Arrogant Barca's Cesc crimes makes them less than a club

By Brian Reade

Published 22:58 08/07/11

• 

Quiz time: Which club, who've been tapping up the same player for three years, are refusing to break the deadlock in the negotiations because they think it's below them?

A club who feel no need to pay the going rate because, well, they're special.

A club that believes it will get its man, on the cheap, eventually because he is in love with them just like everyone else on the planet. Or as their vice-president put it: "We have the best team in the world so we can afford to be patient."

A club that encourages its players to tap-up and unsettle targets with phrases like "step up to business class" and paints the club they are trying to lure a star away from as cruel bullies.

A club which has got into the habit of making us fall in love with the purity of their football while making us loathe their arrogant attitude to every other team in Europe, who they deem to be inferior. As Arsenal have found out yet again, with Cesc Fabregas.

Barcelona: More than a club on the pitch. But simply clubbable off it.

**

Steve Bruce may just have pulled a few crackers, old and young, in this transfer window. If I was him though, I'd check the small-print in the Wes Brown and John O'Shea deals and be very careful about additions to his coaching staff.

Because I've heard that whenever Sir Alex Ferguson gives two players to one club he inserts a "Vengeance Clause" which states that if they employ his son Darren, then sack him, he has the right to instantly recall the players without giving a reason.

**

I hope the FIFA proposition to split the 2022 World Cup games into three 30-minute segments if temperatures climb too high in Qatar is no joke.

Because the thought of a 75-year-old Harry Redknapp with a knotted hankie on his head, sweating like a sumo wrestler in a sauna, wheezing into a TV mic: "it was a game of free firds, Geoff," would finally make the bent award to Qatar well worthwhile.

Fancy winning £3,000 for FREE this month? Play Mirror Football Streak for your chance to win cash prizes! Start predicting now!