What goes on behind the scenes of the beautiful game is rarely beautiful. Often, the experience of watching a beautfiul goal or combination on the pitch requires forgetting the transfer-gossip nonsense and arglebargles that allowed it to happen, or at least thinking that they are substantively less important to our experience of a match than they may actually be. For a popular example of this kind of thinking, just read Eduardo Galeano’s Soccer in Sun and Shadow, which suggests that breathtaking goals and legendary players are timeless components of the sport, whereas money and sponsorships unnecessarily pollute what happens on the pitch. In Galeano’s view—and in the mind of many soccer fans—the game itself is pure, but all that surrounds it corrupts our communion with the soul within.
The reality is of course much more complicated. As Brian has said before, transfer buzz and tabloid rumors cannot help but inflect how we watch a match—they’re such a big part of the soccer press that they become an unavoidable context for team selection and which players do and don’t work well together. The games are still the most meaningful part of fandom, but that meaning is decided increasingly more often by events that happen outside of the stadium.
Nowhere has that become more clear than in the Barcelona transfer brouhaha of this summer. A club that for decades has represented everything right with European football has suddenly become one of the continent’s chief villains, a squad bubbling over with supposedly ill-gotten talent and all the seeming arrogance and entitlement that comes with it. After their remarkably simple transfer for David Villa (arguably the best striker in the world), their relatively easy move for Javier Mascherano (arguably the best holding midfielder in the world), and their dogged, potentially disgraceful pursuit of one-time youth product Cesc Fàbregas, FC Barcelona, once “more than a club,” now seem on par with such paragons of soulless capitalism as Chelsea and Real Madrid, except those two at least act like what they are instead of pretending to be untouchable. You know you’ve reached the land of confusion when Ronaldo, Kaká, and Mourinho can be viewed as scrappy underdogs.
The question, though, is why this reaction to Barcelona has come now instead of years ago. This isn’t the first time they’ve worked behind the scenes in less-than-diplomatic fashion to find a new star, and it’s not the only time they’ve appeared streets ahead of their closest competition with an air of superiority. Just two seasons ago, they blitzed the rest of La Liga with the help of Dani Alves, then the highest-paid fullback in the history of the sport and a man who plays like an ornery hobgoblin. He was that squad’s third-best player for most of the year—and at one point was suggested by Sid Lowe to be the second-best player in the world—yet by most standards he could only be liked by his agent, or perhaps the wolves that raised him. Still, Barcelona could do no wrong. On this site, they were even discussed as the team that could save football.
Perhaps this newfound hatred is mostly tied up in the Fàbregas mess, a case in which his Barcelona friends (from the Spanish national team and not) have acted so shamefully with their shirt “pranks” and in comments to the press that the entire reputation of Barcelona has been sullied. The English press can certainly go overboard with their contempt (and praise, naturally); this could be an example of their nationalistic anger changing the fans’ view of the situation, too.
Yet the English press hardly holds sway over North American fans to the same degree, and the righteous anger seems to have come to our shores, as well. Richard Whittall has already declared war on the club this season, even going so far as to proclaim Dr. Lowe a shill for the blaugrana. Clearly, this is about more than just England. And if you’re going to criticize Barcelona for their tactics with regards to Fàbregas, you must also recognize the fact that Cesc has repeatedly said he wants to join the club. It’s not as if they have attempted to steal Arsenal’s captain against his will.
Maybe the “more than a club” identity has been revealed as a facade of history rather than a lived fact. While Barcelona’s history as a symbol and locus of anti-fascist and Catalan pride is unfuckwitable and continues to be an important part of their relationship to the region, the club’s international identity is defined more by the broader concepts of political liberalism and altruism than the specific realities of it. The Unicef alliance and sponsorship helps children in need, but it also allows Barcelona to appear above their bwin.com-aligned rivals. Never mind that Barcelona’s relationship with Nike holds just as much importance to the club as any amount of charitable work. If you doubt their commitment to commerce over cause, just check out these ambivalent comments from current president Sandro Rosell in March, when he was already a prime candidate to replace Joan Laporta at the top.
But these contradictions have been the status quo for a long time, even if they’ve never overtaken the joyous aura of the club entirely. When I first became a serious soccer fan, my first jacket purchase was an obvious one, in part because Barcelona represented something beyond several glass cases full of silverware. They were, in comparison to their fellow titans of UEFA, moral stalwarts. I’m just not sure how much that morality has to do with their political ties.
Instead, it seems more an issue of style. In the modern game, the most successful clubs appear pragmatic at the expense of identity. With the exception of squads with managers like Mourinho whose systems become extensions of their egos, top European clubs play particular styles and formations just because they work, not because they hold them up as the best way to play or an opportunity to show fans something they’ve never seen before. That which is effective becomes attractive, even if it’s not fun to watch.
Barcelona has chosen another path, one in which the proactivity of their 4-3-3 (or 4-2-3-1, if you want to get all Jonathan Wilson about it) stands out against the in-vogue stylings of supposedly pragmatic reactivity. They are certainly not the only quality attacking side, but their enormous success over the last few seasons places them above the fray, as if they show that beauty is the true best path to the earthly paradise of sticker and history books.
That commitment to stylish play has stood out in part because it appears difficult to do well; the precision and skill require refinement and practice that aren’t immediately visible in the more negative tactics of the age. To put it more bluntly, the Barcelona style registered as a choice of beauty over function. The fact that the club also believes that style produces more victories is immaterial—what matters is that it’s the road less traveled, one that’s supposed to lead to glorious failures rather than lasting greatness. That Barcelona have proven that thinking wrong is a sign of their superiority. Barcelona likely wouldn’t play better as a negative side—just imagine Xavi in a series of midfield scrambles and Messi consistently tracking back to deal with onrushing fullbacks—but their stylistic decisions still register as noble. They prove that there’s another way.
But what happens when that style no longer looks like a choice? In their current form, Barcelona are a super team of world-class talents at nearly every position. With this kind of attacking prowess, in a situation where even Gerard Piqué looks like he could be a top striker in many high-end leagues, where exactly is the noble sacrifice? Why wouldn’t one of the best groups of talent ever assembled play a proactive attacking style?
Barcelona has always had great players, of course, but never with a first eleven like this. Even two years ago, the dominant treble-winning squad threw out such non-incandescent talents as Víctor Valdés, Seydou Keita, Yaya Touré (before he was a sheikh-anointed superstar), Eric Abidal, the young Sergio Busquets, and the presumably over-the-hill Thierry Henry. That was a great team, but one with potential weaknesses. You could exploit certain areas of the pitch, if you had the skill to do so.
Where exactly are those same holes now? Valdés might not be world-class, but he improves with every season and would start in international play for most top national teams. Maxwell is no star, but he’s a solid attacking left back with experience at more than one top-level club. Pedro is young, but he played a big part in Spain’s World Cup win. Busquets is not on the level of Xavi or Iniesta, but he’s massively underrated and becoming one of the best holding midfielders in the world. Of course, with the arrival of Mascherano, he might not even start many matches.
