Book Review - Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World.

February saw the release of the much anticipated book about FC Barcelona’s current team, Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World, by Graham Hunter. The book delves into how the current team managed by Guardiola took on the world and became one of the best teams in world and perhaps one of the best ever. The book is a must have for Barça fans who will not be disappointed by Mr. Hunter’s well researched and insightful book.
Barça fans have been blessed to witness the great achievements made by the current Barcelona team ever since Guardiola took over the helm of the first team. However, the same fans have lamented the fact that we have not seen many books in English that talked about FC Barcelona this past decade. In fact, there haven’t been that many books about FC Barcelona in English at all. For many of us Barça fans, Jimmy Burns’s Book, Barça: A People's Passion, was the only book that talked about the history of the club up to the year 2000.
Much has changed in these past 12 years but not much had been written about it. Many fans longed for a follow up to Mr. Burns’s book and it’s safe to say that Mr. Hunter has done just that. Even though many of us consider sequels to be inferior to the original, it is safe to say that this book is a great book .The book gives us the good, the bad and the ugly that has transpired at the club during the reign of former presidents Gaspart and Laporta and current president Rosell.

To many Cules, Graham Hunter is a recognizable name thanks to his work on Revista De La Liga program for Sky Sports, his columns for ESPN Soccernet and UEFA along with his duties serving as online match text commentary for UEFA on their website. Now, some would accuse Mr. Hunter of being a closet Cule but the Scotsman is an Aberdeen fan who happens to live in Barcelona and admires the club. Fortunately for us Barça fans, as a result of his hard work, this great reporter has given us a great book.

Like I stated before, this book looks back at how the club had fallen during the Gaspart times, then risen under Laporta before suffering a slight dip before Guardiola came in and ushered a new era. Mr. Hunter gives us the lowdown on Guardiola’s career as a player at and away from Barcelona and what he has accomplished as a manager. He also gives us an insight on most of the starting players’ past, such as Xavi, Iniesta and Messi and what it cost them to climb through the ranks before finally becoming valued starters. Mr. Hunter also provides us with a great understanding on how the club has used La Masia to its advantage. On top of it, Mr. Hunter reveals unknown gems such as what Pique had to go through to recover the nets after the World Cup Final in South Africa, which world class starters almost were loaned out to other clubs early into their Barça careers, the bad deeds of former players that caused their exit and just how close the club was to signing Mourinho as Rijkaard’s replacement and why they opted not to, which could explain Mourinho’s with Barcelona right now.

Is this book better than Jimmy Burns’s book? That’s not a fair question to ask. They are both must-have great books with each serving a purpose for us die hard Cules. One covers the history of the club and the other picks up right where the last book left off and given us an amazing breakdown of what the club, Guardiola and the players have went through over the years. The book is over 400 pages and you can’t put it down once you start reading. There are people who have already read the book twice and I plan on doing that again in the future. Even more impressive is the design of the paperback which makes it easy to read without destroying or bending the cover or the book itself.

The book is available in both paperback and eBook formats and can be bought on Amazon and from the publishers. I was fortunate enough to buy one last month from the publishers, BackPage Press, which was signed by Mr. Hunter himself. I recently contacted the publishers and they informed me that they were running low on signed copies. So if you are interested in getting a signed copy, I was just informed that they no longer have any signed books for sale. However, if you are interested in purchasing a copy, then please contact the publishers at backpage@backpagepress.co.uk as soon as possible.

Overall, this is a must have book for all Cules who will not be disappointed. Finally, a book for us Cules to enjoy and relive the joy of the success that Guardiola and the players have given us over the years. Also, if I may be so bold to suggest that if Mr. Hunter is ever in Miami, he would be a fine candidate to be made an honorary member of the Miami Penya. Buy this book because you won’t regret it.

It’s too soon for greatest team ever talk.

Barça & the Media – Lack of exposure in the US and Lack of action against false media stories.

As FC Barcelona ushers in a new era under President Sandro Rosell, it’s puzzling how the club has dealt with the media regarding its lack of exposure in the US via Barça TV and its nonexistent or unavailable online Barça TV service. Additionally, the club’s lack of action against other media outlets fabricating stories and painting the club and its players in a bad image is disheartening. Why do we have to rely on just Sid Lowe and Graham Hunter to stick up for the club and not threaten legal action itself against the Daily Express and Marca? This is a new era and this is a great time to usher in new changes and take advantage of promoting the club when it is considered one of the greatest in the world. Opportunity is knocking, so will the club answer?


I want to first emphasize that is not a direct attack at club president Sandro Rosell. Those who know me know I am not a big admirer of him but this is not an attack at the president as much as it is call for the club to address this problem that I feel many Barça fans are dealing with. I am upset that there is no US media outlet showing Barça TV and that the online version of Barça TV no longer exists. I am upset that the Daily Express can go ahead and print made up interviews with our players that depict them and the club in a negative light and yet the club fails to come out and denounce these interviews. I am disappointed that the club does not respond to Marca’s garbage cover depicting our manager Guardiola as refusing to shake Real Madrid’s hands. I really think that the club’s image is hampered by lack of exposure and its failure to fight back at the media outlets who try to make a mockery of our beloved club.


