Category Archives: Blog
Whither Spain in Euro2012
Let me make an admission from the outset. I am approaching this Eurochampionships with one hope only-that Spain will clinch the title. I hope that I am not tilting at windmills. As those of you who might have read my latest book on La Roja will realise I’ve watched a lot of Spanish football over the years, and researched into history, to get a sense of how a country has weathered its political storms and deeply-ingrained club rivalries to produce a coherent national squad capable of playing the most beautiful and …
Aguirre´s unfortunate intervention
Much as I admire the Madrid regional government´s president Espereranza Aguirre as a person, I cannot agree with her politically when it comes to football. It is I think unfortunate of her to suggest that Friday´s King´s Cup on Friday should be played behind closed doors if Athletic Bilbao and FC Barcelona fans whistle the Spanish national anthem. By so doing, she has stirred a hornest´s nest of enduring resentments, and fuelled antagonisms which only radical minorities stand to gain from. To Barca supporters Aguirre´s politics brings echoes of the …
This blog is for my Chelsea friend
A persistent and enduring commentator on my blogs-a childhood friend who is a Real Madrid and Chelsea fan-has emailed me complaining about my silence on the outcome of this year’s Champions’s League final. Rather than be accused –as he has accused me-of self-censorship and Barca bias (others who might know me less but who read my blogs less selectively will notice I am actually quite objective about whoever I write about, be it MI6 or Pep Guardiola), I am jotting this blog down for his benefit and those of any …
Barca & Pep: Egos at play
Changes of managers at big clubs are never quite what they seem, for reasons that range from journalistic laziness or collusion to personalities and complex contractual issues- although in the end, as the great Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset once said, we are defined by who we are and our circumstances. The departure of Pep Guardiola from FC Barcelona, once put down to a simple question of work life balance , and placed in a context of solidarity and sacrifice, seems likely to have involved more complex, less chivalrous issues …
Messi is not a Racist
So, that admirable totem of journalistic objectivity and fairness The Sun has run with a story suggesting Lionel Messi is a racist. The only problem is that it has got its facts hopelessly mixed up, courtesy of its main and only source Everton’s Royston Drenthe’s apparent ignorance of colloquial Argentine. Drenthe-on loan to Everton from Real Madrid-is reportedly unhappy that while playing in La Liga two seasons ago Messi allegedly said Hola Negro to him . Messi is reportedly somewhat perplexed, not to say pissed off that this should be turned into …
Gareth Williams: Conspiracy not Cock-up?
Whichever way you look at it, the case of Gareth Williams worryingly continues to raise more questions than answers. a. Why did his employers MI6 take more than a week after William’s disappearance to alert either his family or the police? b.Why did officers of the Met’s counter-terrorism branch SO15 delay informing investigating police officers of the existence of nine memory sticks and a black holdall found at Williams’s MI6 office until two days before the inquest into his death ended? c. How much of Williams’ private life-the inquest revealed …
Is Tito really the right man for the job ?
I can’t recall a Barca victory having such a bitter-sweet taste about it as last night’s crushing defeat of Rayo Vallecano. It was good to see Barca scoring goals, with Messi breaking his own drought, as well as watching substitute goalkeeper Pinto make some dramatic saves-but Pujol showed himself a true captain when he urged Alves and Thiago Alcantara to desist in their celebratory Brazilian dance . Sure this was a match that Barca needed to win if only to lift some of its shattered morale after losing the La …
Pep Guardiola’s catharsis
We will probably never know for certain when exactly was the moment when Pep Guardiola decided to quit as manager of FC Barcelona. But the Guardiola who spoke to the media after Barca’s defeat by Chelsea on Tuesday was I think no longer committed to another season. Some commentators suggested he was exhausted. To me, Guardiola looked liberated. Much has been said of Guardiola as a person who , both as player and manager, had always chosen his next move on his own terms. And yet circumstances I think combined …
A great Bayern victory
Never thought I would end up supporting and praising a German team, but I did last night. The precisoun, flow, spirit, and energy of their assault on Mouirinho´s Real Madrid contributed to making last night´s semi-final the best game so far of this season´s Champion´s League. I doubt the final will come anywhere near this. If Bayern repeats this performance, it will destroy Chelsea. In Sitges last night the sports bars were mostly empty. Those that were not, resonated to ecstatic cries of celebration. For Barca fans, seeing Ronaldo´s blunder in …
Barca´s nightmare night
So I eat my hat. Barca are not through to the Champions League final in Munich this morning as I had predicted days ago they might be, and sitting here writing this in Sitges, I share in the collective Catalan hang-over. My heart and soul tells me that Chelsea did not deserve to win. That a team that played for much of the game just defending their own goal line against a much more skilled and talented team that simply was unlucky on the night will make the final a …
