I watched the Champions League final last night and like many other lovers of football I was just awestruck at the way Barcelona just demolished Man Utd. The movement on and off the ball, the sublime passing and the rapier like bursts once they got near the 18yard box. This is how the beautiful game of football was meant to be played and I was lucky to watch the best 90 minutes of pure football that I have ever seen. For this very reason I supported Barcelona who are very much a Spainish Team made up of Spainish Catalans with a small sprinkling of Argentines including some kid called Messi. They have a clear national identity and they supply most of the players that play for the National team who are world cup and european winners. In sharp contrast we have Manchester Utd who aren't particularly English but just happen to play in our league. They are owned by Americans and they are a foreign collective of players with a sprinkling of english. There is now a huge gulf that exists between the best of English football and the best of Spainish football and it showed last night. The premiership may be the richest league in the world but it certainly isn't the BEST league in the world based on technical abillity. The top 6 clubs are now foreign owned and mostly contain mercenary foreigners who are just looking for a huge pay packet with no allegiance to these clubs or the fans that support them. I wanted the best team to win last night and Barcelona produced an amazing football performance. Their club is owned entirely by the Catalan fans and they have an amazing youth and grassroots set up that willl ensure that they dominate european and world football for many years to come. English clubs in the premier league however are based on the cheque book style of football management. They pay huge fees for overated foreigners to come here and play taking the places of good english youth players. I hope after the hammering Manchester Utd got last night that we all wake up and smell the coffee. We should all stop deluding ourselves thinking that the Premier League is the best in the world backed with Murdoch's money. Our product is simply inferior and will continue to be as long as we have clueless foreign owners who are only in it to make a fast buck. The one English football manager that espoused the same values as Barcelona sadly passed away 16 years ago. A man forgotten but his achievements in Europe will never be matched by anyone on these shores. The late great Bob Paisley achieved dominance with a Liverpool team that was made up of mainly British players playing a style of football that dominated for the best part of 20 years. His achievement of winning 3 European Cups in the space of 6 years will never be matched IMO. He proved that British players are good enough if given the chance to prove themselves. It is so sad to see that we have now been reduced to being ruled by foreign owners who don't know anything about football and even less about the clubs they have bought. English football simply died last night.
I too was supporting Barcelona last night, and they didn't disappoint. They truly are "More than a club" as their motto goes.
You should have been with us last night in our local Spanish bar,absolutley brilliant, even a couple of pot bellied ManU fans (who had never been north of Watford) were applauding Barca.
Was Supporting utd last night Firstly because despite the foreign element that dominates them at the moment they are still a team from/representing our shores but secondly because that footballing farce that was the first leg of the El Classico, i just felt United deserved it more over the course of the competition. But on the night the result was deserved and i applaud Barca. I think it'll take more then loosing a cha,pions league final to stop teams trying to win it by throwing money at it, especially now Manchester City have qualified, and unfortunately while they may not be very english either the team that appear to develop teams that try and play football the right way Arsenal continue to wait for real success
I agree Mike and I admire Arsenal for at least attempting to play the game in the right way but they are now owned by a foreigner and have until very recently only had a couple of englishmen in their team. There was a time when they didn't have any englishmen in their starting line up.
awesome performance from barca last night, but having just watched it, i must say that i enjoyed the Huddersfield v Peterborough playoff more!! Congratulations to Peterborough! now looking forward to the Swansea/Reading playoff!
Hey Marsupial Shouldn't you be climbing a gum tree or whatever it is you marsupials do in kessingland!!
Correct me if I'm wrong but Barca have won 3 champions league cups in the last 6 years albeit under different managers. It shows they are dominating at the moment with their current set-up and players. The only managers here who try to hold onto the values you describe are David Moyes, Roy Hodgson and Harry Redknapp. If Wickham was to go anywhere I would prefer it to be Spurs because Harry does seem to have an interest in bringing english talent through for the good of the national team. Arsene Wenger is also similar but he uses an english team to develop french players, he has always had a healthy number of top french talent in his sides. Fergie on the other hand doesn't care about international football and only worries about what is happening at Man U and would never rest his big players just because they had an important international match coming up.
Bugger me!!! I have the mother of all hangovers, naturally i was down the bar watching the game. Most of my Spanish friends are Madrid fans and hate Barca because they are NOT Spanish but hey Barca have been my second team for the past 6 years (since i moved here). Needless to say i was on a massive wind up all night and have to say the mighty Barca deserved it. If the Town could manage a quarter of Barca's performance last night then i would be overjoyed and the league title would be guaranteed, sadly me thinks i'm asking for too much!!
