MrDuck Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 Ramos 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 I am sure he can console himself with his 4 other Champions League trophies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrDuck Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 Pretty funny that he had a film crew with him tonight, filming him for a documentary about his career Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 I think Real werent even that great last season and signs were there they were finished. Bayern and especially Juventus should have knocked them out Kroos was garbage tonight, Modric not much better. Benzema has always been dreadful and maybe 2 of the 4 should be out the door if include Marcelo and freshen up the squad and no idea why Isco and Asensio have been sidelined Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 It has come out that Zidane had 3 requests to stay on in summer. 1. Keep Ronaldo 2. Sell Bale 3. Dont sign a new keeper Perez did the opposite of all 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 L'equipe reporting that Zidane is heading back to Real Madrid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 20 minutes ago, maqroll said: L'equipe reporting that Zidane is heading back to Real Madrid Bizarre move for him, he must have been promised a war chest in the summer or else he's a placeholder until the end of the season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rds1983 Posted March 11, 2019 VT Supporter Share Posted March 11, 2019 4 hours ago, villa89 said: Bizarre move for him, he must have been promised a war chest in the summer or else he's a placeholder until the end of the season. Signed with a contract to 2022, can only assume he'll have a warchest and Perez will also listen to him on transfers (for a season at least). Guessing it means Bale gone and Hazard in and if it goes wrong for him he can point out that two other managers failed so the team's obviously passed it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobzy Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 On 08/03/2019 at 09:42, Zatman said: It has come out that Zidane had 3 requests to stay on in summer. 1. Keep Ronaldo 2. Sell Bale 3. Dont sign a new keeper Perez did the opposite of all 3 ...and then Zidane came back. Standards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted May 6, 2019 Share Posted May 6, 2019 Interesting piece in The Guardian on Barcelona. Quote According to Josep Maria Bartomeu, the first thing visiting directors ask him when they take up their seat at the Camp Nou before kick-off is almost always: is Messi playing? There’s so much to discuss, from sport to politics, identity and innovation, law and human rights, money too and lots of it, plus plans to change football for ever, but when he says it, it makes sense. His guests are football fans, too, Barcelona’s president says, and if looking at some of the people who buy clubs, that doesn’t entirely convince, 13 hours after Messi’s free-kick against Liverpool it does feel implausible for any conversation to start anywhere else. Including this one. Ultimately, it ends there too, via a circuitous route. The morning after Barcelona’s 3-0 Champions League victory the crowds have gone, but Messi has not and never does – not entirely. His picture is everywhere. Outside, a small queue forms for the stadium tour and they are all talking about him. Inside, in the hush of the offices, where many have known him since he was 13, staff are too. Bartomeu claims he was sure Messi would score. “I wouldn’t even give him the Ballon d’Or,” he jokes. “He’s beyond that now, in a category of his own. There are great players, but he’s in a different dimension.” Dimension is an appropriate word and not just for Messi: as Bartomeu sits stirring his coffee in a neat boardroom, it fits what follows. Bartomeu, who became president in 2014 and whose term ends in 2021, says football has undergone an “enormous transformation” since he became a director in 2003, and it won’t stop here: “We’re laying the foundations for the future.” That means big changes, in La Liga, the Champions League and the Club World Cup. At one point he adds: “You’ll like it.” At least in part, perhaps, because he can sense he might be wrong. The night before, 98,299 people were in the Camp Nou, the noise off the scale. Millions watched around the world. “The Champions League is la leche,” Bartomeu says. La leche is the milk – the business, in other words. Which rather prompts the question: why change it? “Because we’re going to change it for the better,” he says. Bartomeu is opposed to playing European games at the weekend and to a closed Champions League. But he claims: “Fans ask us for more European games. And from 2024 the new format will allow that.” He continues: “I’ll give you an