Estimat Frank

I don't know where to start, I don't know where to end. I always had faith in you, I always believed in you, I always thought that you will cut it in the end and all of the stuff said about you, regarding tactical inflexibility and whatever else was just rubbish.
I knew and expected you to be better, the best possible coach this team can have and your level of tactical knowledge good enough.
So please tell me, how could you blow it that bad last night?
Ok, you gambled on Ronaldinho's pride. Well, the guy has no pride, but either way, you gambled. But why didn't you take him off once you should have realized that he is not working?
Henry was not fully fit, fair enough, you didn't play him. But why didn't you bring in Gudjohnsen as an example to help out Eto'o in attack, to hold the ball for him, to play in his path, to do something apart of letting him die upfront alone against Cannavarro and Pepe? Why didn't you react to the fact that Yaya, who btw. was one of few players outstanding and playing like a man, being pressured by Van Nistelrooy and Robinho, to the man-to-man defense of Baptista against Xavi or anything else?
Why didn't you try to solve the problems but instead of that brought in Giovani, who wasn't the cure of the problem?
Why Frank? What did you try to prove with playing Ronaldinho for 90 minutes against Ramos, knowing that he is lost? Why didn't you tell him to switch sides with Iniesta, to move at all, to do something, anything? Why didn't you react??
You let me down, you let us down, you went from Frank White to Frank Elsner.
If you have enough and want to retire then do it, but you don't need to blow a game like that, because in the end, you took the decisions of that game and you blew it, as sorry as I am to say it.
I'm not over this defeat and I won't be for some time. Yesterday you officially declared that an era was over.

S'acaba una era

London Calling for Ronaldinho

And I heard that he likes theatre..



btw. doesn't he look like Scarface?

For thousand reasons

For Messi
For Last Season
For Eto'o
For Milito
For the two chulos Schuster and Mijatovic
For Getafe
For Cannavarro
For Henry
For Ronaldinho
For Antena 3
For Tomas Roncero
For Rijkaard
For Barca
For the people who pay your wages
For the fans
For Jose Maria Aznar
For Marca
For Fabian Ortiz
For that Rabbit
For the end of the cycle
For history
For your pride
For the shame of last season
For Txiki
For Manuel Vazquez Montalban
For Sant Jordi
For everything said about you since last year
For Partido Popular
For the fascists
For Zapatero
For the record
For Me and all other socis
For Rashid
For 1000 more reasons...

The Dutch Frank White

I talked before about Rijkaard's role and compared to movie characters. I guess he has found his role now, he is Frank White.


He is a good and nice gangster, with warm heart, but he's still a gangster.



I'm extremely bad in photoshopping btw. but I'm good in knowing Biggie lyrics by heart. If anyone could do this one with Rijkaard and Eto'o's face on it, he or she will have a special place in my heart.



I grew up a fuckin screw-up
Got introduced to the game, got a ounce and fuckin blew up
Choppin rocks overnight
The nigga Biggie Smalls tryin to turn into the black Frank White
We had to grow dreads to change our description
Two cops is on the milk box missin
Show they toes you know they got stepped on
A fist full of bullets a chest full of Teflon
Run from the police picture that, nigga I'm too fat
I fuck around and catch a asthma attack (*heavy breathing*)
That's why I bust back, it don't phase me
When he drop, take his glock, and I'm Swayze
Celebrate my escape, sold the glock, bought some weight
Laid back, I got some money to make

Barely Breaking Even

There was a discount offer at BBE and although I could use my santa money for something else, I somehow had the urge to spend the money on some records I always wanted to buy but never did.
The offer was 50% off on everything. In the end, I ordered 4 CDs I might have been able to download too, but I felt like supporting good music, so I did.
Somehow, I have little problems downloading music from majors, but even then, if the album was good, I still go and support it.(I realise that I talked about this in some post before, but either way..)
But I can't do anything else but support BBE. BBE is a label run by Pete Adarkwah, who is also an Arsenal fan, like all decent people in London. It's run by music fans and it gives the people working with them an incredible amount of freedom. When a record is released on BBE, you really feel that these guys are real fans of music and they released an album they would buy and listen to themselves.
They also had a pretty big 11th anniversary party, where DJ Premier and Marley Marl were on the decks. I personally would have broken an ankle to be there, but couldn't make it by any means to London.(Jazzy Jeff was at their 10th anniversary...that's leg and ankle)
Either way, I personally believe that music needs more labels and people like Pete, BBE, ABB, Saddle Creek, Ed Banger and whatever else. These people really try to change music and the way the industry is going. If you like music, support is a must for these people.

Obregado Jose!

Dear Jose,

You probably won't read this, as I hardly doubt that you read blogs. 2 years ago, when you passed me by with your iPod in ears, I didn't ask for a picture with you or an autograph, although you were willing to give one to anyone. Somehow, unfortunately, I had a bad picture of you in mind as a guy too soft in duels and tackles, who loses the ball too often and whose work Motta and Marquez could do better too. Then this season Yaya came and I saw my ideal 6 for Barca and kissed you goodbye. I forgot and didn't care anymore about your Milan games, about the fact that both Xavi and Deco played better with you behind them and about everything else you did without people noticing it. I never took you serious.
Then you had this interview, where you just told the truth and when a mild mannered guy like you says "Honestly, I have enough", then it means a lot.
Now you are not saluted really in the public but people say that you did something wrong. But what did you do wrong? Stating the obvious? Telling some people to wake up? Codigo intern and other bullshit? Screw it!
For what you did, you showed that you are a real leader and you don't have to say sorry for anything. You didn't sugarcoat it, you just said it as it is.
I have to say sorry for being an idiot and not knowing your true worth.

