Forca Barça

2011-09-05T18:35:00.004+01:00

On to the next one

I must admit I was skeptical. Of course I wanted him back, who wouldn't? He's our boy after all, Barça born and bred. The number four jersey has been vacant for over a year now. Word was that it had been given to Thiago Alcantara. What?! Does this mean he's not coming? I can't go through all this again next summer. Will he? Won't he? Should he? After another crippling end of season collapse at Arsenal it became clear that yes, absolutely he should. Things had come to a complete halt at the Emirates. It was time.

But how would this work out. How as Cesc Fabregas going to fit into what was already the best midfield in the world? He's not better than Xavi or Iniesta (not yet anyway) Would he he cooling his heels on the bench, getting frustrated? And what of Thiago, sensational in the U-21 European Championships and now promoted to the first team from Barça B? We don't need Cesc, we have Thiago was the talk, indeed I was one of those saying it.

Well, four weeks in and Fabregas' impact and seamless integration into the team (coupled with that of Thiago) has proved I hadn't a bloody clue what I was talking about. Cesc has been nothing short of exceptional. Gols in both the SuperCopa against Porto (a real thing of beauty) and Villarreal (plus two for La Roja against Chile on Friday night), his understanding with Leo Messi is such that you'd think they grew up together playing futbol or something... Their movement, Cesc bringing something that Barça lacked last season, a midfielder that who powers forward into the box and gets on the end of things, and interchange of positions has been a joy to watch. I know it's only been two games (he barely featured in the second Madrid game but did show Beckham-like awareness in being the first to celebrate the winner with Messi, ensuring he was on the front page of every newspaper in Spain) but crikey, the evolution of this Barcelona team and his part in it, well, don't go booking your flights to Munich in May just yet but it's hard to see any other side coming close.

Real have definitely improved (Ozil will, if he's fully trusted by Mourinho, will again excel) but ten so have Barça. Alexis Sanchez is a huge upgrade on Bojan and Jeffren and fits perfectly into the 3-4-3 system that Guardiola is currently employing (though I suspect it'll be rather fluid over the course of the season bearing in mind the return of Pique, Puyol and most significantly, Dani Alves.

Basquing in their reflected glory

It's Sociedad away at the Anoeta this weekend and even the Barça website has flagged how flat FCB can be coming back from the International break. On the plus side, the Spanish and Catalan players haven't had to travel too far (Geneva and erm, Lagrono) but Leo and Mascherano have been on the moon or wherever that ridiculous friendly against Venezuela was played so I wouldn't expect either to start. Barça lost away to Sociedad last season in a match that was smack bang in the middle of the Clasico Survivor Series and looked to be heading for a draw had it not been for some ridiculous defending, needless showboating and an injury that was pretty much the end for poor Gaby Milito. Barcelona completely lost their heads and in the space of ten minutes threw the match away. As it happened it counted for nought as Madrid also lost (at home to Sporting Gijon). Even factoring in the post-international come down I'd expect a much more professional performance this time and a win, though not a very comfortable one.

2011-06-20T20:43:00.002+01:00

Luis and Ivan go to Roma

In his own quiet way, Luis Enrique has success at Barcelona B has been almost as impressive of that of Pep Guardiola with the senior team. Enrique succeeded Guardiola at the Mini Estadi and in three has taken the team from the Segunda B to third in the Segunda Liga, which, were they a regular team and not Barça’s reserve side, would have seen them in the playoffs for promotion to the Primera Liga. This is all the more noteworthy as Barça B is a team of young lads, most of them 18, 19 or 20, that regularly has it’s best players unavailable because they’ve been called up to dine at the grown-ups table. Thiago Alcantara, Jonathan Dos Santos, Andreu Fontas, Marc Muniesa, Sergi Roberto and Nolito have all been shuttled between the two squads. Injuries, Copa Del Rey games, playing well for Barça B can all mean the lungs being torn out of a side that still has to field a full team every Sunday.

On the back of this, Enrique’s move to Roma is an interesting one. During the season all the talk had been of Getafe, a well run but poorly financed (though this may change with their purchase by the Royal Emirates group) and supported team. It would have been a stepping stone, as it has been for Quique Sanchez Flores, Bernd Schuster and Michael Laudrup. Expectations are modest, avoiding relegation is pretty much the limit of their ambition.

Contrast this with the pressure cooker that is AS Roma. Despite being relatively successful (2nd place finishes, 2 Copa Italias and some decent results in the Champions League) under Luciano Spalletti and Claudio Ranieri, their most recent scudetto was 10 years ago when Fabio Capello was in charge. Since then they have excelled at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, blowing the title on more than one occasion.

Conceding last-minute equalisers, ludicrous penalties, multiple sendings off, needless yellow cards that see their best players suspended for big games, ridiculous collapses against hopeless opposition, Roma are a team that always seem likely to beat themselves as much as the opposition in front of them.

So what have Enrique and de la Pena (more of him later) let themselves in for? Firstly they take on a squad where most of the players are 30 or over (in some cases waaay over) Vucinic, De Rossi, Borriello and Menez are the only top class players at the club that are in their 20s and two of them, Vucinic and Menez look almost certain to leave. There’s also the goalkeeping situation, which rapidly needs addressing. Their 3 keepers, Julio Sergio, Doni and Labont are prone to such comical errors and lapses of judgement that there’s a good chance of one of them showing up at Arsenal soon. Doni used be very good but he’s gone to pieces in the last two seasons and is on his way out the door.

On the plus side, De Rossi is brilliant and Borriello has signed permanently from AC Milan. French lunatic and sometime defender Philippe Mexes has left (for Milan as it happens) so instances of on-pitch madness should be well down on last season. Juan and Nicolas Burdisso are a solid central defensive pairing. Taddei and Pizarro are very tidy midfielders and the clubs new owner, Tom DiBenedetto looks like he might buy a few players and more importantly, leave Enrique and his coaching team to it (he’s a partner in the Liverpool and Red Sox owning NESV, who have a good ownership record).

Inevitably a laundry list of Barcelona fringe players and almost the entire Barça B squad have been linked with a move to the Stadio Olimpico. Of the players available they could do with one or all of Bojan, Jeffren and Soriano, though one of them is likely to be included in the deal that brings Alexis Sanchez from Udine to the Camp Nou. Enrique will probably play the same 4-3-3 at Roma and with an existing forward line that includes a 35 year old Francesco Totti, it’s in desperate need of upgrading with some young, mobile players. As for the rest of Barça B, the noises the players have been making, particularly Martin Montoya, would suggest they’ve got no interest in been pushed out the door.

One final word about Ivan de la Pena, the other ex-blaugrana at Roma and Enrique’s assistant. A player of immense talent who got shunted out of Barcelona by Louis Van Gaal, making a disastrous move to Lazio, one his career never really recovered from. Though he did do very well at Espanyol following a second (and very brief spell at Barcelona), he was much better than that. A fabulous passer and the lungs of that Espanyol side, he retired in May and this will be his first coaching role. I wish him all the best.

2011-06-13T15:44:00.002+01:00

Season review

Now that I've had a few weeks to digest and recover from the Champions League Final (and Primavera for that matter), I'm finally getting to a season review and a look toward the summer (transfers etc) Now this is happening.

Pep Guardiola described the 09/10 season as "fucking barbaric". The same and more could be said of the 62 games of 10/11. With the pressure and intensity ramped thanks to the arrival of Jose Mourinho at Madrid, the five clasicos would come to define the season. La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League, all funneled into five games, starting with a band in late November and ending in bitterness, whinging, diving, lying, cheating and marked perhaps a low point in the always fractious relationship between Barcelona and Real.

Let's start with the 5-0, the zenith, the peak, the performance by which all will now be measured (that's about as grandiose as I can get). Madrid brutally exposed and torn apart by Xavi, Iniesta, Alves and el puto amo Leo Messi. It was a result and display that would set the tone for the first half of the season, where Barça regularly knocked 4, 5 or 6 (and occasionally 7 or 8) gols past the opposition. After January, the swagger wasn't quite so pronounced, David Villa's form dropped off a cliff and 1-0 or 2-0 became the norm.

The upshot of this mauling was that when the teams faced off against each other months later in the Survivor Series of clasicos, Madrid sharpened up their studs, elbows and gamesmanship, and those who bought into the hype and expectations that we were in for more glorious displays of total futbol were to be sorely disappointed.

Baring Messi's mazy run and gol in the first leg of the Champions League semi, these four games were shocking. A pathetic display of negative tactics from Madrid coupled with a race-to-the-bottom slagging match between the clubs off the field, I had always feared it would turn out this way for this is what Mourinho teams do. And with four games in the space of twenty something days, the strain (these were after all Liga deciding, Copa del Rey final and CL semifinal games after all), the saturation of coverage, the intensity of two teams who were absolutely sick of the sight of each other ultimately made for a painful three weeks. Over the years I've grown to dread Barça-Madrid matches and the bullshit that surrounds them. Next season starts with them playing each other twice in the Super Copa. Ker-ist.

Beyond the vortex of the clasicos, it's been an incredible season. 96 points, a European Cup, some of the finest futbol ever played. A full injury-free season for Andres Iniesta, Eric Abidal's recovery from cancer of the liver to lift the Champions League trophy wearing the captain's armband, David Villa's seamless integration into the team, Pedro continuing to score crucial gols, Xavi and Leo Messi (53 gols in 62 games) standing apart from all others, another Zamora for Valdes, who is (and has been for about 3 years) the best 'keeper in Spain, yes, even better than Iker. The success of Barça B in the Segunda under the newly confirmed coach of AS Roma, Luis Enrique (they were third), was also a joy, as were the promotions from the B team of Thiago Alcantara, Jeffren and late on Andreu Fontas and Marc Muniesa. Javier Mascherano, going from an initial rocky start to an essential member of the team, his game winning tackle on Nicklas Bendtner in the CL a real coming of age moment, as was the standing ovation he was given minutes later.

Personal highlights include the aforementioned Arsenal game, Andres Iniesta's gol against Valencia (the only two games I got to this season), being in Barcelona for the CL Final and going to the Camp Nou to greet the team the following day, the Villarreal game at the Camp Nou, Pep's anti-Mourinho rant and Sid Lowe's fabulous interview with Xavi.

There weren't all that many lows to speak of. Puyol missing nearly the whole second half of the season with a knee injury and Pique's subsequent unsteadiness is one, the Qatar Sponsorship deal another, the prospect of next season being Guardiola's last and the minor frustration of losing the Copa del Rey final to a Ronaldo gol are about it.

On to the next one

So where are we at for the summer? Well, the club is no in a far better situation financially and there's €45 million in the coffers to spend on Cesc (yawn), Gigi Rossi or Alex Sanchez. Depending on what sports rag you read, Bojan is off to Udine or Roma and Jeffren may follow him out the door. Cacares (Sevilla), Nolito (Benfica) and Victor Vazquez (Club Brugge) have already left which leaves the (previously on loan) quartet of Hleb (dear gawd Hleb), Henrique, Victor Sanchez and Kerrison to deal with, assuming of course that overpriced IKEA wardrobe Zlatan Ibrahimovic stays at AC Milan, one expects he will.

I'd be sad to see Bojan leave. He's still only 20 and a great talent. I thought the run he went on toward the end of the 09/10 season, when he benched Zlatan, would see him really push on this year, but the arrival of David Villa in the sumemr and Afellay in January saw him slip further down the pecking order. In order to develop as a player he probably needs to go and play week in, week out. I think he'd light it up in Serie A. He's quick, strong, mobile, positionally aware and a good passer of the ball. He just needs a coach with some real confidence in him.

On the signings front, I'd rather we didn't go all out for Fabregas given the fact that he wouldn't play ahead of Xavi or Iniesta. His arrival would also surely stifle the progress of Thiago Alcantara, who has been brilliant every time I've seen him. No, the priorities are another centre back (Milito is probably on his way), maybe a left back if Maxwell leaves and Cote doesn't sign from Sporting Gijon and a forward who can mix it with the current holy trinity of Leo, Pedro and Villa. At centre back I'd like to see someone like Simon Kjaer at Wolfsburg or Zapta at Udine. I also really like San Jose at Bilbao (what on earth happened to him at Liverpool? Fantastic at underage level at Athletic, goes to Liverpool, turns to shit, comes back, is fantastic again) Left back, both Adriano and Abidal are options there but I would have liked to see Monreal come in form Osasuna (he's signed for the ever improving Malaga and I think he'll prove to be an excellent addition, much more so than the 100 year old Ruud Van Nistlerooij).

And so to a summer free of futbol. I intend maybe dipping into the U-21 tournament in Denmark over the next few weeks, particularly to see Spain, and the U-20 in Romania in late July, for which Ireland have qualified, but the Copa America will mostly go unwatched, given the time difference and the fact that I need a break. Ideally the first full match I'll see will be the opening weekend of La Liga. One final word on La Liga, or rather Sky Sports coverage of it. After six years in the anchors chair, Mark Bolton is leaving. He's a very good presenter , knowledgeable and clearly a real fan of Spanish futbol. He made Revista de la Liga an unmissable show and Sky will have a tough job replacing him.

Finally, my team of the season:

Valdes - FC Barcelona

Alves - FC Barcelona
Abidal - FC Barcelona
Ballesteros - Levante UD
Marcelo - Real Madrid

Borja - Villarreal
Xavi - FC Barcelona
Iniesta - FC Barcelona

Messi - FC Barcelona
Rossi - Villarreal
Ronaldo - Real Madrid

2011-05-02T19:20:00.001+01:00

Grown so ugly

Well this has been most unpleasant. The fourth and final clasico really can't come (and go) quickly enough. A gradual amping up of whinging, cheating, diving, fouling, fighting, name calling, shoving and play acting over the first two games went nuclear in one of the most embarrassing displays I have ever seen on a futbol pitch from both sides. Every decision contested, every contact exaggerated, milked to the fullest. I haven't seen such a display of histrionics since the Porto-Celtic UEFA Cup final in 2003, which, coincidentally, featured a Mourinho coached team doing their best to destroy the game of futbol.

I always feared it would end this way, with two teams sick of the sight of each other, with Barça being dragged down to Real's level, with the constant fouling inevitably leading to constant over-acting and waving of imaginary cards at every opportunity. I saw a quote from Xavi this evening that sums all of this shit up well; "I'd rather talk about football, all this other stuff is lamentable." Both sides are to blame, Mourinho for his vicious, negative tactics, his baiting of Guardiola and down-right ridiculous claims in the pre and post-match press conferences and Barça for their shameful haranguing of the referee and diving around like they'd been shot (Busquets, Alves and Pedro were the worst offenders) The whole thing was as depressing as it was inevitable.

As it turned out all my pre-match worries were completely unfounded as Real played like a team hoping to strangle a 0-0 draw by making almost no effort to attack bar the odd free kick or shot from distance that invariably went no where near the gol. They had nothing, nothing before the sending off of Pepe, nothing afterward. They were hopeless.

As I write this Aitor Karanka is giving the pre-match press conference and the mud slinging continues. Rather than giving it rest he's stirring it up further ahead of tmrrw night's game which I expect will be a dire affair with Madrid kicking Barça up and down the pitch. But at least that'll be the end of it for the time being. Until we have to go through this all over again at the start of next season of course with the Super Copa and another two of these fucking games and all that goes with them.

2011-04-25T11:14:00.004+01:00

Are we there yet?

It's half time in this marathon of Clasicos and I gotta tell you, I'm not full of confidence for the upcoming Champions League games for all sorts of reasons. In no particular order, here's what I'm feelin'.

1. David Villa

After going on a Zlatan-style late season slump (no gols in eleven games for Barcelona), Villa finally hit the back of the net against Osasuna on Saturday night. The blaugrana number seven has looked a shadow of his usual self down the stretch, frequently substituted (as he was again on the weekend after only 57 minutes) and was absolutely awful in the Copa del Rey Final on Wednesday, caught offside with Pippo Inzaghi-like regularity, diving around, whinging and generally contributing nothing. He should have been hauled off well before the start of the second half of extra time.

This very much parallels Ibrahimovic's stuttering finish to his one and only season at the Camp Nou. Unlike last time out though, there's no one like Bojan on a hot streak (he knocked in six in the last eight I think) to step into the team and replace him. Bojan is injured and won't be fit again before the season ends. Afellay has barely played since joining from PSV in January, limited to late substitute appearances and starts in dead rubber Copa games. Jeffren, who managed ninety minutes vs. Osasuna (and who's cross set up Villa's gol) has been plagued by injury and only played a handful of times. None of the Barça B forwards seem to be under consideration, Nolito had a few fruitless run outs earlier in the season but back to the Segunda he went (his contract is up in June and there seems to be no appetite to renew it).

The upshot of all of this is that Villa has continued to labour away, playing rubbish with no one stepping up to the plate to put any pressure on him or take his place. His level of play has been a big factor in the side scoring far fewer gols of late (the 5-1 victory over Shaktar an anomaly rather than the norm as it was earlier in the season).

2. The squad and injuries

The Villa problem is somewhat symptomatic of the of a wider problem that has been thrown into stark relief in the last two months; the size of the squad and it's inability of cope with injuries. For a club as big as Barcelona the squad is tiny. Not counting B team players like Fontas or Alcantara who regularly get promoted to the 1st team match day squad, there are just twenty (20) players on the books at the Camp Nou.

Of those twenty, just one is a right back (Dani Alves), and of the twenty, six, five defenders and Bojan, are currently injured. The defence that finished the game against Osasuna consisted of Dani, two defensive midfielders (the only two), Busquets and Mascherano, and a crocked Maxwell, in for a crocked Adriano. While Pique will be back for the Madrid game, Masch or even Jeffren at left back seems increasingly likely. Quite the patchwork quilt eh? All this while a plethora of players have been loaned out everywhere from the Brum to Santander.

Now it's easy to be all Captain Hindsight in these situations and quite frankly I'd rather see Cacares and Hleb loaned out or sold altogether as opposed to having the around gumming up the works at the Camp Nou. But still, compare the Barça and Madrid benches from Wednesday. Where the blaugrana featured Fontas, Alcantara and a unfit Carles Puyol, Madrid had Higuain, Benzema, Adebayor and Kaka. And while it's true that los blancos have near unlimited resources to construct such a squad and Barça are sinking in debt, the point still remains, there are not enough players at FCB and it's at the business end of the season when this really starts to tell.

3. Madrid (Cabron!)

They're pretty fucking good what? Stoic in defence, reinvigorated in attack (putting 6, SIX! past third place Valencia on Saturday night and supremely skilled in the Jose Mourinho school of rotational fouling and excessive diving. Madrid's 80 points from 33 games would see them top any other league in Europe (by seven in England, nine in Serie A, eleven in Germany and a massive twenty one in Ligue 1) Instead they remain second with five games to go and baring a meltdown from Barça of well, Barcelona proportions, second is where they'll stay. As was noted last year, the problem isn't Madrid, it's Barcelona. Barça are definitely better over 38 games. Over two, I just don't know.

I worry that Madrid, having been able to rest more than half of their first team and still rack up an ice hockey score versus Barcelona, having to bring on Messi, Andres and Xavi in order to close it out against Osasuna, have the edge. Thus far, in 210 minutes of clasico futbol, Barça have scored just once, a penalty. 5-0 seems a very long time ago. Scoring an away gol at the Bernabeu is essential in order to avoid the crippling heartbreak of last year when Mourinho's Inter ground out the most artless of 0-1 defeats.

