Category: Uncategorized

Situation: You have a job. Your boss just bought a Ferrari, a posh new condominum and some new custom suits. He walks over to you, shooting the French cuffs on his perfectly fitted shirt, and says: “So, we’re having some difficulties. I know you’ve been overworked lately, and we need to hire someone to help… Continue reading FC Barcelona is a mess

Gulp. In thinking of a single-word depiction of feelings entering this new football season that kicks off Saturday against Rayo Vallecano, that simple word comes to mind. Apprehension, nervousness, risk and excitement exist in equal measures as Barça laces up the boots for real this time. We know about the levers, so many levers, all… Continue reading Season preview, aka ‘All the levers for all the marbles’

Barcelona is a city of high art and higher aspirations. From the Dalí’s surrealism to the curved windows of Casa Batlló, there is an adherence to transcendent artistic expression, physical beauty, and a sense of timeless grandeur while in the towering spires of La Sagrada Familia, there remains the push to become ever more, reach… Continue reading The Rebirth of Laportisme

Riqui Puig was magic. People who followed Masia talents spoke of him in the hushed tones that accompany unbelievable things. His talent was otherworldly, grace and skill on the ball, the ability to drive a team’s attack to good things. Watching him with Barça B certainly presaged a great future. They were a different team… Continue reading The cautionary tale of Riqui Puig

The new pre-season sport is speculating about the finances of FC Barcelona. There are endless arguments, pooh-poohing of other people, even those not named Winnie. Lines are drawn, battlements mounted and at the end of it all, the essential reality is that everybody is right. Why? Because nobody knows the truth. Well, except Laporta and… Continue reading Barcelona, finances and everybody’s right

The FC Barcelona money gr … pre-season was a rousing success. The club stuffed dosh into its coffers, players got a chance to tour the U.S., act like and meet celebrities, and have public, televised training sessions against other teams. And most crucially, no injuries. As we enter the prelude to the regular season, with… Continue reading Barça pre-seaon is over, but questions remain

The only people not surprised by how FC Barcelona is managing the Frenkie De Jong situation are people not familiar with the club and how it operates. Board after board is the same way when it comes to money and how the club treats players that it wants to leave, even as the situations vary.… Continue reading Frenkie De Jong vs FC Human relations

It’s been fascinating to watch the feeding frenzy resulting in a Tweet from New York Times journalist Tariq Panja about the FC Barcelona governance model. In that Tweet, Panja said “Under this model successive presidents are able to make financial decisions without any personal consequences.” This isn’t wrong. What happened is that wagons were circled,… Continue reading Barça, tribalism, ‘truth’ and reality

We’re a week away from being rid of a complex, frustrating talent amid a complex, frustrating debate about a complex, frustrating time at a complex, frustrating football club. And it’s hard not to count the days. Two very interesting tidbits have come out that both make perfect sense, in recent days. In the first, a… Continue reading Ousmane Dembele and common sense

Just as with most of the season, Barça wasn’t good enough against Villarreal, who strolled to a win thanks to the exact same things that have plagued this blaugrana side for the entirety of the season — well thing, to be more precise: It isn’t good enough. Truth is that the team hasn’t been good… Continue reading Barça 0, Villarreal 2, aka ‘Kicking the corpse’