Ah — it’s, uh, been a while. For the uninitiated, El Banquillo is a set of posts from Barcelona Football Blog’s deep past that were based on an old Jon Bois thing called The Dugout, which is literally the only good thing to ever come out of baseball. There were originally 8 El Banquillo posts… Continue reading El Banquillo 9: Team Talk

I had meant to write a preview of the Espanyol match. I planned it out in my head, mentally prepared myself to write about Ivan de la Peña and the pain of losing that match, way back in 2009. I watched it with a bunch of friends and it turned from a joyous outing where… Continue reading The Edge of Europe: Barça vs Napoli

When I came to Barcelona on the heels of that legendary Rivaldo chilena, it was an amazing time. I didn’t know what to think but knew I wanted to be part of it, to feel that emotion, that explosion. Even as I barely knew what “making Europe” meant. That the FC Barcelona president at that… Continue reading Hello Spotify, farewell illusion, aka “What can we sell next?”

Michael Corleone could well have been describing the situation we find ourselves in now with Barça and Ousmane Dembele with the famous line, “Just when I thought I was out … they pull me back in.” When my fingers last touched keyboard on this matter, it was with the assumption that the player was gone.… Continue reading Dembele is back, even as he never left, and the games — all of them — continue

A really insightful Tweet by a quality journo, Lee Roden, got me to thinking about athletes, life and the work/life divide. It was about Dembele, and how little we know about him. I remember mentioning something casually about my second wife in a work context. The colleague to whom I was speaking said, “Wait. I… Continue reading Footballers, celebrites and mind your own business

Let’s be clear about my views on Adama Traore rejoining FC Barcelona: Not a fan. He wasn’t good enough the first time, nor is my confidence that he will be good enough this time in anything like fine fettle. I also think that the player that he is replacing, one Ousmane Dembele, is exponentially more… Continue reading Welcome, Adama Traore, aka “Mr. Excitement”

That’s it for Ousmane Dembele, a player who arrived with so much promise, and leaves with that promise unfulfilled, talent that flashes like a beacon rending the night sky until it splutters into darkness, leaving everyone frustrated at the return of the night. FC Barcelona, in effect, did what had been being threatened all along… Continue reading Farewell, Ousmane Dembele, we hardly knew ye

What are you worth? What is your value? How susceptible to marketing trickery are you? Now how do you feel about players as they negotiate with the club that you support? Four seemingly unrelated questions are all intertwined in the wild, tribal, megamillions world of money that isn’t ours. In a famous line from the… Continue reading Worth and value, marketing and money … and players

Ages ago now, during a tennis player’s epic choke against Steffi Graf, as she turned a one set up, 5-3 in the second set and 15-40 on match point into a three-set defeat, one of the commentators said, with more than a bit of sadness in his voice, “She’s done.” Sure enough, that player was… Continue reading Flinching, failure and when veterans stop being leaders

We’re 15 or 16 matches into the La Liga season, depending on the team, and this is where the wheat has historically already separated itself from the chaff: the big clubs are on top, the wannabe newcomers or surprising starters are fading. Who can match the spending, the power, the ref-baiting decisions of the major… Continue reading Betis, Legends, and Dembele