4. The positives

You know, such as there are any... Despite all this doom and gloom Barça remain eight points clear with five games to play and lost the Copa to a solitary gol in the Final, they weren't dumped out in the first round.

The form of Andres Iniesta and Dani Alves has been encouraging. Both have been exceptional of late. Leo Messi just hit fifty, like 5-Oh gols for the season. Valdes has been fantastic and despite the constant rotation of the defence, it's been pretty solid and Puyol should be back for the match on Wednesday night (he'll certainly make the return leg). They're definitely good enough, they're playing well enough (the second half in Valencia was brilliant) and they should do this but I expect it'll be by a last minute Andres' gol at the Bridge-type margin. *takes deep break*

2011-04-16T19:49:00.000+01:00

Like Iron Man Starks...

Four games in 18 days. La Liga. Copa del Rey. Champions League. The home game with Osasuna breaks the run, almost ruining the poetry of it but I'll be glad of the break. I love and hate the clasico in equal measure. It really is the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Losing to Madrid is awful, gut wrenching, their bloated arrogance, their galling sense of entitlement, their preening, diving and whinging, they're like some fusion of the Yankees, Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars and the Republican Party.

And so the nxt two and a half weeks are going to be hellish. Marca. Mourinho. Valdano. Perez. All mouthing off. Each game bringing the prospect of defeat and never hearing the bloody end of it. You would think that with Barça playing the best futbol they've ever played, with them being eight points clear of Madrid, with Messi, Xavi, Iniesta in concert and absolutely unstoppable that I would be confident, even a little cocksure, going into this World Series run of games. Sadly I'm afflicted with a dreadful pessimism (or maybe it's just realism), in the back of my mind are European Cup losses to Steaua Bucuresti, Liga's thrown away to last minute draws against Betis and Espanyol, countless games where defeat is snatched from the jaws of victory. I don't revel in these games, I dread them.

That said, I was filled with confidence to hear of the return of Iron Man Carles Puyol, back after nearly four months of injury lay off. He's the glue that binds the defense together and his calmness and authority have been sorely lacking in his absence. No word on whether he'll start yet but it's not like they needed to rush him back for this game, I don't think they're doing an Arsenal. If he's in the squad then he's fit to play.

2011-04-04T20:35:00.008+01:00

Super 8

Eight games remaining. Eight points the gap. Jose Mourinho losing his 9 year unbeaten home record to Sporting Gijon and a fabulous gol by Miguel de las Cuevas. Barça solid in their 0-1 win at the Madrigal with Victor Valdes producing four brilliant saves (the last, with his leg from Santi Carzola in the last five minutes was as good or important as any he'll make this season) Blah, blah, blah. I know, it's Tuesday, you know this already.

It's hard to see Madrid coming back from this. Their four remaining away games are at Bilbao (this Saturday at 5pm), Valencia, Sevilla and Villarreal. Plus they have to play Barcelona in two weeks time. Barça's run in is comparatively easy save the Clasico and the derby with Espanyol. We're getting ever closer to the end and a third consecutive title for Pep Guardiola's side.

Saw all of the Villarreal game and was really happy to see Thiago Alcantara to play a full ninety minutes in the Xavi role in midfield. He did pretty well, though disappointingly there were no vaselina free kicks. I like Thiago a lot and have been impressed with his range of passing, his composure and movement any time I've seen him. After much dithering on his contract before Christmas he was finally signed to a two year deal which will presumably be renegotiated once he's had a proper run in the first team next season. Any such run will of course be dependent on the arrival (or not) of Cesc from Arsenal. With all this money from the Qatar Foundation burning a hole in Sandrusco's pocket it's difficult to imagine that this summer won't see another run bringing our boy home.

I'm in two minds about the whole Cesc situation. On the one hand he's brilliant, young and Catalan and is the natural heir to Xavi. He's progressed as far as he can at an Arsenal side that is allergic to winning things and he's good enough to walk into almost any side. Almost any side.

Cesc is great but he's not as good as either Xavi or Iniesta. Xavi is 31 and Andres is 26. Xavi probably has another three very good years in him and Andres is 26. Barça play a three man midfield and one of them has to be a holding player who can drop back to link with the central defence and break up play. It's Busquets, it's Mascherano, it's Rafa Marquez, it's Yaya Toure. It's not Cesc. So where does he fit? Well much like the Spanish midfield, he doesn't. He comes off the bench, he changes things, he's more direct, shoots more from distance, can play better off and in support of the forwards. He doesn't start. So why buy him? Romantic notions aside it really doesn't make sense. Plus he's under contract with Arsenal until 2014. They don't want to sell him. He'd cost upward of €40 million and to do what, sit on the bench or feature in some early season "well we've bought him so he has to play" games before being squeezed out. It'd be Titi Henry being shoe-horned into a front three along side 'dinho, Messi and Eto'o all over again. And we all remember how well that worked out.

You know where this is going. The man who should be wearing the number four shirt in the 2011/12 season is already at Barça. It's Thiago. He may not be quite there yet but he will be.

One last thing, a really good article on In Bed with Maradona on the Espanyol cantera, the other source of good futbolers in Barcelona. It's worth a read.

2011-03-28T17:49:00.003+01:00

The number 5

It was a pretty banal interview. The usual BarçaTV stuff, how is the squad feeling, are you confident about winning La Liga, are you happy with the amount of playing time you're getting? The last question to Seydou Keita was, however, an eye opener. "How about Puyol? Do you think he can be back before the end of the season?" You what?! When I was over for the FCB-Arsenal match there had been talk of Puyol making the bench and now it is of him not featuring again this season. Keita's answer, along the lines of "erm, I hope so" doesn't fill me with much confidence. For something that seemed fairly minor, Puyol has been out for a Rio Ferdinand amount of time and in his absence the defense has been rather shaky. Abidal has performed brilliantly in the centre but he's not going to play again this season following the removal of the tumor on his liver but Pique has been sloppy, Milito's positioning has been awful and he's as slow as hell. Generally there's been an unorganised, wacky races air to much of the defending. Now of course the injury to Victor Valdes didn't help things, for a few weeks there were constant changes in the back five, this lack of continuity undoubtedly contributing to the increased number of mistakes. But still, the most crucial of all the injuries and suspensions Barça have had to deal with is that of their captain.

Given the instability at the back I am very much hoping the Liga strike will go ahead next weekend, as the prospect of facing Villarreal sans Xavi (suspended), Pedro (hernia) and Puyol worries me. As it stands (with that round being played on June 12th), Barça's next Liga match will be at home to Almeria, who are pretty poor, second from bottom and got walloped 0-8 at home by the blaugrana earlier in the season. It's a game that's very winnable without the aforementioned trio. It would also see Xavi coming back into the side away to Real Madrid the following weekend (of the 17th of April)

Also along the back line (well sometimes, when he's not over-lapping Leo Messi), the news that Dani Alves has committed to the club until 2015 is fantastic. The best right back the club has had in about fifteen years (since Albert Ferrer) and along with the quintet of Xavi, Iniesta, Messi and Puyol, probably irreplaceable (I can't think of anyone near his level, Philipp Lahm maybe, Maicon on this very best day?) Haven't read what the figures are beyond the buyout clause but honestly I don't care, the club had to keep him and they have.

A quick word about one Francesc Fabregas i Soler, who was rather uncharitably booed off at the Camp Nou a few weeks ago. He needs to get outta Arsenal if he ever plans on winning anything or staying fit for an entire season for that matter. I don't know what the medial staff are like at Shenley but the Milan lab it ain't. Players such as Van Persie, Nasri, Cesc, Rosicky, Diaby, Vermaelen, Song, all of the gol keepers and even that clown Bendtner are forever in and out of the treatment room. Imagine how United or Chelsea would fare with half of their starting eleven frequently struck down with injury and out of the team for three and four weeks at at time, rushed, re-injured and then out for a further four weeks. All too often this season Arsenal have had "surprise, he's back!" moments with players who were clearly not fit (see Cesc at the Camp Nou for a primary example of this)

It's unbelievably short termist and has unquestionably cost them. Say what you will about Wenger's unwillingness to spend money on established players, buy a competent 'keeper, these debates are secondary, they have a squad that is good enough to win the Premier League, particularly this year with United being so underwhelming and Chelsea going missing for nearly three months, but they're never fit so it's never gonna happen.

2011-01-31T21:12:00.001Z

Times done changed

Hercules have scored just three gols away from home all season. Nelson Valdez has scored all three and two of them were at the Camp Nou. That was back in September, the second week of the season. A flat and limp performance where Barça never really threatened and were soundly beaten seems like a lifetime ago. Since then they have lost just 1nce, a fairly meaningless Copa del Rey 2nd leg game away to Betis (they were 5-0 up from the 1st leg). This Saturday they dispatched their only conquerors in La Liga 0-3 with what was a rather contained and measured showing. It would be the 15th victory in a row, equaling the Di Stefano lead Real Madrid of 1960/61. They scored their 401st gol of the Guardiola era (157 matches) and moved seven points clear of Real (and would stay there thanks to Los Blancos fall to earth in Pamplona, losing 1-0 to Osasuna and looking as disjointed and undone as they did at the tail end of the Pellegrini era).

It’ll be interesting to see if the knives start to come out for Jose Mourinho between now and the end of the season if they don’t get to at least the semi-finals of the Champions League. I’d expect them to open a can of whoop-ass on Sevilla on Wednesday in the Copa. Sevilla were all over the place in their 3-3 draw in Galicia away to Depor. They’ll be without (the increasingly erratic granted) Andres Palop, who was sent off for handling outside the area.

Palop, unflappable for years, has slipped into late career David Seaman form this season, making some incredibly costly mistakes (see the 2nd leg of the Champions League qualifier against Braga for compelling evidence of said decline). Sevilla will have a tough time replacing him come the summer mind, Javi Varas really isn’t up to the task. Added to the hole he’d leave in gol, I don’t see anyone else at the Sanchez Pizjuan ready to pull on the captain’s armband bar maybe Kanoute who’s on the decline too. They’re a team in need of major surgery, top to bottom. Having abandoned the policy of signing promising youngsters and selling them on for big money, they’re now chock full of players that just aren’t good enough. The only player who should be considered untouchable is Navas. Escude and Negredo are worth hanging on to but almost everyone else has underperformed massively in the past two years and the way they’re going this time out they won’t even make Europa League.

Back in Catalunya

Aside from being record equalling, Saturday’s game was noteworthy for one or two other things. Dani Alves, back from injury, played all ninety minutes. Andres Iniesta, an injury magnet last season, picked up his first of this campaign and won’t play in Andalucia against Almeria. He won’t be the only one I expect, given their 5-0 advantage from the first leg. One would hope that they’ve learned their lesson from the Betis game though, the losing of which was as much down to disinterest and lack of concentration as Betis playing brilliantly. That said, the focus is firmly on Atleti on Saturday. The last time Barça were on the cusp of equalling Real fifteen game winning streak they got schooled by Atleti at the Calderon (losing 3-1 I think in Frank RIjkaard’s second season in charge). How fitting that they should get in the way again.

Depending on Tottenham’s efforts tonight, it may be without Diego Forlan, who would be a huge loss to Atleti. His departure would guarantee that Kun Aguero would follow him out the door in the summer, new contract or not, and the big red and white striped reset button being pressed as there is no one in Atleti’s price range who could come remotely close to replacing either of those two. I really hope Forlan does it in England this time. Despite his being top scorer in Spain and Europe (with Villarreal and Atletico, not Real or Barça) he’s still regarded as something of a flop after his time at United in these parts and his performances at the World Cup were seen as some class of anomaly rather than something to be expected. I recall seeing Forlan at the Camp Nou, scoring a hat-trick against Barça for the yellow submarines in a 3-3 draw and in the process beating Eto’o to the Pichichi. He was outstanding, his movement and positioning incredible. He really is the complete centre forward.

2011-01-18T20:48:00.002Z

The Gap

It was about 8:08pm on Sunday night when it started to happen. Andres Iniesta side-footed home Dani Alves pass to make it 1-0 to the blaugrana against Malaga. At 8:18pm when David Villa made it 2-0 it was there for all to see. The gap. It had been a mere two points before the final two matches on Sunday. Now it was four and Barça were beginning, just beginning to pull away as the season reached the halfway point. Real's limp draw away to Almeria ended the relentless winning cycle of the big two that had seen them in first and second place pretty much since August, losing just two matches between them, both winning all of their games since the Clasico and routinely putting four, five and six gols past even the best La Liga teams.

Barça would win comfortably, 4-1, with the hamstring injury to Dani Alves which will keep him out for the best part of three weeks the most noteworthy incident, an injury that will see him miss five games. He will however be back in time for the Champions League ties against Arsenal in late February and early March. Madrid were anything but comfortable, huffing and puffing away to a team who are dead last in La Liga. You could say they were unlucky, Cristiano Ronaldo striking the underside of the bar with a free kick in the final minute, but that would be too kind. To borrow a phrase from Sid Lowe, they were rubbish.

Kaka, starting his first game since the World Cup, looked as rusty as Luke Fitzgerald on Saturday and was hauled off in favour of Benzema (1 gol in La Liga in the 2010/11 season) early in the second half. If there was a game that illustrated Madrid's need for a striker in Higuain's absence, this was it. Until Benzema came on, they effectively had no one upfront, with neither Di Maria, Kaka, Ozil or Ronaldo leaders of the line. They've been linked with a laundry list of players, the latest being Van Nistlerooij. Why not get Raul back too? Or El Moro? With it looking increasingly likely that they'll make a move for Llorente in the summer, whoever comes in is going to be a very short term solution. Interesting that there is no one at all at Real Madrid Castilla who's even being considered for promotion to the first team.

Speaking of B team players, Thiago Alcantara, the most recent graduate from Barça B has (finally) signed a new contract. With his current deal to run out the end of the season and his unwillingness to sign another Barça B contract, the possibility of him doing a Cesc and leaving for nothing in the summer had raised it's head. Thankfully he's committed through 'til the end of the 2012/13 season. He'll see out this one at the B team. Another player not going anywhere is Gabi Milito. Having previously indicated his desire to leave and with a deal with Malaga all but done, he's had a change of heart and will stay until the end of the season. Given the lack of cover at centre back, I'm quite happy about this. Milito is a solid player and a better option than any of Fontas, Muniesa or Sergi Gomez, all of whom are still pretty raw. That said, I'd expect him to leave in the summer, probably in similar circumstances to Titi Henry and Rafa Marquez with his contract rescinded rather than the club looking for a transfer fee.

2011-01-10T19:59:00.005Z

You already know how this is going to end

When Ronaldo scored a soft equaliser, an unmarked header powered past Diego Lopez, just as the clock ticked over the forty five minute mark, you got the feeling that the game was only going one way.

Villarreal had given their all, played Madrid off the pitch and yet would go in 2-2 at half time, leaving it all out on the field. Come the second half, it was you felt, only a matter of time before the tide came in, the sun set and Madrid scored again.

Indeed aside from the 5-0 disemboweling at the Camp Nou, there has been a grim inevitability to every Los Blancos game I've watched this season, echoing their march to the title in 2006/07 season under Fabio Capello (when Barça did their best AS Roma impression and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory). The 2-2 draw at the San Siro, 1-0 victories away to AJ Auxerre and at home in a dire slugfest against Sevilla (with Di Maria getting them out of jail on both occasions) and the 2-0 at home to Valencia, all lethargic performances rescued late on by a combination of individual brilliance and defensive naivety/ gross stupidity.

Given most of these winds have come without Gonzalo Higuain, top scorer at the Santiago Bernabeu in the past two seasons, is even more impressive, if one can be in fact be impressed by this dour grind. Much like Manchester United, who despite being unbeaten in the Premier League have been serving up fairly turgid rubbish and "not really getting out of first gear" (the implication of course being that they can play much better is one I would dispute), Real have rarely sparkled. That's not to say they haven't handed out some spankings but that was as much a result of facing hopeless opposition rather than them hitting the heights.

Villarreal on the other hand have been fantastically exciting to watch. I really thought their huge turnover of players in the summer (most of them in the out tray) would see them drop out of Champions League reckoning but Cani, Carzola, Rossi, Marco Ruben, Borja and the currently injured Nilmar (scorer at the Camp Nou) have been brilliant, playing open attacking Barça-style tika taka. After losing Manuel Pellegrini, their coach for five years, to Real, they inevitably went through a period of instability, Ernesto Valverde coming in the summer of 2009 and being dispatched just after Christmas. Valverde looked to completely reinvent the Yellow Submarines way of playing with disastrous results. His successor, Juan Carlos Garrido, who had been in charge of Villarreal B since 2002, righted the ship, taking them from the bottom half of the table to seventh (and into the Europa League at the expense of the bankrupt Real Mallorca) and this time out they look like a lock for third or forth place and back into Europe's top club competition.

Next Barça they are the best side I've seen this season (Valencia, Espanyol, Palermo, Lazio and Spurs would be the others).

2010-08-30T11:17:00.006+01:00

The rather late and slightly all over the place Barcelona season preview

So Zlatan Ibrahimovic is back in Milan. Little over twelve months after his arrival from the Nerazzurri for €69 million, he's been loaned (!) out to the Rossoneri, who have the 'option' to buy him next summer for €24 million. Yes, you read that right. A player who cost €49 million in cash plus Samuel Eto'o has just walked for nothing with the prospect of clawing back just over a third of what they paid for him. Add in his wages (an astronomical €16 million per year) and you're up to €85 million. With this sort of business being the norm (see Chygrynskiy, Caceres, Hleb, Henrique and Kerrision for further examples of same), it's no wonder the club is almost half-a-billion Euro in the hole. Short of throwing the money into a skip it's hard to conceive of a way they could have burned through so much and gotten so little in return.

On the pitch, Zlatan, while staring like a freight train, struggled to adapt his style of play to that of Barcelona. Dropped in favour of Bojan down the home stretch, the team played far more fluid, incisive futbol without him and though he scored some very important gols (Real, Arsenal, Stuttgart and Mallorca all come to mind), he would finish with just sixteen in La Liga, having a particularly barren spell in the lead up to and after Christmas. Rather than going over old ground and talking about square pegs in round holes, I'll just say this...

He's a very good player and his move to AC Milan immediately turns them into contenders in Serie A, where he has really proved himself. But he was never right for Barça and once the signing of David Villa was completed he was always likely to leave if they could find someone to take him off their hands.

Sid Lowe has an excellent piece in The Guardian today about Zlatan's move. I recommend reading it.

The great destroyer

Andoni Zubizarreta's outbox was rather full these last few days. In addition to our number nine, disaster prone Uruguayan hot head Martin Caceres has been loaned out to Sevilla (with a Zlatan-style option to buy him at a knock down price of €4 million. He was bought for €15 million...) Victor Sanchez, who I like but who never quite made the grade in a Marc Crosas sort of way, has gone to Getafe. Passing that lot on the stairs going the other way is Javier Mascherano. Previously lonely in Liverpool, staring out at the rain, writing poetry and slamming doors while shouting "I hate you!" at Roy Hodgson, Masch essentially forced Liverpool's hand by refusing to play against City last Monday night.

He completed his medical today and will be presented at 6pm Barcelona time. I expect he'll get the number 14 jersey, the number 4 still pining for Cesc Fabregas. Mascherano is a fine player, if an argumentative, mouthy sort. I saw him in the flesh for the first time a playing for Argentina at Lansdowne and could really appreciate just how good he is at tackling and reading the game. That said, I'm not sure how much of an upgrade his (if any) on the recently departed Yaya Toure or indeed if he's any better than the constantly improving Sergio Busquets, who had a fantastic World Cup. I'm also curious to see how much he plays and if like Yaya, he gets fed up sitting on the bench because surely if Busquets, Xavi and Iniesta are all fit he won't start.

