Category Archives: Misc
The difference between Stamford Bridge and the Nou Camp
As anyone who reads some of the comments on my blogs will know, I have an obsessive follower. He follows me continuously so as to conduct an unrelenting campaign of criticism verging on defamation whenever I write anything positive about FC Barcelona- which is quite often, I admit. I can reveal that ‘Captain Terry’ –for that is the alias under which he pursues me on the web- is known to me as a good friend from childhood on any other subject but football- otherwise I would have set the dogs …
Keeping the BBC in perspective
Looking back over the thirty years I worked for the FT, I still cannot believe how lucky I was to have worked for an organisation that believed there was such a thing as journalistic integrity. It meant that however difficult the assignment we were expected to get our facts right, and on stories of particularly sensitivity, there were hierarchical checks and balances in place that went via down-table sub-editor to the editor, as well as legal ones, with a lawyer at the end of a phone, or if needs be, …
Love-in at Celtic Park
Its rare to recall a football game in which your team’s defeat doesn’t leave you with a bitter after-taste. But few Barca supporters looked dejected last night as they emerged into the Scottish rain after seeing their team lose 2-1 to Celtic in their Champion’s league tie. From earlier in the day Barca and Celtic supporters had been sharing pints, swapping travelers tales, previous match anecdotes, and shared good memories of a Swede. When the match was almost upon them , the 1,000 cules who had scraped their spare …
Radio vibes
There was no TV coverage of last night´s World Cup qualifier between Belarus and Spain. The price of TV rights was pitched too high by some greedy company and Spanish TV collectively refused to buy. So I along with thousands of other La Roja fans were left with the only option of listening to the game live on Spanish radio. I tuned in , driving back to Barcelona from Madrid, across Castile and Aragon, over terrain that held together in its diversity, like a patchwork-delighted to hear the commentary praising …
Radical Politics in the Camp Nou
Whatever last night´s El Clasico is remembered for, it won´t necessarily be for its football. The game was not so much a battle between two teams, but a series of individual encounters focused on a duel for supremacy between players of different nationalities, neither of the two Spanish -Messi and Ronaldo. Brilliant as their goals were, each have scored better ones, and their involvement in the collective efforts of their colleagues insufficient to determine the supremacy of one side or the other. As for the teams, Tito Vilanova´s Barca …
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 …
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’ …
