Village Idiot

Yeah, he was always very vocal against the dictatorship, but he was a football superstar so the authorities had to grind their teeth. Of course that endeared us to him. The football too From that time on we mirrored us on the Oranje (Rinus Michels was our manager), hence our addiction to Dutch football players and our common orange away shirts.

Marañón, one of the surviving players from the "Barça de les 5 Copes" ("Barça of the five cups") of the 1950s, the team that was considered Barça's finest up until the treble season (when we won six). It's the squad that got the Camp Nou built (since people would flood our old stadium to see them play). Interesting, because I thought under the dictatorship Barca struggled to have a period of success. In the 1940s and from the 1960s onward, we did. But in the 1950s we were awesome man. We piped the 6 EC-conquering Madrid often to the domestic title (they defended the EC as holders), plus several Fairs Cups wins and other semi-official continental stuff. It's a foundational moment for our club, the days everybody looked back to until Cruyff came. Dad always was telling me stories of that team. Thing is on those years Spain received an influx of Hungarian players and managers fleeing from Communism, which mostly went to Real and Barça (Puskas, Czibor, Kocsis, Kubala...), they brought the "Magical Hungarians" football with them, which became a HUGE influence in Spanish football from then onwards (both Barça and Madrid were hugely successful home and abroad during these years). And feel free to ask, I love talking about Barcelona and football.

Yeah well aren't regal the current league and cup holders as well. It was an impressive win for them depsite not playing the Lakers 1st team. Are you a fan of all the teams coming under into this sporting club of Barcelona We tried it at Newcastle in the 90's, and it ended up not working although it has worked out for the BB team though. Actually, basketball is the only sport where I don't support FC Barcelona. My great-uncle was one of the founders of Joventut de Badalona (a town next to Barcelona). My mother thus supported them so I took my football tastes from dad, but my basketball tastes from mom. Sometimes it's weird since they are arch-rivals.

Marañón, one of the surviving players from the "Barça de les 5 Copes" ("Barça of the five cups") of the 1950s, the team that was considered Barça's finest up until the treble season (when we won six). It's the squad that got the Camp Nou built (since people would flood our old stadium to see them play).

It's the second sport in Spain. Light years behind football, but still very solid support. My bro works as a basketball journo.

At the beginning, yes. Spanish clubs started employing English players (mostly sailors or businessmen) since they were better, in order to get an edge in the first official tournaments. Bilbao's whole "only basques" comes from when Real Sociedad (arch-rivals) complained that they were using foreigners in one of the first Copa del Rey and forced Bilbao to expel them. Bilbao felt so slighted that they decided that they would never play a non-local again. The bitterness between those two is legendary

No problem. I've only got football questions to ask now apart from this, is their an American connection to Barcelona just so many american tourists there (I now know of the English Connection btw) There isn't a connection, it's just that it's a damn popular destination. Spain is the second most visited country in the world and Barcelona the most popular city in it. Gotta say Madrid is a damn fine place too. The English connection I suppose you mean the cross of Saint George? Aye Madrid is on my hitlist of places to go in the next couple of years. Fancy taking in an Atleti game. Shame my two favourite clubs in Spain (Atleti and Atheltic) play in the devils colours though. They took them from Southampton FC, no Sunderland relation so you can feel fine. Bilbao was founded by Mackem sailors though, or is someone telling me s*** Not exactly, they introduced the sport to the dudes that founded Bilbao. There were also Blackburn and Southampton dudes. But Bilbao was a club for the locals, since they used to play the English sailors that moored in the Bilbao port. See my Edit for what I've just read. So what is with the St George cross in the FCB logo btw? Saint George is the patron saint of Barcelona and by association of Catalonia. April 23rd is one of the biggest days of the year down here. Catalan soldiers used to scream "for Saint George!" before battle, etc... and we still do it at Camp Nou.

No problem. I've only got football questions to ask now apart from this, is their an American connection to Barcelona just so many american tourists there (I now know of the English Connection btw) There isn't a connection, it's just that it's a damn popular destination. Spain is the second most visited country in the world and Barcelona the most popular city in it. Gotta say Madrid is a damn fine place too. The English connection I suppose you mean the cross of Saint George? Aye Madrid is on my hitlist of places to go in the next couple of years. Fancy taking in an Atleti game. Shame my two favourite clubs in Spain (Atleti and Atheltic) play in the devils colours though. They took them from Southampton FC, no Sunderland relation so you can feel fine. Bilbao was founded by Mackem sailors though, or is someone telling me s*** Not exactly, they introduced the sport to the dudes that founded Bilbao. There were also Blackburn and Southampton sailors. But Bilbao was a club for the locals, since they used to play the English sailors that moored in the Bilbao port.

No problem. I've only got football questions to ask now apart from this, is their an American connection to Barcelona just so many american tourists there (I now know of the English Connection btw) There isn't a connection, it's just that it's a damn popular destination. Spain is the second most visited country in the world and Barcelona the most popular city in it. Gotta say Madrid is a damn fine place too. The English connection I suppose you mean the cross of Saint George? Aye Madrid is on my hitlist of places to go in the next couple of years. Fancy taking in an Atleti game. Shame my two favourite clubs in Spain (Atleti and Atheltic) play in the devils colours though. They took them from Southampton FC, no Sunderland relation so you can feel fine. Atlético used to be Athletic's B team so that's why they share name and colors.

