Ask a guy that spent 2 hours listening to Guillem Balague, Sid Lowe and Graham Hunter at Lord's for 2 hours yesterday anything

Ask away. I was going to do this in question time but it was too damn interesting. Sid and Graham discussed Barcelona and Real Madrid and Guillem discussed his upcoming book about Messi which he researched with Messi's family so everything he said was 100% Legit. inb4 Barca fans cry and call it lies

It was a lecture at Lord's. Very interesting to meet these guys in the flesh.

what should i have for breakfast ?

andiii wrote:what should i have for breakfast ?

Grease with sausages?

andiii wrote:what should i have for breakfast ?

About the lecture ffs!

I had 50 g of instant oats and 50g of whey protein with a banana.

jibers wrote:Ask away. I was going to do this in question time but it was too damn interesting. Sid and Graham discussed Barcelona and Real Madrid and Guillem discussed his upcoming book about Messi which he researched with Messi's family so everything he said was 100% Legit. inb4 Barca fans cry and call it lies

It was a lecture at Lord's. Very interesting to meet these guys in the flesh.

Since when did Guillem become credible? Not to mention that this guy is a Espanyol fan.

harhar11 wrote:

jibers wrote:Ask away. I was going to do this in question time but it was too damn interesting. Sid and Graham discussed Barcelona and Real Madrid and Guillem discussed his upcoming book about Messi which he researched with Messi's family so everything he said was 100% Legit. inb4 Barca fans cry and call it lies

It was a lecture at Lord's. Very interesting to meet these guys in the flesh.

Since when did Guillem become credible? Not to mention that this guy is a Espanyol fan.

Well you can choose not to believe a man that is touring Spain and Europe with direct quotes from Messi's father and a man that gets interviews with Xavi and Pique. If the book wasn't credible he would have been sued for what he wrote. Ask a question and deal with it

What did he say about Madrid's problem(s) this season?

Why is Grayham Hunter gay?

Brief summary?

RealGunner wrote:What did he say about Madrid's problem(s) this season?

Florentino Perez is an idiot essentially

Eivindo wrote:Why is Grayham Hunter gay?

He is a bigger prick in real life. Cocky and loves the sound of his own voice. The guys barca bias makes Sports look anti french

M99 wrote:Brief summary?

Will do a write up tomorrow

do it now ffs i wanna read something good.

Why do you hate Barca so much? Butthurt still from 2009 and 2011?

jibers wrote:

andiii wrote:what should i have for breakfast ?

About the lecture ffs!

I had 50 g of instant oats and 50g of whey protein with a banana.

Do you cook your oats? Serious question, I've got a conundrum here with the taste.

The most interesting thing you heard at the lecture and why

How did Leonel get to be so humble and respectful?

Here we go. First Sid Lowe and Graham Hunter one.

Sid Lowe was very articulate and very on the fence, while Graham Hunter was (surprise surprise) Barca biased. Basically spoke about how Perez said that there is always a bad guy in football and it was always Real Madrid. Also spoke about how Barcelona have done very well to change their modern history and they are like the heroes of football, at least that is how they are portrayed, with teams (rightly or wrongly trying to emulate them and Spain)

and that Over the last 20 years Barcelona has been far more successful but throughout the last 50 years, Real Madrid has made the better sporting decisions. While writing his book Sid only had resistance from Madrid and they didn't want to explain their side of the Franco Madrid connection. Also made a point of how Madrid never really did much to separate themselves from Franco, even today. Hunter said Cruijff is the most influential person in football history wit respect to the impact he had as both player and coach and then sid said that his reputation at Barcelona and influence has overshadowed his relatively poor Barcelona career as a player. They said that Cruyff was trying to be sold to Real Madrid by Ajax but he refused and went to Barcelona to just spite Madrid. The 5-0 el classico by Cruyff's Barcelona was seen as the death sentence to the Franco regime as Franco was essentially on his death bed. The Madrid captain retired after that game, even do Santiago said he should go and eat a good meal and come back to make his decision. RM captain went back and still resigned. Madrid still beat Barcelona in the next league game and the spanish cup but Cruyff was already away at the WC so the effect was nowhere as near. It was Laporta's best game and it was Rosell's favourite game, despite him hating eveything about Cruyff and hating the influence he has at Barcelona. Also Rosell is clown because people are wondering where a lot of money has gone from Barcelona's accounts with respect to the Neymar transfer and he is under investigation atm.