This squad no longer honorably plays the beautiful game—they’re just really fucking good. And when a team amasses that much talent on paper, they become criticized for things that most top clubs practice as daily habits. For an analogy in America, look at LeBron James and the Miami Heat, who are regularly pilloried for arrogant Twitter comments that could come from the online mouthpiece of any player in the league. These reactions aren’t just about knocking champions off their pedestals; they’re more closely related to the feeling that massively talented sides have circumvented the hard work of winning championships and simply created a winner before the season even starts. When Barça suffered that shocking loss to Hércules last weekend, soccer fans didn’t discuss the match in terms of negative tactics defeating an ideal of beauty—they acted like a valiant underdog had overthrown a hated bully. It seems like the same reaction will meet every Barça failure to grab three points, even when their opponent is an Atlético Madrid or Villareal. That Barcelona have created this explosive squad after years of glory and haven’t added near-certain catch Fàbregas yet makes their assumed greatness sting even more. They’re only going to become more of a powerhouse.
In this context, what they do on the pitch hardly even matters. If greatness lies in surprise—of playing the role of comedian, as it were—then Barcelona now appear to be stand-up comics who never change their routines. We know it’ll be The Beautiful Game and can safely assume, Hércules or no Hércules, that they will succeed in the standings.
Sadly, this attitude roundly dismisses the fact that Barcelona is going to be absolutely amazing this year in a way that we haven’t seen in a long time, perhaps ever. Maybe they’ll hoist all manner of trophies with few hiccups along the way. But even if they don’t struggle, the exact form of their victories remains to be seen, and it is the forthcoming specifics of this team that make them such an exciting prospect in 2010-11 and beyond.
We’ve seen Villa partner with these midfielders before, but how amazing will their combinations be with Messi involved, as well? We know that Xavi and Iniesta form a great partnership, but will they be even greater with Mascherano as wrecking ball? Will Fàbregas’s introduction next season spark new tactical moves to accomodate him?
Whatever the case, we’re going to see something we’ve never seen before. And while this version of Barcelona may not carry moral significance or surprising results, they promise one hell of a journey. They’re appointment television until proven otherwise, and no amount of transfer foolishness can change that. Maybe Galeano was right after all.
Eric Freeman is a writer and editor from San Francisco. He is a regular contributor to FreeDarko, one of the authors of its Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History, and the former lead blogger for SportingNews.com’s now-defunct NBA blog The Baseline. Read his basketball thoughts at Early Termination Option.
Read More: Barcelona
by Eric Freeman · September 15, 2010
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Barcelona has lost or drawn 18 times in 76 matches over the past two years so it’s not like they are invincible. They play flat and lay eggs and hit posts like any other club. Other than the team acting a bit drunk after a good facsimile of their club side won the World Cup and trying to get Fabregas on a hometown discount I don’t see what they’ve done wrong.
Awesome piece Eric but, as a cule, I have a few comments.
You talk about Barcelona sign “stars” as if it is a bad thing. But in comparison to every top club in Europe Barca develops their side first and then fills in gaps with top signings. Mascherano was purely a replacement for Toure (and a good bit of business to boot).
As for your UNICEF comments. Does it matter whether they also are a business that desires to make a profit. The fact that they give up a multi-million dollar deal for a shirt sponsor and actually pay UNICEF for the privileged of having them on their shirt. I argue that in that way they are “More than a Club” as no other club in Europe (especially in the Premiership) would give up the sponsorship dollars.
Cheers
@Caleb I definitely don’t consider signing stars as a negative — that’s within their rights, and I honestly don’t care about competitive balance that much if it doesn’t produce a worthwhile product. You are certainly correct about the homegrown issue, too. Any reference to star-grabbing as a negative was an attempt to characterize what’s becoming a more common view of their transfer policies.
I’m not sure that the Unicef issue matters that much — I merely wanted to point out that the “more than a club” label has never been pure with regards to their business practices. It’s not that I don’t believe “more than a club” holds some measure of truth — I just feel ambivalent about it. (Also, for purposes of accuracy, Aston Villa’s Acorns “sponsor” is a children’s hospice, and to the best of my knowledge the club makes no money from the relationship.)
Thanks for the kind words about the piece, too.
Eric congratulations for this master piece, Clever view and couldn’t express it better, if you don’t mind I’ll link it as a must read on my BARÇA IN SUPPORTERS group I am holding @linkedIN network. You are all welcome to discuss all your thoughts on our beloved team.
Hate is merely the other side of love. Barca is a team to which one cannot be indifferent. They capture the imagination: justice can be served. Perhaps they serve to pacify all of us by demonstrating that beauty in play is more important than winning, that skill and talent can triumph over venality and greed, that some things cannot be bought or sold (I’m looking at you Jose), but as this post so admirably demonstrate, we start to fear that heroes might also have credit cards where their hearts should be. And then love can so easily turn to hate. I for one do not understand the scandal around the courting of Cesc. But then, I’m fairly indifferent to the fate of Arsenal’s aspiration.
It’s kind of weird you’re not mentioning the totally fake interviews with Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol and Iniesta that week-by-week have been produced by the English tabloids over the summer in which these players – who are all incredible modest guys – appeared to be arrogantly tapping-up Cesc and others.
That has been the one and only key factor for the sudden “hate” this summer and not going into that makes this whole piece pretty useless, I’m sorry to say so.
PS. Arsenal’s constant tapping-up of young players or the signing of Sevilla’s Squillaci a few weeks ago is far more shameful than whatever Barcelona has done to try to sign Cesc, with the full approval of the player. And we’re not even going into the matter of how Cesc was signed by Arsenal.
@Jan Part of the point of the piece is that it’s not just the English tabloids that are behind the change of attitude toward Barcelona—they’re a factor in England, but the Sun isn’t controlling the thoughts of American and Canadian sports fans who don’t read it. Barça-hated has a much more complex background, and honestly, diving into a sea of “Puyol tweeted that he never said that!!” strikes me as boring and reductive. As in all other aspects of soccer culture, I think we can take tabloid rabble-rousing and dishonesty as a given.
Excellent piece, strikes at the heart of what many of us find grading about the moral and stylistic exceptionalism some extend to this club.
I would just add that my “hatred” of Barcelona is mostly vaudevillian in nature, kind of a riff on Barney Ronay’s delightfully bitter anti-Barca article in the Guardian last year. It also receives inspiration for Franklin Foer’s painfully patronizing How Soccer Explains the World, in which he concludes that Barcelona the only club any left-leaning newcomer to football could support with a moral conscience.
