: Tue May 26, 2009 9:02 pm  

Asim wrote:

I've spent plenty of time in both.

I've never seen a city where the streets are dead because their team is playing like Bilbao, I've never been in a city where just about every shop, bar and household has some sort of flag, pennant etc regarding their team on display.

A very large proportion of Barcelona city residents aren't Catalan at all. Catalan is one of the languages you'tre least likely to hear in the city centre. English and Spanish are far more commonplace.

Try looking outside of Barcelona at the region that the club represents.
When Barça beat Arsenal in 2006 I was in a small town in Lleida and as I rushed home to watch the game there wasn't a single person in the street.
When they won there must have been at least 5,000 people blocking the main road celebrating.
Now I live on the Girona coast and when Iniesta scored the winner versus Chelsea you could hear the screams ringing out from the bars. Within minutes cars and motorbikes were going throught the town sounding their horns, people running around waving Barça flags.
The town is covered in Barça colours and good luck messages. The local sports centre is anticipating around 2,000 people to watch there game there tomorrow evening.

Asim wrote:

You can't whore yourself around the world then claim some great regional ethos, not without being hypocritical, but thats the people of Barcelona all over, they're not Spanish - until Spain win the Euros, then they're out on the streets.

Again, if you're looking for Catalanism then Barcelona isn't the best place. I was in Murcia when they beat the Germans and it was mayhem down there. When I rang my girlfriend in Catalonia she didn't even know the result. the only person in her house who'd watched the final was her dad and he'd missed the last 20 minutes. I was in a bar when France knocked Spain out of the world cup and towards the end every French touch was greeted with cheers.

Asim wrote:

They are the Scousers of Spain with their self-pitying, hypocritical attitudes.

Barça, Catalans, Scousers... anyone else you want to have a go out?

: Tue May 26, 2009 9:07 pm  

OoOGazOoO wrote:

Mike Ashley has issued a statement apologising for all his mistakes that he has made.

Good for him to apologise, but a bit too late.

I am sure the geordie masses will all huddle together and give him a big hug. Although they have to shoulder some of the blame too.

: Tue May 26, 2009 9:11 pm  

Catalancs wrote:

Try looking outside of Barcelona at the region that the club represents.
When Barça beat Arsenal in 2006 I was in a small town in Lleida and as I rushed home to watch the game there wasn't a single person in the street.
When they won there must have been at least 5,000 people blocking the main road celebrating.
Now I live on the Girona coast and when Iniesta scored the winner versus Chelsea you could hear the screams ringing out from the bars. Within minutes cars and motorbikes were going throught the town sounding their horns, people running around waving Barça flags.
The town is covered in Barça colours and good luck messages. The local sports centre is anticipating around 2,000 people to watch there game there tomorrow evening.

Can you tell me how this is any different to any town or city ahead of a major game? Anyway, it is a shame the people of Lleida won't follow their local team.

Catalancs wrote:

Again, if you're looking for Catalanism then Barcelona isn't the best place. I was in Murcia when they beat the Germans and it was mayhem down there. When I rang my girlfriend in Catalonia she didn't even know the result. the only person in her house who'd watched the final was her dad and he'd missed the last 20 minutes. I was in a bar when France knocked Spain out of the world cup and towards the end every French touch was greeted with cheers.

From my experience of watching Spain in Catalonia, they'd have soon changed their tune if Spain were winning, a hell of a lot of people there like to be Spanish when it suits them.

Catalancs wrote:

prick

Good argument, seriously the day I talk to a Barcelona fan about football and they talk more about their own team rather than witter on about Real Madrid I'll probably die of shock.

: Tue May 26, 2009 9:23 pm  

During the Franco years it was one of the few places where it was possible to hold public debates and was often the scene of many arguments among culés.
It is now where fans head to celebrate their team's triumphs and there were great scenes here when Barça won the European Cup in 2006, as the culés sang through the night about their club and the Catalan anthem ‘Els Segadores’.
Més que un club, is certainly a motto that rings true. For more than one hundred years FC Barcelona has been a symbol and expression of Catalonia, providing a means of integration for immigrants and standing firm as Franco tried to destroy the region’s identity.
When Franco’s coup seized power of Spain, he set about trying to destroy the peninsula’s regional identities. It was during this time that FC Barcelona became a symbol of expression for the Catalan people.
Franco banned the Catalan language and the stadium became one of the few refuges where it could be spoken.

Now Barça is a team playing with real verve and confidence. In much the same way that the city is now free from repression, so too the football club seems unshackled. It is this symbiosis, between the team and the city, which makes FC Barcelona more than a club. - El Punt

: Tue May 26, 2009 9:55 pm  

Billy Banter wrote:

Is there a Serial Killers XI?

1.albert fish
2. peter kuerten
3. jeffrey dahmer
4. pedro lopez
5. peter sutcliffe
6. david berkowitz
7. ted bundy
8. john wayne gacy
9. ed gein
10. dennis nilsen
11. andrei chikatilo

carlsberg dont do serial killer xi's but if they did...

: Tue May 26, 2009 10:04 pm  

chris_joynt's_barber wrote:

1.albert fish
2. peter kuerten
3. jeffrey dahmer
4. pedro lopez
5. peter sutcliffe
6. david berkowitz
7. ted bundy
8. john wayne gacy
9. ed gein
10. dennis nilsen
11. andrei chikatilo

carlsberg dont do serial killer xi's but if they did...

no harold shipman?

: Tue May 26, 2009 10:13 pm  

Catalancs wrote:

no harold shipman?

Not unless they were playing the Chelsea Pensioners XI. El Hadji Diouf is unlucky not to make that side, I remember he arrived at Liverpool with 'the Serial Killer' nickname, apparently because of his killer instinct in front of goal

: Tue May 26, 2009 10:15 pm  

Catalancs wrote:

no harold shipman?

he was invited to attend an interview which he did but refused to answer any questions and just turned his back on them

: Tue May 26, 2009 10:16 pm  

FireWire wrote:

Not unless they were playing the Chelsea Pensioners XI. El Hadji Diouf is unlucky not to make that side, I remember he arrived at Liverpool with 'the Serial Killer' nickname, apparently because of his killer instinct in front of goal

but he was soon found out...

: Tue May 26, 2009 10:16 pm  

Catalancs wrote:

During the Franco years it was one of the few places where it was possible to hold public debates and was often the scene of many arguments among culés.
It is now where fans head to celebrate their team's triumphs and there were great scenes here when Barça won the European Cup in 2006, as the culés sang through the night about their club and the Catalan anthem ‘Els Segadores’.
Més que un club, is certainly a motto that rings true. For more than one hundred years FC Barcelona has been a symbol and expression of Catalonia, providing a means of integration for immigrants and standing firm as Franco tried to destroy the region’s identity.
When Franco’s coup seized power of Spain, he set about trying to destroy the peninsula’s regional identities. It was during this time that FC Barcelona became a symbol of expression for the Catalan people.
Franco banned the Catalan language and the stadium became one of the few refuges where it could be spoken.

Now Barça is a team playing with real verve and confidence. In much the same way that the city is now free from repression, so too the football club seems unshackled. It is this symbiosis, between the team and the city, which makes FC Barcelona more than a club. - El Punt

People with blinkers on, and no knowledge of social history like Asim and LG Jose Mourinho cannot understand why Barca is mes que un club I don't think its even worth trying to explain it to them.

And Asim why do you always have to bring Scousers into it? You continually show disdain towards Liverpool FC, allied to your dislike of all things Catalan. What happened, did Albert Riera sleep with your girlfriend or something?