the greatest team in the world getting their comuppance at last...two spot on pieces here...just a piuty it took so long:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/...nted-greed.html

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-spo...hey-deserved.do

I can only try to imagine how the true Barca fans are feeling. I've always liked Barca ever since I got their kit on holiday in Spain at the age of about 5, my brother got the Real Madrid kit and the loyalties seemed to stick. Against Inter the other day was the first time I was glad to see Barca loose to anyone other than us and despite everything that's gone on in the last few years I didn't like the feeling. A good friend of mine is from Barcelona and is a Barca fan, when I told him the reasons I was glad to see them loose; They get £120m of tv money while the most anyone else (apart from Madrid) in Spain can get is £20m. They have the support of the top bods at UEFA. They seems to be completely unnaccountable for anything they do financially. He diddn't really know what to say, he offered the excuse that they've got the most fans so they should earn the most TV money - doesn't really make for a fair competition though. They pay to let Unicef have their logo on the Barca shirt - they can bloody well afford too after all that tv money. They promote loads of players through their youth system (and credit here because they do give young players a chance), they have nearly twice as many players aged 14 and younger attached to their club than we do, so you'd expect them to have a lot of good players in there.

What I'm saying is that while the Barca machine deserves a lot of stick those attached too the club are only trying to do whatever they can to make their team successful, the same as we are doing for our club.

What still annoys me about this whole thing is that last year, when we played the way Inter played last night and secured the first leg, every single journalist was siding with Barca over our ethics and our negative way of playing. It's kind of surprising that now everybody is hailing Jose's tactics while they despised them while he was our manager. Still nice to see that Barca is shown for what they are, but their is still a double standard in the press concerning us.

I do agree with Barn I have always had a soft spot for Barca . I think the first Spanish words I learnt were “Gary Linker†. The fact that apart from some of the worst referring decisions I have every witnessed we would have made the final last year is never recognized.

the greatest team in the world getting their comuppance at last...two spot on pieces here...just a piuty it took so long:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/...nted-greed.html

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-spo...hey-deserved.do

It took 5 or 4 years though

f**k em - just wish it was us that knocked them out

Written proudly on the seats in one of the stands at the Camp Nou is “mes que en club'' - which most people know means more than a club. Unfortunately such feelings of self-importance and superiority over others, means the fans and players seem to believe that the rules of football don't apply to them.

I love it. And its way way overdue.

But I guarantee you if it was us that had turned on the sprinklers like 3 year olds that didnt get an ice cream, the public crucifiction would still be in full swing. Barca have gotten off lightly for such a display.

Even more damning than the sporting press are the sentiments of other fans. Looking around the web, many of them were against Barcelona anyway, but to be so petulant on such a huge stage with zero justification had made alot of people turn their backs on them. And realizing the kind of things we have all known for years. Divers, cheaters, terrible terrible losers, and hypocrites.

To me, there are many likeable things about that club, not least of all their manager and their politics, but it is too obscured by the negative.

"In Europe, it is more difficult, as Barcelona have discovered. Without the incompetent intervention of referee Tom Henning Ovrebo at Stamford Bridge last season, Barcelona would still be searching for a first Champions League win under Josep Guardiola. "

Why was no reporter saying this at the time? Nice to finally read (I really like Martin Samuel) but itsvery sad it took a year for the reporters to speak out about the reality of that match.

"In Europe, it is more difficult, as Barcelona have discovered. Without the incompetent intervention of referee Tom Henning Ovrebo at Stamford Bridge last season, Barcelona would still be searching for a first Champions League win under Josep Guardiola. "

Why was no reporter saying this at the time? Nice to finally read (I really like Martin Samuel) but itsvery sad it took a year for the reporters to speak out about the reality of that match.

To be fair plenty did, Ovrebo got as much stick from the press as we gave him.

To be fair plenty did, Ovrebo got as much stick from the press as we gave him.

and that Samuel report was written before Wed's game

The Lampard article underneath is bang on, fair play to Samuel for that.