@Brian Phillips The quotes are copied everywhere (on news sites, blogs, forums, etc) and American and Canadian sports fans of course also do read it and are influenced by it. Thinking this stops at the borders of Britain is ridiculous. It – oh shock – is even translated into other languages and that way even gets to more people…
The fake interviews are the ONLY reason that turned normal transfer activities into hate this summer. Last season, Barcelona did EXACTLY the same to sign Cesc, but then nobody saw something very bad in it. The only thing that has changed are the false interviews who have misled football fans around the world.
The masses can be fooled easily. Critical reading doesn’t seem to be part of the school curriculum anymore.
The tabloids won this battle, now it’s up to Barcelona to find a way to deal with this in the future.
The post is more ‘ On NOT hating Barcelona’ isn’t it? While it does question their ‘holier than thou’ attitude, and their sponsorship deals, and their transfer deals, it reads eventually like it is some sort of a defence, possibly even a rebuttal, against the unbelievers. It’s like you changed your mind mid-way through the post about them because they’re just so ‘awww’ in a footballing sense.
Well they are, but that doesn’t stop every non-Cule from having a reason to hate them. The Gooners, for obvious reasons, but also all neutrals for Busquets’ disgraceful playacting that reduced Inter to 10-men in that epic CL semifinal. Where Jose showed the world that attack-only football needn’t always win. Barca are not perfect, nor the ultimate incarnation of all that is ‘good’ with football. As you pointed out though, they make it seem like they are, and that is just, for lack of a more sophisticated word, uncool.
@RedDuck But even there, every last soccer team in the world has had a player at some point or other engage in “disgraceful play-acting,” and every big team has had it happen in a high-stakes game. Yet months later, people are still going on about Busquets as if he set some shocking new low for football. To me, this suggests that people are looking for a reason to turn on Barcelona, not that the Busquets Peek is by itself a good enough reason to despise an entire club. This post is about analyzing that phenomenon.
I have no idea what to do with the sentence, “Where Jose showed the world that attack-only football needn’t always win.” First because you make it sound like sticking it to attack-only football is some kind of heroic act of liberation, and second because who on earth ever thought or said that attack-only football would always win?
On Busquets. He obviously was over-acting. But it wàs a (stupid and unnecesary) foul by Motta that by the book deserved a yellow, even without the acting. Maybe you could say both deserved a yellow: Motta for the foul and Busquets for the acting.
But if one time acting by one player is a reason to hate (which is anyway a very strong feeling to have in the world of football) a whole club permanently… What about Eduardo’s dive against Celtic a year ago? What about Mourinho after he left Chelsea admitting that Drogba (together with Ronaldo, Van Persie and Torres) is the EPL’s top-diver? For every club in the world there are dozens of examples of acting players. If every fan would reason like that, the whole world of football would in the end be a world of total hate.
I turned on Barcelona a little this close-season, I must admit. They were always the club I looked up to, fan-owned, unsponsored, bastion of resistance against the Evil Empire/Real Madrid, unfairly deprived of di Stefano, coming out of the wilderness and becoming the world’s great club the list goes on.
But as a Liverpool fan, I felt they somewhat ambushed us for Mascherano. Not that I dispute that we had to let him go, that Barca are a bigger club, that he wanted to leave, and so on. It just seemed that if Barcelona were such a big club, and Mascherano such a fine player, that there was something wrong if they wouldn’t pay up the amount of cash that would reconcile those two statements with reality.
(In turn, I felt intense remorse for the behaviour of Rafael Benitez the transfer window before, when he somehow expected to get Kenwyne Jones on loan/on the cheap, and before that when he tracked Gareth Barry but couldn’t afford him. Both times, our status as a ‘big club’ was meant to secure players we couldn’t stump up for. Sorry Sunderland, Villa fans, it seemed wrong then and it stinks now. Love Benitez though I did, he really made us look like idiots sometimes, didn’t he?)
Sorry, got a little self-centred there above. I actually think Eric gets this spot on, though. Barca had a place in all our hearts as a second team because they did things right, or seemed to. They struggled and stuck to their guns and had their day from time to time as virtuous underdogs. I think the instinct to revile them now is that they’re switching roles on us, becoming a superpower and breaking the contract we had with them before. They’re probably not violating their previous ethos any more or less in this new form, but we’re calling attention to it now, because we haven’t re-constructed an identity for them yet.
I’m not convinced that people are keen to hate Barcalona so much as to defend thier right to dislike them (or at least to not love them).
I agree that all of the examples of why they are evil could be direceted at every club in the world as well but there is no other club where a declaration of hatred will provoke such a response.
If I say I hate Chelsea then thats ok but I am not allowed to deny that Barca are everything right about football (even if in doing so I do not neccessarily suggest that they are everything wrong with it).
@Phillip This is a real question, not rhetoric: Where do you see that backlash coming from? That is, who is it that you see as not allowing you to dislike Barcelona—their fans, other fans, the media, or some other combination of forces?
@Brian Phillips I’m not sure exactly. I certainly think there is an imperative to justify why you hate Barcalona (again, i’m not sure if I hate Barca or not – football can have strange ambivalences) in a way that is not expected of unfounded declarations of this sort towards other clubs.
Several of the responses to this article seem to demand an investigation into the reasons behind what is a pretty irrational thing to feel for a major sporting corparation in the first place.
I think it is a mixture between press and punditry attitudes (here in the UK at any rate), general football fan attitudes (Barca being the super-club-that-wins-everthing that its ok to support as a neutral) and this ‘more than a club’ nonsense.
It seems to me that if we hold Barca to the same standards as the rest of the champions league super-teams (they dive but then everyone does, they spend big money on megastars but then everyone does, they crush the rest of the league with their commercial income but then everyone does, etc etc) then we probably should hate them. Just like we clubs mired in also-ran semi-rubbishness hate everyone.
Do you think its simply that with other big clubs ‘hate’ is taken for what it is – a mixture of envy, bordom (if every big club is like that…), and mild happyness when they lose – whereas with Barca we are held to account for the full weight of the word – why do you HATE barca (with full snarling teeth, mouth foaming bitterness)?
Sorry for not being particularly clear
I find this newfangled anti-Barca sentiment interesting, because for me my feelings on Barca have reversed (somewhat). I have always disliked Barca strongly, precisely because of their hypocrisy. They claim the moral high ground with their UNICEF shirts and their “mes que un club” flag-waving, and yet they engage in the same sneaky, underhanded back-room dealing and manipulation that every other big club does. It is not that I have disliked them for behaving like a Big Club, it is that I have disliked them for behaving like a Big Club whilst telling all and sundry they are paragons of virtue. At least Real, Juve etc. have always had the decency to never pretend they are anything but evil.
But lately — well, it is true that what happens on the pitch can be more important than what happens off it. All football fans are incurable romantics at heart, I think. The football Barca has been playing lately has been beautiful, the kind of stunning, overwhelming beauty that made me a football fan in the first place. Against that — and against the fact that Guardiola and many of his players seem to be fundamentally decent human beings in a profession which has depressingly few of them — I find it difficult to dislike Barca as strongly as I once did.
