Ayo Akamalere (3:40)

Okay, you can take a breath now, Paul. Thank you very much. That was incredible. Really good. All right, let's come to you next because you know, you were at Laporta's press conference yesterday and he's accused Barca's critics of trying to destabilize the club. You know, what was it like being there, first of all. But I hear things like this and I'm thinking, is he trying to create some sort of siege mentality? It's them versus us, you know, we're the good guys, everyone out there are the bad guys.

Dermot Corrigan (4:09)

Yeah, it was almost like this, to be honest. I think he had an opportunity to be transparent and to be self critical and to say we are going to do things better. And instead he decided just to say we won against everything and against everyone. I think it was like the main focus of his speech and just to defend himself from the critics, as you were saying. So it was kind of strange. It was like a really long press conference. It lasted for an hour and 47 minutes. 47 minutes more than expected. Not all the journalists were able to to ask like the president our question. So it was more like you had an opportunity to do things right and you didn't take that. So this is how I saw like the press conference.

Ayo Akamalere (4:57)

Yeah, for sure. Paul. And any comments from the media, from fans after that press conference, what's the feedback?

Paul Ballus (5:03)

I think that the feedback, I mean it's a bit different depending on the size that you're asking for. I think that Laporta was doing this Sort of narrative that you were saying, we are the good ones, they are the bad guys, and we won despite that. But this is a sort of narrative that he's one fan base over over the last few years. That's how he's done it. At the end of the day, being Barcelona president is about convincing the people who can vote for you. And that's not that many people as Barcelona fans are in the wall, because there have to be people who are in Barcelona who can go and vote on election days. And this is the sort of narrative that Laporta is aware that he has to do in terms of being popular among the fan base and among the people that can make him president. But then I think that if you ask around media, despite the media, who is really close to the club or embedded to the club, I don't know if it's the right word, but I guess that you can understand the concept. I think that the general viewing from what has happened in Barcelona is that this has been a mess and this has not been great, and that the handling of the whole situation, despite whatever criteria Laporta can argue that La Liga had or the Spanish had, Barcelona had four months to fix that situation, and they ended up going until the very last day. And that's not a great look, no matter what side you look at it. And I think that this is the general view that media has. But again, and as Laija said at the start of this podcast, I think that Laporte is also aware and he knows that the opposition that he has is really weak. It's not strong enough to present some sort of trouble to him. And that's why he proclaims and he stays with that powerful speech or powerful narrative. And he wants to be the big man because he knows that no one else can be bigger than him at the minute.

Ayo Akamalere (6:45)

Yeah, Paul talks about this whole saga not being a great look. Laporta also responded to Barcelona Raphinha's suggestion that players could question whether or not to come and join Barcelona in the future over this whole registration saga. Firstly, what do you make of those comments? And also, what has Laporta sort of said in reply to that?

Ian McIntosh (7:07)

