Village Idiot

Must say I was secretly rooting for Xavi, a Spanish player hasn't won this since Luís Suárez in the 1960s. Maybe if we go all the way in the World Cup...

Talk about a surprise. Anyway, here's the full list, utterly predictable in its first spots: 1 MESSI (473) 2 C. Ronaldo (233) 3 Xavi (170) 4 Iniesta (149) 5 Etoo (75) 6 Kaká (58) 7 Ibrahimovic (50) 8 Rooney (35) 9 Drogba (33) 10 Gerrard (32) 11 F. Torres (22) 12 Cesc (13) 13 Dzeko (12) 14 Giggs (11) 15 Henry (9) 16 Casillas, Luis Fabiano y Vidic (8) 19 Forlán (7) 20 Gourcouff (6) 21 Arshavin, Julio César y Lampard (5) 24 Maicon (4) 25 Diego (3) 26 Terry y Villa (2) 28 Ribéry y Yaya Touré (1)

It is true he use to say " I was the best paid scout in the world" Bobby did really well but after Cruiff he is very hard to follow. Nunns the chairman at the time get lots of abuse from cruiff lover media and when Van Gaal is available at the time the world best Manager because of his AJAX team he snapped him up. Bobby also decline a chance to manage us just after Keegan left that year by staying true to his contract. I always ask my self what would happen had Bobby followed Keegan.... That's the gist of it really. He was guilty of not being Cruyff. Most of the press and lot of the fans (not all by a long shot, though), were pretty pissed at the way he was fired and attacked Nuñez through his new manager. I have to say that I wasn't in love with his football style, but the results were there and he signed Ronaldo afterall. But he always took it very gentlemanly, and only was guilty of landing in Barça's bench at a bad time. Will add that president Nuñez was a long time admirer of Robson and had tried several times to have him on our bench, but always found the same response: Robson always honours his contracts (Terry Venables came to Barça in 1984 under Robson's recommendation, for example).

One question, all of you lot that have read his bio. What does he say about his times in Barcelona? I had a conversation/argument this morning with another Barça fan about how he was treated in his time here, and really wanted to know what the man himself thought of us. Barça TV aired an interview with him last week, recorded last year, have to see if I can get hold of it when I go to Spain this Christmas.

It's a shame I'm just about too young to remember them days, would have been great. I doubt we're gonna get back there again any time soon. The way the game is now we'd need a shitload of cash and even then it wouldn't really be the same. To be honest, not sure how the current cash madness is sustainable mid or long term. I think you'll have a shot if you get good ownership.

Honestly, you were damn f***ing sexy in 1995-1996, while I had to put up with Eskurza, Sánchez Jara, Kodro, Popescu, Jordi Cruyff... Cruyff totally lost the plot in his late years. He was undermined by the board, though. You'll get there again. The relegation will hopefully be a purging experience and allow you a blank slate after the instability of these past years (need to get sold, too).

to think: in the beginning of this decade we could've gone on their forums and they would have been jealous of us. Fortunes change quickly. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/n/newcastle_united/2050221.stm Dodged a bullet I think. He was never the same after the 2002 WC. But yeah, I won't pretend being a Barça fan isn't pretty swell... the early 2000s are considered the lowest point in our recent history, and the lowest we did was finish 6th... You were better in your two title challenges under Keegan, though.

That's probably true. But he doesn't have Ronaldo's strength, sadly.

The one where he actually only take on two players ? Messi and Ronaldinho have scored better goals than that in recent seasons for barca. But he is pulled by the shirt, unstabilised, loses shooting angle... and every time he gets on with the ball, starts again and makes the best of it to get the goal. I loved that drive he had. Messi and Ronaldinho would have given up.

Rivaldo is one of the most brilliant players I have ever seen in a Barça shirt, I think he is highly rated amongst us and the hattrick against Valencia probably one of the finest single moments for a Barça player. That last bicycle kick goal put us in the CL in a very bad season. The way he left probably let a bit of a sour taste, but it wasn't as much his fault as the board's or Van Gaal. I always rated him higher than Ronaldinho, for example. He was a much clever player on the pitch, and not really less gifted. I think the lack of continental silverware is what holds him back from being recognized as one of the greats of the last 10-20 years.