My understanding of the current anti-Barca feeling in the English-speaking world is that it primarily comes down to one thing: Barca’s dominance. There are complications to this, of course, but a lot of what I have seen seems to be simple resentment, a desire to denigrate Barca to prove that they really aren’t that much better than your team. (This feeling, I might point out, is not helped by the legions of truly obnoxious Barca fans who delight in crowing about how much better Barca is at everything than everyone else.) This feeling seems to be especially strong amongst supporters of Premier League teams — and even in the States most people are supporters of the Premier League — who know that their team can never compete with Barca in the tiki-taka style of football and so proclaim that that style of football is rubbish, they’re a bunch of diving cheats, they don’t like it up ’em, let’s see how they’d do in a real league, etc., etc. And then of course there’s Arsenal fans, who want to compete with Barca in the tiki-taka football world, and can’t, and know it, and so must find something else to complain about.
Beyond this, Barca’s current prominence means a lot more people are aware of the hypocrisy inherent in Barca’s identity, and so there is a lot more furore about it. It is not that Barca has become any more hypocritical, it is just that the entire world is paying attention to Barca now, and so their (glaringly obvious) hypocrisy is front page news, rather than known only to those who follow La Liga.
@Brian Phillips You did not read my comment to the end. Every club playacts.Every club is disgraceful. But only Barca claim, as Porcupine Tress sang, “I’ve got a halo round me”. That’s probably the phenomenon to analyze – why that perception?
And to your cluelessness about what to do with my line about Jose, I hope this helps – “They are certainly not the only quality attacking side, but their enormous success over the last few seasons places them above the fray, as if they show that beauty is the true best path to the earthly paradise of sticker and history books.”. Looks like I’m not the only one making it sound like a heroic act of liberation.
Excellent post. Curiously, a friend and I – independent of any British news outlet – have felt a swelling of discomfort with the Barcelona of the last few months. The Ibra deal and the Fabregas deal have had something to do with it for sure. As a Sevilla fan, I’ve seen them buy 3 of our better players over the last three seasons. Alves was a good purchase for them, but I wonder if Keita wouldn’t mind a move back to Andalucia; and I don’t really anticipate Adriano being a consistent contributor.
It’s strange, as this post says, that I can hold Barcelona high in my mind during these recent years while, slowly, my distaste grows for them. When seen transparently, they are just another one of the Big Boys on the block that come around scooping up the players they want. So maybe it’s all because those scales have fallen from my eyes. There is a real conflict in their case, though, when I mesh the club’s identity as business entity with its identity as 11 players on the field. In the case of RM of Chelsea, I (for one), lump it all together — “Chelsea sucks”: I hate Drogba :: “RM sucks”: I hate Ozil (all of a sudden). It doesn’t work the same for Barcelona in my view, and apparently in the view of the blog. I don’t hate any Barcelona player. Only Alves comes close, but then I remember he was our boy for several years. Is this growing animosity just a consequence of their success? Is it that boring? I don’t think so, but the exposure and endless analysis of the club can begin to create more friction where there once was none. Bottom line is: I used to hope that Barcelona would win La Liga if Sevilla couldn’t, but that’s not the case anymore. I’m shopping around for the ideal again.
I think most people’s recent dislike of Barca contains different degrees of the two reasons most people have already mentioned: the “mes que un club” halo, and the insistence that one has to like Barca and the way they play. Interestingly, the only two ways I can think of that Barca are actually “mes” than other clubs–their ability to rack up as much debt as possible because of political consequences for any bank that calls in the debt, and their status as the second team for many Spaniards–are advantages they share with one other club: Real Madrid, the favorite club for Barca fans to compare themselves with.
But it’s the insistence that I have to like Barca, or at least have an opinion on them, that grates at me more, not because I think they should be treated the same as any other club, or because Barca is one of those teams where a large number of American fans (none on this site, I hasten to add) couldn’t name more than 2 or 3 of their starting lineup, but because the insistence on liking or disliking Barca is quite often wrapped up in the insistence on favoring one style of play over another. If you didn’t despair at Barca’s defeat against Inter, or rejoice at their victory over Chelsea, the accusation went, you weren’t a fan of “the beautiful game,” you favored brute force over silky passing, etc. But there isn’t one right way to play the game, and there isn’t any club that can claim to represent a “right way” to play the game, and to make such a claim I think smacks of a limited view of what the sport can be. The video clips of Pele last week didn’t show us one type of player – they showed a complete player, who could be powerful in a moment and elegant in the next. That completeness, and the battles between different interpretations of it, make soccer such an engrossing sport, and to claim that Barca’s way is the right way is, in my humble opinion, wildly missing the point of the game.
Interesting that most people seem to think “més que un club” is a claim of moral superiority versus the rest of contemporary football. I’ve always taken it to refer to the club’s role in Catalan history and culture, not the transfer market.
@Brian Phillips That’s what I always assumed “més que un club” referred to, the connection with Catalan pride/history/independence. So ostensibly, there is a moral superiority there, for Catalans at least, but I just assumed that sense evaded most folks, cos they’re not Catalan? I’m sympathetic to that, being Korean-American, so you know, being invaded, denied your culture and language for many years–might give you a chip in your shoulder. I just think it’s hard to believe that means anything when they don’t have requirements for lineage, like Athletic Bilbao has. Although Bilbao has loosened their requirements, albeit v. recently, for Llorente and Javi Martinez. I recall someone saying that Bilbao went so far as to put out feelers for Higuain. I’d like to see them connect the Argentine to the Pais Vasco. So it goes back to wanting to win, even for Bilbao.
I will admit, that I am a fan of Barca and v. new to football, but I am seeing all sorts of conclusions with no connections. Eric seems to indicate that internationally, Barca now has this reputation for political liberalism and altruism, and I won’t say that Barca did not wish to imply a vague sort good-will, but do they really have such a reputation? They’re a professional football club, anyone silly enough to think they are not trying to win and make money deserves to fall for that sort of dupe.
North American fans are being swayed? One link was given to a Canadian blogger, who seems to have not had much love for Barca at any point. I think that might be stretching it,no? I somewhat disagree the point that N. Americans aren’t influenced by England, particularly in football. I think N. Americans are totally influenced by English media/football culture. Coverage in N. America is growing, but not nearly the same depth or knowledge/interest as in Europe or Latin America or Asia or the rest of the world. Which media is the most accessible for N. Americans? English language stuff, aka English media.
I tend to ignore all English media on La Liga unless I know the specific reporter speaks Spanish. Most Spanish language media fubars their info, how do can I expect someone who doesn’t even speak the language to get it remotely right? Personally, I think the English football media fears it is losing its dominance in European football, and they’re right. Slinging mud around won’t change it though. One day, someone is going to explain to me why the transfer market in football is so bloody insane. I still don’t get it.