Last week, when Almost wasn't able to to play for Barcelona, it looked like maybe he was going to, you know, be able to leave for free and join another club in January? Rafinha said some pretty standard comments about how, you know, maybe other players would look at it and wonder whether it's a good idea to move to Barcelona if they're not able to register players. That was reported in the Catalan media. We picked it up as well on the attack. And then yesterday, while Laporta was going through his. His victory lap, really, and lashing out at different enemies, he just said that was fake news. He. He accused the. The reporter who asked the question of having, you know, misquoted Raphinha, taking his words out of context, which I don't think was really true, but it just shows how important he was. He'd been so relieved, I think, because it was so. The pressure had been building up so much over the last weeks and months on him and Barcelona's team. You know, before Christmas, the team started to lose a lot of games. They lost three home games in a row. The opposition to Laporta were trying to take advantage of that as well and put pressure on him. And the pressure was building and building up until. Not that Laporta came up with this amazing scheme to get out of the position. It's that Barca's lawyers came up with a really good plan that was able to convince the Spanish government to give them a reprieve for three months. It's not that Barca have won this legal argument with La Liga and that Laporta has been proven right and that all along he was doing the best thing for Barcelona. It's that they got themselves into a really difficult situation. La Liga also played really tough with them, you know, by setting that deadline and then refusing to. To give them even a little bit of leeway to register the players. But Laporta didn't come up with a magic solution to it. The lawyers got them out of the jam that they were in, and then they beat Real Madrid in the game. I think if the game had gone differently, the press conference would have been very different as well, because, you know, winning at Classico against Real Madrid in such a fashion, you know, five, two scoreline goals, flying in all over the place, Madrid in disarray. That's hugely helpful for Laporta as well. That meant that he could go in there and, you know, nobody was going to be criticizing him, really, after winning the Classico, and he could take aim at whoever he wants, but it's a temporary reprieve. We're going to have to see how things work out over three months and see how things go over the rest of the season, as well as to the. The point about whether other players would want to come and join Barcelona. We've been wondering this for a while because, you know, it's not the first time that Barca have had trouble trying to. To register a player, you know, going back through. Through different transfer window. But Barca is still such a huge club. It still has such an allure. You get to go and play with, you know, an amazing team as well. You have a chance to win the Champions League, chance to win La Liga. So it depends on the player, maybe, but I don't think it's the case that nobody's going to want to join them. But maybe, as Rafinha said, people will think twice, and especially depending on how things go after these three months are over and what happens with Olmes in the future.

Paul Ballus (9:43)

Just like to add something on what Drermond said, which I absolutely agree with. I mean, if you go back to the timeline of how things went when, when Raphinha said those quotes, the players had absolutely no clue if Danielmo would have been able to play. So. And that they were concerned about this and they were suffering about their teammates and everything. So when Raphinha goes to that press conference, the dressing, the. The atmosphere in the dressing room is like sort of taking care of your teammate. Like, this guy is struggling. He doesn't know if he's going to be able to play for the club. He's my brother and I want to support him. And there's like this small detail just before he starts giving this answer, where he looks at the press officer of the team, he looks at him and says, right. With a look that means like, okay, I'm going to say this. And then he, boom, drops the bomb. So I don't think that the words were tweaked. Raphinha wanted to say that. That's true, that in the second part of the question here, he also responds, saying that he lost the club and that he doesn't regret his choice, that he's a Barca fan since he's a kid, blah, blah, blah. But, yeah, I mean, if you look back, as I was saying, at the timeline and how players lived through that, at that moment, they just didn't know and they were suffering for their teammates. Then on that very same day, at the night, the first news broke in terms of, wow, this could happen. Like, the Spanish government could approve the temporary permission for Olmo and Pawitur to play. And then the very next day is when the news came out officially. But when Raphinha speaks, it was all a bit of a gray territory.

Dermot Corrigan (11:11)

Yeah. And I would say also that Laporta said that the media outlets who kind of duped him and who made him said a thing that he didn't want to say. And I think we all know that Raphinha knows like the game and he was speaking as a captain for the team and I think his words were accurate to the situation. And he spoke about the greatness of the club, but not the greatness of the people who are ruling the club. That's the big difference, I would say.

Ayo Akamalere (11:40)

Yeah. I was also thinking, you know, is Laporta helped LAA by the fact that this is Barcelona. I mean, this is one of the big teams in the world. Don't get me wrong. Registering a player is one thing, but if Barcelona make an approach to many players, they would love to play for this great club. It's a great brand. Wearing that shirt still has some weight to it.

