Confessions of a Correspondent : Barcelona

Barca's El Clasico masterclass not a patch on Dion Dublin

Andy Mitten — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 09:30:00 GMT

I was fortunate to witness probably the most complete football performance I’ve ever seen last Monday night as Barca beat Real Madrid 5-0 at Camp Nou.

I can’t recall a side so flawless and so dominant against such quality opposition. Every Barca player was exceptional and worthy of the superlatives lavished on them. Lionel Messi, David Villa, Xavi and Andres Iniesta won most of the plaudits, but their defence was peerless, while Sergio Busquets had his best game in a Barca shirt. I used to consider Busquets a bit of a tool, then I interviewed him and changed my opinion.

I watched El Clasico from the press box, where I was covering the game for various publications. The man from The Telegraph was on my left, a man who probably wasn’t a journalist on my right. He smoked roll-ups throughout and celebrated each Barca goal. He was absolutely buzzing and I was pleased for him, if not by his smoke.

It also made me realise the difference between being a fan and a journalist. I could appreciate that Barca were brilliant, but I felt nothing like the Barca fan when they scored. I love the football Barca play and was happy for their players and my Barca supporting friends, but they’re not my team. They could have won 50-0 and I wouldn’t have felt like I did in 1992 seeing Dion Dublin score a last minute winner from the old caged away end at Southampton’s Dell in the rain.

I’m extremely fortunate to be paid to attend games like El Clasico. Mates came over from Manchester with €300 to buy tickets on the black market and struggled to get in, but watching another team simply doesn’t compare with the team you support. I saw FC United’s magnificent victory at Rochdale in the FA Cup last month. I was standing in the away end surrounded by friends who have worked hard to make FC a success. The atmosphere was brilliant and they were naturally delighted. I applauded when FC scored and smiled at the barmy antics around me, yet felt the same indifference as watching Barca.

It’s not like that with Manchester United. I was distraught when United lost the league in ’92 and Barca beat United 4-0 in ’94 (below). I was elated when United came from 2-0 down to beat Juventus 3-2 in 1999 and enjoyed that more than the famous final itself. You can’t help the way you feel.

I buzzed off the 2008 Champions League final, but was down following defeat in Rome a year later.

Why? What was I supporting? I loathe the Glazers owning Manchester United. Most of the players don’t really care too much about the fans either, so what is it that you support? The history and tradition of the club? The future aspirations? The football? The community and fellow fans?

The only other time I get so involved is if I watch one of my brothers play, my flesh and blood. Because I know the sacrifices they and the family have made, the training and the work. I once went to see my brother play at Barrow away on a Tuesday night. We drove up together, following his team coach and uncertain whether the game would go ahead because of the rain. My brother’s team mates took the piss out of the groundsman who’d worked his backside off to get the pitch sorted and considered the 25 other travelling fans as odd balls. Which, if I’m honest, most were.

I stood alone surrounded by Barrow fans under a big covered terrace. They were not happy, more so when my brother scored an equaliser for a 1-1 draw. I ran down to the front of the terrace like a loon and he came over and celebrated and fans behind me told me to “f*** off”. It was a life affirming moment. Better than Barca 5 Madrid 0? Yes, it was.

Rooney, 3D and a four-year-old

Andy Mitten — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 11:17:00 GMT

Saturday was a troubling day. I watched United throw away a two-goal lead to West Brom. I don’t like watching football in a pub at the best of times, but I was in Barcelona and Old Trafford isn’t.

The last I saw a game in a pub was on 3D in September. I was pleasantly surprised. The pub had six screens, one of which boasted 3D. A dozen people sat in front wearing plastic glasses that were handed out at the bar.

Two fans joined just before kick-off. They weren’t wearing glasses. They complained that the picture wasn’t clear and didn’t appear to notice that they were the only people not wearing glasses, nor that the screen had ‘3D’ on it. It was painful watching them squint, so I said "Excuse me – it’s in 3D mate. You get the glasses behind the bar."

The lad’s brain took a bit of time to process the information, but after two or three minutes he went to the bar and came back. He put the glasses on and squealed like a man who’d just been offered a night with Adriana Lima. His mate was having none of it. He had his own pair of normal glasses and didn’t see why he needed fancy 3D ones. So he watched the whole game squinting – when there was a perfectly normal screen behind him.