Comparing Lebron James and the Miami Heat to Barca is just not right Barca has silver, after all, and that does make a difference, no?
Honestly, I think Barca has just become so dominant in the last 10 years, and we have short memories, so Barca has become merely distasteful superpower. Actually, as I write this, Barca reminds me of the Yankees. Although I also think it’s that dogged obsession with their particular style AND the academies, might make people fear that they seek to take over football indefinitely. But if you really want to make football more “fair”, then regulation of the league or say television rights might go a longer way to leveling the playing field than hating on Barcelona. Just saying!
I’ll try to make a couple of points. On your comparison of enmity toward Barcelona to LeBron’s move, I think you could make a better comparison to the 2000s New England Patriots Dynasty (Yes, it was a dynasty). It’s easy to make the “envy” argument, but I do believe that a lot of supporters of other clubs don’t have to be persuaded very much to dislike Barcelona FC. Like Brady, Harrison, and Bruschi, the Barcelona team plays well together and have succeeded an enviable amount the past few years. As a Chelsea supporter, I can honestly admit that I envy their trophies and their accomplishments in the same time that Uncle Roman has taken to build our current squad of potential world beaters.
After the crushing defeat on away goals at the hands of the Catalans at Stamford Bridge, it was hard not to dislike Barcelona, even if beforehand Messi was my favorite player in the world and caused me to root for his success in La Liga (He still is). I admire their football, but I despise their team. I despise what they did to my Chelsea. I’m sure United and Arsenal supporters feel the same way. It’s how I’ve felt as a Houston Texans fans about the Colts since the creation of the franchise. Envy.
Also, there might be a bit of anti-Spanish sentiment amongst North American soccer fans because of how the Spanish have seemed to stick their noses up at us in the last two contests we’ve had with them–a friendly and at the Confederations Cup. Although completely earned, they seemed to expect to walk all over us. Barcelona, along with Madrid, are the two main exporters of Spanish football to the world, and U.S. soccer fans might not appreciate the manner in which we were perceived to be received by the Spanish on the pitch. Just thoughts…
This sentiment creates a fertile ground for whatever anti-Barcelona jabs the English and American press might make about transfer policy or tapping up players. Personally, I love watching them play in La Liga. They bring me so much joy. They play like my dad taught me how to play. I honestly feel Chelsea are heading in that direction, despite what many might think, but that’s what Unky Rommy wants from the squad.
Great article. 🙂
I don’t have much of a problem with Barca (aside from Laporta, who is gone, and Busquests). My problem is with Barca supporters, who definitely have bought into the “more than a club” hype. It’s the same problem that I have with Spain supporters–both groups think that since that they support a superior team that then they have a superior knowledge of football. This is rubbish. Part of it may come from being an Arsenal supporter, and all summer having to deal with all the nonsense about Cesc (not all the quotes were fakes, mind you, there are a few Arsenal bloggers who read the Spanish papers), and having to deal with all the nonsense from Barca supporters who basically claim Wenger was parked outside the Camp Nou in a black van with a bag of candy, luring in a young Cesc. Nonsense. It was an ordinary transfer, but Wenger understood what he was doing, while the Spaniards (deal with it) saw Fabregas as just another puil, because they already had a few others like him.
So at the end of this I would to apologize to supporters of other English and British teams for Gooners who’ve at times been arrogant about our footballing intelligence, and I would lie to say that Fabregas is just as much an English player as a Spanish player. He passes wonderfully, but his drive towards the box is English.
@Brian Phillips While it’s true that the motto refers to the Catalonian background, and I’d assume most of this site’s discerning readership knows that, I think that the phrase “more than a club” also accurately describes the attitude of superiority that many of its partisans espouse/that many of its opponents dislike. Also, with Generalissimo Francisco Franco still dead for 35 years now*, Catalan identity, while still important, doesn’t have the day-to-day political implications it did in the past, and the international adoption of Barca has probably diluted the Catalan identity somewhat as well.
*Not often I get to combine soccer and Saturday Night Live references
@Brian Phillips Yes, “mes que un club” did originally mean no more than Barca’s ties to Catalan national identity and independence. There are probably those among the Catalan faithful to whom it still means no more than that. But the majority of Barca fans — and Barca itself — have expanded it to be the emblem of all of Barca’s proclaimed moral superiority. I think it’s because it is from “mes que un club” in its original sense — the (perceived) resistance to fascism and support for the morally right battle for Catalan identity — that Barca developed its desire to proclaim moral superiority in the first place. Do you really think Barca would put so much effort into its UNICEF-supporting, do-good image if it didn’t have three generations worth of belief that it was “fighting the good fight”? More than that, that it was the only one that was doing so?
(Equal credit for Barca developing its hero complex should be given to Real, of course, and its (perceived) subservience to fascism and support for the morally wrong battle for Spanish nationalism. Barca could not be a hero — in its own mind — without having a nemesis.)
I would also like to point out that if Rosell gets his way — and he’s certainly trying hard enough — Barca won’t have UNICEF on their shirts for much longer, they’ll have a normal kit sponsor with the oodles of cash that brings in. I’m kind of ambivalent about that, to be honest. On the one hand, the whole UNICEF thing is emblematic of Barca’s hypocrisy and therefore pisses me the [censored] off. On the other hand — football would be a considerably more boring place if Barca wasn’t busy being, well, Barca. I’d miss its hypocrisy if it admitted it was just like everyone else.
I agree with many of the comments about the perceived moral superiority of Barcelona, I’ve felt that too. My guess is that much of it comes from reading a few too many comments/ essays by Barcelona fans suggesting that not liking Barcelona is tantamount to not truly appreciating soccer. At the same time, something has changed. For example, last year I really wanted Barcelona to smash Madrid, this year I wouldn’t be upset if it went the other way around.
As a neutral when it comes to the Madrid/ Barcelona rivalry, my objective problem with both teams (the past two-three years anyway) is ultimately the same- that before even a ball is kicked, you already know that there is an extremely large chance that they will win their game. I can’t completely separate aesthetics from competition- if you already know who is going to win, no matter how wonderful the players are (and both do have some wonderful wonderful players), what’s the point of the game? True, there are occasional upsets, but those are rare. Perhaps I’m just a philistine, or hypocrite, as I will watch any Liverpool game, no matter how inevitable the outcome. More subjectively, my instinct is to cheer for the underdog, whose role Barcelona can no longer claim. I would guess that this is also a big component in the shift of many others’ attitudes towards Barcelona.
The problem of predictability is in no way unique to the Spanish league- I don’t watch many Chelsea or Man Utd matches for the same reason. But as others have already posted, you can’t just say you don’t like Barcelona the way you can easily declare your hatred for other big teams- it’s necessary to justify yourself as a true football fan.
