The Spanish Football Thread

Because you guys weren't willing to give your stadium up, despite Barcelona and Bilbao both wanting to play at the Bernabeu?

Also Copa Del Rey 2013.

Football at the top level is dependent on two things; the very best players in the world, and managers. Players like Rakitic, Mathieu, ter Stegen, they have equivalents at other clubs, your Chelseas and PSGs. What separates Barca from everyone else, even Madrid and Bayern , is that they just have so many world truly world class players, in a world where there's a shortage of them. But on top of this abundance of WC players, they have 3 of the best 5 players on earth, one of whom is the greatest players of all time and a solo matchwinner that's so good that he's basically cheating . This team would crush Pep's treble winners.

Try as I might to persuade him, Perez wouldn't budge. I would've thought the Mestalla would be a good venue. It worked well in the 2014 Copa Del Rey final as I'm sure you recall.

120 goals from MSN, becoming the top scoring trio in Spanish history and yet Suarez is in his first season and missed the first 2 months.

120 goals from MSN, becoming the top scoring trio in Spanish history and yet Suarez is in his first season and missed the first 2 months.

Football History!

Football at the top level is also dependent on luck.
I agree they'll beat Peps treble winners.
I'm not sure how much better they are than the 2011 team if anything. Better strike force weaker midfield.

Luck, of course. And he didn't say they'd win the treble every year. Just two in the next 5/6 years. I'm guessing he meant to include this year's treble as one of those two? Even if not..

When you consider that in the last 7 seasons years, Barca, Inter, Bayern and Barca this year have won/will win the treble, and Bayern, Barca, Juve this year (once Barca win), have been one match away from the treble, I don't think it's too hard to envisage this year's Barca, a team whose star players are about to win their 3rd CL in 6 years (4th in 9) and are much better placed for long term success than any of the above teams, will win another treble.

I think Real will improve their team though. They were only two points away from Barcelona this year e.g. and they had better H2H than Barcelona.

It's not as set in stone as it was being suggested. If they were in any other league(other than German league cos Bayern) I'd agree though. They're that much stronger than everybody else and dispatching teams that it's impossible.

Way I see it, last season everybody was saying this Real team were close to unstoppable with Ronaldo+Bale going ham and they only really needed a tweak in one position(DM). This year it's Barcelona, fair enough the attack is great though, but add a top quality ST(no idea who) and a DM/physical box to box player for Real(there are a few floating around at Juve for starters), things don't look as rosy for Barcelona.

Back-to-back trebles will be some ****ing feat.

Barca had a slow start, Lucho's first season at a big club and Suarez didn't get in gear till New Year. Even then they slowed down when the title was all but won/won. I think it's very likely that they threaten the points record in the next two years.

Consider this Barca team; the best collection of individuals of my life time coupled in a wildly successful team philosophy. Asking them to click 1/2 times in 6 years, when they've already done so this year and the spine (read: Messi) has done so many times before, is not that much imo.

Well Madrid is run by a money-grabbing businessman. Barca is run for footballing success. So Madrid will always be there or thereabouts based on the underlying strength of the squad. But when facing the bigger teams or over the course of the season, they will come undone if the manager isn't good enough or if they've just got gaps in the squad, both of which are very possible, given their president.