Barça TV first made its debut in 1999 as Canal Barça as the rights were held by Telefónica Sports. In 2004, the club regained total control of the channel and renamed it Barça TV. Over the years, Barça TV was used by the club to show exclusive coverage of player signings, interviews, highlights of former players, archived matches from the past and replays of current matches. To expand its appeal across the globe, Barça TV aired in Catalan, in Spanish and in English. We were fortunate enough to be able to catch some of what Barça TV offered when Fox Soccer Channel presented a Barça TV segment. That usually consisted of matches from years ago and replays of the most recent Champions League match with some highlights regarding past and present players. Fast forward to now, and I checked FSC and Barça TV was not listed and overall, it is not on the air in the US. In a day where we have Gol TV, FSC, ESPN Deportes and ESPN 3 providing us ton of football coverage, Barça TV is nowhere to be seen when they are
considered one of the best clubs in the world. It was nice that ESPN Deportes showed us the Joan Gamper Trofeo match while the Supercopa was never aired in the US and that is mostly the LFP’s fault for not trying to promote its league properly.


Barça TV Online was launched back in 2007 and allowed fans to subscribe to their service and enjoy the channel online. That was a great idea that would attract more fans to the club. However, have you checked it out lately and tried to access it? Pay a visit to the English Barça TV page on the official site where it asks you to choose either Canal TV or ON LINE and then click on ON LINE and see where it takes you. Surprised? I sure am. I expect that from a fan site but not from an official club’s website. Just recently, the club announced on its website that Barça TV underwent a new look with a new slogan – “Back to Normal People.” Well, here’s hoping that these issues get resolved so we can have Barça TV back in the US airwaves and thus better promote the club to a growing fan base here in the US.

This past summer transfer window saw the club painted in a negative light when its pursuit of Cesc was not warmly welcomed. Part of the problem was some of the club’s players such as Puyol and Xavi making some pretty blatant and tasteless comments that made them look like jerks. The Daily Express supposedly had an interview with Xavi in which he said that Cesc was basically on loan at Arsenal while The Sun published an interview with Puyol saying “He is having to stay at a club where he no longer wants to be for another year”. David Villa supposedly had an interview with The Sun and there was also a story about Messi tweeting “The Villa vs. West Ham match is really exciting – Ashley Young is having a blinder”. Here’s the thing though, these players never ever said those things. It appears to be common knowledge among Barcelona fans that these players never said it. Messi doesn’t even have a twitter page, that was a fake account. Puyol does have a personal blog and stated “Hola a todos, estos últimos días en aalgún medio de comunicación inglés han salido unas declaraciones supuestamente mías que son totalmente falsas, las acabo de ver ahora y puedo asegurar que no he dicho nada ni he hablado con nadie sobre este tema. Saludos.” ( translation courtesy of Totalbarca.com -“Hi everyone, these past days a British news media outlet has published some statements supposedly mine that are totally fasse, I just saw them and I can guarantee that I have not said anything nor talked to anybody about this subject. Cheers.”)

Pretty outrageous and we actually had Sid Lowe come to the rescue when asked about these interviews in his article about Zlatan’s transfer. Here was his reply - “I am absolutely bloody furious about this and it has become a constant this summer. The quotes are almost entirely concocted and I am pretty sure that I know how it is happening. Me and a couple of other journalists who actually try (yes, yes, don't always succeed) to do the job properly and who are here in Spain are trying to do something about it. But it's not easy.” It was great to see someone come out and explain it to everybody, especially the EPL fans, that the stories were bogus.

This is not just limited to the English press, but Madrid daily Marca resorted to its shameful procedure of creating something out o nothing when its cover page depicted our manager Pep Guardiol not wanting to shake Mourinho’s hand as he put his hand out What the poor excuse of a sport daily failed to do was show the hug between Guardiola and Mourinho.

Fortunately, Graham Hunter came to the rescue and said on his twitter account (have to scroll down to dig it up) – “Marca front page not cheeky, just false this am. Snatched pic from Pep, Mou & Platini CHAT. Mou making point. NOT Pep rejecting handshake.” As much as I was pleased to see some journalists out there actually doing a great honor to their profession and sticking up for the club, where was the club in all this?

It would have been nice for the club to come out and threaten legal against all those publication that published these fake interviews. The club recently stated that they were on good terms with Arsenal or rebuilding their relationship but I am sure denouncing those interviews help a lot more especially when it seems many bought those interviews hook, line and sinker. The club should always back its players and this was a situation where they dropped the ball. By remaining silent, they are allowing for further fake interviews to be released in the near future. As for Marca, the club perhaps doesn’t want to dignify Marca’s cover with a response but coming out with a polite but cheeky reply to make them look bad would have been nice. We know the Madrid sports daily will have their moments where we have to roll our eyes but perhaps the club should sometimes come out and denounce these types of covers solely created to generate more sales. The image of the club is very important and we cannot allow other to sully it with over the top generalizations or fake interviews.