@eriol11 “not all the quotes were fakes, mind you”
All non-normal, arrogant quotes – those who have fooled and angered the Arsenal fans – were fake.
All clubs have an identity, an heritage and even a symbolic meaning. This is not exclusive of Barcelona or even big clubs. Clubs were born 100 years ago under certain cultural circumstances and that context provided an identity which echoes even today.
Barcelona will always be a Catalunya symbol. Boca Juniors is the “people’s club”, symbolic of the day to day struggle of the common Argentinian. Even if Boca fans are not working class heroes any more, they still fill proud of the clubs origin and embrace the symbolism. Like Benfica being the perfect representation of Portuguese delusions of grandeur.
Why is it that this Barcelona cynicism is building up? Because of the Unicef endorsing-Nike partnership contradiction? Because they tried to steal away Fabregas from Arsenal? As if Arsenal doesn’t “steal” dozens of teenagers from European clubs every year. If we are looking for some kind of purity in football it’s the wrong place to look. The business part of it has generated to many new stakeholders.
If we start over-analysing the shady areas we will miss the best part, the only that matters: the ripple effect of what happens in the playing field, which resonates on the people watching and gives birth, simultaneously, to a series of emotions including hate or love if you are a supporter, or a sense of wonder being neutral.
I don’t like to shed too much light on idols (clubs or players), since their colours will not become brighter but fade.
Just to regurgitate my respect but declining interest in Barca – I loved the Dinho-E’to-Deco era of Barca because they played a UEFA style, first touch passing offensive system where you could never anticipate the movement of the players or the ball. The current Xavi-Pedro-Messi incarnation is almost too methodical – it reminds me of an NBA offense where the team spreads out, get’s a one on one, and tries to score one vs one. Granted, there is the occasional backdoor pass and pick-and-roll, but that’s the exception, not the rule.
‘Mes que un club’ as an expression of Catalan identity is not totally unproblematic, either: remember Espanyol’s banner during the derby in 06/07 (not sure if it was a one-off?): “Catalonia: more than a club.”
@Caleb Barcelona lists 26 different sponsors on their official site. They are so holy and pure
@Brian Phillips, people hate Barca because they are hypocrites. Sure they are not better or worse than other teams (Real for example) at bullying teams to get players, player acting on the pitch etc… It’s the overall sense that Barca people think they are actually better off the pitch and on the pitch than others.
Like how the Barca chairman said “Real always buy champions and we make them”. Then the next day he bought Ibra! Then they criticise Madrid for bullying teams to get a player (Ronaldo) and then do it themselves. Much worse is the man who does the same wrong and yet thinks he is not better than the rest. Better they are not.
@Jan It’s not about the quotes. It’s about them criticizing other teams for buying players and splashing money and then they go and do it themselves. My team is Real and I know that they are arrogant and act like a big bully. At least they don’t try and pretend something they are not. Barca certainly does.
Even Ronaldo of all people (with egos) always says “such and such guys are not Madrid players so I won’t comment on them”. Now, call him what you will but at least he’s a professional. Unlike Messi and others.
@Andre
If this were truly the case couldn’t every club be indicted of the same. Each club has it’s own spin on it’s identity. At the end of the day these are global businesses in a huge global capital system. Yet to to not think that for many of the supporters the identity is actually meaningful also negates the meaning which is attached to that relationship. It’s somewhat simplistic to think of Barca’s motto outside of that scope where meanings are multiple for different folks. Certainly Barca can be hated, loved, etc… but lets be clear it’s symptomatic of the rivalry of sports, and to be sure, the perceived brilliance of Barca’s football that has been interestingly enough not tied necessarily to winning a title, i.e. the Champion’s League.
As a Barca fan, I found in myself a growing feeling of distaste over the course of the summer at club I support. I had to figure if it was the coverage or actual actions. As an American fan, we’re have less of the full force obsessions of the UK tabloid, but frankly, still compelled by their plotlines (and are Spanish papers better, by the by? I mean this question honestly, I don’t have the impression that the Spanish papers are that much more trustworthy)–but the big thing was the shirt hijinks. All that said, I feel like I’ll end up repeating Caleb way up top, but yeah, giving up some money is a big deal. And perhaps its pure luck to have a more vital and viable domestic league, but its not like their academy is turning into the Ajax one. The players don’t need to play for free for me to recognize the difference in policy in that, even if that difference is pr. I might be wrong, but then again, that’s a warm squishy feeling I don’t necessarily want to lose. I assume this is how an Apple fan sometimes feels, and now I do think Barca’s probably pulling one over me. That said, it feels like there’s an element of folks working themselves up to an extra lather, not just envying the team for success, but also pumping it up to have something to rail against. I actually kind of hit that point when Mascherano was compared to the best holding midfielder in the world, since I’m not sure anyone thought that before or really does even now, except in these sort of conversations.
Hmm, I have a feeling that I’ve sounded like one of the fans that creates the ire in others, my main thing is, “hate” just seems strong over transfer story shenanigans, no? Can’t we all just hate Man City instead?
As much as I despise Barcelona because I am a Real Madrid and Arsenal fan, I have to agree that I do not think they’ve done anything wrong. In fact I have great respect for the good number of players they have on the first team that are products of their own youth academy, and an even more impressive number of domestic players. It is not a coincidence that so many players in Barcelona played for the world champions Spain. I think that is highly admirable and instead of antagonizing them, we need to learn from their success, obviously no matter how much money clubs have it is not enough. Real Madrid, Chelsea, and now Manchester City are prime examples. I’m not defending Barca, because I have a healthy hatred for them just based on my loyalty to teams I support. I just agree with this article in the sense that I have never though they were any more “pure” nor do I think they should be held to a higher standard. They are just like any other soccer club, but they’ve succeeded because they have a strong core of domestic and Barcelona-trained players to supplement their foreign signings. Even aside from the fact that Spain just happens to be currently the best team in the world, the benefits of having many domestic players is obvious: they play together more often and practice together more often, their styles of play are more likely to be in-sync with one another, and they are more likely to get along off the pitch as well. Soccer is a team sport after all, anything that builds better chemistry between players will be more valuable and effective than throwing millions on individuals. As much as I would like to hate them for their transfers, I can’t because the truth is that all the tops clubs buy the best players, it doesn’t translate into success. Meanwhile, I suspect other clubs have caught on, because for example, Chelsea seems to collect players who are either French or African or both, everyone at Inter Milan (besides Eto’o and Sneijder) are Argentinian or Brazilian, most of Manchester United’s current and past players are British (English, Irish, or Welsh) the rest are usually Portuguese speaking (from Portugal or Brazilian) … you get the idea, but all three of those clubs have been relatively successful in the recent past. I don’t think it is a coincidence. The author of the book “Soccernomics” (I highly recommend it) doesn’t think so either, the happiness of a player has a lot of do with his ability to adapt to the place he’s is living in and his relationship with his teammates and his happiness has a lot to do with performance. (the book calls it relocation) Barcelona just so happens to have perfected the strategy, even their new talents are domestic, Bojan, Pedro, Busquets, Jeffren…. it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Barcelona has been successful and will continue to be for a long time.