Hands up if you would pick Frank

No Frank Lampard? Have they gone mad? The Professional Footballers' Association name their team of the season and fail to find room for the man who has scored more than 20 goals from central midfield for the fifth year in succession. It only goes to show, just because you play the game it doesn't mean you know anything about it*.

For the record, the 2004-05 season must have been the greatest disappointment for Lampard. He got only 19 that season. Still, there were also 16 assists, and Lampard was the difference as his club won the league in Jose Mourinho's first season in charge.

He created more goals than any player in the Premier League, was Chelsea's top league scorer with 13, and the highest-scoring midfield player. He compensated for the fact that Chelsea's big summer signing, Didier Drogba, struck only 10 times during the title race.

Chelsea's Frank Lampard

Snubbed: Lampard's 24-goal haul was not enough to make PFA team of the year

Take Lampard away, in fact, and Mourinho would probably have been ditched by Roman Abramovich after just 12 months in England, special no longer. Since then, Lampard has hit the mark year after year: 20, 21, 20, 20, 24 and counting. Of those, just over one quarter (25.7 per cent) have come from the penalty spot, which leads to sneers, because this country is plainly overflowing with ice-veined penalty takers.

Then there are the 70 assists in that period. The reason Lampard is such an exceptional player, arguably the most influential of the modern Premier League era, is because it was only when Manchester United found a man who could outscore him from midfield that they wrested the league title from Chelsea.

Cristiano Ronaldo then became the difference which is why, if United do not win the league this season, selling him to Real Madrid is the straightforward explanation for falling short.

Some figures. In the two seasons when Lampard propelled Chelsea to back-to-back titles, Ronaldo scored nine goals, then 12, which was not enough. The next three seasons he scored 23, 42, then 26 and United won the league each time.

Sir Alex Ferguson talks to Cristiano Ronaldo

Missing link: United have missed Ronaldo's goals

Some would argue Ronaldo was not a conventional midfield player and was often used as a forward, certainly in Europe, but his contribution in supplementing the goals scored by Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov and Carlos Tevez set United apart. He has scored 27 goals this season for Real Madrid. Manchester United would have won the league by now had a midfield player made that contribution; or even half of it.

Instead, the most prolific Manchester United midfielder has scored seven goals, and it takes the best four combined - Paul Scholes (7), Luis Antonio Valencia (7), Ryan Giggs (6) and Nani (5) - to go one better than Lampard's total of 24. In all, Manchester United's nine main midfield players - the others are Darren Fletcher (4), Michael Carrick (4), Darron Gibson (5), Gabriel Obertan (0) and Ji-Sung Park (3) – have scored 41 goals, one less than Ronaldo managed on his own in 2007-08.

It is only the general weakness of the Premier League this season that has maintained the title race. If Chelsea had been more consistent, the campaign would be over, because Manchester United lost Ronaldo, who in his last three seasons for the club averaged more than 30 goals, and replaced him with Valencia, who has scored seven times this season.

Rooney was exceptionally gallant in attempting to compensate but injury has left him stranded on 34, underlining Ronaldo's achievement in not just scoring 42 in one season, but staying fit to do so.

Of the four games that will decide the title, Chelsea have the hardest single fixture, away at Liverpool on Sunday. Win and the title should be theirs. Lampard will have made the difference, once again.

* This is a joke. I will bow to professional knowledge on many issues. But not this one.

Edited April 30, 201016 yr by coco

Samuel is definitely one of the best. He always goes against the popular perception (when its justified) and calls out the hypocrisy of the media favorites. Its all the more impressive that he is a Hammers fan, and he has always given us a fair shake in his coverage

I just hate the fact that he writes for the Mail. Where was he before?

He was at The Times before, but they decided to let him to when the Mail offered more. Guess they thought Patrick Barclay, Syed and Co would do a good enough job without him.

They were wrong.

He was at The Times before, but they decided to let him to when the Mail offered more. Guess they thought Patrick Barclay, Syed and Co would do a good enough job without him.

They were wrong.

Ahh, the Times. Maybe Samuel didnt fit in because he wasnt a weird looking bald plank. It just feels weird having someone like Samuel write for the Mail