General football musings

[Groot]

Is that from somewhere or just your opinion Lawson?

[Roger H. Sterling]

This side reminds me a lot of the 1992 Dream Team, the first Barca side to win the European Cup. That was the second European Cup Final I'd ever seen (GA will remember it for sadly different reasons); Barca had all these fabulous individuals strutting their stuff under chain-smoking Johan Cruyff. Zubizaretta (who I bet Franko remembers well) in goal; Koeman sweeping up at the back and winning the match with a bullet of a free kick; Pep as holding midfielder; Laudrup and the magnificently moody Stoichkov further forward.

But - like this team - it wasn't flawless. It wasn't some impossible to beat machine. It was far more human than the 2009-11 side. When Guardiola's side's play narrowed, they were like some footballing version of knitting. Passing it around from side to side like a woman frantically packing and re-packing an overnight bag. Not now; it's far more satisfying to watch.


A few things:

1. Real Madrid, Manchester City and Chelsea all get slagged off because, no matter how much they spend, the first two can't build a proper club or a proper team; while Chelsea play football like the Death Star. Sure, they win things - but long term dominance requires much, much more. In that Barca '92 side were both Guardiola and Txiki Begiristain, who went on to become their Sporting Director and is now at City. Maintaining those links from past to present is what Bayern Munich also do brilliantly - and is where hope lies in Zidane getting the Madrid job now.

Don't usually mind your prose, Shaun, but those are some awful similes.

[Sterling Archer]

Whys it a woman packing an overnight bag #everydaysexism

[shaun.lawson]

Is that from somewhere or just your opinion Lawson?

Opinion. I was bored. So I decided to bore you lot instead.

[Roger H. Sterling]

Whys it a woman packing an overnight bag #everydaysexism

And why is she doing it repeatedly, frantically, in a side to side fashion?

[Drederick Shanktum]

Translation: you don't have a response to any of it.

No my response was it was romantic pish. It is and will always be romantic pish.

[shaun.lawson]

And why is she doing it repeatedly, frantically, in a side to side fashion?

Because that's what declining Barca - or to be more accurate, gently declining Spain - did. Side to side, round and round, ever decreasing circles, somehow frenetic and tedious all at the same time. "Don't let them have the ball FFS - but don't do a damn thing with it either".

I'll never be a Ronay though. I know my limitations. But on the subject of similes, behold: the best footballing similes I've ever read. Not in a Ronay article; in a sensational, wondrous comment below a Ronay article:

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog...t-30905352

Bit worried the #THF won't like it though.

[Roger H. Sterling]

I completely understood what you meant about Barca Shaun. I just can't quite place why you've chosen to compare it to a woman packing a bag.

[Hank Scorpio]

Does footage actually exist of the pre-Superga Torino side? I've obviously read about them, but never seen footage of them in action.

[Timothy Dugshite]

Ranking a side you've never seen and that would have still puffed fags and swigged liqueur at half-time as the greatest ever.

[Sterling Archer]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/35230428

[Cheeky Gnando’s]

Shaun posting like a hideously out of touch minister trying at a school Christmas assembly - "just drop in the words 'Death Star' at some point because kids like Star Wars'

[Roger H. Sterling]

Shaun posting like a hideously out of touch minister trying at a school Christmas assembly - "just drop in the words 'Death Star' at some point because kids like Star Wars'

I really want to know how the Death Star plays football

[Cheeky Gnando’s]

I really want to know how the Death Star plays football

Dat turning circle

In the spirit of the simile MO, I'd imagine it's much like 2na

[2MatoFish]

Dat turning circle

In the spirit of the simile MO, I'd imagine it's much like 2na

Competently, with moments of genius that undermine a sometimes ungainly façade?

[Picards Forehead]

All it takes to make a team like that crumble is stick two down the exhaust port.

[Cheeky Gnando’s]

Fine, jamboinglasgow then if you're insistent on spoiling the joke

[2MatoFish]

Fine, jamboinglasgow then if you're insistent on spoiling the joke

I'm all for maintaining the integrity of the joke, but not at the expense of a hard won reputation of "competent at football".

[Herman Boyce]

I really want to know how the Death Star plays football

Romps it's way to the final then lets some jumped up young cunt who'll never be heard of again dribble through the entire team before scoring a worldly in the last minute.

On the topic of Bunter, what happened to him? I remember him having an epic meltdown on JKB when Tranent was quite rightly called a shithole.


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[Hank Scorpio]

He was just a clueless wee laddie who thought he knew it all because he'd watched every episode of Premier League Years on Sky Sports, and once watched a documentary on the Busby Babes.