Category Archives: Blog
Is Tito following Mourinho?
Deputies don’t necessary go on to make good bosses. Look no further than Gordon Brown and Mariano Rajoy. In football it’s a mixed picture. Carlos Queiroz went from Ferguson’s assistant to managing Real Madrid (not a happy time)to being Ferguson’s assistant again, before pursuing an unexceptional career as national coach with Portugal, and now Iran. By contrast Mourinho laid claim to being a ‘special one’ after serving as Bobby Robson’s assistant and translator at Barca. He went on conquer more than Robson did. FC Barcelona now have Tito Vilanova who …
So where do Barca’s best interests lie?
An interesting comment from Francesc to my earlier blog on Barca and Catalan Independence prompts a follow-up . Those who follow me on twitter will know some of the specific technical issues that concerned me about last night’s FC Barcelona match against Granada. They included worries about Villa’s limitations as a player compared to Pedro and Alexis both of whom track back and associate with the rest of the team more than him, Valdes’s sloppy clearances , and Song’s unconvincing performance as centre-defender. I was also unimpressed by Messi’s prolonged …
Why today’s Barca does not fit easily into an Independent Catalonia
Some debate in Catalonia was generated earlier this month by the fact that FC Barcelona president Sandro Rosell decided to attend the march of La Diada in a personal and not institutional capacity so as not to throw the club onto the independence bandwagon- a cause which opinion polls show just under fifty per cent of voters in Catalonia do not support. I think Rosell was right, as was his decision that the team next season should have the Catalan colours as their third preference strip, not their first. It …
Real Madrid vs Man City: almost a tale of two halves
I have to say that of all this week’s Champions League encounters, none will come as close to holding my attention as much as this Tuesday’s encounter between Real Madrid and Manchester City. The game is being played between two clubs that are approaching this season’s competition with a paradox in common. They share the strutting arrogance of ruthless trophy hunters whose model of big spending on star signings , while winning championships, has nevertheless fallen short of the globe-trotting success story their fans were promised. Rather than unassailable, the …
Spanish Football’s financial meltdown
By Jimmy Burns Forget about the Spanish junior team’s poor showing in the Olympics. Spain stills boasts the best soccer in the world. Earlier this summer its senior national squad, nicknamed La Roja, won the European Championship, setting a record as the first nation to win three consecutive major international tournaments in four years. Last season five Spanish clubs – Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Valencia, Athletic Bilbao and Atlético de Madrid – reached European club competition semi-finals. Of these, Athletic Bilbao and Atlético went on to play in the final …
Farewell Neil Armstrong
Most of us of a certain age can probably remember where we were in July 1969, that day (or night) Neil Armstrong walked the moon- it was that kind of defining moment in history that prompted that profound phrase, rather popular at the time of stoned heads: “Today’s the first day of the rest of your life.” I was sixteen, at a summer camp outside Madrid, learning to sail with a group of Spanish and foreign kids. They included a girl from Paris, three years older than me, who showed …
My Olympic favourites
My favourite London Olympic moments (updated and final list) Opening ceremony-all of it. More tickets being made available to ordinary public. Boris dangling from a wire Jessica Ennis clinching her gold in the heptathlon Beach volley ball in Whitehall Mo Farah having the strength and love to embrace daughter and wife after running 10,000 metres and winning the gold, and then doing it again with another race, and another gold. Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s smile, win or lose Joanna Rowsell celebrating her gold without her wig Courteous attitude of an Olympic ‘volunteer’ …
The music GB gives the world
There can be few constants in Britain’s contemporary history, than the high regard that its musicians are held by the rest of the world. So it was fitting that the closing ceremony of the hugely popular London Olympics should feature musicians and songs that have crossed boundaries and appealed to the varying rock and pop tastes of the post-war generation. Less radical in its political and social narrative than Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony, this was an evening that resonated with the universality of a nation’s achievement in having music, like …
This Brazil falls well short of La Roja
I twittered at the beginning of the London Olympics that the quality of national football squads should not be judged by the performance of the teams attending . I had in mind Spain as I suspected the non-informed might have been under the misapprehension they were about to see a repeat gala by the team that won the Euro 2012. As it turned out the Spain that came to the London Olympics had mostly different players, a different manager, a dysfunctional team, and yes- as Jorge Valdano had accurately predicted-did …
Neymar and the 2012 Olympics
Olympic games are not generally remembered for their football, and when they are, it is usually for the performance of a player rather than a team. Way back in 1924, Uruguay’s Gold medal in the Paris Olympics –before FIFA’s World Cup competition had been created- marked the beginning of a new era of South America dominance. La Celeste as the Uruguayan team led by Jose Leandro Andrade –the first black player to earn respect at an international level- became a legend in its time, going on to winning the Olympic …