Adrian Lima (r): You'd clear your diary

I received a phone call after United’s draw with West Brom. "Ferguson wants Rooney out," said the caller, an A1 contact. A similar contact had told me in March of Rooney’s indiscretions. We printed a veiled version of it in United We Stand, as we didn’t have the resources to prove it. But we knew all wasn’t well. I walked to Camp Nou ahead of Barca’s match with Valencia with the Rooney news buzzing around my head.

Saturday was the first day in my life that I could ring my three brothers and ask them how their games had gone. The 33-year-old is coming to the end of his career, but still playing semi-pro.

The 16-year-old was promoted to Stockport County’s youth team a year ahead of schedule, but it was the four-year-old – our dad’s not dissimilar to Michael Douglas and Rod Stewart – to whom I was most looking forward to speaking. Turning four last week meant that he could join an under-fives team.

I called. Dad told me that the young 'un was playing with a tractor and that he’d try and get his attention. In the meantime, he told me how it had gone.

Upon being introduced to his young charge, the coach offered his hand. The four-year-old had never been offered a hand to shake before. So he did what any aspiring young footballer would do when his new boss offers his hand. He smelt it. Then he tried to touch his cap.

When the game started, he had no concept of the pitch markings and was also far more interested in his own shadow than the ball. "There wasn’t one kid there who'll make it," fumed my dad.

"But dad, he only turned four last week. It was only two weeks ago that he was taught to stop using his hands to stop the ball."

He was having none of it. The breathless four-year-old came on the phone and proudly stated that he’d played "like Rooney," so that tallied with my dad’s version. I didn’t press him further and let him return to his tractor.

But he’d put Rooney back in my mind, until a brilliant game between Barca and Valencia in front of 96,000 submerged it in my thoughts. Despite losing their best players, Valencia have been superb this season – mainly because of their manic coach who parades around his box, smudging the white lines like a madman. No wonder Unai Emery’s family call him "Anxious *rse".

He stated that his team were coming to the Camp Nou to win and they took the lead, before Barca narrowly triumphed 2-1. It was a fascinating encounter, top, top level and great to watch as a neutral. There were a few Scottish journalists over to watch Valencia ahead of the Rangers game, plus others with links to Manchester United. The conversation switched back to Rooney... unfortunately for my peace of mind.

Dating managers, sunburn & Facebook fraud

Andy Mitten — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:12:00 GMT

I write from a tram on the way from Barça’s training ground back to the city centre. I’ve just interviewed Sergio Busquets for a forthcoming issue of FourFourTwo, having spent much of the past few months organising and writing up the feature and interviews with players like David Villa, Andres Iniesta, Pedro and Sergio Busquets. Ibrahimovic spoke candidly too…then moved to Milan.

You need a network of reliable contacts to find out what is happening inside any club. They take years to build up. People you meet for a beer or coffee and help you piece together the jigsaw.

Sources who will tell you invaluable information off the record so you understand context, issues and dynamics at a club like Barca, which has ever-shifting plates of power.

I was given a direct route into the mechanics of Levante last week, when I was in town for the Valencia/United game.

An English lady I met five years ago doing a piece on the Levante v Valencia derby has been a great help when writing about that city. She helpfully fixed an interview with a main man, took me to the stadium, turning heads wherever she went before she dropped me at the Mestalla afterwards. She explained that even though she supported Levante, she’d be going to the game later.

“Have you been to the Mestalla before?” I asked.

“Oh yes,” she replied. “I used to go often. I was with the manager there for four years.”

Well there’s one reason for being so well connected, then. She also moved to Lisbon when her then boyfriend managed Benfica. He’s now at Atletico Madrid. Good on her for looking after her compatriots.

One of the first people I saw at the Mestalla was former Manchester United midfielder Paddy Crerand. He’d forgotten to put sun cream on again and was beaming red. The red-eyed Red with a red face.

“I know,” he said, like a little boy who should know better. And I was introduced to David Pleat, who told me that he used to play with my uncle John at Exeter City.

It made my night, Pleat explaining what type of player he was and describing the time they played Manchester United in an FA Cup tie in 1969. They’d formulated a plan to stop George Best. It didn’t work.