Dermot Corrigan (11:59)

Yeah, obviously. But at the same time, they are still workers and they have to have some stability in their lives and knowing where are they going to live the next month because like the situation that Dani Olmo and Paw Victor had to struggle these last two weeks is absolutely insane. And I can get that the people is like, okay, I want to play for a really big club, but I want to know what is going to happen with my, with my life. And Laporta is also playing with the fact that he knows that everybody thinks that he's like the best president Barcelona has had in the first part of his presidency in 2003, not now, obviously. And everybody is thinking he's going to make it because he has, I would say one thing that can be good or bad depending on the situation, but he knows how to sell excitement, illusion. And this has like, as I would, as I was saying, good part, which was like that in a really dark times for Barcelona, he was able to bring some joy to the, to the fans. But it comes also with frustration because when you are saying things that are not happening, at the end of the day, you realize that this is not true or that you maybe have been lied or whatever. And by him saying, okay, we're going to go back to camp Nou before 2024 ends and we are in 2025 and we don't have any information on when Barcelona is going to be back at Camno. If you don't know it, it's better not to say it because then people is going to get frustrated. And I can get it. I think people, if you tell them, okay, like the work for Camno is going to last for two years, people just accept it. The thing is, when you feel that you have been lied, but when things are still working and he's able to at least temporary register Dani Olmo, people is like he done it again. It is not that he done it again. He put two players in a situation that they shouldn't be in. So that's the fact with Laporta, it's.

Ian McIntosh (13:54)

Always improvising like it always has been. Even going back to his first presidency, you know, he was in trouble in his first presidency as well. Lots of directors resigned from the board, there was a vote on the fans. And whether he was going to continue or not, he kept improvising. At that stage, he threw in a coach called Pep Guardiola when things didn't look so good for him.

Ayo Akamalere (14:11)

He always finds a way just pull something and then the team managed to do well. And that PR is invaluable. Dermot.

Ian McIntosh (14:18)

Yeah, it's worked out well for him. Like we're sitting here and saying, have often been sitting here saying, like, it looks like it can't go on any further, like what's going to happen? He has to lose support from Barca fans. They're going to see that. It's. It's constantly just pushing the can down the road with the Barca finances, finding a solution from, from one place, which just causes an even bigger problem in six months time. But as you say, he keeps finding another solution to that in six months time. And you know, in six months time you find another one. He hasn't hit the end of the road yet. We thought maybe that the Omo and per Victor registration was going to be the end of it, that if, say, Olmo had assigned for Man City this month for free, and if the team had lost the Supercopa, maybe there would have been a groundswell of criticism and opposition against him. And I think that's what the people who would like to be Barcelona president next, that's what they were not hoping that it would happen to the club, but trying to take advantage of the situation last week when they all came together and, and launched a statement, you know, calling on Laporta to resign. But again, in the last minute, him or his lawyers or whatever have found a way to push it down the road until the next crisis will happen, which, you know, we'll be talking about again here in six months time, I guess.

Ayo Akamalere (15:33)

You're listening to the Athletic FC podcast with IO Accamulere. Hello, I'm Ian McIntosh and I'm the host of the Daily Football Briefing. What is the Daily Football Briefing? It's a special 10 minute daily show designed to bring you up speed with the most important stories from across the football world, except on Monday mornings when it's 15 minutes and we try to cram in the results, standings and stories from the top 10 leagues on the planet, or at least the top 10 leagues that I run on a football manager save. Follow this show today and you'll never miss another big story again. Whether it's news that the Athletic has just broken. David Ornstein. What happened? News from outside the Premier League that other podcasts might ignore.

Paul Ballus (16:12)

That is a difficult one to explain. So let's go bit by bit.

Ayo Akamalere (16:15)

Or it's Champions League week and you just need someone to put it all into context. It's made for a very useful away point in a difficult game in a difficult week. Listen to the Daily football briefing in 2025. It's out every weekday wherever you get your podcasts. Paul, you know, I'm just interested in how La Liga and other clubs in the division have. Have responded to this situation, because I'm sure the fact that Barcelona got it over the line just has maybe ruffled a few feathers a little bit because some might see this as unjust.