Kick off

And so to a short preview of the 2010/11 season at the Camp Nou (written before and indeed during last night's 0-3 win at Santander) There are many reasons to approach this season with hope of continued success. Despite the club's precarious finances, the core of the team is the same as last year's record breaking ninety-nine point season. Those who have left (Yaya, Titi, Rafa Marquez and Chygy) didn't play that often and were very much on the periphery of the team. Zlatan has been effectively replaced with David Villa, how is the finest centre forward in La Liga. Guardiola is still in charge and I expect him to have a good relationship with Zubi and Amor. Barça B have been promoted to the Segunda (they started with a fine win on Saturday, 1-2 away to Celta Vigo) and there are quite a few of that team who would be looking to break into the senior side (Fontas and Thiago Alcantara would be my tips). Plus they have Leo Messi.

The only challenge to Barcelona in La Liga will come, as ever from Madrid. Real finally have the coach they want in Jose Mourinho and have once again added significantly to the playing staff (Ozil, Khedira and Sergio Canales are all brilliant signings) and they may still get Maicon, who's been left out of the Inter squad for their game against Bologna today. Real were just three points shy of Barça last time out and lost both classicos. Much depends on how hard they go after the European Cup. Being dumped out of the Copa Del Rey and the Champions League helped them push Barcelona as close as they did, having only one game per week from mid-March. I think Barça will win La Liga again, probably with about 90 points.

Outside of the top two, Valencia are certainly weaker than last year but they've held onto Mata, Banega and Pablo Hernandez and the arrivals of Aduriz and Soldado will, I feel, prove to be successful. Sevilla are still very strong though their failure to qualify for the Champions League leaves them looking to sell and Luis Fabiano is first in line to depart. They probably wouldn't replace him either leaving them pretty short up front. I can see Atleti, who have held onto their best players and added Filipe Luis from Depor and Godin from Villarreal, having a run at the top four, they're certainly good enough. After that though, there's a noticeable drop off in quality. Bilbao are a solid side but neither Mallorca, who are broke, or Villarreal, who's squad is very thin, are in a position to scale the heights of last season.

At the other end, Hercules, Levante, Racing Santander, Saragossa and Malaga will all struggle.

Finally, five players I reckon are worth watching and who may have break-out seasons. In no particular order:
Filipe Luis at Atleti
Jeffren at Barça
Michel at Depor (on loan from Valencia)
Jordi Alba at Valencia
Musacchio at Villarreal

2010-07-27T18:18:00.006+01:00

The Abyss

With much of the World Cup sapping my interest in futbol, I've taken a bit of a breather. A bunch of stuff has been happening at FCB, some transfers, new contracts signed, enormous amounts of money lost and still no Cesc.

Let's start at the bottom, because that's where we are folks, or at least I hope we are. An audit of the clubs accounts, carried out by Deloitte has uncovered a €77.1 million loss for the 2009/10 season. Yes, that's right, the most recent one. The one where they won La Liga and made it to the Champions League semi-finals. That one. I can scarcely comprehend how the club finds itself in this position. Their debt currently stands at €442 (!) million. No wonder the club have been talking up the youth team of late, they're going to be playing for the first team soon when more players are sold just to keep the lights on. Titi has already made a brand new start of it in Old New York and it seems very likely that he'll be joined by Rafa Marquez, who's looking at signing a four year deal with the 'bulls.

Joining them by the door marked 'Exit' is Brasilian defender Henrique who's being loaned out (yet again) to Racing Santander. Interestingly though, he was named in a very experimental Brasil squad today by their new coach, Mano Menezes. Good for him eh?

So is there any positive news from the edge of the abyss? Well there has been some. Pep Guardiola has signed a contract extension meaning he'll remain on the bench for at least another year. Let's hope he doesn't mind getting paid in magic beans or replica shirts.

Also signing on the dotted line was Andreu Fontas, extending until 2012. In the lead up to this, Fontas had agreed terms with West Ham but the club persuaded him to stay. I like what I've seen of him at Barça Atletic/ B and with Marquez and Chygy leaving I would hope he'll at least play some Copa Del Rey games this coming season.

So what else? Txiki Begiristain has been replaced as Technical Secretary by Zubi. One of the finest golkeepers ever to play for Barça, winning four Liga titles in a row with the 'Dream Team' (in addition to two at Bilbao), Zubizarreta played over three-hundred times for the blaugrana. He'll be joined by another ex-player, Guillermo Amor, who will act as Technical Director of the youth set-up. Txiki meanwhile, is apparently wanted by Chelsea, well so says Sport anyway.

Finally, Adriano. No not that one. Former Sevilla defender Adriano Correia has arrived on a four year deal from the Andalucian club. An excellent player, who will likely feature on the left side of defense, he's been pretty consistent at Sevilla these past six seasons and a good addition to the squad, which, while not quite at Portsmouth levels, is still only twenty-two players and is likely to get smaller.

2010-07-07T16:21:00.004+01:00

"Cash Rules Everything Around Me, C.R.E.A.M. get the money, dolla' dolla' bill y'all"

What the fuck is going on at FC Barcelona? It's like they've had the KLF round to set fire to any bundles of cash they might have. A €150 million loan has been taken out to pay players and other members of staff, who have not received their salaries for the month of June. Rosell has been quick to assert that the club is "not bankrupt" and that the membership need not worry. Of course, why would we? The club, having just had it's most successful two year period in it's history, can't pay it's staff. They're selling players (Chygrynskiy) at a huge loss just to get the cash flow going again (though quite honestly getting €15 million for Chygry after the season he's had is something of a coup). They have a bunch of players who they can't shift (Hleb, Henrique, and Cacares) and who are on massive wages. It's like Nunez is in charge again.

It's most definitely time to worry. Chief among the concerns is Mediapro. Having filed for bankruptcy some weeks ago, the prospect of them fulfilling their television deal with FCB (worth some €150 million per season) would seem slim indeed. More disturbingly, Rosell made pains to point out that the club, unlike oh Real Madrid, Barça only had a "verbal guarantee of payment" which is basically no guarantee at all "verbal contract mate, not worth the paper it's written on..."

Rosell has also said that the membership fee will not increase but quite honestly, even if it were to double it wouldn't come close to making a dent in the clubs troubled finances.

So what now? Real questions have to be asked of the previous administration as to how the club has found itself in this situation. The season before last, when Barça won La Liga, the Copa Del Rey and the Champions League, profits were only €8.8 million, which seems absolutely ridiculous. Where has the money gone? I know there's been a significant investment in players and that contracts have been renegotiated and improved for the top tier (Messi, Xavi, Pique, Iniesta, Valdes) but still, players on big wages have been sold (Eto'o, Ronaldinho, Deco) and the squad is small compared to sides like Inter, Real or Chelsea. You gotta wonder. Bad times ahead I fear. And no Cesc on the horizon either.

2010-06-30T13:44:00.002+01:00

"If you want to see the Thierry Henry of Arsenal, buy a DVD"

After his first season in blaugrana I would have carried Titi on my back to BCN Airport just to get rid of him. Contributing next to nothing on the pitch and grumpy and disagreeable off it, his dream move to Camp Nou had turned into a complete disaster. Frank Rijkaard struggled to fit him into a front three that already had Ronaldinho, Eto'o and Leo Messi. 'dinho, in what was to be his last season at the club was spectacularly off form and falling out with Eto'o. Messi was in and out of the team with injuries and the whole team will still crippled with the malaise that had set in after they threw away the Liga the previous season. Bar Xavi and young Bojan, few players emerged with much credit. Henry was stepping aboard a sinking ship and his attitude did little to steady it. By the time Rijkaard had announced he would be leaving at the end of the season it was clear Barcelona would win nothing, indeed they would even surrender second place to Villarreal in the final weeks. They just gave up.

How different things would be second time around, when the Barça team, reborn under Pep Guardiola, would win everything, beat everyone, lay waste to Real at the Bernabeu. Titi, playing both through the middle and wide on the left formed like Voltron with Eto'o and Messi and returned to his imperious best. There was no need for that DVD. He scored 26 gols, his best since 05/06. What a difference being in a good team makes, rather than one that's fighting with itself. The departures of Deco and 'dinho meant opportunities for Iniesta, Henry and Messi, all of whom were outstanding. It was to prove Henry's last hurrah, his third season a real disappointment. Benched for most it, Pedro asserted himself as first choice on the left side of attack. Henry made some brief cameos (he was fantastic in the second half against Valencia, setting up two of Leo's gols) but he would scored just four times. When he came on as substitute late in Barça's title clinching win at home to Valladolid on the final day of the season, you knew it would be the last time he'd wear the shirt.

And so Titi rides off into the sunset, to wile away his days in the MLS. There has been talk of a return to the Premier League with West Ham but I can't see that happening, he's never play for another English club after Arsenal and he's certainly not going back there.

A man of exceptional talent and grace, peerless at Arsenal, played he could for just one season at Barcelona, but my, what a season. For that I can forgive him everything, even that handball.

When I move, you move

In other transfer news, Joan Oliver, himself out a a job tomorrow, confirmed that Yaya Toure is off to Manchester City (who also signed David Silva this morning). The fee is believed to be in the region of £25 million, which, quite frankly, is ridiculous. Ala Chelsea when Roman Abramovich first took over, there seems to be one price for City and one for everyone else. It's a good deal for Barça, it's much more than he's worth. I wish him well at Eastlands.

Also, as expected Txiki Begiristain will no longer be Technical Secretary. He's done an exceptional job since 2003. He gives a good interview to FCBarcelona.cat here. Interestingly, he's made a point of singling out the signings of Hleb and Keirrison. He could add Cacares and Thuram to that list.

And lastly, Barcelona Atletic defender, Alberto Botia, on loan last season at Sporting Gijon, has joined them on a four year deal. He leaves on a free transfer.

2010-06-22T09:15:00.001+01:00

What lies ahead

It's less than two weeks until Sandro Rosell takes over from Joan Laporta as president of FC Barcelona. On the pitch the club is in brilliant shape, having won La Liga with a record 99 points, coming within a hare's breath of making a second Champions League Final in a row and losing just four games all season. The squad is young, only Puyol, Marquez, Henry, Abidal and back-up 'keeper Pinto are over 30 and most of them are signed to long term contracts. Added to this, the core of the team (Valdes, Pique, Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta and Messi) have come through La Masia. The signing of David Villa (scorer of two gols for Spain last night against Honduras) to an already potent attack is incredibly exciting. Pep Guardiola is one of the finest coaches in the game and he's pure blaugrana.

So what does Sandrusco need to address? In particular order, here are seven issues that our new President will have to get to grips with.

1. The debt

According to Rosell, Barça's debt is more than €500 million. Given the on-field successes of the Laporta era coupled with a relatively modest outlay on players (up to the signings of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and David Villa), this is quite a worry. If they're this much in the hole while the teams beats all around them, what is the financial situation going to be like should they fail to win either La Liga or the Champions League in the coming seasons? What does it mean for new player acquisitions or even keeping hold of the ones we have?

For one it means that club cannot afford any more expensive mistakes like Chygrynskiy, Hleb or Cacares (more of that rabble later) or wild punts on flavour of the month Brasilian youngsters (step forward Kerrison and Henrique) only to loan them out here, there and everywhere before finally flogging them for a massive loss. So perhaps this millstone around their necks is a good thing.

It also means the proposed Norman Foster restyling and renovation of the Camp Nou will not go ahead. I'm in favour of this for a few reasons. The stadium doesn't need to be any bigger (the capacity was to be increased to 106,000, ridiculous considering it only sells out five or six times a year). Seats in the top tier are already closer to the moon than the pitch and the Camp Nou already as a five star rating from UEFA. It's no Emirates or Bernabeu in terms of luxury but nor is in bad shape. Rosell has said that he plans to revamp the stadium but has been short on specifics. Doing up the gaff can wait.

The biggest consequence of the debt is that the issue of shirt sponsorship will once again be on the table. Before the deal with UNICEF was signed the club were very close to an agreement with bwin.com (who would go on to sponsor Real Madrid and AC Milan). I'm really against there being a shirt sponsor. Not to get all Més que un club about it but I think it matters. Barça is about more than promoting beer or cars or fucking internet betting. Seeing the UNICEF logo on the blaugrana shirt makes me proud of my club. It's unquestionably a good thing, not just for the money they donate (a drop in the bucket of UNICEF's budget) but for the awareness it raises and the example it sets (look at Aston Villa and Acorns) I'd rather go without.

2. Cesc

Not since the Apollo 13 mission has their been a bigger mission undertaken to bring our boy(s) home safely. More tedious than a Dan Brown novel, I've made my thoughts on this clear before. Let's just get it done eh?

3. Don't let the door hit you on the way out

Why oh why did Barcelona ever buy Alyaksandr Hleb? Shocking average in his first season, farmed out VFB Stuttgart for his second, he's back again and with two whole miserable years left on his enormous contract. Hleb's not a bad player but he's not a very good one either. His head-down, running at defenses is completely at odds with Barça's style and he looked like a square peg in a round hole any time he played. Getting close to the €17 million paid for him will be nigh on impossible but he has to go.

Other players out tray are calamity prone hothead Martin Cacares (€15 million), mediocre right back Henrique (€8 million) and the semi-retired Titi Henry. Henry has one year left on his contract but he'll be let go on a free to whoever will have him. Post-match hugs and reminiscing about the good old days with Becks in the MLS beckon. Ex-Palmeiras forward Kerrison looks like spending another season on loan at Fiorentina though this may change given Cesare Prandelli is taking over as coach of the Azzurri after the World Cup and being replaced by Sinisa Mihajlovic (who did a very good job at Catania, getting the best out of ex-blaugrana Maxi Lopez).

Another potential departure is slow-motion-replay-but-in-real-time defender Dmytro Chygrynskiy. Next to useless last season, making just twelve appearances (he was mercifully cup-tied and thus played no part in the Champions League), his agent has been making noises about his wanting to stay (the "learning Catalan" line always plays well at Barça). I don't know what to make of Chygrynskiy. He may improve (his is after all only twenty three) but with Puyol, Pique, Marquez and the resurgent Gabi Milito ahead of him, I don't see a way into the team for him. Maybe a loan elsewhere would be good for him but we all know where that leads...

4. Zlatannnn!

What do you do with your €69 million number 9 when you've just bought a player who effectively replaces him? There is a lot of talk about Ibra leaving what was an underwhelming first season. Left out down the stretch (Bojan was preferred and the team was much more fluid and quicker) and more often than not out of sync with the two other forwards, he's been labeled an expensive flop. This is not something I agree with and while one could quite rightly epect more from a man who cost almost €70 million, he did okay, better than okay in fact. Gols against Real Madrid, Arsenal (two of them), Stuttgart and Mallorca were hugely important and his overall play was more effective than he was given credit for.

Whether this means he's staying or not is another matter. For a start there are only two or three clubs afford him. AC Milan have been heavily linked but they don't have any money and he's not over the age of 33 so that's probably not a flyer. I'd like to see him stay but the potential for a Rooney/ Berbatov situation, where your first choice centre forward and his replacement have such completely different playing styles that the team is dysfunctional when your main man is out. Villa is unquestionably more suited to Barça's system than Zlatan and more to the point, Barça hardly ever change their style of play to suit Zlatan (balls over the top like those he ran onto against Arsenal are very rare) so he's left high and dry.

My feeling is he'll stay another year if only because selling him would be a huge admission of failure and would see them take a financial hit they just can't afford.

5. La Masia

Rosell made some curious statements in the run-up to the elections about Barça's youth system. Firstly that it wasn't producing enough players (!) and secondly that the underage teams were chock full of Africans and the local lads weren't getting a look in. He's dead wrong with both of these. Let's look at some of the players that have come out of La Masia in the past few years. Messi, Pique, Fabregas, Bojan, Pedro, Jeffren, Gio dos Santos, Sergio Busquets and Fran Merida. Five play regularly in the first team, another is (currently) captain of Arsenal and one of the finest midfielders in the world. As for the others, Gio, though he has struggled at club level since he left the Camp Nou, is playing fantastically well for Mexico at the World Cup, Jeffren has made huge strides forward this year and Merida has just signed for Atleti from Arsenal. What more does he want?

Now, on to the coming-over-here, taking-our-jobs racist stuff. I've seen a few underage Barça games this last season (not to mention Barcelona Atletic, who have one Nigerian guy. One) and I can think of about four of five Africans out of about fifty or sixty players. In any case, who cares? Why wouldn't these lads be at the club? We're not Athletic Bilbao. Traditionally West African players have ended up in France or Belgium but I don't see why the next Drogba or Toure couldn't come through the ranks at La Masia rather than Le Mans or Beveren. Speaking of Toure, that neatly takes us on to...

6. Ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya (to be sung to the tune of Crocodile Rock)

He's going isn't he? Probably to City of all places, where they can barely move for defensive midfielders. Yaya would be a big loss. Strong, dynamic, driving through the heart of midfield, linking well with Pique, Puyol and Xavi, versatile enough to play in the centre of defense as well as anchor the midfield, he's the complete modern futboler. So what on earth are we doing letting him get away? Seeing his playing time dramatically reduced this past season, injuries and the form of both Busquets and Keita leaving him sitting on the bench, the arrival of Cesc would only see him pushed further down the pecking order so I can understand his desire to leave. He's in the prime of his career (he's 27) and he wants to play. It's just a real shame it'll no longer be at the Camp Nou. I'll miss him.

7. The new Txiki

Finally, a word about Director of Futbol Txiki Begiristain, who is almost certain to be replaced. He's done a fantastic job under Laporta but I feel both his closeness to the outgoing President plus the number of duff signings in the last two years really count against him. Rosell will want to install his own man, though I have no idea who. I think Marc Ingla and Ferran Soriano are possible candidates to succeed Joan Oliver as Director General but as for the new Txiki, we shall see.

2010-06-14T15:41:00.003+01:00

In from the cold

It's been a long road back for Sandro Rosell, who'll become the 39th President of FC Barcelona on July 1st. Part of the 'Elefant Blau', he was Joan Laporta's right hand man when Laporta came to power in 2003. Hugely instrumental in the signing of Ronaldinho from PSG (Rosell was formerly in charge of Nike in Spain and Portugal and good friends with 'dinho) and the club's revival, he grew disillusioned with Laporta's overly authoritarian style of of management/ was pushed to the sidelines and eventually resigned as vice president in June 2005.

Since leaving he's been fiercely critical of Laporta (indeed his book didn't help relations between the two) so it's was nice to see them embrace last night/ this morning after Rosell's victory (he romped home with just over 61% of the vote)

I'm very happy with Rosell as President. He was far and away the best candidate and his expressed desire to get a handle on the club's huge debt can only be a good thing. He was however the least committed of all four in bringing Cesc Fabregas back to the Camp Nou. He's set for talks in the next few days with both Guardiola and Laporta about Cesc (and all manner of other things too one expects, such as what the hell to do with Hleb, Cacares, Chygrynskiy... and the future of Director of Futbol, Txiki Bergiristain and who'll replace General Manager Joan Oliver).

I'll put up a longer post during the week on how I expect the club to change under Rosell and what needs addressing but right now I think his win is a very good thing for the club.