“He didn’t have the pace of his dad (former United winger Charlie),” said Pleat about my uncle. “But he was a great sportsman.”

John also played first class cricket for Leicestershire. I’m starting to feel like a failure for never receiving money to play football, or indeed any other sport, unlike the rest of the family.

That could continue with my brother Sam, a forward who turned 16 last week and is at Stockport County. I watched him against Burnley and he did well.

He spent six weeks at Manchester United last year and scored the winner at Aston Villa away, but Stockport wanted £70,000 for him and United baulked.

He needs to keep his head down, work hard and get lucky, but he got some good advice from Arnau Riera last week.

Arnau was down in Manchester for the weekend after being given two days off from full time training with Sunderland, where Niall Quinn has been first class, inviting a bit part former player back to complete his rehabilitation from a cruciate injury.

Quinn makes a fuss of Arnau and introduced him to Steve Bruce, another former Manchester United man, last week. Bolo Zenden has been supportive too, plus Julio Arca, who is putting him up in the North East.

Arnau told me how he’d requested to be a Facebook friend with his housemate Arca. The Argentinian didn’t respond, so the Spaniard asked him why.

“I don’t have a Facebook account,” said Arca.

“You do, you have 600 friends.”

“What?!”

It was news to him. The Facebook frauds strike again.

Spain win highlights Catalan divide

Andy Mitten — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:02:00 GMT

Over a million people took to the streets of Barcelona at the weekend. A million. Television estimated the figure even higher at 1.4 million as it beamed globally images of the main streets of the Catalan capital, full of people waving their red and yellow flags, singing songs and smiling for the cameras.

The recently departed Barcelona president Joan Laporta was even among the crowds, yet had you worn a Spain shirt to join the mass, your life would have been made very uncomfortable.

Catalans were not on the street to celebrate Spain winning the World Cup for the first time, but to protest against restrictions put on Catalonia’s new autonomy charter by Madrid. Some Catalans want full independence from Spain, others more autonomy. There are many shades of grey in between.

The protest took place the night before the World Cup final. Spain’s victory also brought people onto the streets to celebrate, but nowhere near as many as a day earlier. It also depended on which Barcelona neighbourhood you were in. It’s not divided on religious lines like Belfast, Beirut or Baghdad, but some areas are almost 100% “Spanish” and others almost 100% “Catalan.”

Many people are happy to be both, but areas with a high Spanish population saw parties every bit as passionate as in Madrid, Valencia or Seville. And remember that outside of the Spanish capital, Real Madrid’s second strongest paid up supporter base lies in Barcelona’s suburbs.

Spanish celebrations... in Madrid

There is a strong economic argument for the Catalans, with wealthy Catalonia subsidising poorer areas in southern Spain – much like wealthier European countries supported Spain as it boomed for two decades until 2008.

So what has this got to with football?

The two are intrinsically mixed, though to what degree depends on whom you ask. After finishing his second term in office, Laporta now has political ambitions. A staunch Catalanista, he said last year that he saw the Spanish national side no differently from the English or French national side, that he felt no emotion if they won or lost. Extremists go further and actively celebrate Spain losing, but they are in the minority.

Barça are often seen as the standard bearer for Catalonia, yet if Catalonia gained full independence or a relationship with Spain similar to Scotland and England, international laws mean that Barca would have to play in a Catalan league. Catalans point to AS Monaco playing in France’s Ligue 1, but authorities have made clear that this is the exception.

That would mean saying goodbye to El Clasico and the Primera Liga losing its status as the first or second best domestic league in the world. Catalans had better not look at the example of Yugoslavia, which once had a league containing half a dozen giants, but where Red Star Belgrade now play against village sides as the different Balkan countries have their own leagues.

In Catalonia, the league would be made up of Barca, average crowd 79,000; Espanyol 31,000; Gimnastic Tarragona 6,000; Girona 4,000; Lleida 3,000; Barca B 1,500 and many lesser teams from Palamos to Terrassa - you get the picture.

Ultra nationalists feel that Catalonia takes in Valencia, parts of southern France and the Balearic islands. The feeling is seldom reciprocated.

Catalonia wants to be recognised as a nation, in the same way as Scotland or Wales. Such is the wealth of football talent, their national side would still be one of the best in the world.