Obregado Jose for daring to say it and not talking bullshit like everyone else.

Rijkaard

These are the most difficult days for Rijkaard since the first year, where he was about to get fired, but the acquisition of Davids and the later run saved him.
Back then it looked as if he was not capable of starting an era, now it looks as if his era has come to an end. In between, there was always the same criticism and stuff said about him: that he is tactically not good, he is not good enough as a coach for Barca, that he has luck having these players...etc.
To me it's still incredible that a guy who has been the most succesful Barcelona coach after Johann Cruijff is not getting the credit and praise he rightfully deserves. He had a good team? Robson had an even better team, Van Gaal spent much more money on players and had a team just as good and not to mention all the coaches before and after, who didn't have a bit of his success, like Menotti having the luxury to have two of the history's best midfields in Schuster and Maradona etc.
It's also interesting that one of the best defensive midfields in football history, a guy who was the brain of the great Milan side, who as a player could read the game like few others could, is called tactically unaware. How does that work?
Or maybe it was Henk Ten Caate, the guy who was an absolute ace as an assistant, but so far has failed everywhere as a coach? Alright, a coach is dependent on his assistants reporting, helping him out with the right line-up etc. So what's the news?? Or do they think that as an example Jose came up with everything on his own?
The problem of Frank lies deeper and that's with his character and the character of his team. Frank believes in the intelligence of his pupils and the fact that all of them are professional and mature enough to give everything for their common goal, their employer, the club that pays them the mansion, cars and everything else. He somehow believes that he is just a coach who has to make decisions and tell what way the club has to go, and doesn't believe that he has to play daddy to mid-20 guys. He believes that the guys are grown up and should come up with a solution to their mental problems on their own, because that's how it works in real life. Which worker simply stops working because he had beef with his wife at home or who would skip work after going clubbing the night before? Frank has to deal with too many kids, and the grown up and more mature kids, the kids who always want to be first and win no matter what, they have either too little influence on the squad or are out injured right now. If you like it, Frank is like Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society, or De Niro in Sleepers, while right now he needs to be like De Niro in Godfather or Goodfellas. He needs to be Vito or Michael, or well, he has to be Michael.

To explain this, Michael is just overprotective and wants to have everything under control. He doesn't go easy, he is sort of brilliant and he knows it, he didn't want to be in this game probably, definetly not that long, so he has a professional distance to it, and if he has to make difficult decisions, like kill his brother, he does it. Managers that are very much like Michael are Sir Alex and Jose Mourinho. Look through Sir Alex career on his relationship with big players and he handled them once they got too much. He simply waved them goodbye! Could anyone imagine Frank handling let's say Paul Ince, Beckham or Van Nistelrooy like that? Or would Frank ever sub Ronaldinho or Messi out after 18 minutes, because he didn't like what they played, like Jose did? He wouldn't. He also can't as he simply is not like that. He respects and treats players like grown-ups, unlike other managers. That's why I personally believe that as an example Van Basten would be an ace as club manager, because he has that Michael character. When a player doesn't perform, he doesn't call him up and he also doesn't care about the media.
The other view of success is the utter pragmatism and rationality shown by Wenger. Wenger, unlike Mourinho or Ferguson, is not Michael, but he is at least Tom Hagen, the guy who runs the business like no other. He does everything in a subtle way. He would never sub a player out after 18 minutes, but he would bench him the next 20 games and sell him in summer. He, like Rijkaard, treats players with respect and as mature beings, but unlike Rijkaard, he has full control over the club and can do whatever he likes, and he doesn't have a press like Rijkaard has in Barcelona.
So as an example, if Wenger decides to give time to a player like Da Silva or Adebayor to settle in, or decides to do this or that with training and medical board, he has the full authority, and nobody really comments, which is not the case with Rijkaard.
So overall, I see the problem with him in his character rather than in his footballing intelligence or work and his character might just eventually leave to Barca losing to Espanyol and him retiring on his own then or him retiring at the end of this season without the success this talented team was supposed to have, without winning the titles they could have. It's simply impossible to be Robin Williams one day and Al Pacino the other, Oh Captain my Captain in the morning, and Michael at night. He might just try to be Father Bobby one day and the young Vito Corleone the other day, but that's about it.
I still hope for a miracle,me being wrong and that a change happens, the squad realizes what they have with Frank before it's too late. Maybe someone should play them some Joni Mitchell or Got til it's gone from Janet, so that they realize that they don't know what they got til it's gone and how much their life will be more difficult with Van Basten or Mou in charge and that Frank is the best thing that could have happened to them, but, I somehow have stopped to believe in the intelligence of some players and with Eto'o and Deco injured for the upcoming crucial games, I don't see the turnaround coming.

Additional read: One of the best(if not the best) interviews with Frank I have ever read courtesy of artversussport