Author Archives: Jimmy Burns

As Barca limbers up for its serial encounters with its arch rival, I thought it worth commenting on the rather worrying urban myth that has been fuelled in recent times by Real Madrid fanatics. Out of respect to both sporting institutions, and weary of falling foul of libel laws, I will have to phrase this as delicately as I can-but suffice it to say that the quite unsubstantiated and untrue suggestion is that Barca has only managed to have got to where it has  got to-record results across three major …

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  A long-term friend in Barcelona and wise  cule  thinks  that Pep Guardiola, having assured himself of qualification tomorrow for the semi-finals of the Champions League , should go on to the Bernabeu with his reserve team. His reasoning? Beating Mourinho that way would make an even  bolder statement about the philosophy of La Cantera – and even if Barca loses, it would not mean losing La Liga, while strengthening the first squad for the other challenges left in the season-the Copa del Rey and the road to Wembley. Of …

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Let’s be honest- watching Mourinho and Real Madrid thumping Spurs last night would have been an unsettling feeling for most cules.  Not only has the wishful thinking that Barca might face Redknapp’s boys in the semi-finals evaporated (what a pity for us Londoners) , but its biggest rival looks like a tight army unit that has identified the main target and will relentlessly pursue it. Mourinho has clearly given up on winning La Liga and is hoping to pull off something of a record by taking yet another club to …

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  There is nothing worse in life but a bad loser, but then there is nothing better than a productive love match. Wenger continues to cry foul over the match at the Nou Camp, thus in denial about the extent to which Arsenal were systematically out played on all fronts. Not only were they pressed successfully by Barca everytime they tried to hold the ball, but struggled throughout the game to contain every avalanche of attack from the opposing side, not to mention their inability to destroy a skilled game …

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I caught up with the Arsenal fan at Gerona airport as we were waiting to catch the plane back to London. He was at the news stand thumbing through a report in an English newspaper of his team’s defeat at the Nou Camp. He seemed a quieter man than the one who, with his mates,  had pranced about near the stadium two hours before the match, rat-assed, and singing ‘We’ve got Cesc Fabregas’ over and over again. I felt kind of sorry for him and thought of nothing better to …

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  Some great ball control, wonderful passing movements, and a nice build up to the good Keita goal but only 1-0 in the end- and against Zaragoza. I lost count of how many lost chances. It was great to have Valdes back. But  his anguished look every time he was involved in a clash with an opponent made him look fragile. As for Pep, God knows how many pain killers he was carrying in his bloodstream to get him on his feat. We need to make the most of Pujol’s …

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The other day I travelled to Arsenal’s  Emirates stadium in the company of friends from London’s Penya Blaugrana and some late arrivals from Barcelona. Half-way between the Embankment and Holloway station, we were joined by a group of Arsenal fans. At one point they tried to annoy us with the chants  ‘We’ve got Cesc Fabregas, We’ve got Cesc Fabregas’ . Much as I wish that Cesc was at Barca I felt more annoyed hearing a young Catalan tell the Arsenal fans that Spain’s World Cup had left him cold. I …

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