From a population of seven million (of whom around two million are not from Catalonia or are second or third generation Spaniards working in Catalonia - part of Franco’s push to dilute Catalanism by shifting population), Catalonia could field stars of magnitude from Valdes, Puyol and Pique at the back, through Xavi, Busquets and Fabregas in midfield, to Bojan up front.

There’s plenty of back-up from emerging Barça stars and established Primera Liga regulars like Espanyol’s Joan Verdu and Moises Hurtado. Their current coach is Johan Cruyff, the Dutchman who inspired Barca’s current style of football, which in turn inspired Spain to become world champions by beating Netherlands.

Catalonia would have a great side, but the domestic league would be weaker than Holland’s.

Another player who once would have made the team was Dani Jarque – the one Andres Iniesta referred to with a message “Dani Jarque always with us” when he scored in Soweto.

A message to Dani

Jarque was Espanyol’s captain until he died in horrific circumstances nearly a year ago. Espanyol were on a pre-season tour of Italy and Jarque was on the phone to his girlfriend, who was seven months pregnant, from a hotel room near Florence. Jarque then suffered a heart attack and died. His desperate girlfriend raised the alarm, but club doctors and Italian paramedics were unable to revive him.

Iniesta – not himself Catalan, coming from Albacete, between Madrid and Valencia but further south – played in the same Spain Under 19 team as Jarque and they won the European championships together. They were close friends and while Barça marked his death fittingly, wearing armbands as a mark of respect in one game and sending their top brass to Espanyol’s stadium, it was Iniesta who was closest to Jarque.

Jarque was a Catalan from Sant Boi on the outskirts of Barcelona, whose population grew from 10,000 in 1940 to its current 80,000 because of immigration from other parts of Spain. There were huge celebrations there last night, with fans singing Viva España.

Confused? You wouldn’t be the first.

More Confessions of a Correspondent

FFT.com: Features * News * Interviews * Home
Interact: Twitter * Facebook * Forums

Messi and Villa already on good terms - unlike Levante and Valencia

Andy Mitten — Wed, 19 May 2010 11:20:00 GMT

The offer to be an embedded journalist with adidas for the day at the launch of their new F50 boot sounded interesting.

I’d be shadowing two footballers - Lionel Messi and David Villa - around the Formula One track near Barcelona. They wouldn’t be racing, but two F1 cars decked out in adidas colours would deliver the new boots that both will wear in South Africa – the theme being ‘fast’ because they’re so light.

I’d have to speak to pit girls and take pictures of the day’s events. They didn’t have to twist my arm. For once, I was going to do what cockneys term ‘large it’.

Two days after the Spanish grand prix had witnessed a crowd of 100,000, I was on the train to the near empty circuit with a €3.20 return ticket. The world’s media were invited, but I was on the other side of the fence.

A lost looking Chinese journalist from Beijing was waiting at the station near the track. He was going to the launch too.

“Where are you from?” he asked.
“Manchester.”
“Ah, industrial,” he said.
“Not at all mate. Manchester’s got the best beaches in Western Europe after Stoke.”

How the other half live indeed...

We shared a taxi to the circuit two miles away. I was allowed in, he wasn’t. How the other half live, eh? I stuck by comrade journalist and got him in. The National Union of Journalists would have been proud, not that they have such unions in China.

“You’ve done well,” said Graham Hunter, who was there for Sky, dryly. Other journalists asked me if I could get them more time with Villa and Messi. I explained that I was supposed to be a fly on the wall and that stuff was nothing to do with me.

As the hack pack waited by the finish line on the racetrack, I was ushered into the garages by the pit lane to meet Messi and Villa. I tried to look as if I wasn’t enjoying it.

“Ah, FourFourTwo,” said one of Messi’s agents.
“Not today,” I replied.
“What about tomorrow?” he asked.
“Actually, I’m not really a journalist,” I lied, “I’m just doing this to raise money. I’ve been offered a trial for a team in Argentina called Newell’s Old Boys. They want an ageing Englishman with a big nose to inject a bit of fight into their club. So I’ll use the money to buy a flight.”

“Seriously?” said Messi, suddenly interested. I had his attention and he was on good form answering questions.