Paul Ballus (16:51)

Absolutely, absolutely. I would say that big chunk of clubs in La Liga have issued statements complaining about the. The decision that the Spanish government have taken. All the clubs are not all the clubs, but a lot of clubs are struggling to meet the criteria over the salary limit. They're making big efforts in order of selling players, struggles in order to register new ones. So, yeah, there's a feeling among La Liga clubs that Barcelona are being treated differently because of that feeling that you're mentioning here of. Yeah, just Laporta finding a way. Finding a way all the time while the other clubs cannot find a way. And let's see how it goes. At the same time, there's a very telling silence which is from Real Madrid. Real Madrid has not issued a statement at all. No one has complained about it. Florentino Perez has not spoken about it. Real Madrid has spoken about it. And there's this feeling that at the end of the day, Real Madrid knows that they need Barcelona to be there, to be on top, just to fight against them, just to maintain and sustain the sort of La Liga business or the foundations that the whole La Liga brand has been built on, which was back then with Messi Ronaldo, Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho. This battle now it has to be resembled at some point with Barcelona and Real Madrid, who are the two giants. So Real Madrid are amongst the club who didn't say anything. Laporta had a message for all these clubs in the press conference that he had yesterday, saying that he. Thanks to every club that has not been public complaining about the decision and everything, he said that he was not going to mention any specific club. But everyone who has not spoken about this, he's really thankful to them. So that's quite telling as well. And now it's going to bring us to the situation in the next three months when the final decision is made, because at that point, this is going to be a turning point for La Liga salary limit rules and everything. And that's where I don't know if more statements are going to be done, but where more decisions are going to have to be taken. Because now it's more like clubs letting La Liga and letting the world know that they are not happy with that. But in three months, we're going to have the real deal. We're going to have like the real solution here. And this is when they are going to say, okay, we do something or we don't do anything, or what does La Liga does with that? But that's a sort of. Yeah. Atmosphere that is brewing on the backgrounds here in Spanish football.

Ayo Akamalere (19:07)

Yeah. I do wonder what that does have in terms of the implications in general for La Liga and Spanish football in general. I mean, can we see a little further on down the line, certain clubs like Real Madrid or like Atletico Madrid pulling their levers and saying, look, you see what Barcelona did a couple of years ago?

Paul Ballus (19:25)

We.

Ayo Akamalere (19:25)

We need to sign this player, we need to register this player. I know we're over our limits, but look, you've let Laporta do it.

Ian McIntosh (19:31)

It's really important for Javier Tebes to win this battle because his signature achievement really, as La Liga president, has been cleaning up the finances of the League of the Clubs by being really strict with the salary limits that each club is able to spend. And as Paul said, lots of clubs in the past have had to make painful decisions, sell players, often to the Premier League, or not be able to sign players that they've had deals lined up, gone to La Liga and La Liga have said, look, you don't have any room for it. And they've had to go, okay, fine. Happened at Malaga, they had Shinji Ozaki, the former Leicester striker. Malaga signed him a few years ago. La Liga said no. So for Tebes, he asked it to win it. The loophole, I guess, or the legal argument that Barca found wasn't that there's something particularly wrong with the salary limits, it's that it's a difficult one. But I was talking to a former La Liga CEO yesterday about it, who explained that it's the problem is to do with whether La Liga and the federation together, that the system that they have set up, whether they have had the competency to make a decision over almost registration or not. And that kind of comes to the point of, bit by bit, La Liga and Javier Tebes has been getting more and more control and more power within Spanish football. Him and Rubiales were at loggerheads for years. Rubiales is gone. Tebbes is now vice president of the federation. He's very close to the current federation president, Lou Zane, whose position is. Is a bit shaky as well, which is something we could get into maybe another day. But at this point, Davis is the guy who's really in control of things. And that goes to what Paul was saying about Real Madrid being silent. Real Madrid don't like Javier tables at all. They'd be very happy if Javier Taybas was no longer the league of president, if the. The financial controls that he's put in and that the revenue sharing that he's put in, Bernaliga take more money from the clubs, from the bigger clubs than they did before. If that was all gone, Barca and Madrid would be very happy with that. So there's a lot of things up for decision over the next few months. Another sports lawyer I was talking to here in Spain yesterday, I was saying that it was, you know, it's a good time to. To be a sports lawyer, that around Spanish football there's always money to be made and there's always advice needed or there's a new case being taken. And they were. Well, we laughed about it a little bit, but yeah, it's a pity really, to be. To be talking this. We'd rather be talking about what goes on, on the pitch. And I mean, you might haven't scored another fantastic goal and Mbappe coming back and scoring it a good goal for Madrid as well at the weekend. But it's really interesting, it's fascinating sometimes, all the shenanigans that goes on and the maneuvering that goes on within Spanish football.

