culture – you haven’t got exclusivity on that one. One of the most modern powerful brands is a club. All clubs have an identity.
I can tell you that the vast majority of Chelsea supporter’s identify with the brand, not the owner. And they totally back the Russian who under his ownership has put Chelsea into the history books: 1 European Cup, 3 Premiers Leagues, 4 FA Cups, 2 League Cups and 2 Charity Shields. Yes 12 silver trophies. With 9 managers in 9 years and so the Manager doesn’t matter either.
You see Chelsea fans don’t care if it the owner is Bates or Abramovich, or the interim manager Benitez or the next one Pep. As our song goes: we just care about Chelsea…… …….and we keep the Blue Flag Flying High….. in the sun or rain.
Barcelona bought Cuenca and Thiago? Oh really?
They loaned them out – and they came back in season 2011, just using them as a reference point in relation to the term “widgets” used by Jimmy as opposed to “humans”. Or put it another way, it appears they treat their players like commodities rather than humans, like all other clubs.
Anyway, much more interested in your response to the 100+ million euros Rossell says was misappropiated by the previous Barça President, the massive sponsorship money obtained from a fascist regime whose name is spread all over the Barça shirts (ironic, so much hot air about Franco’s dictatorship and here for a pound of flesh, Barça losses any integrity it ever had!), the billions spent in the transfer market over the last few decades buying the best players in the world, etc…
If you could answer these small points in relation to Barcelona it would be much appreciated as it would help me then understand why Barcelona is apparently different to any other club!
PS would be nice if you signed your comment, or is this a reflection of the lack of Cule transparency??!!