Villa was next. The two get on, which is good news as they’ve since been confirmed as teammates for next season, although at the time any questions from journalists about his future were deadpanned out of respect to his contract with Valencia.

He had a copy of FourFourTwo and was trying to name all the players on the cover. He got them all. I had a list of questions for him, but changed one word in one question to confuse him.

“Why is Cantabria renown as being the best region in the world?” I asked. Villa is proud to be from Asturias. Neighbouring Cantabria is definitely not Asturias in the same way that Manchester isn’t Liverpool.

He looked at my like I was mad before realising. If you’re a defender working out how to mark him and put him off his game, now you know a way into his mind.

I ask the pair to pose for a photo together. Pleasant, normal lads who just happen to be very, very good at association football. Then I told them what I’d do with it.

“I’m going to sell that picture to the Manchester newspaper with the headline, ‘United’s New Signings Spurn The Chance To Be City Mercenaries.”

“I dare you,” laughed one.

David and Lionel are already BFFs

Villa can’t speak English – and nor can Messi for that matter – but he had an English girl, Natalie, on hand, if he wanted to be converse in The Queen’s.

I’d not seen Natalie for five years. She used to work at Levante in Valencia and fixed me an interview with Levante legend Antonio Calpe when FourFourTwo did the More Than A Game derby feature on Valencia v Levante.

Calpe remains one of the best people I’ve ever interviewed. He was a big star at Levante in the 60s and played at Real Madrid for six years. He remained popular in Levante circles – probably their best ever player - but had never been interviewed by a foreign journalist when I asked him.

So he put a suit on and his wife baked some cakes to give to me. He was lovely man. I could have listened to him all day, though I’m sure Natalie had better things to do. His love of Levante was brilliant, and the way he slated Valencia, hilarious.

“Listen, Englishman,” he said with a cheeky smirk. “Valencia are thieves. They should not exist. You shouldn’t even be speaking to people from there for your article. You don’t know what you’ll catch. Levante is the team of Valencia, the pride of the city. Forza Levante!”

Villa might have similar thoughts about Cantabria, but it’ll be another 25 years before he can tell me, and not on adidas’s time.

More Confessions of a Correspondent

FFT.com: Features * News * Interviews * Home
Interact: Twitter * Facebook * Forums

Texts from Forlan, golden geese and Georgie Thompson

Andy Mitten — Wed, 05 May 2010 11:38:00 GMT

Inter Milan were not the only visitors in Barcelona last week. FourFourTwo chief Hugh Sleight came along with Terry Venables, Marcel Desailly and Georgie Thompson from Sky Sports. (Yeah, you would).

They were speaking at some posh do in the Arts hotel, where Manchester United held their post match party in 1999, and where Roy Keane takes his family and lets his 64 kids run wild and enjoy the sea view.

I’ve heard good things about Desailly for a while. A journalist mate who went to Ghana to cover the African Nations met him and was invited to his family home for dinner.

Hugh introduced me to Georgie and Terry, who started telling me about my uncle Charlie. After he finished playing, he became an agent and took Chelsea on a pre-season tour to Sweden when Venables was a player.

Charlie was known as the penalty king when he played for Manchester United and held the club record until Eric Cantona took the crown.

"Charlie was in his 50s, but he was still showing us how to take penalties," recalled Venables. Then the former Barca and England manager paused, looked behind me and said, "Now there’s a pair of strikers." Samuel Eto’o and Diego Milito were not walking past, but a buxom blonde.

I spoke to Gerrard Pique after the Inter game. He was pragmatic, professional and congratulated Inter.

Coach Pep Guardiola and outgoing club president Joan Laporta continued on that theme – which partially made up for Sergio Busquets’ cheating and the small mindedness of Barca officials who switched on the pitch sprinklers to stop the Inter players celebrating.

Most of them were right to ignore this (or dance in the water) as they celebrated in front of the 5,400 travelling fans.

Jose Mourinho was pure theatre after the game. The man has charisma, presence and a self assured arrogance to match Eric Cantona. He’s a genuine genius – though I doubt history will remember Inter’s defensive football as well as his contribution.

The Inter fans were still singing his name on the streets around Camp Nou three hours after the match. He’s their new hero over any player.

Diego Forlan texted after his first goal against Liverpool. He was assured that his name was still sung loud and proud by United fans.

