Hello guys,
I've just registered to this forum, altough I've been reading you for more than a year.
Bearing in mind the match with Bilbao, two things are on my mind:
1. If everybody (us the fans) hates the way the team plays under Valverde (including myself), when we play at Camp Nou nobody shouts from the stands that we want Valverde gone. I mean I'm sure some of you guys attend the games we play at home. Nobody in the gallery makes our problems with Valverde known to the large public. I don't expect from the mass of tourist to shout such things, but I expect something else from the boys and girls in the gallery. Did anyone hear the gallery to call for Valverde dismisal?
2. We just loaned Cou to Bayern. Did we really have a better player than him (except maybe Rafinha) on the field with Bilbao? I really don't think so. I would have liked for him to have another season with us...
So this is what the composition of the stadium looks like:-
1.) Maybe 5-10% - The grand stand and the ones just above and below it - where you have the board members, VIP's, celebreties etc. seated - not much to be expected from there
2.) About 40% of the stadium - the guys right on the pitch level, near the corner flags, the fans on the rafters all the way up top, etc. - all tourists. When I look around and see their faces, it's pretty clear they couldn't spell Valverde or probably don't know his first name, heck they probably can't even name 11 of our players. Yes, you have a LOT of the stereotypical Asians who don't seem to care or understand much of what's going on, and just want to see Messi touch the ball and get a picture with the "V" pose.
3.) 30-40% of it looks like where I sit - the average socio sprinkled with a few tourists here and there. Old guys, some of whom listen to the Catalan radio commentary, and just about manage to put their hands together when a goal is scored. You have the odd young socio/tourist in the stand try and get the stand fired up, fail, and sit back down
4.) 10-20% - the 'hardcore' fans (not Ultras, they are banned lol) that basically chants and sings and plays instruments all game. Very small portion of the ground, basically all the noise you hear on the television comes from them, and even this stand is very very rarely full. The tourists don't know the songs, and this group of people is the one that's just singing and chanting no matter what (as the core fans are supposed to). They get louder when we do well, a bit softer when we're down, but they aren't going to make objective commentary on the game, that's just not their role.
So when you look at this, you see why you have very little organized dissent thrown at Valverde. The tourists don't know much, the main fans behind the goal are basically cheerleaders, the old socios barely move and are the death of any mexican wave/chants that begin elsewhere. I sit just below the away fans, and it's pretty shameful but on CL nights, it's the tiny away fans that is by far the noisiest and boisterous section in the stadium. That's kind of expected given that only hardcore fans would travel, but seeing Tottenham fans be louder than Barca fans in a fully packed Camp Nou (who btw are quite busy taking videos of the 'crazy' away fans rather than giving it back to them) is....yeah.
We just don't have a young, energetic, local fan base that cares that much - that's really the main problem. You can't blame the tourists because they aren't buying up everyone's tickets, they are just getting the tickets for which the socios don't show up for, and heck, not like the stadium is anywhere close to full for an average game anyway.