2010-06-02T14:23:00.002+01:00

This is happening

This entry was going to be all about David Villa (and mostly it will be) until I read this. It would seem that Xavi had the heads up, given what he was saying this morning at the Spanish training camp. No details yet on how much Barça have offered the Gunners but that will leak out over the course of the day. I don't know if I buy Joan Oliver's line about negations not beginning before June 1st thanks to the transfer window in England, quite a few players have changed clubs in the Premier League since the end of the season. It's just more bluster. Anyway, I've made my thoughts on Cesc known, so onwards to Barça's new number 7.

Los Che watch it all fall down

You feel it can go one of two ways for Valencia. Either the departure of David Villa from the Mestella will keep them afloat with the money it's bringing in or it'll be catalyst for four or five players to jump ship, leaving the team, broke and shorn of their best attacking talent (and Nikola Zigic), in serious trouble come the start of next season. With David Silva all set to follow Villa out the door and rumours of Juan Mata also wanting to leave, the latter is certainly a possibility.

Making the Champions League does at least guarantee them revenue/ tv money for six games and unless they get drawn in a particularly tough group, even with the players they've lost, they ought make the last 16. Added to that, those most likely to attract bids (the aforementioned Mata and Ever Banega, who's had a sensational season) are young and tied into long contracts. Silva will definitely leave, he's on high wages and with City interested, will command a fee of at least £30 million. I like Silva a lot but he's more replaceable than any of the others, Pablo Hernandez, Chori Dominguez and Joaquin are all options out on the wing or behind the main striker, whoever that turns out to be (I wouldn't at all be surprised to see Dani Guiza make a return to Spain from Fener. Things haven't really worked out for him at all there and he's one of the few proven gol scorers in La Liga that Valencia could afford, the likes of Llorente and Soldado would be much too expensive).

It's the other side of this deal that I'm really concerned with though, what Villa's move will mean at the Camp Nou. Villa is a phenomenal striker, a player who led from the front at the Mestella. I read some Opta stats that Valencia had won 63% of their games when Villa played and a mere 17% when he didn't. And while I don't expect him to have anything like that impact at FCB (they're a much better team who don't rely on one player to win games by himself), he's the sort of player that should both push them over the 100 gol mark and get them back to the European Cup Final.

He's also a much better fit in the fluid attacking three that Barcelona play with. Zlatan, for all his talent, is the wrong player for the blaugrana where as Villa's movement and style of play is far more suited to Barça's quick movement and passing game. If Zlatan doesn't leave in the summer I can foresee him spending a lot of time on the bench, getting more and more frustrated and all the time diminishing in value. Maybe the best thing would be to take the hit on him now and flog him to City (soon to be home to just about anyone who can kick a ball it seems) or Chelsea.

2010-05-28T13:22:00.006+01:00

And on it goes...

There's one every summer. Last year it was Ronaldo to Madrid. The year before it was Ronaldo to Madrid. The year before that Henry to Barça. The year befo... oh who cares? The long, drawn out, seemingly interminable, "I am very happy here at X but of course it is an honour to be linked with a club such as Y" bore-a-thon that is the summer transfer saga. This time, it's Cesc.

Stories about Fabregas' return to the Camp Nou have been doing the rounds almost as long as he's been at Arsenal. Given that he's from Catalunya, it's not a hard one to write. This time though, it seems to be for real. With the signing of David Villa wrapped up unusually quickly, all talk is now of when, not if, the prodigal son will return. Thus far though, that's all it's been. Talk. Barça have yet to formally approach Arsenal. The Gunners say they don't want to sell him and er, that's it.

Yet the stories of Arsenal wanting anything up to £40 million, of Barça offering Zlatan, Yaya, a house in the Hamptons or a ride on the Space Shuttle in exchange one used midfielder, slight damage to the fibula, continue to spew forth like oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

I'd love to see Cesc back, he's a fabulous player who would improve any side. The pace, drive and positioning, accuracy with corners and free kicks plus his ability to shoot the ball from outside the box and open up suborn defenses would give the team something different. But can we just get it done. It'd rather not go through several months of this, having to listen to Clive Tyldesley and the like drone on about it during Spain games at the World Cup... "Xavi. To Fabregas. Is that a combination we'll be seeing next season at the Camp Nou? Barcelona fans would certainly...." zzzzzzz. Please stop. Let's bring our boy home.

More from La Masia

In other "Catalan midfielder leaves Arsenal and returns to Spain" news, Fran Merida has signed for Atletico Madrid. Merida, 20, never really did it at Arsenal, barely getting a look in to the first team beyond Carling Cup games and spending much of the season before last on loan at Real Sociedad. I think he's a tidy player if a bit lightweight. He should do well under Sanchez Flores at Atleti, their central midfield is sorely lacking in creativity and he ought inject some dynamism.

2010-05-24T11:49:00.005+01:00

Messi, Zlatan, Xavi and all that...

Considering all this free time I have on my hands, I thought it would be somewhat amiss for me not to write a review/ assessment of the team this season. So here it is.

Given they won everything bar the Super Bowl and the Stanley Cup last season, it was always going to be difficult for Barcelona to hit the same heights this time out. Though the only real change to the squad was exchanging Samuel Eto’o for Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the team evolved quite a bit from the all conquering model of 2008/2009.

Golkeeping and defense

Victor Valdes had his finest season in a blaugrana jersey and was easily the best golkeeper in Spain. Upping his concentration levels, cutting out silly mistakes, improving his distribution (no more kick outs going straight to David Villa) and pulling off phenomenal saves (this one against Mallorca is some Matrix shit), he has rightly made the World Cup squad (though his chances of getting a run out are slim to none), he backstopped a defense that conceded just twenty-four gols in La Liga and took the Zamora trophy for a third time.

In front of Valdes, Gerard Pique and Ironman Carles Puyol were again outstanding and Maxwell really impressed at left back, benching the calamity-prone Eric Abidal (who, to be fair, had an excellent start to the season). His passing and incisive attacking play complemented the always brilliant Dani Alves on the right.

The middle

In midfield the dynamic shifted quite a bit with Sergio Busquets being preferred to Yaya Toure and Seydou Keita seeing a lot more playing time given Iniesta’s struggle with injuries. I’m no fan of Busquets, his constant diving around and his fondness for needlessly getting ‘involved’, coupled with a propensity to misplace passes, I think Toure is a much better player (zonalmarking.net would argue otherwise). Furthermore, Toure gives the team much more drive in midfield, he’s big and powerful and advances with the ball much more than Busquets (Messi’s first goal against Valladolid being a perfect example of this).

Xavi, rather incredibly, continues to improve. His range of passing, his ability to dictate the pace of a game with almost all of Barcelona’s play flowing through him is astounding. Messi has rightly attracted plaudits for his performances this season (his all round play in addition to his record-equaling 47 gols has been exceptional) but Xavi has been Barça’s stand out player. The team just doesn’t function the same way without him.

In contrast to Xavi’s growing dominance, Andreas Iniesta hasn’t really made an impact, having a very stop-start season on the back of a lot of injuries. Given the overall strength of the team, his absence wasn’t too keenly felt, though something like this was very much lacking from the second leg against Inter, I don’t recall a single shot from distance in that game bar Bojan’s disallowed gol (more of the Inter game later)

Forwards

Up front was where the team changed almost completely. With Sammy gone to play right back for Inter and Titi Henry going into semi-retirement, there were two slots to fill alongside Leo Messi. One round hole would have the square peg that is Zlatan hammered into it. The other was filled by Pedro, who’s really stepped up, pushing Bojan out for most the season (Bojan, made of sterner stuff than one might think, had a barn-storming end to the season and starting most of the games going down the stretch ahead of Zlatan)

Ah Zlatan, a more polarising force one could not find. I think he did pretty well in his first season. He’s not Sammy and was never going to be part of a fluid front three in the same way. He scored 21 gols, including two against Arsenal, crucial gols away at Stuttgart and Mallorca and of course, rifling one past Casillas in the clasico. That said, he did play with all the effectiveness of a wardrobe or a dining room table between Christmas and mid-March and frequently looked out of sync with the rest of the team. The problem is, I think anyway, was that while he was brought in to give Barça a different way of playing, another option, they never ever used it. There were never balls over the top for him to run onto, early crosses for him to head down and there were never going to be, the team can’t just change it’s style of play like that. And moreover, they didn’t have to. Bar the Inter game, they haven’t had to come back or try something different. They lost one league game all season, 2-1 away to Atletico, four games in all, with only two being of any consequence, the Copa del Rey tie against Sevilla and the 3-1 disaster in Milan.

Where he fits in now with the signing of David Villa I really don’t know. Despite the ‘7’ on his shirt, Villa is a number 9 and it seems unlikely that they can both play together. I’m hoping this doesn’t result in another Henry - ’dinho - Eto’o - Messi type problem where the club just had too many players for the same positions. I wouldn’t like to see him sold, especially as it would likely be at a huge loss but it may come to that. He’s surely 4th in the queue behind Messi, Villa and Pedro.

And so to Leo, destroyer of worlds, slayer of demons and scorer a ridiculous forty-seven gols. Playing in any of the three forward positions and even as an attacking midfielder, there are scarcely words to describe his performances this season. Hat-tricks against Tenerife, Valencia, Saragossa and four against Arsenal, where does one begin? I am consistently impressed by Messi’s un-showy brilliance, he’s the very antithesis of the whinging, pouting CR9. His gol against Real was Leo in microcosm. Cleared out of it by Sergio Ramos, he got up, received the free kick himself from Maxwell, played a one-two with Xavi and scored. All very matter-of-factly and amazing just the same. I’m pretty much in love with Leo, Antonella Roccuzzo move over.

Taking this season as a whole, Barça have been otherworldly at times but were pushed all the way to the final day of the season by a rather pedestrian Real Madrid side who ground out results rather than blew teams away. Up until Madrid gave up playing against Malaga and settled for a draw there was just one point in it. I think it’ll be just as tight again next time out, especially with Jose Mourinho in charge at Madrid. The loss to Inter in the Champions League was disappointing but more for the flat performance in Milan than the inability to put more than one past them at the Camp Nou.

I’ll post something at the end of the week about David Villa, the upcoming presidential elections and the Fabregas situation. All that remains is...

Team of the season (4-3-3)

Victor Valdes (Barcelona)

Dani Alves

Gerard Pique

Carles Puyol (all Barcelona)

Filipe (Deportivo la Coruna)

Xavi (Barcelona)

Banega (Valencia)

Javi Martinez (Athletic Bilbao)

Messi (Barcelona)

Ronaldo (Real Madrid)

Navas (Sevilla)

Player of the season: Xavi (Barcelona)

Coach of the season: Gregorio Manzano (Real Mallorca)

2009-09-29T22:24:00.002+01:00

We gonna run this town tonight

There was much to be happy about tonight at the Camp Nou. Zlatan Ibrahimovic had a quite brilliant game for Barça. Despite not scoring he was absolutely outstanding, constantly threatening, incredibly sharp and linked brilliantly with Iniesta, Xavi, Kieta and Messi. Second up, the blaugrana defense, Carles Puyol and Abidal in particular, were fantastic. Puyol was so impressive, his reading of the game, his tackling and range of passing, he was runnin' tings from the back. I know I like to gush about Carles but it does gall me when the likes of Sid Lowe and Graham Hunter get on his case, dismissing him as this rash, lumbering fool who likes to dive in and gets caught out thanks to his ineptitude. Dynamo are hardly Real Madrid or Manchester United but he did what he had to do with real pomp and verve. Nothing quite as good as that Cruyff turn against Russia in the Euros but still...

Moving swiftly along, Iniesta only lasted 45 minutes tonight, which is *insert pause to listen to Pep's interview on Sky Sports* probably as much was he was able for. He played well. His replacement, Pedro, was rather poor, his gol aside, most of the attack in the second half went down the right through Alves and Messi. That said, he took his gol very well, quick feet, an excellent finish after more good work from Zlatan.

So all in all, a solid and very entertaining win that kept me from starting Doug Coupland's Generation A. Which is what I'm going to do now...

2009-09-29T19:40:00.000+01:00

One month in

The last time Andriy Shevchenko set foot on the Camp Nou turf was on the 26th of April, 2006. He was leading the line for AC Milan alongside Super Pippo, scoring a wrongly disallowed gol (for a non-foul on Charles Puyol) in one of the last games he would play for the Rossoneri before his disastrous spell at Chelsea. Tonight he's back 1nce again, on his 33rd birthday, in the white and blue of Dynamo Kyiv.

It's been a rapid decline for Sheva since that night. His time at Chelsea was characterised by long spells out of the side, either on the bench or more often, in the stands, injured or simply left out of the squad altogether buy successive managers who didn't want anything to do with him. He was unstoppable at the San Siro yet he never even got going at Stamford Bridge. After three dreadful seasons he was loaned back to Milan where he huffed and puffed behind Pato, the evergreen Pippo Inzaghi and another man who's star is very much on the wane, Ronaldinho. Now, in a complete rewind, he's wearing the number 7 shirt for Dynamo. I'm quite looking forward to seeing him back in the Champions League. Now that's he's left Chelsea it's quite okay to like him again.

I doubt however, that he'll be blazing much of a trail this evening. Having seen Barça carve teams up in the past few weeks, they've been particularly impressive in the past two weeks against Racing and Malaga, with that Swedish fellow I don't much care for playing really well (and more to the point, quite unselfishly) He's still a bit slow and taking far too many touches but he'll improve. Young Leo has been in scintillating form and combining brilliantly with Zlatan and Henry, who's not in the match squad tonight thanks to a hamstring injury. Off the treatment table and making his first start of the season, on left of the front three is Andreas Iniesta, the man responsible for my leaping out of the chair and uncontrollable screaming of 'Gollllllllllllll!' on a balmy night in London. Iniesta has made only a few appearances from the bench thus far and I'm hoping he can last 90 minutes.

Right, this game is about to start. Match report and more musings later.

2009-08-31T20:03:00.004+01:00

A return of sorts...

I'm sure this is riddled with spelling mistakes but I've decided that in order to get back writing I just needed to post this and get it out there. More toward the tail end of the week.

I think it was Xavi who said that Real Madrid and Barcelona are like opposing forces. If one is doing well, then the other must be in crisis, that is just the way it is. With that in mind, I’m more than a little apprehensive about the coming season, which began with a 3-2 win for Real over Depor on Saturday night and kicks off for Barça on Monday, at home to Sporting. Barcelona are coming off their most successful season ever, winning the treble in infattic fashion, playing Manchester United off the pitch in Rome to win their third European Cup, completely dominating La Liga (walloping Madrid 6-2 in the Bernabeu was a particular highlight and regularly notching up 4, 5 and 6 gols per game, sometimes before halftime) They played the best futbol, Xavi, Iniesta and Leo Messi were simply incredible, and won everything. There is, one suspects, only one place to go from here and it is not up. I can be a bit meloncolic when it comes to FCB, having had my heart broken so many times, seen Ligas thrown away thanks to last minute equalisers, Europeans Cups lost to the likes of Steaua Bucarest, seen the club mis-managed into a enormous financial hole... so here we go, this is how I think it’s going to go down in the next nine months.

The moves at Real Madrid over the summer have been nothing short of astonishing. Bar Ribery and David Villa, who inexplicably remains at Valencia, they’ve bought just about everyone, even some players that they actually needed like Xabi Alonso and Raul Albiol in addition to the front three of Tom Cruise, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods or whoever it was they bought. There are plenty who see this second galacticos era ending in complete disaster. I’m not one of them. Manuel Pellegrini is a very good coach and given that last year, by sheer force of talent, they snapped at Barça’s heels for most of the season before the classico smackdown and subsequent collapse, it’s hard to see them not picking up more points this season than last and not being so reliant on Iker Casillas to perform heroics week in, week out.

Add to this the changes at FCB, principally the sale of Samuel Eto’o to Inter and his boots being filled by flat trap bully Zlatan Ibrahimovic. It’s hard to overstate the importance of Eto’o to Barcelona and what his loss will mean. The third highest scorer in the clubs history in just five years, scoring in two European Cup finals, coming up with big gols time and again. His ability to switch position, playing anywhere in a front three with Messi, Ronaldinho, Henry, Giuly, as willing to graft and drift out wide as he was to thunder through the middle like a battering ram, his tireless teamwork. Quite simply he’s become the best striker in the world in his time at the Camp Nou. And he’s been replaced by a lazy tosser who has failed to deliver time and time again against big teams in Europe or in Serie A (both for Inter and Juve)

Ibra is unquestionably very talented and but for him Inter would not have won the last three scudetti. He can pull it out of the bag as the team are drifting toward a drab draw with Chievo or Siena. Inter have not been particularly good but thanks to Roma being more than capable of beating themselves, Juve’s rebuilding following their relegation to and subsequent promotion from Serie B and Milan’s staunch refusal/ ability to buy any one at all, they’ve just had to be good enough. Ibra has been the one bright spark in a fairly plodding team. And I think that Inters mediocrity has made him look somewhat better than he is. He was no shakes at Juve and I wonder just how much he’s developed. Calling him overrated is somewhat of a lazy criticism but I’m going to use it anyway because he is. How he’ll fit into a dynamic front three and a team as fluid as Barça’s I just don’t know. I don’t see him pressuring fullbacks out on the left wing or making all that many tackles (unless Rafael Van Der Vaart is involved) or passing as much as he should. Add to that he’s used to being the main man and is rather fond of extolling his own virtues and speaking about himself in the third person. To mouth off like he does he’d want to deliver and I just don’t see him putting up the kind of numbers he did at Inter. Nothing would delight me more than being proven wrong.

As for the rest of you

Now that that Zlatan rant is over, on to the rest of the squad, which is a little thinner than I could like. With the African Cup of Nations taking Kieta and Yaya for a month, the midfield is going to be very stretched should Iniesta or Xavi pick up an injury so they could probably do with buying someone (though that’s likely to come in January given that today is the last day of the transfer window and Cesc shows no signs of leaving Arsenal. Another forward wouldn’t go amiss either. The defense is pretty strong, especially with the signing of that Ukranian lump from Shaktar. Valdes is still in gol and with his recent contract extension, shows no signs of leaving/ being replaced. He’s alright but they can do better. Sebastian Frey from Fiorentina for one would be a huge improvement but not going to happen so I best forget about it. But the short of it is, it’s pretty much the same squad as last time out and that’s no bad thing.

So how is all of this going to go down? Between a tougher challenge from Real this time out (not to mention Sevilla, Villarreal and Valencia), more games (that stupid World Club Mega Superbowl thing for a start, played on one of the moons of Saturn in December) and a small squad means that there could be a lot of tears come next May. Barça, if Ibra gets it together are definitely good enough to win either La Liga or retain the European Cup. If he doesn’t score at least 20 gols and should injuries keep Xavi, Iniesta or Messi out for anything other than a game or two they’ll win nothing.

2008-08-28T19:11:00.006+01:00

Siempre con nosotro

Today is the first anniversary of the death of Antonio Puerta. He was just twenty two. His son Aitor will be one on October 22nd.

Champions League Draw

The bore-a-thon that is the European Cup draw was on today and Barça got something of a joke group. Sporting Lisbon, Basel and Shaktar are fairly poor sides and I would expect, with the possible exception of a trip to Donetsk in early October, that the blaugrana will take maxium points.

2008-08-26T22:35:00.007+01:00

Gold, Gold, Gold! Messi, Messi, Messi!