A match going Liverpool fan I like and trust also emailed. ìDon’t believe the hype about Liverpool fans yesterday wanting us to get beaten (against Chelsea). Most I know wanted us to beat the tw*ts.î

Had you watched the Liverpool fans – none of them with Scouse accents - interviewed on Sky Sports, you would have thought that the opposite was true. But then if you judged Manchester United fans on the type of jester-hatted clowns they speak to outside Old Trafford, you’d be under the impression that no United fans come from Manchester...

How the media works, part 2983

You get an idea for an article about different club ownership models. You are particularly interested in the German model and travel to Germany.

Through a series of phone calls and a process of elimination, you develop the right contacts and speak to the best people. It takes nine days in total.

You write the piece. Another journalist reads it and gets in touch for some of the German contacts. You want to help him out. He repeats the gist of your article and speaks to the same people. Hey presto, he’s writes virtually the same article without ever leaving the office...

Glazer and the golden goose

Interesting times at Manchester United. The renewal rate for season tickets so far has been very low and there are plenty of concerned people at the club.

Many United fans have simply had enough of the Glazers and the fact that 70 pence in the pound goes to pay off the club’s debts.

The January bond prospectus made hideous reading for fans, with statements like: "We have been able to consistently increase matchday ticket prices for both general admission and seasonal hospitality seats at levels above the rate of inflation.

"Between the 2006/07 season and the 2008/09 season, weighted average general admission ticket prices for Premier League games increased 8.5 per cent on a compound annual growth rate basis. Furthermore, while other Premier League clubs have experienced a flattening or reduction in ticket prices in response to the economic downturn, we were able to increase aggregate ticket prices for the 2009/10 season by 2.5 per cent."

Ticket prices have risen by an average of 48% since they took over five years ago this month and United have been the only Premiership club to increase ticket prices in each of the last five years – though they have been held for next season.

Such has been the drop in demand the club would have been committing commercial suicide if they had tried to increase prices again. With demand lower and empty seats inside Old Trafford for league games for the first time since 1992 this season, fans no longer need a season ticket to see matches and tickets are regularly sold for less than face value at Old Trafford. The greed of the Glazers is killing the golden goose.

More Confessions of a Correspondent

FFT.com: Features * News * Interviews * Home
Interact: Twitter * Facebook * Forums
FFT reader offer: get £6 off RRP Andy's latest book Glory Glory! – click here and type 'UWS' at checkout

Where everybody despises Barcelona

Andy Mitten — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 10:30:00 GMT

I write from the press box at Camp Nou as Spain’s top vs bottom clash between Barça and Xerez kicks off. A memorial service has just been held in memory of Juan Antonio Samaranch, the corrupt Catalan and former Franco ally who headed the IOC for 21 years between 1980 - 2001.

His venality is overlooked by many in these parts who remember him for his role in bringing the Olympics to Barcelona in 1992, a sporting event which transformed the fortunes of the city.

The crowd is again above 80,000, the Camp Nou’s huge capacity allowing Barça to nudge past Borussia Dortmund and Manchester United as the best supported team in world football this season. Barça are averaging 81,000, Dortmund 76,000, United 74,000, Madrid and Bayern Munich 69,000.

Wednesday night will see another full house against Internazionale. Tickets are changing hands for €300 – although the face value on most is around €100. Barça have become well versed in taking advantage of the tourist dollar and the average ticket price for the Arsenal game was €82, whereas those who pay up at the start of the season benefit from prices well below the Premiership average.

A man has just walked past in a full Real Madrid kit with ‘Sergio Ramos’ on the back - and a blond wig. It’s popular to dress a stag as a Madrid player. Last week, I saw a poor soul wandering around Espanyol’s new stadium dressed as Guti Hernandez. He was carrying a blow-up doll decked out as Lionel Messi.

Guti is cast as a failure here, a joke of a person beyond parody. He must be devastated at how his life as turned out: international-class footballer with 14 seasons as a first-team player for his hometown club, Real Madrid. Some failure, that. Doubtless he looks at his three Champions League medals and five Spanish league title medals and wonders where it all went wrong.

