haha touche, but those CL under franco were not exactly played vs barca, outside spain, franco would have to deal with hitler and mussolini jeje So i guess real was the better team jeje and we had di stefano of course, that just helped a little.

“The behaviour of Samuel has been good and I’m very happy for that. Apart from the technical decisions that could be taken, I’m satisfied with the behaviour of Eto’o. The rest is the responsability of Txiki. Every team would like to have a motivated Eto’o in the squad. But some things happened so we have to make a serious analysis. We thought that selling some key players was the appropriate thing to do but in this world of football nothing is unchangeable. In the case of Eto’o, I don’t think his situation is irreversible. The technical staff will have to decide and the football arguments should prevail. The mental and physical recovery of the player will be decisive in the final decision.”

Won’t Eto’o be pissed that we publicly announced it? And is it Pep or Txiki behind the “force out Eto’o” move?

3 right??? barca 2 right… aahhhhhhhh

One of journalism’s golden rules is to place your words where the proof is, in which case Isaiah, is there any proof that R Madrid, Franco etc bought their way up? Yes Franco was a R Madrid fan (what can i say…the old man had good taste ; )) perhaps many players were detracted from signing other clubs, its definitely an urban legend, but in other more bold cases its been proven as Berlusconi’s AC Milan. R Madrid have recieved political help at times like when Madrid’s Major, Alberto Ruiz Gallardón bought its training facilities for an exagerated inflated price value. But in the end, its eleven vs eleven and the rest is pure excuses or jealousy, as much as i hated it back in the day, i praised barca’s display and superiority over the blancos.

Speaking of FC Barcelona as “Mes que un club” is shared among fans but the rest of us don’t see it that way. The beef started long before Franco, when the catalans allowed Napoleon to invade Spain (since they didnt want to pay taxes, and hence the infamous joke “who invented the copper thread?-two catalans trying to pull a coin from one another” ) and take over until the independence was reached in Madrid, the true definition of a rebellion against les blues and of course due to the courtesy of our left handed hermanos los catalans. Barcelona is without a doubt one of spain’s most modern and beautiful cities if not the most. Its art and architectural history embellishes a country that was ruled and permeated under the Arab rule for many centuries. In fact its more of a european city more than “spanish” since there is an ethnical district in each corner, well im exagerating but its quite closer to london.

The Franco excuse is not enough, believe me the whole country suffered under a dictatorship, but some like to play victims. The Nou camp was a symbolic venue to speak the language and discuss cultural trends but even people in madrid were not allowed to speak out their opinions, which leaves everyone in the same place only that the madrileños don’t have their own language.

Isaiah, your assessment that its wonderful to have enjoy a state with a different language and customs borders naiveness-no offense with all due respect- but its quite more intrinsically complicated. Its just as if a european who happens to swing by the States mentions that New York pays higher taxes and its forefathers were dutch for which the state should be independent from the rest, cut the tax retributions, establish a new language and we all of a sudden have the independent republic of New York. You’d even need a passport to travel. The catalans wouldn’t have it too easy to survive for their companies and goods are sold mainly in the peninsula iberica and in the least attempt to establish independence, the rest of the country would boicot its products.

Second important point to make is that there is an antispanish teaching crusade nowadays. Any family in the rest of the country cannot send their kids to barcelona for the “Generalitat” have banned spanish from schools. I even have met interntional students who asked their teachers if they could explain certain terms in spanish to which the infamous reply was “if you want to speak spanish, go to madrid”. The catalan state is the second to recieve most retributions (fair enough, they generate more money) yet they ban spanish from their educational centers. Great! a 4 square meter country in which you cannot even now speak your mother language, its important to remark its not optional but an obligation.

In the end, a person is biased towards their social atmosphere, im sure many catalans will share blind hate against madrid, the franco excuse will always be there until barca can reach madrid’s palmarés which we may not live to see. The way i see it, Madrid fights to consolidate a country (allowing different languages and customs but of course sharing one main idiom so we can all understand each other) those who claim barcelona’s independence are nationalist fundamentalists who dont get much love from the catalan voters, had it been the contrary, then we would experience a true line of separatism nowadays.

Anyways, there will always be an excuse for madrileños and catalans to despise one another in order to really enjoy the derbis, if not, then it would look like one of those NBA matches with those decaffeneited billboards (besides that i love the sport and the NBA)

http://www.earlboykins.blogspot.com/

It seems to be spreading all over the world now. Properly done, they are very smart.

And here’s something for you Xavi lovers:

http://www.newspagedesigner.com/users/2765/pases.jpg