Surely the whole discussion can reduced to the old chestnut: “Who cares what they’re saying as long as they’re talking about us?” And for the last couple of years Barcelona has been at least the subtext and often the head-on topic of pretty much all discussion of tpday’s game, where it’s going and What It All Could Possibly Mean.
Barcelona is the Dutch-driven AC Milan, the Reggie Jackson Yankees, or the Jordan/Pippen Bulls for the new decade if not much longer. It matters very little whether we love them or hate them; they’re the Elefant Blau in the room.
The World Cup was won by a team composed of half a dozen or more of them. The best player in the world – by a chalk so long the line of blackboards stretches halfway to Jupiter – isn’t even more the club mascot than Raúl was at the Bernabéu. Not only that, but three of the five leading candidates for this year’s Ballon d’Or/FIFA World Player Award aren’t just on their books, they’ve been Barça boys since they were 13 years old.
But there is one huge, all-engulfing flaw that we cannot afford to ignore. That yellow on the collar of this year’s shirt really isn’t working for me.
@Archie_V That’s it. It’s the yellow. This is the first explanation that makes total sense to me.
Barcelona play with a wonderful flowing style, and they have a top notch youth academy. This however, doesn’t mean it’s okay to act snooty about all things football making everyone who’s not a Barca fan first hope that Real Madrid knocks them on their arses this year. They act like Arsenal…however much more flagrantly. This is why I support a team like Manchester United…hated as they are…they know what they are, they’re a business, yet they demand and GET results as well. There is no air of them looking down on anyone save their main rivals and they do what needs to be done. Being clinical and efficient are two characteristics that make German cars some of the best in the world…United employs these tactics as well. And people hate them…but only because they win, not because they act like Frenchmen visiting a middle-of-nowhere town in America.
Great to see the FD-RoP crossover! Unfortunately, now my fan-fiction has been rendered moot.
So FC Barcelona has been around since 1899 and a couple of seasons they want to go after some players and they become most hated? please give me a break even Jesus went and visited with the whores from time to time, so why cant Barca visit with whores every now and then as well, are they great than the son of God and cant screw up? Barcelona cannot be put in the same Category as Real Madrid, name another team that gives money to their Sponsor on their chest? when Barcelona donates money to UNICEF. No one is as beautiful as Barca!! Mes Que Un Club Todos Los Dias!!!
@Hector Freeman Agreed.
It’s rather naive (and even fickle) to decide you hate an entire organization based on its current operations. I feel like 5 years ago this piece would be “On Hating Madrid” because Barcelona weren’t clearly the best team in the world. But that’s what happens. They’re an easy target. They strive for perfection.
Not surprisingly, they do not attain it because sustainable perfection in football is impossible. Go to the Nou Camp before you make ridiculous statements like “Barcelona no longer honorably plays the beautiful game.” If you don’t think Xavi and Iniesta want to be playing football, passing the ball intricately and finding little openings and continuing to win trophies for the clubs they have been a part of forever, then I don’t know what to tell you. The style is not forced upon them, the style IS them. Sure, maybe they’re in an existential crisis because they’ve realized they won the world cup thanks to values instilled by the Blaugrana, but that’s not the argument you’re making. The style of Barça in these players is not forced, it is intrinsic. John Locke will back me up on that…
It’s also surprising to attack Barcelona for their lack of a profitable sponsor. There’s no way for Barcelona to win this argument. If they got a bwin-esque sponsor then they’ll be hated even more for going against tradition and for money an absurd amount of money. Looking for actions of a certain moral standard within a public entity is a natural thing to do because it is so apparent. You can hate Barca for attracting non-profit oriented, liberal fans over the past few years for teaming up with UNICEF? But really, what’s the point? There’s value in the space on a football shirt, why leave it blank?
(By the way, I wrote much more but for some reason it all got deleted. So this will have to suffice)
So from the comments it seems hating Barcelona is more about hating some of the grandiose rhetoric around Barcelona from say Laporta, Cryuff, Foer. It’s certainly understandable that fans of other clubs and neutrals would find that grating: big heads are always annoying and twice as much when they’re winning.
I’d like to offer to the haters that the over the top, “world revolves around the moral action of FCB” narrative is the least interesting and meaningful part of the “Mes Que Un Club” concept. FCB is a big club swimming in the same moral relativism as all big clubs, no doubt. But you must admit that within that relative way of conducting business, FCB has made certain choices that stand out from other clubs, and maybe therefore define the club, if only relatively.
Tactics, which are probably the most defining concept for the club. FCB plays one holding midfielder, wingers further advanced, with a high line and pressing high up the field, and a focus on retaining possession. That’s really not all that different from most big clubs. One less holding midfielder, and described as 4-3-3 instead of 4-2-3-1 in most tactical analysis. Still, FCB’s insistence on this mostly relative difference, and the attacking mindset that results, is a genuine distinction from other big clubs.
Viewed from a larger lens, like football history or a sports writer’s cynicism about all things modern in football, it might not make a difference. But for a neutral watching from America, it makes the club “Mes”.
Very interesting piece. As a new observer to European football (and an American, at that), as well as a new Barcelona fan, all the sentiments expressed in Mr. Freeman’s essay and the following comments make even more convoluted an already complex series of components to consider in fandom.
I watched the World Cup, followed the high profile players and teams, which lead me to Barcelona and YouTube compilations. Fundamentally, I find Barcelona to be the most entertaining to watch. They look like they have more fun than the other team. Now I read that there is also an “attitude” to the team (or club) that may or may not be hypocritical, and thus distasteful; a moral component to be considered in one’s appreciation of the spectacle. This, coupled with the stock exchange floor-style transfer season, the multiple league competitions, the Cups that sometimes have no actual bearing on seasonal accomplishments, as well as the advanced football fan’s understandings of strategy and tactics have all left me in the dust. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy it all, but it’s a lot to swallow and try to comprehend all at once. It’s just so different than the sports scene, of any sport, on this side.
Seriously? Is this a question of ethical hypocrisy, that “more than a club” be subjected to such dissection? Or is the increasing dislike for Barca simply a natural outgrowth of a big, strong club, grown increasingly notable (perhaps overweening) in its play, fostering resentment and a redirection of sentiment to other clubs? I recall feeling similarly towards (as has been mentioned) the Yankees, Bulls, Lakers, and Cowboys in years gone by. Is this the same phenomenon, or is this yet ANOTHER aspect of European football that I need to process, in my neophyte fanhood state?
Without being a Barcelona fan I’ve spent the better part of 30 years following their results. I like them, and have liked their style of play and ethos. There’s still much to like about them. I rooted heavily for them last season.
