No time to really say much, but missing Busquets again b/c world kinda sucks, so sharing a comp from back when he'd just left elite football.😔 (I didn't make the comp, just found it on YouTube.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=shee...

Sergio Busquets Skills The Genius of Simplicity

YouTube video by Soccer World

youtube.com

Never a bad time to remind everyone that Sergio Busquets holds the record for most appearances in El Clásico (48) and also most victories (23).💫 I love this photo of him, feels so in-character: everyone is off celebrating & he's by himself pumping his fist (w/ a despondent CR7 in the back😆).

El Clásico is coming up, which means it's time for my favorite type of posts, the ones where non-Spanish-speaking fans talk sagely about "the El Clasico" and "an El Clasico." A perennial classic.

Before I got distracted by the Luis Enrique/FDJ fanfic, I was going to post about this. And what I want to say is that I wish Barça would stop leaking this kind of non-news to the press. Sports journalism in general has TOO MUCH non-news. barcauniversal.com/barcelona-se...

Barcelona see former club captain as future first-team manager with Deco left impressed

FC Barcelona believe Sergio Busquets has the qualities to become an outstanding manager in the future, with director Deco and club executive Bojan Krkic impressed by his football intelligence, leaders...

barcauniversal.com

I think some Barça fans have lost their minds. I was checking to see if Luis Enrique said anything interesting about the PSG-Barça game when I found this...incredible fanfic (really shows that AI is junk b/c Google's "search assist" summarized all this like it was real):

Me describing Enzo Maresca to friend: If you didn't know what Guardiola looked like, you would think he's Guardiola. Friend after seeing him in the Man City vs PSG match: Man City only hires Bald Frauds! 🤣 (Disclaimer: Neither of us thinks these guys are frauds.)

This screenshot a perfect encapsulation of why I cannot w/ football fandom. From left to right: 1. This is not a "big" #UCL game; it's a game in the league stage that #Barça can afford to lose. 2. #PSG scored 3 goals with Rodri on the pitch. 3. What the hell is wrong with this guy.

Just finished a Chinese translation of 八墓村 (八つ墓村/Yatsuhakamura, Village of Eight Tombs) by #横溝正史 (Yoshimizo Seishi). Happy to finally meet the great detective Kindaichi Keisuke. 😆 Thankfully his adventures actually ended, so we won't have the nonsense that happened w/ Kindaichi Shounen. #booksky

My insatiable need to caveat/correct/amend previous posts strikes again. I want to emphasize that despite making this comparison deliberately (as I said in the subsequent post of the thread), I do not think there is any equivalence in terms of experience & harm.

Three Garridebs@3garridebs.bsky.social · last mo.

IMO, ppl have become so accustomed to downplaying Busquets that putting him in his proper place sounds like overrating him. It reminds me of the phenomenon where men think there's too many women at a conference when the M:F ratio is 50:50.

Every time I see a comment claiming #Busquets has gone from underrated to overrated, it is always from ppl who never rated him in the 1st place, & you can tell b/c they always bring up the same wrong point, which is that Busquets was only good w/ the ball at his feet. This is manifestly UNTRUE.

Came across the lyrics to this song while flipping through one of my old journals. Always thought it suited #Busquets (& friends). Used to imagine MVs set to it back when he was still playing😆, so thought I'd just accompany some excerpts w/ a few pics: 世界之大總想要去飛 就算滿身傷痕也不曾後悔 無人喝彩依然在期待 雨後的彩虹它是那樣的精彩

Periodically reread my old posts & freak out over errors or misleading statements.😅 Here I implied Gerard Martin was La Masia; he is not. He was a B team signing & rose to the 1st team that way, the same as Ronald Araujo. His development occurred at Cornella (a Tererca, or Spanish 5th tier, club).

Three Garridebs@3garridebs.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Bonus track. Here's a twin in spirit. Only La Masia players are targeted. This one is great though since he claims to know someone on the Barça board but tweets only in English & spends a lot of time responding to other bigger accts, desperately trying to build an audience.

Finished Ave Barrera's Restoration (English translation). Really loved it, even though it contains a big personal ick (dismemberment, which is literally on the 1st page so I don't feel this is much of a spoiler). I appreciated how angry it was b/c I am an angry person.😆 #BookSky

Wrote this thread responding to Valencia vs. Barça back on 9/6 (match day 4) & forgot to post.😅 Mostly I wanted to see how the team would play in Rodri's 1st start. Figured I'd post anyway even though they'd already played a whole UCL game since then.

There are so many fake footballer quotes proliferating online (esp X & FB) that I've stopped trusting any player comments I see from those platforms, but Busquets' words on Fabregas appear to be real.😆They ambushed him while he was playing padel hahaha www.sport.es/es/noticias/...

Sergio Busquets se ilusiona con la Champions y avala a Cesc Fàbregas en clave Barça

El actual asistente de Juliano Belletti en el Barça Atlètic concedió unas declaraciones desde Italia, donde ha participado en un 'Legends' de pádel

sport.es

Read Pedri's Player Tribune piece this morning & was amused by how Pedri (+ his friends) seemed more awed by Busquets than by Messi! 🤣 (Of course Pedri was very awed by Messi too, don't @ me.) www.theplayerstribune.com/pedri-soccer...