Ayo Akamalere (22:01)

Hey, look, it's keeping Paul and Lyra in a job. So the more drama, the more drama the better. But I almost don't want to ask this next question, but, you know, Barca's financial advisors said that their recommendation at the time was not to sign Almo. Do you think Barcelona have learned their lesson from this situation or are we going to be here in May saying something very similar?

Dermot Corrigan (22:24)

Again, I think they have learned the lesson that they can just be alive in any situation and they can fix everything. So I don't think they think they have done anything wrong or anything that was not supposed to be done. So I would say that probably. I mean, now La Liga has given Barca the 1:1 rule so they can sign any player they want to. And the first thing I heard was that Laporta is willing to start signing players again. So I wouldn't say they have learned the lesson. But, yeah, I think, as we were saying before, Laporta is that way. He feels like hero now, like big victory and that he won against everything and everyone. So it's something that. It's in his DNA and I think it's something that he feels proud of. And that's what I felt listening to him yesterday in the press conference. So I can see Barca being in the same situation again if the case would bring them to be in. But, yeah, it's something that can happen again. It's just that now it's supposed to not happen in a while because they are in a position that they can sign players and register them. In theory, yeah.

Ayo Akamalere (23:40)

Very quickly, just before we move on, Paul, I did read your piece on the Armo saga and it was so fascinating to look at the three sort of levers in which Barcelona were trying to pull in, trying to get this over the line. First it was the Nike sponsorship deal. And then you've got this conversation about the appeal which Barcelona were making to the court. And then the final one where it was sort of resting on was these VIP seats in the Nou camp, you know, selling those off to sort of balance the books. What's the situation with that? And has that helped in registering Dani Alma and Paul Victor?

Paul Ballus (24:11)

I mean, that's been absolutely key. I mean, that has not really helped in terms of registering back Olme and Paul Victor, because they have been registered back thanks to the Spanish government. But that's helped a lot for Barcelona. Barcelona to be in a situation where now at the minute, they don't have severe restrictions over new registration. And that thanks to the Nike deal and thanks to the VIP sitting for sure. Like, the funny thing with the VIP sitting is that if Barcelona had won the Plan B that you were mentioning here, because Plan A was Nike, Plan B was filing a complaint to the commercial court just to allow them to register Danielmo, it failed. But if that that had succeeded, Barcelona probably wouldn't have sold well. Not probably. I mean, senior sources from Barcelona told us and confirmed us that the plan of the club was just to keep that VIP sitting, if they could keep that for them and just to make like a further profit. But then this appeal to the commercial court fails and they have to go to the VIP sitting, which, you know, the funny thing about this is that they sold the thing that it's not even built, which good for them, good for Barcelona if the money is there and if that's a successful deal. I don't know because I don't know the whole figures and the whole characteristics of the deal, but they sold something that is not even built yet and yeah, let's see how it goes. But at the end of the day, and locally for Barcelona, they could vouch that the money has been paid, not like some other levers in the past. And that's what basically brought Barcelona to a more of a financial stable situation. And what could allow Barcelona from now on, as Lai was anticipating now, just to sign more players because, yeah, they've sold Globe assets just for that.

Dermot Corrigan (25:47)

Yeah. And the thing is about that deal, VIP Seeds, is that he was talking for an hour and 47 minutes and he then told to which companies they have sold the seats to. He only said that there were companies from Qatar and from the Emirates, but he didn't tell which exactly they were and for how many times they have sold that seats. So I think it's quite symptomatic that we were in a really long press conference listening to his explanations and we still have some doubts about some of the way they manage the situation and why they waited for the till the last minute to say to register both players. So I think he used only that press conference to defend himself from the attacks. He feel that he has been receiving the last weeks and that's it it because he could have used it to say, okay, we lasted till the last minute because we wanted to keep the seats because we were hoping that we could get more money from. From them, but it wasn't the case. So we had to do it. Or the companies we have solar seats are this name, this name and this name. And he didn't do that.

