Bucko
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Posts posted by Bucko
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I was under the impression that Liverpool had received all the money owed for Coutinho after cashing the outstanding debt with a bank/hedge fund: https://www.fcbarcelona.com/en/club/organisation-and-strategic-plan/commissions-and-bodies/annual-reports
It's a shame Bartomeu can only face charges on the Barcagate/I3 scandal as he should be carrying that can for all of this current mess
- Charlie Barca and Smiler
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Someone actually did that to my book reviews recently but it was so laughably transparent that I didn’t even bother to flag it as spam/abuse.
He’ll probably try to get them pulled but Amazon are notoriously slow to respond based on ones still sitting on a Guardian journalist’s page from over six years ago.
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19 minutes ago, ALEX said:
It’ll plagarise something for certain. The only original thoughts he ever had were fantasies about items he wanted to sell.
Wonder if he ever did well the Messi shirt supposedly from the Arsenal match
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I’m about seven chapters in and there’s some really good insights on Cruyff’s tenure and him as a person as well as the road to Messidependencia. Quite revealing too about what makes/made La Masia tick.
Had hoped to get it read in full by the end of this week but going to have a bit of spare time on my hands in the coming weeks with my main freelance work unexpectedly drying up so should be able to make up for it then
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2 hours ago, jimbob said:
Going to take a wild guess and say no one's going to buying his new book then...
If anyone’s struggling between ordering that or Simon Kuper’s new book, I can definitely recommend the latter
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1 hour ago, jimbob said:
Speaking of him, anyone know why he lost his job at FCB? Saw this on his twitter feed.
Not a clue but he seems to be going at the club quite a bit publicly now that brand loyalty is out the window.
My guess is that it wasn’t anything to do with the ‘leak’ and more about restructuring of their digital/online operation. They haven’t been deploying the usual talking heads to front their match day social media coverage last weekend or the Gamper/pre-season. But obviously he has to make it all about him somehow.
I suspect the club had outsourced its digital output to a third party, similar to the one he previously worked for that runs Marca’s English site, and decided to end the contract due to being financially up s**t’s creek
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Genuinely reached the point where whoever was on it just parroted any buzzword that came out of Laporta’s mouth, usually ‘Espai Barca’ or ‘Barca Corporate’.
Incredibly amateurish for a club with our reach globally. Then again they used to hire Pettigrove so probably shouldn’t be surprised really
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Yep, one of the many details we got in almost two hours of Laporta's press conference (side note: the club really need to either get a better interpreter for the English live feed or just put up a subtitled version of it later on). Bartomeu had some front claiming he left us in a better state especially given some of the figures that his successor quoted, notably the €56m outstanding for Espai Barca and €90m in litigation.
On the subject of Penfold, Graham Hunter mentioned on Newstalk earlier that he was living down the road from him in a flat. Doesn't even come close to making up for the entire mess we've been left with but sounds like he's f****d up with more than just the club in the past few years
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2 hours ago, Johnny Punkster said:
Maybe the Catalans are becoming more insular than ever? (which I've always thought).
"Bloody foreigners, coming here, paying over the top ticket prices, taking our seats"..Maybe the "Tourists Go Home" graffiti campaign is becoming part of the normal "thinking" there?
It’s definitely a way of life in El Raval judging from my occasional visits there so probably grown over time
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4 hours ago, Barcatoon said:
Relegation to a group in Segunda División RFEF would certainly give us lads some interesting away day opportunities.
Noting some of the earlier comments in here about previous low attendances at Camp Nou it has been ironic this week to see some quite vicious comments on social media celebrating the fact that the departure of Messi will rid the ground of tourists, foreigners and Japanese camera enthusiasts. Ironic in the context that some half arsed Catalans struggle to make the game that for most will be within walking distance. These extranjeros they speak of will have been helping to keep attendances respectable for the best part of the last decade.
I get the impression that the “we’ll support you ever more” mentally is not a thing in this part of Spain.
I really find the whole revelling in tourists not going a bit odd. Encountered that sort of talk from covering Liverpool over the past decade and it’s just brainless. Without the global support, no club rises to the levels that us and numerous others have so it’s a redundant gripe IMO.
Any joy in the post-Messi drop in footfall is automatically offset by the lack of financial returns he generated simply by being at the club. So aside from removing the sideshow element, we’re not actually better off for it.
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11 hours ago, ALEX said:
I know the locals don’t need much of an excuse not to go (it might rain, buses not running etc) but just 15,200 applications for the 30,000 tickets available for the first chance to watch the team in 17 months tells a tale. The cost of keeping him was hight. Not doing do might cost more.
Incredibly damning. Remember being at the Alaves game three years ago and there was only 62,000 odd in the ground which was slightly surprising but I also reasoned due to some locals not fancying it and fewer tourists knocking about than for a Saturday/midweek Champions League. But this is something else. Aside from the Clasico and some big European fixtures, if any, we're going to be seeing downward trends all season and probably for years to come
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15 hours ago, Devs said:
It’s finally hitting home and f**k it hurts. Yes it will be good to wave goodbye to the Messi supporters, but this is 6 to 7 years of mis management coming home to roost, f*****g embarrassing. I thought that when Puyol, Xavi and Iniesta left was bad enough, this is far worse. He doesn’t want to go and we don’t want him to go, I’ll admit tears were shed in Casa Devs but like the addict I am as soon as I am able I’ll be sat there watching them again... and that’s half the problem, they know they have thousands of mugs like me.
Summed it up perfectly. Only upside which @ALEX mentioned earlier was that we might be able to get our act together as a club as a result of this. Still doesn't make the fact that Bartomeu dragged us to financial meltdown single-handed any easier to stomach especially after the past few days
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Laporta definitely overplayed his hand by promising he'd make Messi 'an offer you can't refuse', asking him to take a pay cut and then not even being able to register him at all.
We've gone from some decent free transfers, Messi and potentially trimming the wage bill with a Griezmann/Saul swap to being in an absolute mess. Again.
UPDATE: Seems Aguero wants out now without even kicking a ball
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1 hour ago, John1899 said:
If this is 100% the end of the line, no last minute twist. There will be no hiding place this season, no Messi to the rescue again and again. Koeman's job just got even more difficult by an incalculable amount. Fans back in the stadium, if the players do not perform they will get a roasting.
Those that refused to take a pay cut, assuming they’re still actively involved in matches, will be on an absolute hiding to nothing too
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1 hour ago, Johnny Punkster said:
€1173m in debt.
Let that sink in.
But won’t take a penny from La Liga’s new investment pot as it means they’ll have to give up on the non-existent Super League 🤷♂️
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Sounds like there's some potential upsides to the disbanding then
- Smiler, Scott and Johnny Punkster
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Never a dull moment with this club 🤦♂️
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On 7/24/2021 at 12:13 PM, jimbob said:
I see PB London have just come out and publicly backed the Freire bid.
Not sure who wrote their statement but it has distinct hallmarks of the club’s newly former English website editor. Also a fair bit of creative license used in attempting to undermine Nicolas’ candidacy, which shows even they aren’t fully convinced that Freire will walk it
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2 hours ago, Cule05 said:
How long does Courtinho have left on contract?
He must be top 5 earners along with Busquetts.
Can't imagine Firpo or Tobido where on much $$$.Runs until summer 2023 so got at least two years of him bleeding us dry left if there's no takers.
Apparently Milan are keen but we've heard this about myriad clubs so taking it with a pinch of salt for now
Iconic Shirt
in General Barça Chat
Posted · Edited by Bucko
I actually saw the Liverpool and Chelsea kits in the flesh while covering their game last weekend and they might not be Barca-level monstrosities but still pretty dire as designs go.
It can't be coincidence that the worst home kits we've had in recent years have been sanctioned/approved by the last two clowns who were president. If I was able to get over to Barna anytime soon, I'd be able to prove that the 2017/18 home kit was inspired by the seat patterns on the Montjuic bus. The checkerboard kit is a particularly sore point personally as my lad has every home kit from the past four years but always picks out that one to wear.
Unless shown otherwise, I think Laporta will get a free pass for this season's strip as the design and production will have been set in motion long before the election results became known.
I'd love us to go back to the incremental tweaks that we saw under Meyba and Kappa in the early to mid 90s. We got two seasons out of the latter strips too so they had longevity. Even going back to the mid-2000s era Nike kits would be an improvement at this stage.