Despite being played in the middle of day in 42 degree heat, the final of the Olympic Futbol was pretty good, which given it was like six in the morning when I was watching it, can only be considered a plus. While it was no Brasil-Argentina, it was still an exciting game, with a wonderful chipped gol from Benfica winger Angel Di Maria, running on to a pass from Leo Messi. While I still think having futbol in the Olympics is ridiculous (though perhaps not as ridiculous as beach volleyball), it was incredibly enjoyable to see Juan Roman Riquelme, so often on the wrong side of the result in big games, pick up a gold (in addition to putting away a penalty against Brasil).

Away from Beijing, Barça tonight secured their place in the Champions League proper despite a 1-0 loss away to Wisla. Given that they won the first leg 4-0, the game tonight hardly mattered, though it's still disappointing to have lost to such mediocre opposition. Still, no injuries and it ought focus their minds ahead of the opening game away to Numancia on Sunday (Sky Sports One, 6pm via the interactive service). What else? Joan Laporta will see out his term as president, a move that serves everyone bar Sandro Rosell, very well. I'm quite the Laporta-ite so I was always going to cheer this news but even given his mistakes, I don't think removing him would have done any good. For a start we'd only be electing a new board now and the likes of Dani Alves wouldn't have been signed and more importantly, Ronaldinho would still at the club.

In conclusion, two things that are worth your time and attention. Firstly, there was an excellent interview with Cesc Fabregas in The Observer on Sunday. Cesc is a top bloke so have a read. Secondly, the BBC Storyville documentary, Barça - The Inside Story, is up on youtube and can be viewed here. It's split into nine parts and the quality is terrible but considering I've being trying to torrent this for ages and gotten no-where, I'll take what I can get. My favourite parts are Ferran Soriano's wedding and 'dinho's first gol at the Camp Nou (against Sevilla in the game that kicked off at five past midnight). A superb piece of film-making.

And that's it for now. I'll post a full season preview before kick off on Sunday.

2008-08-19T23:29:00.010+01:00

It begins. Again.

Futbol, as I'm sure you're aware, is back. La Liga doesn't kick off until the final weekend of August but already there's been a lot goin' on since I last got up on this wire. Marc Crosas has gone to Celtic, Samuel Eto'o has decided to stay put (and so too, thankfully, has Emmanuel Adebayor), Oleguer has finalised his move to Ajax, the wrangling over Leo Messi's participation in the Olympics came to a head (he stayed despite the judgement in Barça's favour and thanks to a 3-0 victory over Brasil today, he's in the final), Bojan has been called into the Spain squad to face Denmark in tomorrow's friendly, all the pre-season games and the first proper one have been won in style and by some margin (the late, late win over Boca accepted) and erm, that's it really. No further resignations from the board, no motions of no confidence, no new signings (and it appears unlikely that there will be any more), no strops, no injuries, no meltdowns.

Everything I've mentioned is kinda old news bar the futbol today in Beijing so I'm not going to comment except to say that right now I'm incredibly confident going into the new season. Barça have an amazing squad of players and Guardiola has them playing superb stuff. Given that Madrid haven't really improved (van der Vaart is no great addition and their decision to loan Garay back to Racing is baffling given their lack of cover at centre back), Villarreal have the added strains of the Champions League to contend with, Sevilla, though they've bought well, have sold their best players and Valencia are still all over the place, the blaugrana are very well placed to take back the title. A run at the CL isn't beyond them either.

Given that there are just under two weeks to go I won't be all that active on the blog unless there's some sensational news (and I'm unlikely to see the second leg of the Wisla game either) but consider this a gentle warm up, nothing as intensive as what Peps been putting the players through, but we'll get there.

2008-07-22T14:32:00.009+01:00

Milan's new number 80

They really ought install a revolving door at the Camp Nou. In the past week one of the finest players ever to wear the blaugrana shirt has been given the heave ho, Arsenal lay about Alex Hleb has passed him the way in and today it was announced that rabid Catalan nationalist and ropey defender Oleguer has left the club to sign for Ajax (where he will link up with another ex-blaugrana, Gabri). Also, Palmerias defender Henrique has signed for the club, only to be shipped out immediately on loan to Leverkusen in the Bundesliga.

Crikey as James Richardson would say. Of course 'dinho's departure is far and away the biggest news. His departure, along with that of Deco to Chelsea and Ludovic Giuly last season to AS Roma, means that Samuel Eto'o is the only member of that incredible front four (and it was a front four, Deco's role was easily as important as the three that played ahead of him) who remains at the Camp Nou. I've waxed about 'dinho before so I shan't rehash the same old shit again. The short of it is that when he was on point he was quite simply incredible. We will probably never see his like again.

Moving on to the signing of Alex Hleb from Arsenal *sigh* I don't know about this at all. Certainly he's very talented, a superb passer of the ball and pretty tricky but christ if he doesn't faff about a lot, rarely shooting when given the chance and not really offering anything different to Xavi and Iniesta. I suppose he can play out wide upfront but surely the prefered forward line for next season is Henry, Eto'o (if he stays) and Messi. I don't think he's any addition but until the pre-season starts and we begin to get an idea of how the team will line out, it's hard to judge where he'll fit in.

Catalunya is not Spain

I was a little suprised to read about Oleguer joining Ajax today. It would seem that Ajax have been transformed from the club that produced players like Marc Overmars, Jan Wouters, Johan Cruyff, Denis Bergkamp and current coach Marco van Basten. Now they buy up muckers like Urzaiz, Albert Luque, Dennis Rommedahl and now, Oleguer. Joining for a fee of €3 million, with another 2.25 million linked to appearences, he has yet to agree terms or have a medical (watch that finger!) but the blaugrana wouldn't splash this on their website were it not going ahead.

Like Phil Babb to Carles Puyol's Paul McGrath, Oleguer always looked better alongside the captain than he really was. Dodgy both at centreback and out on the right, were it not for the fact he was a local and such a vocal Catalan nationalist, I think he would have been shipped a long time ago. He's hardly featured in the past two seasons since Gianluca Zambrotta was signed and with Dani Alves joining from Sevilla, he was unlikely to enjoy a renaissance this time around. He'll probably do alright at Ajax given that he'll be facing hopeless forwards week in, week out in the Eredivise and the fact that (yet again) the Amsterdam side have missed out on the Champions League.

Also worth a mention, though he won't be pitching up until the 09/10 season is Palmeiras defender, Henrique, who arrives for a medical today. His fee is €8 million. I know absolutely nothing about this guy, only that he won the Sao Paolo State Championship with Palmeiras this season and that Ajax were in for him too (because like I mentioned, Ajax don't seem to grow players anymore, they just buy them in).

2008-07-17T14:20:00.005+01:00

Power outage

Thanks to my Mac still being in the shop, I've not had a chance to get blogging on either the 'dinho transfer or Alexander Hleb. As I probably won't have it back until the weekend at the earliest expect an update sometime Sunday.

That is all.

2008-07-09T22:43:00.001+01:00

Rock the vote

With Joan Laporta barely surviving the vote of no confidence in his presidency last Sunday, FCB is still very much at sea. Rumours abound that Laporta will resign on Thursday (tomorrow), thus triggering an election. I have my doubts about this for a few reasons, mostly concerning transfers, specifically those of Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto'o.

Elections would mean an immediate suspension of all transfer activity until a new president is in place, which realistically wouldn't be until the end of August/ the beginning of September, by which time the transfer window would be closed. Whatever of Eto'o being persuaded to remain at the Camp Nou, relations between 'dinho and the club appear to be at an all time low (which really is saying something) Despite the fact that he's unlikely to still be with the blaugrana come mid-August when the Olympics are on, the club have denied him permission to go anyway.

While they're perfectly within their rights to do this (the Olympics is after all, not a FIFA sanctioned tournament), it's the sort of thing you'd do before a player is called up to the squad, not afterward. Why do they care if he goes or not? It's not like he's going to play in the Champions League qualifiers anyway (or ever again wearing the number 10 Barça shirt). It strikes me as petty.

Business Time

In the past week and a half the club have been making serious moves toward securing Emmanuel Adebayor from Arsenal, for a fee that could be as high as €30 million. I'm no fan of Ade, who ala Andy Cole, needs about six chances to score one gol. Having forced his way out of Monaco little over eighteen months ago and been the agitator-in-chief in the Togo squad that threatened to go on strike at the World Cup (like anyone would have noticed), he's at it again, looking either for a move away from Ashburton Grove or a huge wage increase. With Champions League-less AC Milan seemingly out of the running, his mostly likely destination would appear to be the Camp Nou.

The very idea of replacing a striker as clinical and sharp as Eto'o with a big lumbering oaf such as Ade is ridiculous. The possible addition of his equally over-rated Belarussian team-mate, Alex Hleb, doesn't fill me with joy either. Neither are of the quality Barça need and both are looking for crazy money on the back of one good season. Milan, Bayern or whomever want's them are welcome to their hyped up asses.

Another potential arrival is Russian playmaker and star of erm, two games, at Euro 2008, Andrei Arshavin. Currently at Zenit St. Petersburg, Barça have already had one bid of around €15 million rejected. Like Ade and Hleb, Arshavin is flavour of the month after he took Sweden and the Netherlands apart. Everyone seems to be forgetting however that he was absolutely rubbish in the semi-final against Espana and that perhaps, at 27 and having spent his career up to now in Russian futbol, that he isn't the second coming after all and is in fact just quite good. Given the system that the blaugrana play I don't quite see where he'd fit in either, wide left maybe? I don't know. There's not really any room for him in the midfield with Xavi, Keita, iniesta et al and it's Messi Messi Messi and Dani Alves on the right (!) so...

I may have missed

Of course when I say "may have" I do of course mean "did". Back in late June, former Barça and Real Madrid midfielder, has been appointed the new coach of Barça B, now known as Barcelona Athletic. He's signed a two year deal and will hopefully follow in Pep's footsteps. Enrique is a good guy, he was a top player and (like a slew of others) very shabbaly treated by Real, who let his contract lapse, resulting in his joining Barcelona. What's not to like :)

2008-07-01T23:49:00.002+01:00

Ain't it funny...

As of early this afternoon I was all set to post "what the hell is going on with the signing of Dani Alves?" Despite being confirmed by the player himself weeks ago neither Barça nor Sevilla had made any official announcements and being the worrying type I started to get all antsy. When Keita and Cáceres had their official unveilings in the past few day I got even more like a kid who can't sleep on Christmas night.

But all that's been dispensed with now. As of about three o'clock Daniel Alves is a blaugrana and everyone else best get out the way. Signing a four year deal that is initially for €29.5 million, rising to as much as €36 million should Guardiola's side win either La Liga or the Champions League, he's worth every penny.

Watching Alves play for Sevilla these past few years has been like watching a thoroughbred race horse gallop down the closing stretch. Pace, power, fitness, a willingness and a determination to get over the line. In addition to incredible skill and real grit, Alves has all of these in spades. He would improve any team the world. I simply cannot think of a more complete modern right back. Expect him to be a revelation.

Before we move onto one Anderson Luis de Souza and his departure to the Bridge it's worth mentioning the other Brazilian full-back at the Camp Nou, Sylvinho. Despite turning thirty four in April he's been given a new one year contract to see him through until June 2009. Given Abidal's fall from grace and shocking displays at the European Championships he could be given quite a bit of playing time in the coming season.

Is that top Deco or bottom Deco?

And so it begins. The first of what will presumably be three departures, Eto'o and 'dinho of course being the others, of the barometer of the Rijkaard era. Off to Chelsea to for a fee rumoured to be €8 million. He's signed a two year deal. Much in the same way as Alves is the very definition of the modern full-back, Deco is the leader of the nu skool when it comes to the number ten. Mobile, strong and agressive in the tackle, his running, positioning and passing are such that, even in a midfield with such exceptional players as Xavi and Iniesta, he completely controls the pace and flow of the game. Given his displays for Portugal this past month, coming on the back of a difficult final season in Catalunya (not just on the field, his marriage also ended in divorce mid-2008) and his relationship with the new Chelsea coach, Phil Scolari, I see him being a huge sucess in England and I think that much like Ludovic Giuly the season before last, letting him go is a mistake. But then making mistakes is what Mes Que un Club excel at...

Also out the door and with much less fanfare are Old Man River Lillian Thuram and Basque forward Santi Ezquerro. Thuram, signed along with Gianluca Zambrotta from Juve two seasons ago, looked all set to sign for PSG before he failed a medical. Given his age (one hundred and thirty six), retirement looks very likely. Thuram's time at the Camp Nou can be neatly summed up in one word, disaster. If you're in need of a second you might want to preface that with either complete or fucking. Moving more slowly than the rate that most galaxies expand, Thuram, once upon a time one of the finest defenders in Serie A (both at Parma and Juve alongside Canna), was well past his imperious best when he pitched up at Barcelona. Frequently caught out by pacy young attackers, he was worth at least one calamity per game, sometimes two. Thank Christ he's gone.

Santi on the other hand hardly ever got the chance to make a bags of things. The leading scorer in a solid if unspectacular Bilbao side, his time at Barça was mostly spent in the stands or on the bench. I like Santi a lot, he never complained about his lack of playing time and always put the effort in when he did play. He was also very popular in the dressing room. There's no word yet on where he may go next.

Finally, before I get to bed, three items of note. One, former Barça assistant coach Henk Ten Cate has taken over as coach of Greek side Panathinaikos. Two year deal. Look for fringe blaugrana, Chelsea and Ajax players to be linked with moves to Athens within the next few weeks. Two, Ronaldinho to Milan seems to be back on. And three, Xavi, in addition to winning the European Championships, is also crowned the tournament's best player. He well deserves it. Bona Nit.

2008-06-06T23:29:00.004+01:00

Fastlane

With the futbol void soon to be filled by Euro 2008 I thought it was time to round up all of the altas y bajas at the Camp Nou. Let's start with today's news that Giovani Dos Santos has left the club for Tottenham for a fee of €6 million with a further €5 million appearance-related. I'm a little sad to see him go but looking at it purely objectively, he just wasn't quite good enough. Though quick and unselfish in his forward play he's very lightweight (something that I think will prove problematic for him in the Premiership) and he frequently makes the wrong choices, plays the wrong ball, gets caught in possession and generally out-muscled. How he'll do at Spurs, who already sport the sprightly yet useless Arron Lennon and Croat Fancy Dan Luka Modric I don't know but I wouldn't expect him to set the world alight. Ultimately I think this is the right decision.

Also packing his Louis Vuittons is Gianluca Zambrotta, who's signed for AC Milan. No word on a fee or even the length of contract he's signed at the San Siro. Like I've mentioned before, Milan have long been after Zambrotta and his preference upon leaving Juve was to join them so this is a move that's been coming a while. Though he never quite played up the the impossibly high standards he set himself at Juventus, he performed pretty well, playing eighty-one games in total for the club. I guess it was just unfortunate on his part that he signed when the club were on the slide and his own form was affected by that. I wish him well.

His partner in crime from the La Vecchia Signora, Lillian Thuram, will be leaving the club too, with is contract expiring at the end of the month. PSG are reportedly interested.

Speaking of PSG, they could also soon be fielding former Barça winger Ludovic Giuly after he announced this week that he was looking to leave AS Roma. Despite not being a regular with the Giallorossi he had a fine season and I'm rather surprised to hear he's going back to France.

Signing on

It's not all sell, sell, sell at Mes que un club though. Uruguayan centre-back Martín Cáceres, Steven Segal-a-like reserve golkeeper Jose Pinto and new coach Pep Guardiola have all put pen to paper this week. Cáceres, 21, has come from Villarreal, though he spent last season on loan at Recre, where he was excellent in side that really struggled, finishing sixteenth having scaled the dizzy heights of eighth in the 06/07 campaign. He's signed a four-year deal. Pinto, who rather incredibly won the Zamora playing for Celta a few years back, is fairly awful and ideally he'll never see action outside of Catalan Cup games. Pep you know all about :)

Finally it seems that I'm not the only one who thinks Oriel Giralt should just fuck off. Joan Gaspart, former president and long-time vice-president to Josep Lluís Núñez is of the same mind. It's a rare thing indeed for me to agree with anything that comes out of that fools' mouth but there you go.

2008-05-30T13:54:00.000+01:00

Off with his head!

What short memories the blaugrana supporters have. Last night Oriel Giralt, pictured, presented twelve ballot boxes containing signatures of 9473 club members demanding a vote of no-confidence inclub president Joan Laporta. The vote will take place in early July so we can look forward to at least a month of instability, bickering and a complete lack of signings thanks to boardroom uncertainty. Thanks Oriel, you prick.

I'm very unhappy about this. Barcelona were in a complete state when Laporta and Sandro Rosell took over after the disaster that was the brief reign of Joan Gaspart. The squad was completely overhauled, investing in the players they needed ('dinho, Deco, Giuly, Marquez, Milito, Larsson, Eto'o) and booting out the likes of Kluivert, Gerard and the rest of the under-achivers who gummed up the works at the Camp Nou, they stood up to the Boixos Nois, they appointed a coach they believed in (who developed and encouraged the talents of Andreas Iniesta, Leo Messi, Victor Valdes, Bojan, Gio Dos Santos...) and didn't ditch him after a shaky start. They also steadied the clubs finances, which were in an absolute shambles (50% of the wage bill going to Kluivert anyone?) and boosted both membership and season ticket holders. In short they righted the ship and took it back to the top of La Liga and Europe while playing the best futbol I've ever seen.

Yet after two relatively unsuccessful years (finishing second and level on points with Real, though let's not kid ourselves, they threw it away and third plus a Champions League semi-final) the knives are out. True, things have been far from rosy in Barcelona of late, particularly the situation regarding Ronaldinho, but steps are being made to rectify this, Rijkaard has left and some solid signings have been made. Whether lessons have actually been learned or this is all window dressing I don't know but I'm prepared to wait until a ball is kicked under Guardiola to make a judgement. All this "Laporta out!" stuff is bullshit and does nothing but destabilise Mes que un club.

Over at the bridge

I now seems a fair bet that Frank Rijkaard will not be taking over at Chelsea after his friend and former assistant coach Henk Ten Cate was given the boot yesterday, only a few days after he was told that the departure of Avram Grant would not affect him. No word yet as to where he might go.

2008-05-28T18:06:00.000+01:00

When it's over

All week I've been meaning to get into the end of season review but perhaps suffering from the same malaise that has enveloped the Camp Nou, it just wasn't happening. Mostly I didn't particularly feel like re-examining the car crash that was the 07/08 season, saying the same things I've said all year. That and there wasn't really anything new to report.

Well there's plenty to deal with now; two new signings, injury magnet Edmilson has left for the yellow submarines, Zambrotta is on his way to Milan and Gio is seemingly out the do' to Tottenham. So let's get to it shall we?

NKOTB

I gotta say I'm very happy with Barça's first two signings of the closed season. Neither is a flashy forward, a ropey full-back or a fancy Dan midfielder. No, both Keita and Pique are solid, consistent players who will be a real addition to the side.

Keita has been excellent in a Sevilla team that has had an awful lot to deal with (Antonio Puerta's death, Juande Ramos' leaving, the Dani Alves saga) and is a more than capable replacement for the permanently crocked Edmilson, who's off to Villarreal to share stories of horrific knee injuries with Robert Pires and Nihat. Edmilson is a decent player but got injured at the drop of a hat (or as a result of being hit by said hat). He won't be missed.

As for Gerard Pique, he's coming home, he's com-ing, Pique's coming home... and he's a very welcome addition to a defense that shipped gols last season like it was going out of fashion. Limited in his appearances at Old Trafford thanks to the form of Vidic and Ferdinand, the best index of Pique's ability was his season on loan at Saragossa where he played alongside Gaby Miltio. They were a super pairing and when Gaby recovers from his knee-op I'd expect to see the two of them as the first choice central defense for the blaugrana with Charly Puyol moving out to the right, a spot soon to be vacated by Gianluca Zambrotta, who seems ever closer to AC Milan.