Ian McIntosh (26:57)

They know it's a really bad deal. They didn't want to do the deal at all. They just. But they were forced into it at the very last minute because they thought if we don't do this, maybe Alma's going to leave. We're still going to have to pay for him. We're still going to be on the hook to pay off his contract. It's going to cost us like, I know, 100 million euros. So we're going to have to do this deal which is going to take money out of our annual revenues in like 27, 28, 29, 30 in the future. Maybe Laporta won't be president at that time. Maybe he's not too worried about what happens at that time. But it's again, this improvisation. If everything goes down to the last minute secrecy, as well as why, he says, we don't know who bought the seats, we don't have many of them, we don't know for how much. But Barca fans accept it. You know, they, in the end, they get omo on the pitch, they win the classico against Madrid, Laporte is able to go on the victory lap, comes out in the local papers, celebrate a little bit about another victory for Laporta, and we talk Chris on the podcast. But yeah, that's how it goes.

Ayo Akamalere (28:01)

This is the Athletic FC podcast with IO Akamalera.

Paul Ballus (28:08)

Barcelona going for a fifth goal. Rafinha keeps his head, kicks his feet, keeps his balance. A fantastic fifth for Barcelona. This is history in the making.

Ayo Akamalere (28:21)

Let's move on to more positive news and. And I guess the man I'm looking at here is Hansi Flick and the work he's doing with this team. Can we just say he's done so well in bringing some sort of calm to this team, considering what is going on in the background?

Dermot Corrigan (28:37)

Completely. The other day I was doing the postmatch piece about the Clasico and I just referred to Hansi Flick, like as a Karm of Oasis in the middle of the institutional chaos. And I think that's the case. I think he has found the key to bring calm to the team, to have the best version of each player, which seems so different from one year ago. I mean, if you look at the last super, the Spaniard final, it's opposite to the one we saw this year. And it was against Real Madrid. It was against, I would say, Real Madrid without Mbappe, one of the biggest players of the world. And Hansi has found the key just to say, okay, let's enjoy it and to make the players enjoy the game again and to see them laughing and just playing as good as they can. And I think that's because he's a very. He has that in his DNA. He's very calm. He thinks that managing a team is just a work and that's it. He's not saving lives or anything like that. And I think the players have just connected with his kind of philosophy. He has protected them from all the Noise that has been out during the past weeks that has affected obviously the team. But he has found a way to say, okay, let's play and do it as good as we can. And they did. I mean, from the moment everything with Dani Olmo and Paw Victor came on, they have been playing super good. Hansi Flick has a really good part of that.

Ayo Akamalere (30:11)

Yeah, fantastic. Quick one, Paul. In terms of Barca's finances, and I know you've spoken about how these VIP seeds potentially have sort of semi future proofed signings for Barca. Do they need to sell as well, though? Because I'm looking at Ronaldo Rujo, you know, constantly linked with leaving the club and I, I think there's been conversations around Juventus being interested, but also they've got injuries to Martinez for instance as well.

Paul Ballus (30:35)