Sid then said that Di Stefanos transfer is the most important transfer in football club history. Most people should know the story I cba to write it all. Basically, Sid thinks that the person that decided to let Real Madrid have Di stefano for 12 months then rotate him to Barcelona. The person was just an idiot that knew nothing about football (like Di GOATfano said) rather than a RM biased person. Also Barcelona said they still had Kubala who they believed to be the best player in the world, first classico comes along and RM put 5 goals through Barcelona and DS scored 2. before his arrival, Real Madrid were nobodies.

Graham Hunter then goes on about how Florentino Perez is daft and how Madrid had a chance to sign Ronaldinho, but because they ahd 3 foreign players, Florentino was arrogant and was like "you have big teeth, wait for us for one year". Ronaldinho was like "yeaaa....noooo" signs for Barcelona and the rest is history. Essentially the reverse of the DiStefano transfer, the parallels are stunning. That DiStefano transfer changed RM history as the Ronaldinho transfer changed the modern perception of Barcelona, both were enabled by the other.

Hunter says that Barcelona's model is the best. Basically bringing youths and sytemising it with respect to the country you are from as you cannot transplant la Masia directly to Germany or England, but the system cruyff envisioned is the best way, according to him (fat shit). Sid Lowe interviewed Cruyff and said that Barcelona needed to beat united at Wembley to become a GOAT team and Cruyff said he was an idiot and that winning doesn't matter, it was the stlye. Hunter believed Cruyff believed that and Sid said that Cruyff was just being a bit poetic.

Luis Aragones said that finals are for winning and not for playing good football but Guardiola said good football is winning football. We were allowed to ask questions and then people asked about the tv money being poorly distributed. Hunter said that it wasn't just RM and Barcas fault but the whole of spanish football for being bullied. This tv money problem has been in la liga for years, when Valencia where winning la liga, when Villarreal where close to winning and when Sevilla were winning UEFA cups, difference is that Barcelona and RM were being mismanaged. Sid said Bilbao in terms of history and tradition are the 3rd biggest team in Spain. Sid said Barcelona will win the league and that Ancelotti hasn't found the right style. Hunter said that Mourinho was a liar. Also said that Madrid has so many problems, especially the player power and how coaches can be easily undermined, also said that Mourniho did some thing right and that when they got rid of Mourinho they got rid of the good and the bad and brought in a yes man in Ancelotti who came in as Anti Mourinho even though Madrid have looked ineffective all season except when they counter.

Will add more things when I remember, will do the Balague and Avram Grant Messi talk later.

Messi write upincoming

Here we go.

Balague was sat with Avram Grant. Balague  consulted with the Messi family and Messi's dad was involved quite heavily with the book. Balague said Messi was slightly weird because of the way he grew up. He used an analogy of Messi having a dial and turning down his emotions so he doesn't react like a normal human being. Basically, all of Messi's family when he was a kid, his two brothers and cousins all played in NO old boys club and they would go outside and kick the ball. When Messi was around 2 (or 5??) he went in the middle and was forced to chase the ball, and they just passed around him. The ball was much bigger than him as well lol. He managed to get the ball and he did some Messi feint and everyone in the circle had their mouth dropped and just stared at him with star struck eyes, like people do now and that was his original motivation, to impress his family and parents. At 12 we all know about how Barcelona came for him etc so I won't other with that. Basically his whole family moved over with him to Catalonia at 12 and left their whole lives in Argentina and his family got broken up. Imagine that kind of a burden. Add to the fact that his dad became his agent because they were betrayed by a few people in Argentiana so he lost his dad there so he was alone. Messi never thought of failure because he felt that he had to make it because of what he had done to his family. He went to Catalonia at a time where Catalan separatism was being passed around so he was discriminated against in la masia (Iniesta had a similar thing). On the pitch people refused to pass the ball to him and his dad said that if he gets the ball he should dribble everybody and score, which he did. From then on they started passing the ball to him all the time.

(The specifics are a bit hazy but you will get the general gist). He played for all levels of the academy within one year (5 teams) before he reached the tea before the first team (a feat only achieved by one certain CRonaldo in Sporting ). He was getting whored around in la masia lol, basically the coaches of a team would meet and say, what team needs a win, Juvenil A? Messi would play for them and score like 3 goals lol. This kept happening and the teams that needed wins would get Messi. Guillem then hinted that the myth of la Masia has been exaggerated which I agree with.

A year before his famous first team debut with the dinho assist, Rijkaard asked the Barcelona athletic coach (Barcelona B it is known as now) to give him a player, he had not seen Messi but Messi's rep was growing amongst the coaches of Barcelona. He was given Messi but took 2 others with him so that A) Messi wouldn't feel alone and B) Get to big headed about getting called up. After watching him play Henk ten Cate went "who the *bleep* is that" in shock and Rijkaards mouth dropped.