According to Adriano Galliani the sides are "£1.5 million" away in their valuations of the Azzurri defender, something that I imagine will be resolved by the time the European Championships start next week. I'm a massive fan of Zambrotta but he was never particularly keen on signing for Barcelona in the first place (AC Milan tried to buy him when Juve were relegated but the bianconeri didn't want to sell him to another Italian club so he ended up at the Camp Nou) so to see him return to the peninsula is no great surprise.

Next up on Txiki Beguiristáin's list is former Barça forward Sergio Garcia, currently licking his wounds after Saragossa's fall from grace into the Segunda. I've seen a fair bit of Garcia and despite his recent call up to the Spanish squad for Euro 2008 (in place of Bojan), I don't rate him very highly at all. He didn't make a great deal of headway behind Diego Milito or Ewerthon (and this season Ricardo Olivera) and is hardly of the quality needed to replace either Ronaldinho or Samuel Eto'o should they leave. And then of course they're Dani Alves.

Barça and Sevilla are miles away at the moment on agreeing a price for Alves. Del Nido, who dug his heels in last season when Chelsea came in with a bid for £25 million, is not going to let him leave on the cheap. Expect this to run and run.

Get aut of it!

Still on transfer news ('cause there's nothing else goin' on), Deco has been given permission to "speak to other clubs." This is really disappointing. Barcelona are a different team when Deco plays, he's tough as nails and a fabulous passer of the ball. He's more direct and gutsy than Xavi or Iniesta and nasty when he needs to be. His signing from FC Porto was every bit as important as those of Ludovic Giuly and Samuel Eto'o in Barça's regaining La Liga and ultimately lifting the European Cup for a second time. I can't think of any player at the club who brings what he does to the midfield. Marc Crosas certainly won't be pulling on his number twenty shirt. *sigh* I just hope he doesn't go to Chelsea.

Someone who maybe on their way to Landan taawn though is Gio Dos Santos. Our friends at Sky Sports are reporting that he's on his way to Tottenham for about £11 million. For that much they can have him yo. And finally, ageless left-back Sylvinho looks like agreeing a new one year contract. Let's hope Abidal can both stay fit and stop making such stupid mistakes because I don't fancy seeing Sylvio Mendes Campos Junior huffing and puffing up and down the left wing too often next time out.

2008-05-12T18:55:00.005+01:00

"They should be ashamed of themselves"

It's been quite a week. It began with a 6-0 trashing of Valencia, had a 1-4 trashing at the hands of Madrid in the middle and concluded with the surrendering of a 2-0 lead at home to Mallorca, losing 2-3 in the ninety-third minute (Defeat 'in extremis' was the headline on the FCB website. They're not wrong...) Oh and Frank Rijkaard is stepping down as coach, making way for Pep Guardiola.

The only one of the three games I caught was the 'clasico' on Wednesday night, which was an embarrassment for all involved. Henk ten Cate called it correctly on Sky Sports when he said that the players ought be "ashamed of themselves". Barcelona were abject in Madrid. Victor Valdes, who had to pick the ball out of the net four times and Leo Messi, who had to do just about everything himself, were the only players to emerge with any credibility intact. Gudjohnsen was pulled off after a mere twenty four minutes (why I don't know, he was no better or worse than the rest of them and his replacement Gio dos Santos was hopeless, the sooner he gets gone to Manchester City the better, he's simply not good enough). Xavi was sent off after ninety, getting two yellow cards in quick succession for mouthing off. Real's first gol was as a result of a blatant foul on Rafa Marquez by Guti, the second came from a free kick that never should have been awarded. Not that any of that really mattered. Real were given a helping hand by the referee but they hardly needed it, the blaugrana rolled over.

It was painful viewing, hapless defending coupled with ineffective and wayward attacking play. This team are sooo past finished it's not funny. They didn't even try. Rijkaard is, one would imagine, happy to be shot of them. After all he has given to the club and this group of players, he deserves better.

The season ends next week, away at Murcia and honestly, it can't come quick enough. Major surgery is required on the squad and the coaching staff. After watching 'el clasico' on Wednesday my mate Peter and I came up with a list of players worth keeping for next time out. There are eleven:

Valdes, Puyol, Milito, Abidal, Iniesta, Xavi, Toure, Deco, Bojan, Eto'o and Messi. The rest can get lost.

Hilariously I read today that Lillian Thuram, 36, wants to sign a new deal at the Camp Nou. I'd sooner put Gaby Milito, anterior cruciate ligament injury and all, on his crutches in beside Charly, than see Thuram line out for the blaugrana again. Good god. I don't envy Pep, he has it all to do. Not least how do you solve a problem like Thierry Henry, who's scored four gols in the last three matches (like it matters now), but who has generally been about as effective as a cardboard cut out of Thierry Henry. He's said that he wants to stay and I can't see anyone descent wanting to sign him (the likes of Newcastle et al have of course been mentioned but like he's going there) Not to get all "I told you so" but I was very much against the signing of Henry from the beginning, it was a real galactico move and it's been a disaster for all concerned. Whether he can step it up next time around under new management, perhaps playing through the middle I don't know. It's not like he's crap but his mind seems to be elsewhere (Ashburton Grove perhaps?) and he's been incredibly negative in interviews. I'd ditch him, but as I said, where?

I'm away to Milano for the rest of the week so it'll be all quite on the blogging front until I get back. There'll be a review of the season up next Sunday or Monday though. Until then.

2008-05-01T21:16:00.004+01:00

The. End.

Watching Barça trudge off the field at Old Trafford, heads down, a few tears, had a dreadful finality about it. Their race, you have to feel, is well and truly run. As many as ten players from this current squad could be out the door come the summer. And of course there's Frank Rijkaard, who, it emerged today is definitely going. More on both of these later, but first the game itself.

It was fitting that Barça should be the architects of their own downfall on Tuesday night. They've been beating themselves all season so why stop now. One mistake from Gianluca Zambrotta in the fourteenth minute, gifting a pass to Paul Scholes to hammer the ball past Valdes from twenty-five yards out, was enough to see United through. Despite pressing for much of the game, the blaugrana seldom created clear-cut chances. Deco had a few shots, Messi was excellent, constantly running at, indeed through, the United defense, only for nothing to come of it. Bojan had a late chance that he should have buried first time rather than taking a touch, Toure had a few goes too but bar Van Der Sar's save from Messi shortly after Scholes' gol, it never really looked like happening.

It's been six hours or something equally ridiculous since Barcelona have scored a gol, let alone won a match and given that they were facing such a defensively strong team as Manchester United, even without Vidic, the odds were always against them. Sammy, leading the line and playing, if that's the correct term in this instance, was absolutely rubbish. I can't recall him having a single shot on gol and it was no surprise when he was hauled off in favour of Bojan. Henry too was hopeless, creating little. His one chance was a header what was straight at the golkeeper. Barça's only dangerous forward was, predictably, Leo Messi, who was a different class.

At the other end the defense was shaky but aside from Zambrotta's error (Gianluca had an otherwise good game, keeping Ronaldo quiet) they didn't have any hair-tearing moments. Milito was solid, Abidal unspectacular. Puyol was Iron Man and Valdes produced a few sharp saves (he could do nothing at all for the gol).

I watched the game in The Oval on Abbey Street in the company of the Catalans a Dublin crew who were in fine voice and gave it socks (as they say in El Born), going particularly mad for Yaya Toure. They were a great crowd. Gràcies folks.

Onward on downward

Well, no rest for the wicket and all that. It's pick-yourselves-off-the-floor time for the blaugrana with Valencia on Sunday before traveling to Madrid, who will probably have retained La Liga at that stage, on Wednesday. Whether Barça can muster anything at all in the last four games of the season I don't know. Many of the players, as I mentioned in the intro, are slowly shuffling toward the exit. Some or all of the following will be gone by the start of next season: Ronaldinho, Ezquerro, Edmilson, Sylvinho, Zambrotta, Gudjohnsen, Gio dos Santos, Marquez, Pinto, Deco, Thuram and Oleguer. Given that Marc Crosas, currently on loan at Lyon, is about the only Barça B player read to step up to the senior team, they're going to have to sign five or six players at least.

Whoever Barça sign, it won't be Frank Rijkaard who'll be on the bench next season. To no-ones surprise he'll walk away in the summer after five pretty amazing years in charge. Second, first, first, second and now probably third. Add in the Champions League and the fact that his team played the finest futbol I have ever seen, with Ronaldinho, Deco, Eto'o, Messi, Giuly, Xavi and Iniesta in their pomp. He's done a fantastic job and his humility and good grace will be sorely missed. I only hope he can pull one last performance out of this team at the Bernabeu next Wednesday and end on a high (well of sorts). It's the least he deserves.

2008-04-28T14:12:00.003+01:00

All or nothing

It always seemed to be a matter of when not if Depor would score on Saturday. Barcelona were, to a man, absolute rubbish. Depor had twenty-something shots on gol and it's a minor miracle that they didn't put more past Pinto, making his debut for the blaugrana. Bojan is about the only player who didn't disgrace himself completely. It was clear from before the match, given the line-up and the squad from which it was selected that Rijkaard was putting all his eggs in the basket marked Champions League.

Barcelona are now four points back from Villarreal and playing like that they're certainly not going to catch them. So much will of course depend on Tuesday night's result. Win and it's onward to the final and the failings in La Liga, while they cannot be ignored will seem lessened somehow. Should they lose though the knives will be out for Rijkaard, who's gone in the summer no matter what, and the blame game will begin.

There's been good news of sorts from Manchester today regarding the fitness of Wayne Rooney and Nemanja Vidic, neither of whom trained today. Vidic missed the first leg in the Camp Nou thanks to a stomach upset and he took a fierce blow to the head on Saturday when Didier Drogba accidently kneed him in the face. Rooney, who hasn't looked at one hundred percent for a while now, limped off with a shin injury against Chelsea. Both would be a big loss, especially Vidic, who's been a rock at the centre of United's defense all season long.

On the blaugrana front, the squad is pretty much as expected. All who sat out the debacle on Saturday are back in, with the addition of Puyol, who was suspended for the first leg. Marquez, who deputised well for the captain a week ago, is himself forced to sit out the game thanks to his yellow card. The only notable absentee is Gio Dos Santos, who was unlikely to feature anyway.

As to the result, I'm hopeful but not confident. Neither side is in good form at the moment but Barcelona can't buy a gol right now. I'll be watching the game in the Oval on Abbey Street with the Catalans a Dublin crew, screaming "puta!" a the television at every opportunity I imagine. I'll stick my neck out and say that the blaugrana will win on away gols.

2008-04-26T14:50:00.001+01:00

Moscow or bust

Well it would seem that Barcelona hs completely written of La Liga. The squad that travels to La Coruna this evening is without Messi, Eto'o, Xavi, all rested, Iniesta and Gaby Milito, both suspended after picking up their fifth bookings against Espanyol last Saturday. Depor are in fine form at the moment, with four wins on the bounce. Having being down in a hole for much of the first half of the season, they've lost just once since late February (away to Mallorca). The blaugrana on the other hand...

I would expect Henry, Bojan and Gio to start up front, with Edmilson, Deco and Guddy in midfield. The defense will probably be Oleguer (providing he doesn't step on a rake between now and then) plus Marquez, Thuram (eek!) and Sylvinho, who looked very much like his ship had sailed against Espanyol, he was very poor, and at 34 with his contract expiring in the summer I can see him being let go.

Hard to say if the second string will make a go of this evening's game or not. I'm curious to see how Henry does. He looked very lively when he came on against United and if he puts in a shift then I can see him starting in place of Iniesta on Tuesday night. Deco too will benefit from another run out. Ideally, Barcelona will get a two or three gol win tonight. In addition to dominating games without winning them and failing to hold onto leads, they've had great difficulty scoring at all lately.

Well I guess that's why they call it the blues...

Vidic carried off. Rooney limping off. Anderson too. United losing. It was all good news from the Bridge this afternoon. Chelsea won 2-1 to draw level on points with Sir Alex Ferguson's side. Of course they'll probably still win the league, all they have to do is beat West Ham and Wigan but still, any blow to morale or indeed to Wayne Rooney's hip is a welcome one. Roll on Tuesday night.

2008-04-25T01:52:00.003+01:00

Zero

Like LL said, don't call it a comeback. After my weekend in Barcelona, the Champions League semi-final, Sammy's apparent wish to leave, 'dinho's sky high price tag, Deco's return to the futbol pitch and a half decent fifteen minute cameo by one Thierry Henry, there is, as ever, much to write about.

Let's begin with the derby. While most of the Catalan press painted the draw against Espanyol as being fairly disastrous, in truth that ship had sailed a long time ago. La Liga is over, Madrid have won and they've not looked like relinquishing their grip on the lead since Barça fell apart in March, having gotten to within two points of the summit after going on something of a run in February, taking ten of a possible twelve on offer. No, Saturday night was always going to be preparation for Wednesday night's Sant Jordi's Day showdown. It was about Messi and Iniesta getting a run out. About Marquez seeing some playing time in defense. About at least starting to play like they can. And that's pretty much how it played out. The first half was fairy cagey, with Espanyol almost scoring from the jump-off but failing to threaten a whole lot afterward (they were bloody awful in fact, shocking) Gio dos Santos and Ice Ice Baby had a few cracks but neither looked particularly good and it was no surprise that they got hauled off at half time.

dos Santos, though I am fond of his unselfish style of play, he keeps his head up, is a long way from being the finished article. He frequently holds on to the ball too long and is easily dispossessed due to his lack of upper body strength. He reminds me of a young Dominico Morfeo, a very talented player who didn't quite get there, who didn't make the leap. I fear dos Santos may suffer a similar fate. Guddy on the other hand, was just rubbish.

Their replacements, Andres Iniesta and Messi Messi Messi made a huge difference to the blaugrana's play. Messi's first run took him past four Espanyol players only to have his shot saved by a sharp Kameni (puta!) Barcelona would go on to huff and puff but fail to blow down Kameni's house, Eto'o being guilty of a shocking miss midway through the second half. The game was a microcosm of Barça's season, completely dominating possession yet not really doing anything incisive with it. Bojan, lively in the first forty-five drifted completely out of the game with all the play going down the right side of the pitch once Messi came on, with Leo, Xavi and Zambrotta all tearing along the wing to little avail. It's worth mentioning also that the best player on the pitch was Toure Yaya, who was incredible, making forward runs, good passes, he was always in the right place to make an interception or head away a corner/ set piece. He would continue to be fabulous against Utd. on Wednesday. Let's move on to that lot then.

Ooh are ye?

The first leg of the CL semifinal was pretty much an action replay of the Espanyol game. Barcelona enjoying the lions share of the possession without ever doing anything with it. United were fucking dire and Ronaldo's crap penalty and Carrick's dink past Marquez (who'll miss the second leg thanks to a booking. Enter Carles Puyol) that went wide aside they didn't have a shot on gol let alone force Valdes into a save. Rooney spent much of the night a right back and Tevez was frequently lying deep in midfield or drifting out wide to no great effect. As for Ronaldo, holy fucking shit, what a petulant child, going over on a gust of wind and doing his best Gary Neville every time things didn't go his way. And like one might expect from a Premier League team they gave the ball away like it was going out of fashion, either hoofing it long to no-one in particular or just making stupid passes that were never going to find their intended target. Not that Barça could make anything of this of course, with Eto'o blasting wide when he ought to have slotted past Van der Saar and Henry forcing the Dutch 'keeper into good saves late on.

Ah yes, Henry. About as popular as Ronaldinho at the moment, he came on to fairly good effect in the seventy-seventh minute for Deco, who played brilliantly for a man who hasn't seen competitive action for months. It's hard to know what to make of the whining git at this late stage of the season. Will he turn it on just as the going is getting tough and he's within sight of another Champions League final or will he continue to play like a man with lead in his boots and go back to doing damn all. I'd be tempted to give him a run out from the start against Depor and see what he can do as a possible pre-amble to starting in place of Iniesta at Old Trafford. He didn't quite set the world alight but he showed signs.

So what will be the outcome in Manchester? Surely Utd. can't play that badly again. Can Barça, three nil-nils in the past four games score a gol? Will Utd. romp past them ala the Roma game last season, will Messi last the ninety? I don't know. Much will depend on the weekend's games with respect to injuries and results etc but I'm confident. Well maybe not confident but hopeful. It's there to be won.

Round-up aka I need to go to bed

A few brief stories before I fall asleep. Eto'o's comments. It would seem that he didn't quite say "I'm out the door yo", but instead he was just expressing the frustration we're all feeling at the prospect of a second season without winning anything. I have no doubt that if Barça go three years on the bounce without a trophy he'll of course consider his options. But I'll worry about that if and when...

Next up in the out tray is 'dinho, who will probably end up in Milan, despite their initial failure to agree a fee with Barcelona. I echo Sid Lowe's comments on the Guardian's Football Weekly Podcast, that the blaugrana are trying to negotiate with as many clubs as possible so as they can get a decent price from him. He's in no way worth £40 million and the final fee won't be anything like that but if it's closer to twenty five than twenty then this bluster will of course be worth it. And that's your lot. I'll get to posting a few pics from our trip (I didn't take all that many) on Flickr before the weekend is out and also coble something together about the Depor game (kick off is at seven and it's live on Sky Sports Xtra). I'm gone.

2008-04-18T09:59:00.000+01:00

A preview of sorts

You'll have to excuse this briefest of brief posts but I have a plane to BCN to catch. Tomorrow night it's Barcelona (one win in seven) vs. Espanyol (one win in nine) in the Catalan derby. I'd expect Barça to win given their home advantage and the fact that I'm traveling all the way to see them. Messi, given only twenty five minutes against Recre may even start in preparation for Wednesday night's showdown/ game of futbol against Manchester United.

Deco too, back in training after a prolonged absence, may feature. His return would be a huge boost because my have they missed him.

One player who probably won't feature is Eric Abidal, who this week was speaking of his poor form and difficulty in adjusting to late late kick-offs in La Liga. While this didn't quite translate into "drop me " as many of the English papers thought it did he's still likely to sit it out with old warhorse Sylvinho coming in on the left.

One last thing, a curious note in The Guardian today about Thierry Henry's earnings in his last season at Arsenal. It would appear that they were in excess of £10 million. Crikey as James Richardson would say. And didn't he earn it eh folks with a total of seventeen starts in thirty-eight... I gots to go. Full match report etc when I return on Tuesday.

2008-04-14T22:41:00.004+01:00

And like that he was gone

"Terms have been agreed" Code for he's out the door. The deal that looked on the cards last summer for about €30 million will finally come to pass this time around for about half that. The way things stand most at Barça will be delighted to see the back of him. He's been nothing short of a disaster this season. Slow, unfit, frequently injured, a shadow of the player he once was, robbed of all his urgency and drive.

It's such a shame that Ronaldinho's time at the Camp Nou had to end like this, a symbol of the malaise that has enveloped the club, a pariah.

I recall his signing from PSG (five years ago now) and wondering whether or not he was what the club needed. He had hardly set the world alight in Paris and though he'd had a good World Cup, stories of his drinking and late nights that became early mornings really troubled me. The last thing Barça needed was another Patrick Kluivert.