Yeah, yeah. Now it's the worst time to, to imagine a departure for Ronald Araujo, because Inigo Martinez is going to miss the next month of competition. So now it's going to be handy to have a new center back as, as Araujo. I mean, it's a bit of an unclear situation because Barcelona and La Liga, they don't disclose all the details on which is the situation in terms of how much money or how much margin do Barcelona have to spend or not to spend. But as far as we know, Barcelona are now on a stable situation regarding signings. They could sign players without like severe limitations, as I was saying, from La Liga. But in the same time, I mean, Barca are in, they need to sign new contracts for some of the key players. Pedri and Gabi are going to sign new contracts. Lamin is going to sign new contracts, going to increase your wage bill. And just to compensate that possibly in the mid term or long term, you have to sell players. You have to sell players and just to create profit for the, for the budget of the club. Having said that, the club insists that there's no urgent need to sell Ronaldo Araujo right now and that despite all the transfer talks, we know that, that Juventus won Ronald Araujo and they are in for the signing. But Barcelona sources insist that they don't need to let Araujo go. What Barca insists as well is that they don't want any player with one year of contract remaining from next summer just to stay at the club. So. Or you extend the contract or you find like a solution for you and Ronald Araujo, if he doesn't extend his contract, he's in that bracket. So something needs to be done here. Either he Extends the contract or everyone needs to find a solution. Yeah. I have the feeling that if a really good offer arrives on the table for Barcelona, it's going to be difficult for Barcelona to say no. But it has to be a really good offer. And we know that the January transfer window possibly is not a great time for that, so let's see how it develops. But that's the situation right now. While Barcelona sees that they don't have to sell him and that they want to keep Araujo. Araujo is having some sort of doubt because he hasn't been offered the contract that he was expecting to, and now the end of his deal is getting closer. So I think that some news are going to come in the. In the coming weeks or months, either if it's for a departure or for a contract extension.

Ayo Akamalere (32:44)

Do you know what? This will make an amazing drama one day on Netflix or something. Honestly, I just want to see it. I would love to see it. Let's finish on the positive. Look, nothing better than beating your closest rivals in the supercopper. And especially at a time when Madrid are looking for fluidity and then the PR can say, look at Barcelona with all their fluidity and poise and attacking pro s. It was a good victory and I'm sure the fans would have loved it as well.

Ian McIntosh (33:10)

Yeah, it was a super game. It was a pity for the people in the UK that it wasn't on the TV that Barca fans and Madrid fans, football fans, missed out on watching, which was a very entertaining game. It was a strange game that it had a little bit of a feeling of an exhibition. It didn't have the intensity maybe of a huge La Liga game or Champions League.

Ayo Akamalere (33:28)

Was that more to do with the location, do you think?

Ian McIntosh (33:30)

I think so. This was just my view from watching on the tv, but there wasn't that kind of really intense, kind of cutthroat atmosphere to it that you get sometimes in a really big classico, which meant there was more open spaces. Maybe there wasn't as much tracking back from. From some of the forward players, or they just weren't quite getting there. And Madrid just defended awfully. Embarci really well, ruthlessly took advantage of the. The holes in the middle of the Madrid defense. And they do have a lot of really good players. Barca, like Lamina Masco, was. Was incredible. Reminded me a bit of his goal against France in the Euros, which is amazing because he's still so young. We always say this, but, you know, his team were behind. Mbappe had scored For Madrid, they had all the almost pressure and everything coming into the game and maybe they'd be feeling it. That's, you know, this is getting away from us here and it's the 17 year old kid who picks up the ball and scores an incredible goal to get his team back. And then from there Barcelona went on and won the game really well. It's going to be more difficult for them when they get back to the humdrum of of La Liga games, Champions League games, Copa del Rey games. They're playing Betis on Wednesday. Denied in the Copa del Right, because by the time they got to the end of the first half of the season, Barcelona looked very exhausted. Hansi Flicks style is it is to be intense. It's high energy, it's taking risks. It takes a lot out of the players in all areas of the pitch. We saw that through December when they were just running on empty. They look as if they used the winter break well to recharge. They've come through this and yeah, it's going to be interesting to see how things go for them over the next couple of weeks and months in La Liga.

Ayo Akamalere (35:02)

Yeah, for sure. All right, let's end it there. Lia Paul Dermer, thank you so much for your time and also for more on the Barcelona soap opera or Netflix it, whichever way you want to look at it. Plus all the very latest on the January transfer window. Head over to the Athletic right now.

Ian McIntosh (35:18)

The Athletic FC podcast network.