A year later he made his debut on the wings and the rest is history. When Messi came to the first team, Dinho and Deco were the bosses. Balague discussed Ronaldinho's depression at the end of the 2006 season and how the club did nothing for him, Ronaldinho losing control going out and drinking and Messi "enjoying himself  " at 18 lol. Rijkaard refused to drop Dinho because he felt that Dinho was a proven trophy winner and he could not just drop him without backlash (Balgue then used SAF as an example of ruthlessness ).

Guardiola came in and replaced Rijkaard and got rid of Dinho and Deco and could not get ridof eto'o straight away. Guardiola had planned to give the whole team to Messi. Basically Messi only saw Pep as some bald catalan dude and did not respect him like Iniesta, Xavi and Puyol did and did not see him as some club legend. The first training session, Messi behaved like a bit of a brat and when Pep tried to ask him what happened he just went nothing nothing and left after training. The next day the same thing and Pep went up to him and said what do you want, I'll do anything and Messi again refused.

Manel Estiarte, pep's personal assistant and who is still with him, was the Messi of water polo and said that he was Messi when he played and that Pep was doing it wrong. Manel Estiarte said if his coach had done what Pep did that he would have not told him the problem as well, so pep figured out that the problem was that Messi wanted to go to the olympics and the rest is history. Again if you don't know that bit go and find it out yourself, I cba to write it up. Manel Estiarte tried finding out about it and went to go and speak to Messi's dad, who is like Messi and said Messi was fine (like Messi in the sense that he is a bit stubborn and just acted like nothing was wrong), Messi saw this and he didn't speak to this man for a year...1 year :lol:They were in the same training ground everyday and Messi did not say one word to him Lionel

A year later I think Pep was ill or something so Manel Estiarte took the training session and everyone left and Messi left last. Both were in the training room and Messi was sat on the other side. Manel Estiarte moved closer, Messi moved further away, Manel Estiarte moved closer again and Messi moved further away and Manel Estiarte moved till he was closer to Messi and they started making small chat. Manel Estiarte then burst into tears asking Messi what he had done wrong because Messi's well being was the club's first priority and Messi said he saw Manel Estiarte speaking to his dad a year ago and Messi's dad was ill so Messi stopped talking to him. Manel Estiarte cleared things up. From that we could see how Messi was, he had massive trust issues which is understandable tbh.

Now Guardiola had a lot of problems in his last season which made him not renew, this included Pique who had lost the plot, Sandro rosel being a *bleep* *bleep*, he wasn't sure how he could improve the team and the growing power of Messi. He was finding it increasingly difficult to get Barcelona off the Messi dependence. How do you bench a guy that scores that many goals? etc

will write up the rest later too tired after that lol

Do you find it odd that a football event was held at whats considered the spiritual home of cricket?

The Messi bit is the last post in the first page for those wondering.

messi behaves like a woman in that story  

andiii wrote:messi behaves like a woman in that story  

Meh. Footballers are not normal. The guy has had a massive burden since he was 12. He has had to be an adult. The guy just has trust issues and thinks about football 24/7. He isn't normal but not in a bad way.

Nothing really interesting to be honest. I have better exclusives about Messi than these guys.

Anyway, this sounds like a pile of crap:

jibers wrote:
He went to Catalonia at a time where Catalan separatism was being passed around so he was discriminated against in la masia (Iniesta had a similar thing). On the pitch people refused to pass the ball to him and his dad said that if he gets the ball he should dribble everybody and score, which he did. From then on they started passing the ball to him all the time.

La Masia is full of foreigners (when messi came too), and Catalan separatism was not really on the rise when he came. It started to increase a lot 5 years ago, not 10. There's no possible reason why an argentine would be discriminated because of catalan separatism, it would be more logical than a spaniard is discriminated.

free_cat wrote:Nothing really interesting to be honest. I have better exclusives about Messi than these guys.

Anyway, this sounds like a pile of crap:

jibers wrote:
He went to Catalonia at a time where Catalan separatism was being passed around so he was discriminated against in la masia (Iniesta had a similar thing). On the pitch people refused to pass the ball to him and his dad said that if he gets the ball he should dribble everybody and score, which he did. From then on they started passing the ball to him all the time.

La Masia is full of foreigners (when messi came too), and Catalan separatism was not really on the rise when he came. It started to increase a lot 5 years ago, not 10. There's no possible reason why an argentine would be discriminated because of catalan separatism, it would be more logical than a spaniard is discriminated.

I'll take Balagues word over yours thanks.