JWM what a load of tosh. If things hold together there for another five years then Barcelona will be the best club side of all time.... and their star player is an Argentinian - last night they started with two Argentinians, a Brazlian, a Frenchman and later they brought on a Malian and a Dutchman! You put any British XI on that pitch and they'd still get battered! Sir Alex is up there with the two Bobs without any shadow of a doubt. It's not just because of the fans and the structure or they would've dominated European football for decades, which they haven't. This United side is not outstanding, but rewind just a few years and you're watching a final of Chelsea and United full of foreign players. Go back a bit further and Liverpool are lifting the trophy with two Englishmen in the side (and if you like an Irishman). Let's keep the nationalist drivel to a minimum and let's not use Bobby's name to prove a point that doesn't stack up. He of all people had a massive influence on clubs and managers throughout Europe. We were privileged that our small part of the world meant so much to him, but he belongs to the whole planet not just to us - and if he were Town manager now it wouldn't be a side made up of Brits! Christ even back then he had Thijssen and Muhren in the side!
Yorkie you totally misunderstand my point as usual! I can't see where I used Sir Bobby's name in my OP! My main point is that Ferguson is not in the same league as Bob Paisley when it comes to winning the European Cup and Paisley did it with a squad of mostly home grown players. 3 European cups in 6 years 4 European Trophies in 9 years if you include the UEFA Cup he won plus the 6 league titles! I'm sick and tired of everyone banging on about how great Ferguson and Utd are when in reality he will never achieve what Paisley achieved and nor will any other british club manager. The fact is that English football has been hijacked by foreigners who have no understanding of our game or the clubs that they have bought. I will never support an "English" club in europe because they simply aren't!
Ha ha ha. That's what comes of two solid days and nights of slap and tickle. I will read the thing again and get back to you.
OK... are you just talking about ownership? What do you think about the foreign players? The reason that Paisley did it with homegrown players was that that's how football was in his time. You can't compare sides from the 60s, 70s and 80s with the sides of now. The modern sides would wipe the floor with them. Competition is stronger. You put Messrs Hansen and Dalglish through their paces with current Sports Science and this current Barcelona side would kill Paisley's Liverpool sides just as they murdered Vidic, Evra, Ferdinand and Van Der Sar. This is not about comparing Fergie to Paisley. Fergie would have added two more European Cups against any other club side in these two finals. Paisley wouldn't have beaten that Barcelona side. They are unquestionably the best side - Club or National - of my lifetime and the only footage I've seen of a side playing with such ease and such flair is Brazil's 1970 side.
We beat Barcelona back in 70s if that helps! Foreign owners and players have killed English Football RIP 1863 - 1992 Paisley has never had any of the plaudits or recognition that his phenominal achievements have deserved and you can't say with any certainty that Ferguson would have added 2 more cups if they weren't playing Barca! The facts are the facts. I'm not comparing generations because you can't for example is Messi now better than Pele or Best or Di Stefano or Puskas?
By the way - for the record - I support Town and I have an affinity to Sheffield Wednesday, Spurs, Rangers and United for various reasons. I will support Fulham in the Europa League Al Fayed or not, I'll support Man City in the Champions League. I won't support Arsenal or Chelsea because they make me want to vomit, but that has nothing to do with the owners. I'd rather Abramovich than those clowns Mike Ashley or Brady, Sullivan and Gold. And as far as management goes I'd take Gianfranco Zola over that weasel Darren Ferguson any day of the week. So for me, it's not about who's British and who's a foreigner. It's about going about things in the right way.
You can interchange Messi with Pele, Maradona, Cruyff and a number of others (Best doesn't make the grade for me and neither does Christiano Ronaldo, they're in the next category of truly great but not genius players.) English football is thrilling in a way it never was twenty five years ago. I can watch any Premier League match and something will make it memorable in a way that none of the World Cup 2010 matches were. If you want your 1970s football then go and see a Championship or League One match. You'll even find many of the stadiums are 20th century. Things have moved on. The game has progressed. I don't like this five officials nonsense (they still can't spot a handball between them that Howard Webb would spot from the other end of the pitch) but I'm glad we have all-seater grounds. I want to be back in the Premier League so kids can see Van Der Vaart, Suarez and David Luiz come to Portman Road the same way I saw Cantona and Klinsmann back in the day. It was a privilege to watch Chris Waddle tear down the wing and Ian Wright bag a hat-trick - and similarly kids can see Lampard, Gerrard and Rooney at top flight grounds. None of this has anything to do with foreign ownership - look at how many English players are at Man City!
