Probably an unpopular opinion here (and apologies to any Barca fans who might read this) but I really dislike FC Barcelona.
I'm not a fan of Real Madrid or anything, I don't follow LaLiga these days really. But they behave like they're better than everyone else in the world of footy, they even have that 'Mes que en club' motto which is laughable.
There was a reply on Twitter to the Messi news a few hours ago and the guy said "F**k you Barca, I'll follow Messi to his next club". You couldn't make it up really (and yes I realise you don't judge a fanbase on one lunatic's remark on Twitter, I'm sure Barca fans are lovely).
FC Barca are as dodgy as all of the other big clubs around, mine included (Aston Villa). But they behave as if butter wouldn't melt. I'd love to see them do a Juventus now and get chucked into LaLiga 2.
A lot of anger there, ok. I don't know where you get the "they behave like they're better than everyone else in the world of footy", probably from stupid media stories and isolated oppinions of specific players or media figures... but hey you know what? Thats' exactly what a lot of people around here think of Premiere league fans, even british in general, they think they are above the rest. Not my oppinion, I'm not a blind fan and I can perfectly admire as many clubs and cultures as I can, but only for you to understand how things are seen at different sides of the mirror.
A lot of this comes from having an incredibly good team for some years and surely for the antics of specific players at some point, but also from certain matchups with English teams in the early 10s and sour grapes from some people. Barcelona has millions of fans around the world and most of them are just EXACTLY as any fan of any other team right?
About the "Mes que un club", you probably are ignoring where it comes from. It was used in the 50s-70s when there was a dictatorship in Spain that was harsh, but extremely harsh against the Catalan culture. It was forbidden to speak our language, traditions and there was a huge repression. My grand dad spent 2 years in prison for being a Catalanist, he was tortured and never recovered entirely his left arm. During those dark times in which was illegal in Barcelona to gather more than 2 people on the streets, the only place Catalans could freely speak in Catalan and "oppose" the fascist regime was the football stadium. "Mes que un club" means that there was this political message of an oppressed culture behind, it was a symbol. Once the whole stadium whistled the Spanish anthem and the police charged against people and closed it for months. This is when "more than a club" was created. My family did live during this dictatorship and it was terrible, 150k people were killed during Franco's rule from 1939-1975. Pretty laughable motto indeed.
In the 80s, with the transition to democracy, the "Mes que un club" changed a bit and shifted more to a cultural thing and the fact that it was "more than a football club" because Barcelona had teams of 15 different sports (Basketball, Baseball, Indoor football, Handball, Roller hockey, Ice hockey, Rugby, Athletism... even a chess team at some point). People was so proud of this that they used the motto to include this meaning also.
Nowadays is more a marketing statement and it is linked to the fact that Barcelona doesn't belong to an oil mogul or a media billionaire as most big clubs do. Barcelona still belongs to its members, more than 150k, who decide (very wrongly lately) who rules and how to act in big decisions (for example, Barcelona members will freely decide if they want Barcelona in an hypothetical Superleague or not).
Big clubs are big companies and there's not much difference between them, but when a team wins too much or becomes a media darling it's easy to fall on the hater wagon.
Messi was willing to take over 50% paycut, some sources say he was willing to sacrifice more. Griezmann is the drama queen here lad, plain & simple.
lol i respect your opinion either way