Valencia is *fantastic* BUT I was there last week and found out their local government is forcing their bars and discos to close very early, which is a buzzkill unless you know some clandestine places.

No problem. I've only got football questions to ask now apart from this, is their an American connection to Barcelona just so many american tourists there (I now know of the English Connection btw) There isn't a connection, it's just that it's a damn popular destination. Spain is the second most visited country in the world and Barcelona the most popular city in it. Gotta say Madrid is a damn fine place too. The English connection I suppose you mean the cross of Saint George? Yes, but also we helped you fight in a war in 16th century when Catalunya was it's own state Unless someone has passed us the wrong information We were on the same side (enemy of my enemy...), but you hardly helped us. You did more in the War of Spanish Succession (the one where you got Gibraltar), although you ended pulling out. You also helped organize a rebellion against Spain during the Napoleonic wars, but that was stopped when France occupied Spain and the Peninsular War started. Thing is, England and Spain were enemies for centuries and we had a knack for siding with Spain's enemies in most wars

No problem. I've only got football questions to ask now apart from this, is their an American connection to Barcelona just so many american tourists there (I now know of the English Connection btw) There isn't a connection, it's just that it's a damn popular destination. Spain is the second most visited country in the world and Barcelona the most popular city in it. Gotta say Madrid is a damn fine place too. The English connection I suppose you mean the cross of Saint George?

That sucked. But the ball we'll go in eventually. Our treble season started in the same way, actually.

Also, I don't feel comfortable spamming the football board with politics, but I'll gladly talk about the issue on the non-football one.

Nationalism is on the rise due to several factors. The most important of all, though, is that it's one of our shitty politician's favorite scare tactics: "Spain is strangling us!" / "Catalans want to destroy the country". It's populist and it gives votes (sadly), so they just won't let it rest. And that happens for both sides of the argument. Saddest thing is that it clouds the real issues of unemployment, government waste, infrastructures, etc... Take the recent bullfighting ban, for example (which I supported). It was proposed by an Animal Rights Organization, but Catalan nationalists took it as a banner of their fight against "barbaric spanish customs", while Spanish nationalists parties took it as a Catalan affront to Spanish culture and freedoms. Almost every-f***ing-thing that happens down here is used and distorted by the Catalonia/Spain thing. They are even going to take and appeal the ban to the Strasbourg court as if it was a civil rights issue, FFS. It's f***ing tiresome. The depression has exacerbated nationalist sentiment, since nationalists blame Spain for it. Plus the Spanish Constitutional Court cut down our autonomy this summer which has pissed off a lot of people (me included and I'm not a nationalist). Thanks for the kind words about Barcelona. I personally love my city. It isn't perfect, of course (none is).

I'm Catalan but I'm not a nationalist. I consider myself leftist and don't mind transfer of wealth and don't consider myself to be tyrannized by the Spanish state or anything. But I'm Catalan. However, if due to our prosperity Catalans transfer wealth to poorer Spanish regions, I want the transfer to be sensible and I want that money used efficiently so these regions prosper. This is not happening. It's more of an issue of lack of accountability and government efficiency than anything else though (Madrid are badly screwed too, and they are running up higher debt than us). The Spanish administration is well, corrupt and wasteful. Separatist sentiment is on the rise lately, given a variety of factors. Still isn't a majority. And currently there isn't a party that agglutinates it so it's pretty spread amongst parties that can't stand each other.

Grassroots football could be affected if the Catalan FA truly went bankrupt, which is doubtful since only part of their budget comes from the Catalan government (the Spanish FA gives them most of their monies and they are stinking rich). Still some small semipro or amateur clubs which depend from public support could fold easily. All the pro clubs wouldn't be affected. Maybe they'll call in Espanyol's loans though

Yes, and it's one of the reasons secessionism is on the up around here, since we transfer a shitload of wealth to the rest of Spain and we can't even finance ourselves. And the Spanish Constitutional Court just cut our autonomy. Awesome. The guy in that forum is full of s*** though, despite what people believe we have one of the smallest regional governments in Spain (given to said transfer of wealth). And we have the lowest civil servant/population ratio of the whole country. Thoroughly agree on the shitiness of our politicians, though.

Can't remember, it's true that I remember watching some other game after it but for some reason that's the one that became engraved in my head.

I have a special place in my heart for a 2007-2008 Bolton-Fulham that ended 0-0. The entirety of the game could be summarized as this: 1) Fulham player gets a panic attack when crossing the midfield line and loses the ball. 2) Bolton player hoofs it. 3) Kevin Davies flicks to nobody. Rinse and repeat

The other two being...?

Gai Assulin has signed for City on a free. Yeah, that's the club to go for a young player...

Bigger losses than us, yay!

Not trying to paint our legal system as a lovey-dovey thing, far from that Just that remorse is a mitigating factor when sentencing. So in football the first thing players do (like Ufjalusi did), is very publicly apologise before the FA issues the ban.

9 times out of 10 he would fail to connect with the ball. Him and most players in this world, mind.