As it turns out, I was right to be concerned. He didn't train all that much and he was fond of a good time and ultimately his lifestyle would catch up with him. That said, in the in-between part, the first three seasons before both he and the Rijkaard/ Laporta revolution began to go off the rails, he was the one of the finest players ever to wear the blaugrana shirt, winning La Liga twice and the Champions League and playing teams off the pitch, destroying them, slicing defences open, hammering in freekicks, scoring from every possible angle, rising to every occasion, being the go-to guy, the one who made it all happen, linking seamlessly with Samuel Eto'o, Ludovic Giuly, Deco and Leo Messi.

At his peak he was the best player in the best team in the world. Hyperbole certainly but also true. I know I'm hardly an impartial observer but 'dinho was simply awesome. He was Rivaldo, Ronaldo, Romario, a stylish Brazilian forward who started like a freight train but would ultimately end up a train wreck. Barça, for all their pomp and Mes Que Un Club attitude have a history of falling out with some of their best, of not taking care of them when they should, of taking aim at them all too quickly and bundling them out the door with little regard for their contribution.

And that is I suppose why a move is best for all concerned. 'dinho needs to be loved, he needs support and perhaps Milan are the club to give it to him. Barça have already moved on. Messi, Gio, Bojan and Sammy are the future. Not even, they're the now. I'll sure as hell miss him though.

Charly says...

Aside from all this 'dinho news there was a match on Saturday night, away to Recre, which Barça predictably ballsed up (Valdes in particular...), twice taking the lead only to let it slip (though Recre's first didn't cross the line - 43 seconds in)

"We do need to think hard about this. We do the hard part, getting a lead, and then we stop creating chances. We have to get better in this respect because when we take the lead our opponents ought to open up.”

At least Charly is telling it like it is. The positives, and there weren't all that many, were that Sammy looked excellent doing what he ought be doing, playing through the middle and scoring gols (his second was sensational) Forgotten man Santi Ezquerro got a run out as did Leo Messi. Leo saw twenty-five minutes and while he looked understandably rusty and not quite match fit, he didn't re-injure himself and I'd expect to see him get a little more time against Espanyol, maybe a whole half before being thrown in from the start against Manchester United on Sant Jordi's Day.

Speaking of the Espanyol game, I'll be seeing Barça in all their faded glory this Saturday. The last time I was over at the Camp Nou was for the Betis game, which was fairly awful and only notable for the fact that it was to be Javier Saviola's last game for the club (poor Javier, things haven't improved for him any, being as he is a permanent fixture on the bench at Real) and that Rafael Sobis' late late gol knocked the collective stuffing out the blaugrana. Whether it'll be any different this time I don't know. Espanyol are on a pretty awful run themselves, having been up among the contenders for a Champions League place before Christmas, they've fallen to pieces on the back of the injury to Raul Tamudo and dropped down the table like a stone. It hardly promises to be an epic encounter but considering my expectations are so low it can't really disappoint...

2008-04-12T01:25:00.002+01:00

He's back yo

It's been thirty nine long days since Leo Messi limped off the Camp Nou pitch in tears. In that time Barça have gone from contenders to also-rans in La Liga, down to third place behind Villarreal, winning just one game in five (a laboured victory against Valladolid), getting knocked out of the Copa Del Rey and scraping past Schalke 04 to make the semi-finals of the Champions League. In Messi's absence Barcelona have been abject, throwing away leads and playing uninspired, flat, one-dimensional futbol. Their best player has been the seventeen year old Bojan, who's been outshining the listless Thierry Henry and the out-of-sorts Sammy. The midfield has lacked drive and any sort of incisiveness and the defense has been leaking gols in such an amateurish manner, poor marking from corners and freekicks, ballwatching etc that it's only down to the ineptitude of the other teams chasing the title, Real and the Yellow Submarines, that they're down by more than seven points.

Now of course Barcelona were in a state before Messi got injured. Their current problems are not as a result of his being out of the team but it hasn't helped. Deco's absence too has been keenly felt (there's still no return date from him though it's hoped he'll make the semis), putting a great deal of pressure on Xavi and Iniesta. Ala Milan with Pato there's been far too much talk of Messi as a fix all when he laces up his boots again. He'll certainly make a difference to the forward line, ideally seeing Henry drop to the bench and Sammy move back into the centre and Bojan out wide on the right but Barça's problems are as much off the field as they are on it. 'dinho is effectively out the door already with Galliani speaking openly of signing him and the Spanish papers reporting that he met with Txiki Begiristain on Thursday. The aforementioned Deco may be joining him, especially in light of comments made by Xavier Sala Martin on Wednesday, where he spoke of the club inventing injuries in order to sideline players from the squad. Barça have of course refuted the claims but we all know who he's talking about and that he's probably telling the truth. Why however, he chose to air this just hours before the Schalke game I don't know.

Ah yes, the Schalke game. Now I didn't see any of this but from what I can gather from Sid Lowe's match report, talking to my Da about it last night and the txt msgs I received during the game, I gather that the blaugrana were fairly crap but Schalke, who couldn't hit a donkey's arse with a banjo, were pretty hopeless too, so it evened out. Henry again played like he's forgotten how and was moaning again today about playing out on the left. He'd do well to shut up and start making an effort. One of his lines was the hilarious "I've never run so much in my whole career." This from a man who couldn't be more static if his feet were nailed to the pitch. His signing, galactico-like in it's stupidity, has been a disaster. He's out of the Recre game on the weekend and he really is no loss.

Speaking of which, it's a bit of a mixed bag on the injury front for Saturday's outing. Iniesta, Henry and Bojan all out, Messi and Santi back in. Marquez and Xavi have overcome knocks they sustained in midweek. It's hard to know who will start upfront alongside Samuel Eto'o and Giovani Dos Santos. I can't see Messi being risked from the jump off but if Guddy slots in then who takes Iniesta's place in the middle? Edmilson? Rafa Marquez? That's an incredibly defensive line-up alongside Yaya Toure. I really don't know and crikey it's late, so further musings are going to have to wait. More on Sunday folks, when I'll be sitting in front of the fire, MacBook in hand watching the Masters. Bona Nit.

2008-04-07T23:39:00.000+01:00

Static

It's white hankey time at the Camp Nou and after last night's performance it's hardly surprising. Barcelona were simply awful against Getafe. Completely lacking in drive or any sort of off the ball movement, they played like they had lead in their boots. By far the best players on the pitch for the blaugrana were Victor Valdes, the imperious Carles Puyol and Gianluca Zambrotta, who ran the length of the Camp Nou pitch time and time again, only to find himself either the furthest player forward or to cross the ball into the box as the likes of Thierry Henry stood there looking at it, not making any effort to make contact or get on the end of anything.

It was painful to watch, no one showing for anything, the team completely static in attack save for the occasional run down the wing from Eto'o (what on earth is he doing out there to begin with?) and his replacement, the willing if ultimately ineffective Gio Dos Santos. As for the rest of 'em...

And despite this they had five or six chances to score, hitting the post three times and Pato making fantastic saves from Milto and Gudjohnsen (who at least looked like he cared when he came on) and given how negative Getafe were you imagine one would have done it.

[insert Champions League music here]

Having just railed on Barça I would of course take the same result as Sunday against Schalke on Wednesday evening. Schalke must be feeling pretty good about overturning their one gol deficit having watched the blaugrana huff and puff.

One man who won't be lining out the the sounds of "Die Meister, Die Besten, Les Grandes Equipes, The Champions!" anytime soon is Ronaldinho. The talk last week was that a deal taking him to AC Milan for around £16 million was in the offing. This time around the club being touted is Manchester City. Apparently his brother was at Eastlands on the weekend to watch City go down without a fight to Chelsea. Quite frankly I'm amazed at this. City are a very ordinary team and they need a lot more than 'dinho to turn them into contenders for anything. They're currently out of contention for a UEFA Cup spot and miles away from the top four. They certainly have some good players and are moving in the right direction but seriously, this reminds me of Ravanelli to 'boro back in the mid-nineties. Fantastic for the club, a disaster for the player and bound to end in tears.

2008-04-05T01:02:00.001+01:00

Playing catch up

It's been a busy week yo. A Champions League away win, Rijkaard in still being the coach shocker, Deco limping out of training, Roberto Assis meeting with Adriano Galliani and not to talk about the nice weather we're having, 'dinho injuring himself (really this time) and probably out for the rest of the season and that Messi kid is back in town. So let's get to it shall we?

First up is the blaugrana's win away at Schalke 04. 0-1, thanks to Bojan and some "couldn't score in Coppers"-style finishing from the German side meant that Barça are looking good to make the semi-finals, wherein they'll get roundly beaten by Manchester United. I didn't see the game live (I was watching Roma-Utd, a game that had an all too predictable outcome) but I did get home in time for RTE's extended highlights. So what to make of this? Bojan was 1nce again fantastic, Xavi and Iniesta were solid in midfield and Valdes made two crucial saves. On the other side, Schalke huffed and puffed but couldn't blow Barcelona's house down. Chances-a-plenty were created and missed. They had twenty-four shots (though only four or five on target) in total and looked like they could have played until midnight without scoring. A draw would have been a fair result but what care we for fair eh? Back in the blaugrana, Henry again looked rather hopeless, marooned on the wing and there was more than one "argh!" moment in defense where disaster looked imminent. But given what came before, a wretched rolling-over in Sevilla, this result, and the manner in which it was achieved (no small amount of backs-to-the-wall defending) was very welcome indeed. It may have saved Rijkaard's job, if not the season (things are a bit far gone at this stage...)

Speaking of Rijkaard's job, there was a very strange post on fcbarcelona.cat on Wednesday. Given that there has been much speculation about when rather than if Rijkaard goes, the club took the unusual step of releasing an official statement backing the coach for the remainder of the season and next time out. This is of course only the sort of thing that you have to do if it's all gone to shit and replacing the coach looks like the only option in order to try to fix it.

I have absolutely no doubt that Frank will walk away in the summer, mostly because he's got family matters to attend to, he needs a break and he's sick of the criticism being leveled at him. And quite honestly, time has come yo. I'm not going to weight in on who should or might succeed him, that's not for now but I think it would be best for all concerned if there was a new man in charge come the start of next season.

Play on playa

Moving on to the playing staff and someone else who's almost certainly on their way out, Ronaldinho. It was reported on Thursday that his agent, Roberto Assis, had met with Adriano Galliani, vice-president of AC Milan. 'dinho, who was back in training on Wednesday only to actually injure himself (he's strained his hamstring) and leave him on the sidelines for at least six weeks, effectively the rest of the season. Ala much of the news concerning 'dinho, it was written up very dispassionately on the Barça website. At this stage it would seem they just can't wait to get rid of him and this injury gives them the perfect opportunity to ignore him completely until the summer and deal with the specifics of a transfer to Milan come June.

It's a very sad end for a player who wasn't only the best at Barcelona but the best in the world. 'dinho is an incredible player, I've seen him score gols, make passes that were out of this world but crikey, he's the man who fell to earth this season. Frequently injured, over-weight and downright unfit, he's lurched from the treatment room to the stands and back again. It's been depressing to watch his decline, his lack of motivation to do anything about it, the club's lack of support and the general souring of relations, the seeds of which were sown long ago (during the meltdown that was the last campaign). Whether a move will revitalise his career I don't know. He doesn't look remotely bothered anymore and he may just wind down ungracefully and find himself back at Gremio, doing an Adriano as it were.

Also on the injury front, Deco, who looked to be on his way back, possibly as early as this weekend against Getafe, limped out of training on Thursday. According to fcbarcelona.cat, "(Deco) had been working with the first team since Sunday, despite doctors having not yet said he was fully fit." Well what on earth was he doing then? Jesus H. Christ but if he's not fit... No word on when he'll be back, though I'm hoping he'll make the CL semis.

Another man who maybe, just maybe, will be giving Patrice Evra the run-around is Leo Messi. Back in the Catalan capital after about a month in Argentina he's sounding upbeat but cautious. More news in the next few days about when he'll be available.

Finally a word about ex-blaugrana youth-teamer, Fran Merida. Merida, currently on-loan at Segunda side Real Sociedad, has signed a new long term deal at Arsenal and should be ready to make an impact at Ashburton Grove next season. Good for him. And with that folks, the clock has struck one and I've to be up in a few hours. More on Sunday, either before or after the Getafe game. Bona Nit.

2008-03-31T14:01:00.007+01:00

"You almost can't believe how the game changed and the way we reacted to it." - Rijkaard

I hate being right about shit like this... From Sunday March 23rd:

"I have complete confidence in the blaugrana fucking it up though, no doubt by losing away at Betis next week or something equally ridiculous."

And so it came to pass. I saw the first half of this debacle in work on Saturday and like AC Milan at halftime in Istanbul, thought that it was all done and dusted. Barça were playing well, moving the ball around quickly, creating chances and restricting Betis to long range efforts. Edu and Pavone, their two most dangerous players hardly had a sniff. It was to my great surprise to get in and see that that it was now 2-2 and that Betis had missed a penalty. There was of course, much worse to come.

Like the game at Valencia, it's very difficult to know where to start. The quotes after the match from the blaugrana players and staff were not encouraging, lots of "I don't know what the fuck happened". Even worse is today, Victor Valdes saying that "We have to completely forget the second half in the Ruiz de Lopera." No Victor, you need to remember it. You need to analyse it, figure out what went wrong, why your lot couldn't cope with their lot's swift counter attacking and pace. And ask why Edu scored the same gol he's been scoring all season against you. And why once Betis had equalised there was only ever going to be one winner, and it wasn't Barcelona. Too often this season the "we have to put this behind us" line has been trotted out after a defeat or scrappy draw. That's all well and good if you learn something from it but Barça have clearly learned nothing, nothing from last season's collapse, nothing from consistently snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. They just blunder forward, making the same mistakes over and over again.

So what's next? La Liga is gone. Second spot may be beyond the blaugrana if the Yellow Submarines keep up their current form (though they've been so up and down all season I doubt it) and tomorrow the team play German side Schalke, who must be feeling quite good about themselves right now. The Barça squad is still Deco-less and Brazilian waster Ronaldinho is out with some phantom injury or other. Otherwise the squad is as expected. Milito is back (for all the difference that will make), as is Rafa Marquez.

I have no idea how the game will go down. Schalke aren't a great side but they have fantastic home support in the Veltins-Arena and players like Ernst, Rafinha and Varela are excellent. Their young 'keeper, Michael Neuer, had a fabulous game against Porto in the last round too. Realistically a narrow defeat would be alright, 2-1 to Schalke maybe. Anymore and I'd almost write Barça off. They just look broken right now and I don't think that Frank Rijkaard is the man to fix them. I recall when his tactics, his substitutions used to change games and see his side pull games out of the fire. Now it's the opposite. I fear for Rijkaard should they get a kicking on Tuesday. There is much talk of Guardiola coming in to steady the ship. I would see that as a gross over-reaction but plenty of managers at the Camp Nou have gone for less.

2008-03-29T20:47:00.002Z

Un-fucking-believable

Words fail me. They really do. 0-2 up after an hour against one of the worst teams in La Liga. By some sort of miracle the blaugrana have conspired to lose 3-2 against a Betis side a mere three points off the relegation zone before the start of play. If Villarreal win tonight Barça will find themselves third. I have to go out now. More on this capitulation of Newcastle standards tomorrow. Jesus Christ...

2008-03-27T00:07:00.003Z

Argh!

Charly came off injured after sixteen minutes in Spain's 1-0 victory over Italia tonight. El Mundo Deportivo is reporting it's a problem with his tibia. No word as to how serious it is yet. Hopefully he'll be alright for the game against Betis otherwise it's Thuram who'll be letting Edu ghost past him to nod one home. More on this in the morning.

Update (or sorts)

It looks like man of steel Carles Puyol will be okay to face Betis. There's less encouraging news for Gabi Milito though, who's suffering a groin strain. He's to undergo tests today but I'd expect him to sit out the game in Sevilla.

2008-03-25T23:14:00.003Z

Hold me now

So it turns out that 'dinho just needs a hug. Or maybe a arm around him telling him what a good guy he is and how it's all going to work out. So says Sylvinho.

"Ronnie needs our support and affection. He needs us to feel that we are with him and for us to give him a hug. We need him to come back as soon as possible as he is a very important player for us."

I think he needs to get over himself, lose some weight, regain his fitness and drive and stop sulking. But what do I know...

Speaking of sulking, the new kid on the block who isn't Bojan, Gio Dos Santos, looks ever like he's ever closer to the door. His father said today that Manchester City were interested in whisking him to the midlands. Expect there to be a great deal more of this between now and May.

2008-03-23T23:46:00.004Z

Just lose it...

I started to write this post at half time in the Barcelona-Valladolid match, ready to tear into the team but given the rest of todays events I decided to bin it and write a new one. The blaugrana, ala their previous outing on Thursday they made a bright start (Bojan had two excellent opportunities in the first few minutes) only to fade badly after Eto'o had given the team the lead. The penalty given to Valladolid was incredibly soft, it was never a foul by Thuram, Llorente just fell over, but what came afterward, the nerves, the shoddy passing, the lack of incisiveness was just shocking. Even after half time, even after going ahead again through Iniesta, after Bojan finally got on the scoresheet, even at 3-1, the Pucela had a gol ruled offside, they hit the post, the bar... it was all the blaugrana could do not to throw it away against a team that are only outside the relegation zone on gol difference and who lost 7-0 to Real. The FCB website screams "Thrilling rout" this evening but crikey it was far from it.

Henry was, yet again, bloody awful, looking slow and unfit. Perhaps he's been hanging out with Ronaldinho. Eto'o, despite his gol and fantastic, unselfish pass for Bojan's second lacked confidence in possession and was either over-playing the ball and losing it or unloading it far too quickly, knocking a succession of poor crosses into no-one in particular. The defense was 1nce again all over the bloody place and it was the 2005 Victor Valdes model on show today, with poor throw-outs and some very ropey play late on. On the plus side, Bojan was quite brilliant, scoring his sixth and seventh La Liga gols today. Iniesta and Xavi were their usual steady selves (a few wayward passes accepted).

Still, they needed to win to put some pressure on Madrid, who played straight afterward and they did. They needed to win to get over the disaster that was Thursday night (I could scarcely believe what I was seeing when Mata scored his second less than a minute after Barça had gotten themselves back into it through Henry's header, it was farcical stuff) and they did. Somewhat incredibly, Madrid contrived to lose to Valencia, so the gap is down to four points and nine games to go. I have complete confidence in the blaugrana fucking it up though, no doubt by losing away at Betis next week or something equally ridiculous.

2008-03-19T23:37:00.001Z

Random crap (and no, I don't mean the team)

A couple of things to report on before the Copa game tomorrow evening. First some good news. Ruud Van Nistlerooij is potentially out for the rest of the season after undergoing surgery on his ankle. This is a huge blow for Real who, despite an abundance of attacking talent, have been finding it incredibly difficult to score in his absence. Now they're far from a one-man team but ala Eto'o at Barça, he's very much the focal point of the attack and they really lack penetration without him. Top scorer in la Liga last time out he already had twelve thus far this season. Now all the blaugrana need is for Iker to fall down a well...

Back in Catalunya, the squad for the Copa game on Thursday (10pm on Sky Sports 1 though kick off is 7:45pm) has been announced and it's rather all over the place. Toure and Zambrotta are back but there's no sign of Oleguer (who has injured his hand yet again...) Milito is included despite his red card on Sunday. He'll miss the Liga game on the weekend though. Also out is one Ronaldinho (who was given a right going over by Graham Hunter in Revista) While not having any specific injury and being back in training, he is still has some 'medical problems' according to the club [read mental ones] and is unlikely make the squad against Valladolid, let alone play. There's not a great deal to say about this, but I'm pretty much writing 'dinho off for the rest of the season unless he comes out of this funk he's in right now. And I don't have high hopes of that happening.