example. When we played Manchester United [in the quarter-finals], it was the first time they’d been here in 11 years. Last night against Liverpool was the first since 2006.” Scarcity makes it special, surely, but Bartomeu insists: “It can’t be that we play many games but not against teams like Liverpool and United.” And what about teams like Ajax, this year’s revelation? Surely, football can’t afford to close the door to them? “No, no, no,” Bartomeu insists, “no one’s talking about a closed league or a Super League. It will be an evolution, and attractive. It won’t be a revolution.” Change is not just coming in Europe. In fact, the point is that football will soon be leaving Europe. Barcelona were at the forefront of La Liga’s plans to take a league game to the US and although the Spanish federation blocked it, preventing Girona-Barça from taking place in Miami, Bartomeu will not give up. “We want to continue ‘footballising’ the United States,” he says. “I want there to be three games abroad every year to promote La Liga – one in the US, one in the Middle East, one in Asia. They watch us on TV and it’s a way of getting close to those fans.” What about fans at home? What if it had been Barcelona‑Girona instead of Girona‑Barcelona? “Then we wouldn’t have gone, obviously.” So how do you justify that you won’t play abroad but they should? How do Girona justify going to their fans? “Ask the president of Girona. Other presidents rang me and said: ‘Hey, why didn’t you call me?’ “Don’t forget, the LFP [La Liga] competes with the Premier League, that’s our big rival. We have to try things to help us to compete.” The risk of being eclipsed by England and talk of competition raises another question: clubs such as Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain, propped up by states. Asked about the threat they pose, Bartomeu responds: “It’s not a threat, it’s a reality.” His expression of his “faith” in financial fair play feels a little lukewarm; he notes that PSG escaped punishment on a technicality, the investigation failing to address “the issue itself”; and there is a striking difference in punishment with that for breaking regulations on signing under-16s. There, Barcelona – like Madrid, Atlético and Chelsea – were handed transfer bans and Bartomeu is more forthright. “I told Fifa it doesn’t make sense that in every sport everywhere in the world, you can give a bursary, a scholarship, to a kid, offering them the chance to go to a school to learn and develop – but not in football,” he says. “I said: ‘Change it.’ You’re restricting someone’s right to personal development. There’s even a case for asking if the ban goes against children’s rights to education.” If this is a moral question, another one is raised by the fact that it is not just the league planning to go abroad. The Spanish federation, which blocked plans for Miami, has announced a final-four format for the Super Cup – reportedly, set to be played in Saudi Arabia. Some have been dismayed. Bartomeu concedes ethics must inform every decision, including where you play, but seeks to draw a distinction between helping to provide political legitimacy and playing. Indeed, he suggests there are moral reasons to go rather than stay. “Football has become global and more democratic. It reaches millions and getting close to those people is about respect. As a club we go beyond sport to become involved in social issues – we have projects in Saudi Arabia. The kids we work with can’t be blamed for not having spaces to play because their governments aren’t adequate. We want to think of people. The refugee camps in Greece, in Italy, are full of kids. If you analyse the policies of governments, in Europe and elsewhere, we wouldn’t agree with what they do but Barcelona’s foundation goes to those places. People and governments are different.” Yet politics is often unavoidable and the club that faced Las Palmas behind closed doors as a protest the day the Spanish state prevented a referendum on Catalan independence know that; they are the most politicised club in Spain. “Politics and sport mix,” Bartomeu says. “It’s a reality that in the life of the club, there is politics. “Our position is clear and it’s historic: first, we’re democratic and freedom of expression is rooted in our club. There are 145,000 socios [members], and everyone has their own political view. We’re plural and transversal. We also believe in the right to decide. For people, not politicians. How? Voting. We have a minority of members who think our position is tepid, others think it’s risky, but 77% said they agreed with our stance. We won’t take sides but we defend our language, our history. We’re a Catalanist club, our roots are Catalan, 96% of socios are Catalan. “I didn’t want to play against Las Palmas. What happened was very serious. People who wanted to vote – it doesn’t matter what they wanted to vote for – weren’t allowed to. I wanted to change the date but we weren’t allowed to so we played. Some players wanted to, some didn’t. The difficult decision wasn’t playing or not, it was whether to open the stadium. “We know Barcelona is the best ambassador Catalonia has. We decided not to let the fans in because, first, the social situation in the stands might have been difficult and, second, there’s no better way to explain to the world what’s happening than playing 90 minutes with that image of empty stands. ‘There’s no people.’ ‘No, because this is happening.’ That image went around the world – it’s very powerful.” This morning, another image goes around the world. Messi looks out from newspapers globally and from the stadium facade, his presence seemingly permanent. One day it will be. Work has begun on the new Camp Nou. When it finishes, when he does, will there be a statue of Messi to join that of Laszlo Kubala, Bartomeu is asked. “No,” he says, “there will be 10 of them.” https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/may/05/barcelona-josep-maria-bartomeu-change-champions-league-liverpool-manchester-united The most cynical club in all of football, I abhor them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted May 6, 2019 Share Posted May 6, 2019 playing league games abroad in a nutshell - What about fans at home? What if it had been Barcelona‑Girona instead of Girona‑Barcelona? “Then we wouldn’t have gone, obviously.” give up their nou camp cash cow? of course they wont, play a game that generates no revenue for them abroad so it makes them a few million and develops their fan base? of course they will 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted May 6, 2019 Share Posted May 6, 2019 Getafe though 3 points from Champions League, Atalanta in Serie A close too Nice for smaller teams to get in 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted May 7, 2019 Share Posted May 7, 2019 Doesn't that show how weak La Liga is this season. Barcelona apart that is! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted May 7, 2019 Share Posted May 7, 2019 13 minutes ago, PaulC said: Doesn't that show how weak La Liga is this season. Barcelona apart that is! Or more competitive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted May 7, 2019 Share Posted May 7, 2019 Yes maybe. The Premier League has become a bit boring with this race for top 4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted May 7, 2019 Share Posted May 7, 2019 2 minutes ago, PaulC said: Yes maybe. The Premier League has become a bit boring with this race for top 4. Premier League top 6 is locked inmost seasons from pre-season. I might be wrong but Leicester is the only team to crack top 4 since 2005 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted May 7, 2019 Share Posted May 7, 2019 Just now, Zatman said: Premier League top 6 is locked inmost seasons from pre-season. I might be wrong but Leicester is the only team to crack top 4 since 2005 Greatest sporting achievement ever in my book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtsimonw Posted May 7, 2019 Share Posted May 7, 2019 4 hours ago, Zatman said: Or more competitive No matter what, you can make an argument one way or the other though. Getafe getting top 4 = competitive league. PL was "shit" because Leicester did so well. La Liga is some way off the Premier League IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted May 7, 2019 Share Posted May 7, 2019 Just now, kurtsimonw said: No matter what, you can make an argument one way or the other though. Getafe getting top 4 = competitive league. PL was "shit" because Leicester did so well. La Liga is some way off the Premier League IMO. The money for finishing last in the PL is higher than what all clubs apart from Barca and Real (possibly A Madrid) make in a season if they win it. even the top Championship clubs can buy players and hire managers that mid table La Liga clubs can only dream of. Pretty embarrassing PL clubs are not further ahead considering they have all the prerequisites to be so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtsimonw Posted May 7, 2019 Share Posted May 7, 2019 3 minutes ago, sne said: The money for finishing last in the PL is higher than what all clubs apart from Barca and Real (possibly A Madrid) make in a season if they win it. even the top Championship clubs can buy players and hire managers that mid table La Liga clubs can only dream of. Pretty embarrassing PL clubs are not further ahead considering they have all the prerequisites to be so. More money at lower level clubs tends to just result in paying more for average because everyone knows you have the money, then having to compete against teams with much more money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts