Popped over to the Nou Camp last night with Steve T to watch Valladolid get stuffed 4-0. It was very cold and strangely reminiscent of a night at SJP but for the football. Seriously watching football at SJP is miles better. Better team, faster football, more excitement, better atmosphere. Out of the Barca side last night i reckon only Puyol, De Boer or the wonderful Kluivert would make a toss of difference to our side. The stadium is fairytale stuff, but half full is like a horror story. It won't stop us going again, but...

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

Answers

Interesting, Swift. I read in one of the papers that the Barca fans detest the current side as it's too defensive blah blah although a 4- 0 tonking of another suggests otherwise. By the way, what was it like in Barcelona after they got beaten by Real?

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

I popped down to the rather seedy part of the Gothic quarter to find a real, not Real, bar to watch it with proper fans. I enjoyed the game in the good company of 'Loony Toon' or Seymour to the Law courts and Breda, his lovely wife and seriously great person. We really enjoyed it, though, obviously the result wasn't exactly what the bar wanted. Which meant we got a few hard stares from the regulars, especially when Mcmanamnananan started to tease them to bits on the left wing. We ahd spent a while finding this place and we were glad we did, it was priceless. The Ted Bovis lookalike barman did a wardance everytime Real scored and seemed to enjoy winding the place up. Mind, nobody would pick a fight as any fist would just slide of the conjealed grease. His kitchen looked a bit like a fast show set. In fact the whole scene could have been from the fast show. We enjoyed several strong beers and strangely enjoyed witnessing someone else's pain supporting a football team. p.s. for all Loony watchers he's doing fine. in fact he's doing too fine, easy life!

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

Sounds brilliant. I can imagine what it was like when Figo scored... Have you read "Barca - A People's Passion" by Jimmy Burns? I got it for the YBR stuff but there's lots of good stuff in there.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

a mate of mine who lives here in Barcelona is best mates with that author. He's Andy Mitten of Red Issue. He's best mates with Mark Jensen, hence my collection of Mags.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

Sadly, I missed the whole shebang as my post-Villa win celebrations carried on until about 5am and on Sunday I was rather under the weather... to say the least. I had to give Swift a note from my Mam saying that I was 'off games' for a while...

But I'd gladly miss EVERY Barca or Madrid game in exchange for more Toon afternoons like that...

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

Swift, the book sort of suggests that the Barca thing is largely a myth unless they are playing Real or Bilbao (where there's a bit of history). Do you agree with this?

-- Anonymous, November 13, 2001

its a funny place Catalonia, they would rather moan about the team behind closed doors than support the them. Mostly Catalans are slightly arrogant people and only turn up when they want to (Real,Bilbao) so national(nearly) patriotism is taken up, but seemingly NOT wholeheartedly. (the team is easily the areas most potent symbol) i would say they could be so much more ON and OFF the pitch. Believe me, we really are a more entertaining all round prospect. Another point of interest: after we had stuffed Villa and they had been soundly beaten by Real, they showed our goals on Telly and basically said they had not yet replaced him. HIS teams are fast, direct and skillful...

-- Anonymous, November 13, 2001

him being Bobby...

-- Anonymous, November 13, 2001

Thanks, Swifty, it's interesting because the hype surrounding Barca suggests that the place is packed for every game and that the cules would die rather than miss a game...it sounds as though if they got over this whole "Som mes que un club" thing and focused on the game a bit more, they'd do better.

Is Gaspart any more popular than Nunez was, by the way?

Talking of Andy Mitten, you probably saw the "Are you talking about us?" thing in The Mag. He was very nice about Newcastle and his observation that we always seem to punch way below our weight rang very true.

-- Anonymous, November 13, 2001

What Swift said...

Spot on. I for one was hugely disappointed when I arrived here 3 years ago. I too beleived the hype and thought 'Well, no Toon but at least I'll get to enjoy the atmosphere at one of the world's biggest clubs.'

'Maybe I'll even adopt them as my second club (well, third, there's always Bedlington Terriers), become a bit of a fan.'

Not a hope. There is NO comparison, and that's not just prejudice. There is no comparison between the Barca fans and almost ANY English club's fans. Great football, yep, great stadium, yep. But that's it.

I wouldn't WANT to be associated with such a bunch of fickle, small- minded, self-pitying fair-weather fans. I'll go and enjoy the football, but that's it.

-- Anonymous, November 13, 2001

Yoooooooooooooo Hooooooooooooooooo..............................

Sorry wrong thread!

-- Anonymous, November 13, 2001

Not that sort of camp night Mr Clary.

-- Anonymous, November 13, 2001