Now I detest Barcelona almost as much as I detest a team like Chelsea that I do have history with. Their pursuit of Fabregas did it for me. Too many reasons to be angry with how that was done. For me as an Arsenal fan it was unacceptable. Arrogance, deception, disrespect, manipulation. What got me was that they didnt really want the player: If they did, they’d have signed him. It was tedious, it was toying with the player, with the team that needed him, with the fans that love him.
I thought it was as badly as I’ve seen any club behave. The difference is that they’ve been at it now for 4 summers.
@Ole Gunner: Word.
Despite being a Barcelona fan, I enjoyed the piece and some of its sentiments. But I do have to reiterate what some of the comments posted have already said regarding some of the arguments used:
– on Barcelona being a super-team now in a manner that’s qualitatively different from two years ago: if you mean their players are valued more highly as a result of winning a Champions’ League and a World Cup? Sure. But the team two years ago – during their treble season – was already a super-team. Eto’o was as accomplished a goalscorer as Villa is today. Henry was still highly productive and certainly higher-profile than Pedro is now. Key defenders – Puyol, Abidal, Marquez – were younger and better, Toure had a superb season and would to most people have seemed superior to what Busquets is today (though this may change). If you liked them then, it isn’t fair to say that a step up in talent has anything to do with how you view them now. Unless you just don’t like the bandwagon that’s developed around the club post-UCL and -World Cup success, which is a different issue…
– the shirt sponsorship: I’m sorry, but this does seem absurd. They’re giving up approximately 25-30 million USD a year by letting UNICEF use the spot on their shirt (plus what they donate). This isn’t chump change, and we don’t get to wish it away by saying they also care about their Nike sponsorship. We may not like (I don’t) everything the ‘More than a Club’ entails – abrasive Catalan nationalism under Laporta, for example – but it’s hard to argue that their attitude is not fundamentally different from other top European clubs.
– on their use of homegrown players: several people have pointed this out, but there is no other top club in Europe that does this successfully any more. The drop-off of Ajaz shows just how hard this is to pull off as the market for players gets more expensive and mobile. Could they be more like Athletic Bilbao? I suppose. But that doesn’t seem to be the relevant comparison…
@Ole Gunner Barça’s “unethical pursuit” of Fábregas should be taken in context. He’s from Barcelona. All his family and closest friends and family live there (his best mate is Gerard Piqué) and every time he has a couple of days off he gets straight on a plane with a bag of dirty washing to savour some home cookin’.
Put it this way. If, way back in the day, Charlie George had gone abroad as a teenager and then, aged 24, decided it was time to go back home to Arsenal, the club he’d supported since he was a kid, would you have insisted that even so, come what may, he was bound to honour his current contract with Dynamo Badfood or Homesique Lyonnais until its very last day? Thought not.
Cesc Fàbregas is 24 years old, a World Cup winner, and the captain of a major club. The problem is that for longer than he cares to remember, it’s arguably been the most consistently underperforming major club in Europe. And, just like every other footballer in the top flight, he wants to win stuff with his club, not just with his country. Is he sure it’s going to happen if he stays put? No. It’s time to go home.
Barça’s response? “Great. We want you but, especially as we’re under a new administration, we’re not prepared to pay silly money for you. Make some noise, bleat a bit, and we’ll make a token offer that’ll obviously be rejected. Then, next summer, when another year of your contract has been amortised and your price will be more reasonable, that No. 4 shirt – the one Guardiola used to wear that – is yours. Arsène Wenger gets a full season to figure out how he’s going to replace you. Oh, and we’ll say no to Mesut Özil and Javier Pastore to keep the path clear for your eventual arrival. Everybody happy.”
Except they weren’t happy, solely because of a bunch of wholly invented statements that appeared day after day on the back pages of the redtops, purportedly from Barcelona staff and players on their high horse about Arsenal’s “moral obligation” to release poor Cesc from his tormented life in exile. The hacks just made the quotes up.* In truth, almost all the genuine statements saying that Fábregas’s move to Barcelona was “bound to happen sooner or later” came from one source and one source only: Fàbregas himself. In other, more vernacular, words: the lad tapped himself up.
[* And they continue to do so, a high point being a recent exclusive “interview” with Leo Messi about the strengths and weaknesses of newly promoted Newcastle United.]
Judging by the reaction after the Inter game – a general yee-ha! to see Barca taken down so efficiently – this has been building for some time, and in my view is a simple reaction to constantly being told by the media that Barcelona are the only team who play the game the ‘right’ way and therefore should be worshipped by the rest of us. People don’t like being told what to do, and can appreciate Barca’s style of football without wanting them to win every time.
They are also happy to see other types of football prevail, especially when the perceived underdog (as Inter were) come out on top. And this is key – Barca have played the plucky underdog card for too long and it’s always been bullshit and doesn’t wash now.
(Also Mourinho has a sense of humour, which is something sorely lacking from Barcelona and the people who seem to support them (often from afar) and believe football has something to do with morals, which it clearly doesn’t and shouldn’t.)
This is before you even factor in the fact that their players cheat just as much as any other team – hell, they cheated their way to a Champions League trophy two years ago – but act as if they are pure and above all that, more than a club, more than the rest of us.
Arsenal are the same. Amirable in so many ways, but smug and hypocritical with it.
@Brian Phillips Thank you.
@Richard Whittall I’ve not read the article which you are referring to, do you have a link? I realise you aren’t necessarily agreeing with the point, but I think who ever claims that supporting Barcelona is the only club for a new-comer left doesn’t really know much about football cultures. Particularly since St Pauli would win that competition hands down. I suppose I can see the premise of the argument. Whilst still owned by the fans there is a beauty in the way Barcelona do things. They also happen to be one of the biggest clubs in the world. It would seem some would prefer teams that hold on to some idealism be rubbish and not make money. You can’t have it both ways.
Are Barca management as big condescending a-holes as their fans?
Probably.
Does that make anyone want to see them play on TV LESS?
I dont think so.
When you work 50hrs a wk, lug kids to soccer, you have very little free time so the MOST important thing is … TO BE ENTERTAINED.
Will it be Southfartworth? Or any of the teams starting with B that the EPL spits out yearly?
Not that anyone really thinks the S teams like Stoke and Sunderland as entertaining. (apart from the Delap freak show)
No, you will see if Barca is playing at the moment.
Why? Because they will entertain.
You dont have to like them personally just like you dont have to like Lord Mourinho and Crissy Ronaldo but should be able to appreciate what they do.
Success breeds hate and jealousy, that is no surprise.
But to stop wathcing Barca play because management or players are douchebags is stupid because lets face it… many players, managers and club officials are world class a-holes.
As a matter of fact, many of the greatest players who ever lived were big ones but it never matters AS LONG AS THEY PRODUCE ON THE FIELD,….
And entertain us.
Its quite simple really.
We hate them because they’re so fucking good.
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