Seen absolutely loads of Athletic fans around Manchester !

Originally Posted by Zorg

Looks like they've put all their basques in one exit.


[SIZE="1"]I realise that doesn't make sense

From a cunning linguist as well

Originally Posted by Zorg

Looks like they've put all their basques in one exit.


[SIZE="1"]I realise that doesn't make sense

Originally Posted by thrills_pills_bellyaches

Bare Basques

wonder how they are adapting to Pure Brew?

Originally Posted by Zorg

Looks like they've put all their basques in one exit.

3rd in foty ladies and gentlemen.

Originally Posted by Sloppy

3rd in foty ladies and gentlemen.

Gone to his head imo. s2c

Originally Posted by forwardirektion

There's loads of them all wearing scarfs, shirts, hats, loads of flags....About 10 of them walked up lever street at 11.30 singing their heads off...Loads of old people in weird hats as well, just took a pic

wonder if that's a fred pentland tribute

http://www.wsc.co.uk/content/view/3369/29/

Fred Pentland came to manage Athletic Bilbao in 1923, following in the footsteps of another Englishman, a trained masseur by the name of Mr Barnes. The arrival of Pentland, who had played for Blackburn Rovers (among others) in the first decade of the century, coincided with the first clear signs of professionalism in the Spanish game. Pentland had been interned in Germany during the First World War and seems to have spent most of his time training German officers. In 1920 he managed the French football team at the Antwerp Olympics and then spent a year at Racing Santander, whereupon Athletic literally bought him from the Cantabrian club, offering him 1,000 pesetas a month – a decent sum in those days.

“Freddie” Pentland is revered in the club’s history, although it’s hard to decide whether that is due to his inspired management or because he embodied to perfection the idea of the eccentric English gentleman. He was known as bombín (bowler hat) and photo*graphs suggest he was not so much eccentric as barking mad. Pentland’s first act at Athletic was to show the players how to tie their bootlaces correctly – “get the simple things right and the rest will follow” was apparently his motto. Pentland smoked big cigars and wore his bowler, even in training, but his contribution to Spanish football is not to be scoffed at. He is remembered above all as an advocate of the short-passing game, as opposed to the cruder style still embarrassingly referred to in Spain as “the old 1-2-3”.

Barcelona, halfway through the first league cam*paign of 1928-29, decided to adopt lo de Pentland (Pentland’s way), and won the title with it. Their stature in the game from 1928 onwards inevitably influenced others in adopting the “ball into feet” approach. That this system was associated with an Englishman seems something of an irony, and truth to tell it was more likely that Pentland had left England precisely because of his reluctance to play under the auspices of the big hoof. In 1923 Athletic won the cup playing the possession game but, after two trophyless years, opened a debate over which system should be adopted. Pent*land, perhaps sensing problems, moved on to Oviedo.

When he returned to Athletic in 1929, his dedication to the passing game paid off more handsomely, and the Basques won the league in 1930 and 1931. In the latter season they pummelled Barcelona by the extraordinary score of 12-1, a result which remains the Catalans’ worst defeat. In Pentland’s last season in Bilbao, 1932-33, Athletic finished runners-up to Real Madrid and had clearly assimilated the notion that a more patient game, so characteristic of modern Spanish football, was the way forward.

Pentland’s idiosyncratic Spanish and his odd behaviour gave rise to a thousand anecdotes, many of which survive. The most famous phrase to be handed down to the present generations was the legendary: ¡Que poco te queda bombín. Sólo tres minutos! (Only three minutes left for you, bowler hat!). These words were first shouted from the dug-out three minutes from the end of Athletic’s legendary cup win in 1923 against the now defunct Catalan club Europa, in Barcelona’s old stadium Les Corts. The players had already begun a tradition of whipping Pentland’s hat off his head when*ever they won a game, and ritually jumping up and down on it until it was no more. Pentland had an open credit scheme with a prestigious London hatter and optimistically ordered 20 a year.

In 1959 the club brought him over from England for an homenaje (homage). Bilbao’s San Mamés stadium was packed to the rafters and Pentland, grey and frail, kicked off the game between Athletic and Chelsea after Javier Prado, the president at the time, had pinned the club’s Distinguished Member medal on to his immaculate crombie. When Pentland died in 1962, in Dorset, Athletic held a ceremony at San Mamés which included an aurresku (high-kicking dance) in front of a small memorial. It’s a solemn ritual and reserved only for a select band of people considered to have contributed significantly to the culture. An orator then read out the first part of Pentland’s famous bowler-hat cry, “How little time is left for you”, in poetic reference to his death.

Pentland was clearly a maverick, a type never com*fortably accepted in the British game. Lo de Pentland was obviously not lo de Inglaterra, but it’s nice that they thought it was. Those who recall the sublime aesthetic of Cruyff’s Barcelona Dream Team of the early Nine*ties should always remember that it owed some*thing to a tradition stretching back to Pentland.

There's one of them on my roof now ffs !!

Originally Posted by taff

wonder if that's a fred pentland tribute

http://www.wsc.co.uk/content/view/3369/29/

I love stuff like that, proper tradition and history.

Bunch of scruffy @#%&!s.

He was known as bombín (bowler hat) and photographs suggest he was not so much eccentric as barking mad.

Originally Posted by Jack Duckworth

pretty sure bilbao was in spain last time i looked, tbh #mrsmertonletshaveaheateddebate

You'll hear no spanish spoken amongst that lot. you could also try asking a few if they are spanish. if they don't speak spangle and don't like like being called spangles, I think I'm on safe ground when I say they aint spanish.

Hth

Originally Posted by Sloppy

3rd in foty ladies and gentlemen.

Eat it up. Eat it up reallllll gooood

Originally Posted by TripDownMiseryLane

You'll hear no spanish spoken amongst that lot.

Pretty sure you would.

Best European support seen at Old Trafford?
Pretty loud to be fair.

Originally Posted by ryanMUFC

Best European support seen at Old Trafford?
Pretty loud to be fair.

Ajax were better.

Originally Posted by ryanMUFC

Best European support seen at Old Trafford?
Pretty loud to be fair.

I was thought Galatasaray were the best. Copenhagen (?) as well.

Originally Posted by ryanMUFC

Best European support seen at Old Trafford?
Pretty loud to be fair.

They were alright.

They love Messi.

Think that was the biggest support a Spanish club has taken to a Euro Away, excluding finals. Outstanding.

Turks, Greeks and Eastern European's always make a decent racket at OT.

I saw a few sleeping rough this morning when I came in to town.

Originally Posted by The Watcher

Think that was the biggest support a Spanish club has taken to a Euro Away, excluding finals. Outstanding.

Turks, Greeks and Eastern European's always make a decent racket at OT.

St Patricks £#%&!ing choir could be seen to be making a decent racket at OT ffs

Singing section at OT ? ...good or bad idea ?? I say good tbh, need to do something to sort it out imo