So, then, we’ve shipped out SuperMartin Caceres to Sevilla on loan with an option to buy at the end of the season and we’ve also sent Alexander Hleb to Birmingham City. Then we re-upped Seydou Keita until 2014 and increased his buyout clause from €90m to €100m…because there was a chance someone was going to buy him for €90m and we were worried about that? Is there something I don’t understand about these buyout clauses?
I said I would do it if Ibra left this summer and so I shall: I will be writing here under the name Queen Elizabeth until the end of September. You know what that feels like? Birmingham City will soon:
Call me biased, but I don’t think a practice goes by without many moments such as this. Players don’t have to like each other, don’t have to enjoy laughing together and working together, but it sure helps. I suspect part of the reason our club goes like a rocket is that the players never seem to forget that despite all the pressure, and all the millions and millions of dollars, this is still just a game. Continue Reading
Highly placed sources tell me a confidential agreement has been negotiated between Arsenal and Barcelona for the transfer of Cesc Fabregas. These sources, speaking on condition of anonymity because this is an ongoing negotiation and “is Super Top Secret stuff”, confirmed that the Arsenal captain’s transfer will take place “in the future maybe” and will include an amount of money “larger or smaller than expected.”
In order to maintain the confidentiality of the agreement, the contract was drawn up in invisible ink. In fact, the details of this agreement are so secret that, in order to maintain the veil drawn across the negotiations, even the parties involved are not sure of them. A further failsafe was put in place when the document was written in code and only those with the proper rings will be able to decipher it. Even then, they’ll have to immerse the contract in a special liquid capable of showing the invisible ink, the recipe for which is found only in a locked vault in an undisclosed location presumed to be the inner sanctum of the Knights Templar. This process will be undertaken at the appropriate date, which was also written in invisible ink, tied to a brick, and dropped in the Thames so as to be completely impossible to find and publish in Spanish sports dailies.
One source, speaking confidentially (and whispering in order to make it more chilling), mentioned that Sport and El Mundo Deportivo are getting too close to the truth and they must be stopped at all costs. “The truth is that Wenger stands at his sink all day washing his hands and muttering, ‘Out, out, damned rumors,’ while Rosell and Sepp Blatter cackle madly together in the belfry of the highest tower of La Sagrada Familia. Shit, don’t print that, okay? They’d kill me if they knew I’d said anything.” He then looked around furtively, pulled on the hood of his cloak, and slunk off into the murky darkness of the deserted alleyway in Bangkok where we had agreed to meet.
Everyone does stupid things now and then. Sometimes they’re pre-planned. Sometimes they’re tied to whether or not your favorite football team qualifies for the European final.
So.
My friend has agreed to tattoo Ens Hi Deixem La Pell somewhere if we win. That’s awesome and I will post pictures of the tat if we are so fortunate. I’m not sure what I’m doing, so I’d like to open it up to you: what should I do? The rules are simple: nothing permanent, nothing illegal. Suggestions in the comments and I’ll select the one I love the most. Remember, I love weird and funny things. And yes, I will post pictures.
And not only that, but what will you do if Barça overcome their deficit to Inter and make the final? Post away, dear readers. [Don't forget to check out the preview!]
Today is the first day of the NFL Draft. That means I will be checking my phone and texting with some buddies throughout the night while I am out to dinner with the lady and her mother, who is in town visiting. It also means (at least according to all the pundits) that Sam Bradford will be getting a massive contract valued at somewhere around $50 million in guaranteed money and $12-13million in average annual salary. That’s a lot of money. It is also meaningless when we consider that this is a Barça blog, but it’s certainly something to distract from the various media reports zipping around the Internet like the annoying mosquito that kept me up most of last night.
I’d rather think about the incredible story of Portsmouth’s decline than talk more about Tuesday’s loss in Milan. I mean, come on, Portsmouth had a potential international arms dealer’s son backing them and the extradition request from France for Arcadi Gaydamak might have led to creditors demanding repayment earlier than anticipated, thus dooming the club to relegation and financial meltdown. Whoa. [It was Peter Storrie, Portsmouth's Chief Executive saying that Arcadi Gaydamak's dealings were the reason the creditors came calling; he made those comments back in February to Sky Sports here]
Kevin has written a review of the Athletic match which, if you haven’t read it, should be your first stop. Besides joy at watching Banjo Crickets get his two goals and our team continuing to look like a brilliant machine of goal-making beauty, there was the obvious “Oh shit” of hearing that both Ibra and Pique could be out for the clásico next Saturday. I’ll cover much more of that in tomorrow’s Arsenal second leg preview, but suffice to say that I’m arching eyebrows in concern.
I’m here, though, not to discuss negative outlooks on the coming matches, but rather to give some updates about various topics. Check ‘em out after the jump.
Perhaps many of the regular readers here were surprised by my reaction to the outcome of Wednesday’s match. I still stand by my assertions that Fabregas dove, especially after having seen replays, though I’m tempering it somewhat as you’ll see. I have had time to think about it and I’ve found that I can’t assert that he is a constant diver simply because I haven’t watch him enough to know that sort of thing. For instance, I have watched Busi and Dani Alves quite a few times and I think that I can say that they’re both constant exaggerators and sometimes out-and-out divers. And I try to harangue them for it. Perhaps I should do it more aggressively and more pointedly–I will try to do so from here on out.
Kevin, usually the smarter of the two of us anyway, brings up the more important points than whether or not Cesc dove in his well-thought-out review, which is well worth your time if you haven’t already read it. I hope no one took my reaction as thinking that Cesc was the reason that we drew what should have been a clear victory–though I suppose there’s little chance of that. I was angry, indeed, and I’m still angry, but I think my anger is tempered now by the passage of time and a nice amount of sleep. And pudding.
First, before I discuss any of the actual match, I apologize–I’m sorry–if I offended anyone with my language and aggression in last night’s post. It was ill-thought out and needless. It won’t happen again. Obviously the post stays up so that I can look at it from time-to-time so as to remind myself and others what I shouldn’t do.
A few days ago, Thierry Henry made headlines by stating in an interview with Sky Sports that he “does not want to play Arsenal.” A bunch of commenters here and on other forums jumped on that statement and claimed he should be run out of town on a rail covered in spikes while being tar-and-feathered. Conveniently lost in the whole deluge of nonsense was the sentence immediately preceding the oft-quoted part: “I’m not saying I won’t try to fight or whatever because that’s the way the game is. But I don’t want to play against Arsenal.”
The tremendous size of the humpback whale is obvious when it’s just wandering around under the water, but when it lifts itself upwards, into the air, you can really see that they are, basically, unimaginably gigantic. Yours truly just spent 5 days in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and got to glimpse a baby humpback cavorting with his/her mother in the Bahia de Banderas. It was amazing. So was the rest of the trip, including my first snorkeling adventure and lots of sitting on beaches, but wildlife has always been high on my list of things to see, so the whales take the cake.