Ruud Gullit, the most stirling example of how a world class player can be a shitbag manager. They "love" him in Los Angeles, too.

I rate the one against Valencia (the hat-trick game) just as good as he was playing against better opposition. I say one but he scored two peaches in that game. Or the one against Deportivo when he was on the floor and got up and nicked the ball away from the defender. Bobby Robson's reaction to that Compostela goal was brilliant like. On retrospective we kinda came out fine. But for long time I thought that losing Ronaldo would have been one of the biggest turning points in our recent history. The things we could have done with a Ronaldo in his prime and the squad we had in the mid-late 1990s (Figo, Rivaldo, Luís Enrique... might not have signed Rivaldo with Ronaldo on the team though), not sure who could have stopped us.

40‽‽‽ This is ridiculous Tbf though, I can't blame anyone for being fooled by my wise words. Well, we were talking the other day about the Nigeria-Spain game in 1998, and I thought you would be of at least my age to remember that... so you were like 8? Mind, I have fresh memories of some games from when I was that age too! (the European Cup final against Steaua )

I thought Baba was 40 at least

Just go and look for the goal he scored for Barcelona against Compostela. One of the best ones I have ever seen scored by a Barça shirt. He just makes the whole thing by himself.

I'd say 1996-1999. Even though he was obviously brilliant in the 2002 World Cup he wasn't the same player as 3 years before. I agree with that. He was never as mobile and dynamic after his knee troubles.

After almost two years of crippling knee problems, Gabi Milito has today been released by the doctors and given the permission to train normally I hope he can get his career back on track, even if it's not with us.

Well, unless it happens to be France, it's not the 9th seeded team's fault (which would lose his seed) that Ireland got cheated on.

Chelsea will want another European Cup for them, too!

Where does the hype come from, though? Has he impressed in the reserves or youth teams? Honest question since I really don't know his trajectory. The two times I have seen him play he looked pretty confident and assured on the pitch, which is a big deal for a player his age, but he was a bit ineffectual (although both games were pretty scrappy so I can't really judge)

Give it time. When they win the CL, it'll be f***ing horrific. Honest question, are Barça fans as obnoxious? I can totally understand that we might be. People of my age grew up when Barça won the league once a decade, but the young'uns are pretty spoiled. I know I know, but for the supposed #2 team in the country that was rather poor! I understand it as a Yankee fan. God, I wish I cared enough about baseball just to be a Yankee fan.

Give it time. When they win the CL, it'll be f***ing horrific. Honest question, are Barça fans as obnoxious? I can totally understand that we might be. People of my age grew up when Barça won the league once a decade, but the young'uns are pretty spoiled. I know I know, but for the supposed #2 team in the country that was rather poor! We won the league twice from 1961-1989, and then 9 times from 1990-2009. Our upturn on fortunes is relatively recent. (we were pretty successful in the 1950s and before, though).

I just went to Marco Van Basten's own website to see if there were some public available videos to showcase how damn good he was, and found out that all the videos he hosted are from youtube and have already been taken down, one of them by Ajax of all people

Yeah remember him winning Champion's League with Madrid a couple of times once and also Euro 2000 with France...he also had 2 exceptional world cups...98 and 2006. Ronaldo? FYP That totals about 20 games, i'm convinced. Seriously though, each to their own. But goals win games and for almost 10 years Ronaldo was the best in the world at doing that. I'll be honest with you,I'd put Romario on a par with Ronaldo at the very least. Romario was more gifted than Ronaldo, but his work ethic let him down. And that's part of being a successful player too. Aye, Bobby's autobiography says that one best. He struggled to get Romario onto the training pitch and couldn't get Ronaldo off it. Mint quote. Sums it up perfectly. I still think he was never as good as he was before he did his knees.

Give it time. When they win the CL, it'll be f***ing horrific. Honest question, are Barça fans as obnoxious? I can totally understand that we might be. People of my age grew up when Barça won the league once a decade, but the young'uns are pretty spoiled.