For My Family | By Pedri

It’s Barça. It’s in our family’s blood.

theplayerstribune.com

My two interests of international relations & football collided unexpectedly with this piece from Foreign Policy that I sort of hated 😶‍🌫️: foreignpolicy.com/2026/09/04/m...

Soccer’s Favorite Strongman

José Mourinho’s lessons on how to influence people (and not win friends).

foreignpolicy.com

Watched Barça vs Rayo yesterday, my 1st Barça game since 2023, b/c I got finally got curious enough after reading all kinds of comments. Amazing how much fun games are when I don't have to read shit takes from rancid people lol Some random thoughts:

Busquets at work as an assistant for Barça B (Barça Atlètic)! He looks deeply concerned.😆 Hope he's doing well & enjoying his new role. I'm pretty nervous about how he'd be as a manager b/c so many things can go wrong.😭 What if he sucks! I'd be heartbroken. x.com/sport/status...

Diario SPORT (@sport) on X

🔍📍Sergio Busquets, en el Johan siguiendo el Barça Atlètic - Reus

x.com

Started reading the A.J. Raffles stories and am amused by how much this is just Watson & Holmes but crime. I mean I knew this going in, but I wasn't expecting it to be SO similar. Bunny is such a Raffles fanboy that it's almost cringe (cute! but cringe lol). #Raffles #EWHornung #BookSky

Btw I know this is petty AF, but I don't claim to be unemotional, & I despise these types of fans. Ignorant about football, hostile to the symbolism of the club they support, yet always ready to give an over-confident opinion about who's underperforming, & it's usually a Catalan academy player.

Three Garridebs@3garridebs.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Back to hating on (some) Barça fans.🙄 This is doesn't seem that bad at first glance, but the red flag is that part about keeping "Piqué, Busquets, Alba, & Sergi Roberto" on for "too long." If there's one thing I can't stand, it's biased BS masquerading as fake objectivity.

Back to hating on (some) Barça fans.🙄 This is doesn't seem that bad at first glance, but the red flag is that part about keeping "Piqué, Busquets, Alba, & Sergi Roberto" on for "too long." If there's one thing I can't stand, it's biased BS masquerading as fake objectivity.

It makes me sad how my desire to do fanwork for this wonderful series died with 37. I loved Akechi soooooo much but 37 was sooooo bad, I can't forgive it. #kindaichi

よーね@pomaaaru.bsky.social · 6mo ago

証言パズル

<SHRIEKS> OMG OMG OMG! I'm so thrilled I'm in tears OMG! Busquets starting his coaching journey!!!!🤩 www.fcbarcelona.cat/ca/futbol/ba...

Sergio Busquets s’incorpora al Barça Atlètic com a tècnic assistent

La llegenda blaugrana s’integra en l’equip de treball de Juliano Belletti per aportar la seva llorejada trajectòria i experiència mentre realitza el curs d’entrenador

fcbarcelona.cat

This account has over 500k followers & back in 2022, they tweeted this "list of most problematic players at Barça," w/ Busquets topping the list. LOL unless Busquets one day turns out to be a serial killer, I will never forgive (large sectors of) this fanbase.

"Epistemology" ffs I meant "epidemiology"😭 Admittedly this is b/c epistemology is also very relevant when thinking about how Busquets was/is talked about, given how much "the debate" has to do w/ football knowledge & beliefs.

Three Garridebs@3garridebs.bsky.social · 3mo ago

It felt a little bit like wanting to have a conversation about the mechanisms of evolution & instead encountering a room full of creationists and flat-earthers. Like wanting to discuss epistemology & finding yourself arguing w/ anti-vaxxers.

LMFAO ok what?? This came out of nowhere, does that mean I have to support the Dutch NT now?😭 (Kidding, I really liked the Netherlands in 2014...just not so much before or after that.) Good luck, Xavi.🙏 www.espn.com/soccer/story...

Netherlands hire Xavi as coach through 2030 World Cup

The Netherlands have appointed Barcelona great Xavi Hernández as the national team's new coach following the resignation of Ronald Koeman after a disappointing FIFA World Cup.

espn.com

The Octopus of Badia in his early 20s. (You see, my icon of choice for this account has always been a hint about my appreciation for #SergioBusquets😆)

Check out this IMMENSE (in more than one way) piece on different football styles. Explains the history and concepts behind positional football (e.g. Guardiola, Luis Enrique) vs. relational football (e.g. Ancelotti, Klopp). medium.com/@clarissabar...

Not to say I didn’t speak of the flowers: space, time, positionism and relationism

The order of things changes when you cross the Danube River.

medium.com

lol I have no idea who my target audience is with this rant. I explained "dark arts" as if to total newbies, but then dropped all these names that would be incomprehensible unless you're a longtime football fan (& Barça fan specifically, who I'm antagonizing).😅

Three Garridebs@3garridebs.bsky.social · 3mo ago

B/c Barça fans are shit, that's why. Half this fanbase have hated Busquets since he debuted in 2008. They'll take any opportunity to downplay him. I'm sorry, this is out of nowhere & I don't think there are many football fans on Bluesky, but I need to rant after a long break from the sport.