Come on Barca

[Son of Leeds]

They dive, they feign injury, they moan at officials, but they've brought the beautiful game to a new level. When Franco oppressed the Catalans and banned the language, the club kept the pride of the region alive, and they set a new way of running a club by a membership scheme that makes the board answerable to the fans. So come on, Barca, don't be inhibited, swan through Salford Town and keep the Champions League cup out of Coronation Street.

I know the BBC Radio 5 and the television coverage will be rooting for 'the English team' though their manager is a Scot, the owners are American and their talismanic adulterer is Welsh: but as I once heard a Villa Supporter say to an Everton supporter who was mocking a Spurs supporter: 'Anyone can support anyone for whatever reason they like.'

There's reasons enough to want Barca to win. We may play in Royal Madrid white, but aren't we the little Catalans to the establishment's Evil Empire?

Come on, Barca!

Regards

Son of Leeds

[OWETB]

B@stard likes this.

[jackos]

There's reasons enough to want Barca to win. We may play in Royal Madrid white, but aren't we the little Catalans to the establishment's Evil Empire?

In general no, against Scum obviously ..

Barca should be easy to love, owned by 170000 members, anti-franco n all that .. But fact is they are highest valued club on the planet, pay the highest wages on the planet and have a 500 million quid debt they will probably never have to pay back .. So fuck hm, they're part of the cancer the CL has become, n part of the reason a ticket to the final would set you back between 80 n 500 quid .. (36 quid admin fee for fucks sake ,.. Na fuck hm and their final ..)

[AndyPaul]

Out of the two I suppose I prefer Barca but on the whole I don't have any interest in the game and certainly won't be watching it.

[Quiffy]

i sometimes think iniesta may be better than johnny howson.

it's like miro vs. ls lowry. no contest.

and they're scum.

[MightyWhite]

Well I'll be watching it with at least 3 scummers on the promise that there will be a game of poker or two afterwards. If they win....well it doesn't just bare thinking about, but I don't think they will.

[FarmersBoy]

Out of the two I suppose I prefer Barca but on the whole I don't have any interest in the game and certainly won't be watching it.

my sentiments as well

[Ontolly]

as I once heard a Villa Supporter say to an Everton supporter who was mocking a Spurs supporter: 'Anyone can support anyone for whatever reason they like.'

I'll be in Dundee of all places with a Welsh choir of all things and lashings of frothy beer . :beer drinking smilie:

I might glance over.

[Ponte]

Well I'll be watching it with at least 3 scummers on the promise that there will be a game of poker or two afterwards. If they win....well it doesn't just bare thinking about, but I don't think they will.

Don't forget to tap them up for tips, you know, players for your fantasy team next season

[alienbumnote]

Just seen Sir Porridge Wog on SSN saying he dosen't expect Leeds United fans and other clubs to be backing MUFC on Saturday NO FUCKING SHIT YOU PURPLE NOSED CUNT!

Forza BARCA

[MightyWhite]

Well I'll be watching it with at least 3 scummers on the promise that there will be a game of poker or two afterwards. If they win....well it doesn't just bare thinking about, but I don't think they will.

Don't forget to tap them up for tips, you know, players for your fantasy team next season

I was waiting for that. What took you so long Ponte? You're slipping fella

[stugats]

messi aside barca are a bunch of cheating cunts.they believe they are football at its purest level and look down at the rest of us, nah fuck em, up themselves cunts, also its eufa which means platini the french cunt, also its at wembley which means the FA, an association of cunts,and to top it all of manure red cunts.
i wont be watching

[Son of Leeds]

To cmplain Baca are cheats misunderstands the whole nature of football. Since the abolition of the maximum wage all aspiring young players are told to do whatever they can get away with to win a game. The press used to label Leeds dirty: they were right but hypocritical - overlooking the same crimes committed by Chopper Hariss or Tommy smith: Leeds learned it as Bremner said from playing in Europe, and stopped it when they were so good the cost of conning refs was greater than the value of simply outplaying teams. Mourinho was not completely wrong in his words about Barca, but is himself just as guilty - he just lost the battle with the referee.

If you have to like the ethics of the players to enjoy the game, you'll end up only watching well-bred schoolboys playing for fun on the village green.

The point about debt is a pertinent one, I admit: but its also true that Barca have produced players as well - Messi went there as a reject who was thought too flimsy to make it in a top league.

You don't have to like the players, just enjoy what they do, and Barcelona play a football that makes all the games' ills melt away in the poetry of their style.