Still, the Catalans obsess about him. I saw hundreds of Barça fans on Rome’s Spanish Steps before the European Cup final last season, not enjoying the moment and celebrating their brilliant side, but singing endlessly about Guti being a homosexual.

Last weekend before the Catalan derby, Barça were on the receiving end of the bile which is part of football culture.

The few tourists who worked around Europe’s no-fly zone and made it to the first-ever derby at Espanyol’s new Cornella home seemed stunned by the hatred. Most were Barça-supporting glory-hunters who had bought overpriced tickets from dubious agencies to see the planet’s team of the moment in their home city. They didn’t appear to have registered that the game wasn’t at the Camp Nou, but 10 kilometres south. There, a new stadium has been squeezed between a motorway and the edge of an uninviting working-class neighbourhood far from Barcelona’s well-worn tourist trail.

Also not understood were the nuances of the cross-city rivalry. The police had told some of the tourists to cover their Barça shirts up, but if they didn’t heed the warnings, hardened Espanyol fans slung so many invectives that they quickly got the message. Barça are loathed there and not welcome.

It didn't matter that Barca coach Pep Guardiola paid a visit to Espanyol’s sparking new 40,000-capacity home the day before the game. He came in peace, brandishing a Barça shirt to swap with his opposite number Mauricio Pochettino. There is a respect between the coaches, but nothing Guardiola does can alter how Espanyol feel about their neighbours.

Espanyol can’t compete with Barça on the pitch. Despite being the seventh-best supported team in Spain this season with average crowds of over 26,000, they haven't finished above their neighbours since 1942. The last three times the Blue and Whites have finished third in the Primera Liga, Barça have occupied second spot.

Off the pitch, it’s different. Espanyol’s fans created a din fit to startle visitors to the frequently sedate Camp Nou. Twenty one minutes into a febrile encounter which finished 0-0, all but the 600 travelling fans in the stadium rose for one minute to applaud the memory of Daniel Jarque, the Espanyol captain who wore number 21 until he died with a heart defect on a pre-season training camp last August.

It was a stirring, emotional sight, but only a brief respite from the anti-Barça abuse which created the most hostile environment Guardiola’s side have encountered all season. Only Madrid come close to equalling it.

The home fans unfurled a giant flag which read "You are not our rivals. You are our enemy." The Barça players had gathered as much when their arrival on the pitch attracted deafening jeers and whistles. Lionel Messi may be lauded around the world, but he’s loathed on the other side of the tracks of the city he calls home. Every time he went to take a corner, a welter of abuse flew his way. There were no pig’s heads, but it was still ferocious.

With just 26 goals all season, Espanyol are the league’s lowest scorers - Messi alone has scored more league goals than the entire Espanyol squad. They were worth their point for the commitment shown and felt they had riled Barça enough for Daniel Alves to be dismissed for a rash tackle. That created another huge din, one which perhaps masked the fact that Espanyol have had a poor opening season at Cornella. They will avoid relegation and few teams take points off Barça, but a club with their infrastructure should be pushing for European places.

Espanyol hate the media’s obsession with Barça. This is frequently justified, but their own fixation with their bigger, better neighbours is just as intense. If only their team could raise their game more frequently and not just save it for when they play Barça. The match certainly gave the football tourists a memorable experience – if not quite the Barça love-in they were expecting.

More Confessions of a Correspondent

FFT.com: Features * News * Interviews * Home
Interact: Twitter * Facebook * Forums
FFT reader offer: get £6 off RRP Andy's latest book Glory Glory! – click here and type 'UWS' at checkout

Hleb, Helmer, Cole, Scholes & Nathan Barley

Andy Mitten — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 10:51:00 GMT

It’s been another week of interviewing footballers – and more besides...

– Watched Lionel Messi FC destroy Stuttgart. After the game, another British journalist and I waited with the understandably downbeat German media for an hour in their mixed zone. There are now two mixed zones at Barça, one for each team.

Virtually every media-savvy Stuttgart player stopped to talk, but we wanted to speak to Jens Lehmann and Alexsandr Hleb. We later discovered that Lehmann, 40, had been the first on the team bus and we’d missed him. Hleb was the last player to come out. His English is OK and he was friendly enough, though still seething that his side had given Messi too much space.

– Had a few beers with Thomas Helmer, the former Bayern Munich captain and 68 times German international. He works as a sports journalist for TV and is very down to earth.