Salford Town are good, but they play basically a refined form of the counter-attacking style that Son of Fergus got off to a tee in the 90s: his use of a six man midfield when Rooney and Ronaldo dropped deep was progressive, but since The Great Ego left his style is now rather old fashioned; effective, often attractive, but not likely to change the way the game is played. Even his mean-spirited bullying manner is a throw back to old ways of doing things.

Come on, Barca!

Regards
Son of Leeds

[Son of Leeds]

i sometimes think iniesta may be better than johnny howson.

it's like miro vs. ls lowry. no contest.


Or perhaps Picasso and Beryl Cook.

[eric olthwaite]

Barca should be easy to love, owned by 170000 members, anti-franco n all that .. But fact is they are highest valued club on the planet, pay the highest wages on the planet and have a 500 million quid debt they will probably never have to pay back .. So fuck hm, they're part of the cancer the CL has become

This.

I don't have any interest in the game and certainly won't be watching it.

This.

[Wakefield White]

jesus! some of you lot are cynical bastards.

I for one love to watch really great football and barca serve that up in spades.

Having played and watched football, the thing that has always struck me is that, for the most part, I can associate with footballers ability. I feel that but for a few twists of fate I could be one, I can pick a pass, beat a man, put in a tackle and read a game pretty well etc. I know it delusional but the truth is that a lot of us think the same and the truth is that in england the pro's are essentially much better versions of ourselves.

The thing about barca is that when i see them play well, like against real in la liga or the first half against the gunners, i cant even imagine what it would be like to play football like that. Its not just the way they move and control the ball, its also the way they close the opposition down in the rare occasions they have it. Its really quite amazing, the closest thing to total football i have ever seen.

I know that they dive and that they were put together with money, but that is the modern game. They have money to spend but the ethos of the team is more important, and they serve as a reminder that success is more than throwing money at players.

Don't get me wrong, If we were playing them I'd be willing ljw to rip messi in half, but when they annihilated us I'd clap them off of the ER pitch (like I did against real madrid when they bettered us in the CL).

Seeing as they are are playing scum... I'd be quite happy for them to show them up for the average cunts they are and tear them a couple of new arseholes.

[Eddies Boots]

I for one love to watch really great football and barca serve that up in spades.
...
Seeing as they are are playing scum... I'd be quite happy for them to show them up for the average cunts they are and tear them a couple of new arseholes.

I agree with this.

Every fucking team dives now - of course, at our level the lads don't do it very well, and are just embarrassing.

[LSD&2Es]

I agree with this.

Every fucking team dives now......

What kind of an excuse is that? If they're that fucking great they shouldn't need imaginary cards, triple salco's, or restraining order level ref harassment to get an advantage on the pitch.

They make a mockery of the fair play and respect campaigns every time they pull the shirt on. They should be made to blank those badges out....

[Phil LUFC]

I agree with this.

Every fucking team dives now......

What kind of an excuse is that? If they're that fucking great they shouldn't need imaginary cards, triple salco's, or restraining order level ref harassment to get an advantage on the pitch.

They make a mockery of the fair play and respect campaigns every time they pull the shirt on. They should be made to blank those badges out....

True enough, but I don't levy that charge at any club, its up to the authorities. There's no doubt these tricks yield results, and in a multi-million pound business you're not going to hamper yourself with better morals than the competition.

It'd be pleasing if FIFA/UEFA/FA/whoever decided to finally man up and start dishing out auto red cards (and retrespective bans when refs bottle it or miss it at the top level). They'd ruin countless games short term, 7 vs 7 or match abandonments aplenty, followed by the youth team having to play 1st team games while bans are served etc - but the benefits after that would be well worth it.

[Son of Leeds]

PhilLUFC is right.

Unfortunately, the team that plays fair leaves itself exposed to the others who don't and actually give an incentive to the opposition to exploit their fairness. Its the problem with unilateral disarmament. If everybody agrees to it and sticks to the agreement it's A Good thing, but if you can't trust the others to join in you're screwed.

The weakness of the authorities to enforce standards is the crucial point.

The reason Barca resort to diving is because the way they play leaves them vunerable to cloggers so they have to work to get referee protection, or they would simply be kicked out of their stride. Then they can outplay the opposition.

Remember how Holland tried to stop Spain? Most of the Spanish team were Barca players. The English ref ran it like an English game, trying to 'let it flow' and Holland destroyed the spectacle accordingly.

So, come on, Barca, you cheating cunts.