He played 191 games for Bayern Munich and was on the bench in the 1999 Champions League final. I got him to talk me through Sheringham and Solskjaer’s goals, bit by bit. He shook his head as he spoke. There’s still pain there. He was much happier reminiscing about winning Euro 96 at Wembley.

He had a great career, which included an unhappy spell at Sunderland. As Bayern club captain, he was often the peacemaker between the warring factions of Lothar Matthaeus and Jurgen Klinsmann. Franz Beckenbauer would summon Thomas and his actress wife to his house in Austria for summit meetings to discuss the egos in the Bayern dressing room.

– Flew to Manchester the next day. United had a game against Liverpool - a team who used to win the league in the '70s and '80s. Before that, I was invited to be a guest on the BBC World Service on Saturday afternoon to discuss the protests at Manchester United. The BBC really did their homework and had some top quality opinions from around the globe, including one NFL franchise owner who stuck up for the Glazers.

Most United fans don’t feel the same. I stood with a couple of the grafters before the game and watched them sell out of green and gold scarves. The protest has been the biggest shot in the arm for the Manchester swag industry – and it’s helped that the club can hardly sell official green and gold scarves.

– Met Andrew Cole in Manchester for a three-hour discussion. He’s up for doing an autobiography, but it has to be warts and all. His chapter in my last book really surprised people and he gets better with every conversation. Some of his stories are absolutely scandalous. Andrew is also extremely reliable. We do a column once a week and he’s on the phone if I’m late calling him. I like that.

He’d been at Cheltenham the day before for the races; drunks still come up to him, point at his head and sing the "he gets the ball and scores a goal" song. I think they want him to join in and bounce around with them.

– Went to City vs Everton. Put a cap and scarf on (not a green and gold one) and went with two City mates. I’ll be writing a lot about both teams and wanted to get up to date on the Baines and Bellamys. You see far more at the game – on and off the field - in comparison with television.

My ticket was in the Everton end so I couldn’t really speak, what with my Man-ches-tor accent. I sat there as everyone around me sang "Manchester is full of sh*t." “It’s not!” I didn’t stand up and shout. “You should give it a chance and stop being so uncharitable.”

Everton were very impressive, especially in their gameplan: they smothered City in the middle and didn’t let them play. They can also call upon excellent flair players like Arteta, Saha and Pienaar.

– Went to that London because that’s where all the cockney media live and meetings take place. First stop was the lively Exmouth Market, which was full of Nathan Barley types who have never been north of Buckinghamshire.

One who's definitely not like that is Mark Ellingham, the founder of the Rough Guides, who is a United fan. We’ve done several books together and talked about future ideas.

– Went to meet Luke Bainbridge in a nearby café. Luke was editor of City Life magazine in Manchester and until recently on the now-defunct Observer Music Magazine. It’s a shame that closed, but then the Guardian Media Group give everything away for free online these days and – perish the thought – you had to pay for The Observer to get its music magazine.

I waited for Luke by a lady in a wheelchair, who was very chirpy. She was a Scouser from Anfield and, despite not liking football, gave me loads of abuse for being a United fan!

– Met James Scowcroft, who's still playing at Leyton Orient. Great lad. He’s been buying UWS for years and is really into fan culture. It’s heartwarming when a footballer is so interested in the fans and he had endless questions about ticket allocations and atmospheres. He’s read loads of books on football and is full of stories about playing against all the big names.

Top-of-the-table Norwich City are coming to Leyton Orient soon and he’s expecting loads of abuse because he played in the best Ipswich team since the '70s. “I’ll have 3,000 people slaughtering me,” he said. “So I’ll just look right into the eyes of one of them and watch them freak out. Then I’ll be focused.”

– Finally, interviewed a lad called Paul Scholes for United We Stand. He hates interviews and was better off the record than on it. We invited readers to send questions in and got this belter: “Why didn’t your only son, Jesus Christ, inherit your ginger hair?”

He laughed at that one and shook his head.

More Confessions of a Correspondent

FFT.com: Features * News * Interviews * Home
Interact: Twitter * Facebook * Forums
FFT reader offer: get £6 off RRP Andy's latest book Glory Glory! – click here and type 'UWS' at checkout