Finally some transfer news. As mentioned by Sid Lowe on Football Weekly and posted by Mal, Gio Dos Santos looks to be out the door come the summer thanks to everyone's favourite agent Pini Zahavi agitating for a move. €10 million is the price being mentioned and Chelsea are naturally in the mix. If he wants to leave then there's not much that can be done.

Straight out of the lazy ass school of journalism, Club X draws Club Y in Champions League. Club X immediately linked with buying Club Y's best player. Player denies story. Two days worth of copy for minimal effort. In this case it's Michael Neuer, the Schalke 'keeper who played like God himself against Porto in the last round. There is of course no truth whatsoever in this. Bloody journos.

2008-03-16T23:21:00.003Z

False hope pt. 2

I just don't know anymore. I really don't. How many chances do they need? Despite the fact that Madrid have lost four of their last seven in La Liga, Barcelona are still somehow seven points back, closer to Villarreal in third than they are to the leaders. Tonights game away to Almeria was nothing short of a disaster. To twice take the lead only to throw it away, to concede two such sloppy, lazy gols, the second a mere five minutes from time was shocking. The blaugrana are seemingly incapable of closing out games or defending a narrow lead. The difference last season between Real and Barcelona was that while Capello's side won games in the last ten minutes, Rijkaard's team blew them. And so it continues.

With just ten games remaining I can't see how this can have a happy ending. With a laundry list of players out injured (Messi, Marquez, Toure, Ronaldinho, Ezquerro, Deco, Jorquera, Giovani and now Gudjohnsen), with Milito now suspended for the Copa game on Thursday (don't get me started on the idiotic challenge that earned him a second yellow card), they're going to struggle to put eleven fit players out in the next two games let alone win either of them (there were three Barça B players on the bench tonight).

There were some positives from this evening's debacle, Bojan's gol, Rijkaard's attacking substitution of Henry for Edmilson turned the game in Barcelona's favour (before Uche turned it back again) and erm, that's it really. It was grim viewing.

Before I close the mac, a quick word about the blaugrana's opponents in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, German bottlers Schalke 04. Nine points off leaders Bayern and languishing in fifth place, the Gelsenkirchen side are, along with Fener, the weakest side left in the last eight and considering Barcelona's current run of form, the best possible draw they could have gotten. My sole experience of Schalke this year was the half-hour of extra time they played against FC Porto and their golkeeper, Michael Neuer aside, I can't say I was all that impressed. Now of course this thirty minutes of futbol is hardly a basis for judging them but it's all I've got so bear with me, I'll post something more comprehensive later in the week. For now I'll say this, Barcelona will probably squeak through only to get turned over by Utd. in the semis. And that sadly is about the best we can hope for.

Anyway... it's over yo.

2008-03-13T22:02:00.000Z

And that's the ball game

Two weeks Barça were but two points behind the fascistas of Real Madrid, playing something like their best and looking like a team that might win La Liga. Now, after two losses on the bounce (to the teams in fourth and third), the loss of their best player (that's Messi folks, not Xavi) for at least six-weeks, we're ever closer to the finish line and it's just not gonna happen. Not without Leo, not with Thuram in defense (the loss of Puyol to suspension against Villarreal was probably a bigger factor than that of Messi's injury), not with Sammy missing more than he scores, not without the ability to put games away, to sweep past weaker teams and to step up against the tougher ones.

It's taken me all week to write this post, having started on Monday evening. I've been pretty busy with work, with other stuff but really I've just got nothing more to say. Barça simply aren't good enough. They've been on the slide since midway through last season and despite occasional blips where they play some out of this world futbol and remind you what it was like a few years back it's been a hard slog and that ain't gonna change between now and early May. Injuries, the age of some of the players (too old and slow in Thuram's case, Bojan and Giovani Dos Santos too young and inexperienced), poor fitness and poor tactical decisions on the part of Frank Rijkaard keep happening, will keep happening. Henry is no addition, he's crocked and ala Viera, Arsene Wenger let him go at the right time. Xavi, Puyol, Iniesta, Messi and Valdes, all from la Masia, have kept this particular rudderless ship from hitting the rocks. Deco and Guddy have made contributions, as have Bojan and Milito but everyone else needs to take a long hard look at themselves.

Onward and downward

Sunday night will see me in front of the television for the Almeria game. The squad has been announced and Deco and Toure are both out. Oleguer, currently suffering from a broken spirit, is back. Almeria are decent and I can see Barça fucking this up in ridiculous fashion.

Anyway, enough gloom and doom for now. The Champions League draw is on tomorrow at noon and I'll have my fingers crossed for either Schalke or Fener. Should Barcelona draw Liverpool, Utd or Arsenal then I think it'll be time to put all the blaugrana eggs into the Copa Del Rey basket. More on that early pm. Bona nit for now.

2008-03-07T11:12:00.002Z

Every silver lining has a cloud

This isn't so much a coherent post as a riot of thoughts on this weeks action. First up, Messi. Out for six weeks with a torn bicep in this left thigh. This is nothing short of disastrous for the blaugrana who face third placed Villarreal at home on Sunday evening. Given that he sat out most to the game at the Calderon at the weekend, one has to question the decision to start him against Celtic, a match that was over before a ball was kicked (and should there have been any doubt, 120 seconds in, Xavi put any such notions to bed with yet another fabulous gol). Despite Madrid's recent stumbles (more on their loss to Roma later), they're still five points ahead and without Champions League or Copa Del Rey games, will surely give it their all in la Liga. That said, and while they may have a reasonably straight run-in, it's Espanyol who visit the Bernabeu on Saturday evening and Madrid are still without Sergio Ramos (suspended), Ruud, Salgado and Robben (injured). Ex-blaugrana Javier Saviola and hot-and-cold Dutch midfielder Sneijder are back in the squad which also includes a half crocked Canna. Espanyol are well capable of beating them, especially with Ramos out and the midfield so lacking.

Anyway, more of Madrid later. I only watched the first half of the Barça Celtic game given that Milan and Arsenal was 0-0 after 45 minutes and promised a little more in the way of a contest. While I'm not about to get all Kevin McCarra and eulogise the Gunners, they looked as good as they did at the beginning of the season. They were simply quicker, fitter and younger than Milan, who looked totally bereft of ideas in the second half, endlessly punting the ball up the middle to no-one in particular. This is the sort of result that's been coming a long time now for the Milanese, who may not even make fourth this season given their poor form and the resurgence of Fiorentina. They could easily take seven or eight of their players to the glue factory, many of whom, Serginho, Cafu, Kalac, Favalli, Emerson to mention just a few are well past their best. Maldini too, at 39 needs to call it a day. While he's easily one of the best players ever to kick a football he's just too old.

On Wednesday I suffered through the Real-Roma game, watching pointless foul after pointless foul, Roma's defense constantly giving the ball away, Real completely lacking in midfield and upfront, Aquilani playing like a man possessed, Vucinic completely changing the game when he came on and leading from the front, Pepe being sent off for an unbelievably stupid second yellow card and Real only starting to play when they went 0-1 behind. It was a pretty awful game (don't believe about the hype about Roma, Madrid were rubbish), very stop-start and littered with mistakes. A clever side like Liverpool would have taken Roma to school and punished their pratting around. As it was, Madrid just fell on their ass and never looked like winning.

I rounded off my futbol-tastic week with about fifty minutes of Spurs-PSV. Tottenham have improved a great deal under Ramos but wow they have a long way to go. Far too many long balls, Lennon is still selfish and incapable of delivering a good cross and PSV ought to have won about 0-3. I wouldn't fancy Spurs chances in Eindhoven.

And that's about your lot folks. Expect team news about the Villarreal game sometime on Saturday.

2008-03-04T22:46:00.003Z

This is happening just a little too often

I'm kinda tired so I'll post a full match report tomorrow but suffice to say the story of the evening isn't Barça beating Celtic. Leo Messi, with what looks like a hamstring injury, came off late in the first half in floods of tears. This is bad, bad news folks.

2008-03-03T12:25:00.004Z

"This is science fiction" or Sergio Aguero takes Barcelona to school *

Watching Sergio Aguero tear Barcelona apart on Saturday night was both depressing and humbling. Two gols, one assist, the second gol nothing short of incredible, el Kun tore through the blaugrana defense, leaving both Charly Puyol and Gaby Milto on their backsides and hammered past Victor Valdes (more on him later). Despite taking the lead through a fabulous overhead kick from 'dinho, Barcelona quickly found themselves 2-1 down thanks to a deflected shot from Aguero and dreadful gol keeping error from Valdes who collapsed like a sack of potatoes at the near post as Maxi's low shot flew past him and into the bottom corner. Things would go from bad to worse mid way through the second half when Aguero went down under pressure from Puyol and Diego Forlan smashed home the penalty. And that was it really as far as the result was concerned. Eto'o would pull one back late on but not before el Kun had beaten four blaugrana defenders and left Valdes picking the ball out of the net for the fourth time. 4-2. Shocking stuff.

So Madrid, who won 2-3 thanks to a brace from Robinho, are five points ahead again and there's lots of head-shaking and staring at the ground going on at the Camp Nou. It's almost three years since Barcelona conceded four gols in a Liga game, they lost 4-2 to the other Madrid with Zizou, Ronaldo and a certain Michael Owen among the scorers for Real. That was in April '05 and ultimately it would count for nothing as they wrapped up the league a few games later, a nervy 1-1 draw away to Levante.

Where Barcelona go from here will define the rest of their season. After Celtic at home tomorrow night (Sky Sports 2, kick off at 7:45pm) they have two tough fixtures. Villarreal, currently third, at home on Sunday night followed by Almeria away. Rijkaard's side need to leave last night behind them, thump Celtic and get back on track. Messi, in great form and inexplicably left out of the starting eleven on Saturday, will presumably be back as will Yaya Toure, who didn't even make the squad against Atleti, also back in the frame.

Round-up

Reserve gol keeper, Albert Jorquera, currently out with a knee injury what will keep him sidelined until the end of the season, has signed a new contract. His current deal expires at the end of this season and there was talk that he might be let go but the blaugrana have decided to stick with him until 2010 at least. A good shot-stopper, Jorquera is fairly ropey at pretty much everything else but as a reserve 'keeper he's decent enough. On the back of this I'd expect Jose Pinto to go back to Celta when his loan finishes in June.

* Mal, this headline is for you :)

2008-02-28T23:10:00.000Z

Frank out!

Well maybe. The Guardian had a story today about Rijkaard considering the Chelsea job in the summer. As with all of these stories it quotes "a source close to Rijkaard" which could, quite frankly, be anyone. What he says though is pretty common knowledge. Frank is sick of the flack he's catching at the Camp Nou and is likely to leave in the summer unless the blaugrana win either La Liga or the Champions League. That he would then consider an offer from Chelsea fits too with his friend Henk Ten Cate currently installed as assistant coach.

Or not. I can't see Rijkaard going anywhere for at least a year if he leaves. There was a lot of talk of him wanting to take a year out at the end of last season so I think that's the most likely. He'll sit around, do some punditry, be linked with every big job going (Milan, Chelsea, Inter etc) and then he'll end up somewhere no-one predicted. Sid Lowe wrote a good piece on the back of today's news, extolling Rijkaard's virtues as a coach without going over the top. I think he'd be a good fit at a team like Chelsea but not necessarily under Roman Abramovich's interfering ownership. We shall see.

For his part, the noises coming out of the Rijkaard camp, via his brother, as that the reports are nonsense and that he intends to see out his contract.

Trezagol

In other news, it's emerged today that David Trezeguet had decided to leave Juve in 2004 for Barcelona until Fabio Capello persuaded him to stay. Presumably Barça would have signed him instead of Eto'o. This came out during the trial of Gea Sports Management, run Luca Moggi's son Alessandro and Marcelo Lippi's son Davide. It's not really news I guess but an interesting aside none the less. I'm a big fan of Trezagol. Oh, in other bianconeri/ blaugrana news, Gianluca Zambrotta has a right go at this old club in the current issue of Italian GQ. Football Italia has details.

Meanwhile at the Calderon...

Atleti have Kun Aguero, former blaugrana Simao, Raul Garcia and Pablo Ibanez back for the game on Saturday. Last time around Barça pummeled Madrid and won 0-6 and despite the respective form of the two sides I wouldn't expect a repeat or anything like it. Honestly I'd be happy with a draw. Next to the Real game at the end of the season, this is probably Barça's toughest away fixture.

Update:

Sadly one player who won't be on the pitch is former Barcelona midfielder Thiago Motta, who's going to miss the rest of the season after surgery on his left knee. Despite being only 25 it's hard to see Motta ever stringing a consistent run of games together let alone a whole season (he's only made three starts for Atletico). While he's not quite made of glass, his knees are shot and he picks up injuries at the drop of a hat (sometimes as a result of the drop of a hat...) I've always liked him though and I wish him well. Bon nit.

2008-02-28T00:18:00.004Z

Well I kind of asked for that now didn't I?

"Given Barça's current form I can't see past a decent home win, 3-0 or 3-1 perhaps" - me, inviting disaster on Monday night.

If Barça win anything at all this season a huge part of it will be down to Xavi Hernandez Creus. I mean crikey, their current run of good form was born of his late late winner against Osasuna. His equaliser at Sevilla kept the ship steady, he opened the scoring against Levante on Sunday with an emphatic drive and tonight he ensured that Barça remain unbeaten in 2008 with last minute gol (and it really was, coming as it did in the fourth minute of added time) against Valencia to cancel out David Villa's sixty-seventh minute strike. I'm going to bed now but I just wanted to get this up before I do. Forward to the Calderon! Força Xavi!

2008-02-25T23:15:00.005Z

Hay Liga

What a week. What a fucking week. Twice Barça came from behind to beat Celtic 2-3 at Parkhead. On Sunday night they hammered five past the frankly hopeless Levante (who are bottom of the La Liga, certain to go down and completely broke) and then watched as Madrid conceded a comical goal ("They have scored a goal against us like in a match for four-year-olds" commented Guti, not kissing his sister in this instance. He's not wrong) to lose to Getafe, leaving the blaugrana only two points off the top. Barcelona were absolutely incredible in their past two games, Henry scoring a sensational gol against Celtic and Eto'o, Messi and Xavi on fire at the Camp Nou last night. All this and Madrid losing for the fourth time in five games (that 7-0 hammering of Valladolid looking more like an anomaly than a statement of intent), Barcelona have come back from the brink (when Drenthe scored the opener against Betis the gap was looking like it was going to widen to a surely unassailable eleven points) and are pushing on with real verve.

Whether they can carry this through the weekend, away to Atletico Madrid, currently in something of a funk, having been dumped out of the UEFA Cup by Bolton and having just one win in their last six in la Liga. Aguero's initial gol glut at the beginning of the season has all but dried up and Forlan is now the only one hitting the back of the net with any kind of regularity. Early on they were winning games 4-3 and 3-2, now they can barely manage a single gol and are still just as leaky at the back. With Sevilla resurgent (and just two points back) they could easily see themselves drop out of the top four this weekend.

Between now and then there's the small matter of the Copa semi-final first leg against Valencia, still floundering under Ronald Koeman but not quite to the same degree as they were two months ago, at the Camp Nou on Wednesday night (9pm on Sky Sports 1). The squad has been announced and the main news is that 'dinho is left out in favour of Henry, who sat out the weekend game. Deco is back too. Given Barça's current form I can't see past a decent home win, 3-0 or 3-1 perhaps (despite their blowing past Levante the visiting side had one or two decent chances, not including the penalty which to be honest looked like a handball from both Zambrotta and Riga) Speaking of Zambrotta, and this is a brief aside I assure you, he seems to be the new Belletti when it comes to holding the line for offside. While the other three defenders are tight he drifted back more than 1nce on Sunday. And it's far from a new thing either. I'm much happier with Puyol out on the right. But then that leaves the problem of who to play in the centre alongside Milito, neither Marquez or old man Lillian Thuram look convincing. Hmmmm...

Cradle snatching

Finally, on a Cesc Fabregas, Gerard Pique, Fran Merida tip, young blaugrana central defender Marc Muniesa is apparently being tapped by Chelsea. Now in the story I read on Sky Sports his agent denies it but this doesn't come out of no-where and I wouldn't be surprised if the Stamford Bridge side made a play for him after his turns sixteen in March. I guess this is rather inevitable when your youth academy produces so many good players but that makes it none the less very troubling. We'll see how it plays out at the end of next month.

2008-02-20T09:13:00.004Z

Hard to argue with JunaFran isn't it?

Well then. Just as Real could have disappeared off into the distance, a win at Betis would have left them a massive eleven points clear, they instead lose for the second time in three games (if you add in last night's defeat in Roma it's three losses in four) Barça, thanks to an incredibly fortuitous penalty award late on against Saragossa, are a mere five points back. So a week after the title race being done and dusted, it's back on again and with the blaugrana hosting the hopeless Levante at the weekend it's likely to stay on. I saw very little of the game as I was in work late late (I caught like twenty minutes of the second half) so...

Between now and Sunday there's the small matter of a visit to Parkhead and Celtic. Eto'o is back and will probably start with 'dinho yet again on the bench. Iniesta sat out the Saragossa game so he will be back in midfield with Deco and Toure with Xavi sitting this one out. With Zambrotta still out injured the back four is likely to be Puyol, Milito, Marquez and Abidal who I'd expect to cope with whatever aimless long balls that Celtic can throw at them. Doubt it'll be a great game so I'll be watching Milan. 0-0 or 0-2 Barça.

2008-02-14T19:18:00.003Z

Getting to the heart of what's wrong

I was having dinner with a friend of mine yesterday evening and there was much talk of the current in the malaise in Irish Rugby and the real reason behind the failure of the team at the World Cup. Lack of professionalism, O'Sullivan's playing favourites and stubborn refusal to drop those underperforming, Ronan O'Gara's meltdown and the lack of any credible replacement, divisions in the camp... the whole sorry mess was raked over again.

We then moved onto another team who fell to earth, FC Barcelona.

Much of what was wrong last time out and continues to be a problem this season stems from the loss of Henk Ten Cate to Ajax and his replacement, Johan Neeskens, not being up to the task. Looking at the current coaching set-up, Barça sorely lack a real disciplinarian, a motivator who isn't afraid to fall out with the players, who doesn't want to be their mate but is solely concerned in getting the best out of them for the team. There's no bad cop anymore, it's all far to easy-going and lax.

That and they should have gotten shot of Ronaldinho in the summer. And probably not signed Henry. Or Thuram.

Conversation moved on to other things after that. Any comments? Oh Eto'o is out of the Saragossa game. And Oleguer will miss the next six weeks thanks to his broken hand.

2008-02-11T20:14:00.000Z

A world of difference

It was always going to be tough. Barça were always going to be relying on Madrid slipping up. And not just once either. Checking the result of the Real game on Sunday, minutes after seeing Samuel Eto'o pull up with a hamstring injury in the final of the African Cup of Nations was like a slap in the face, the polar opposite of my feelings a week earlier when Xavi's late late winner against Osasuna rocketed into the net.

Missing their best forward in Van Nistelrooij and a host of other players, they put seven past Valladolid (five before half time). On the back of the blaugrana's draw away at Sevilla, there is now an eight point gap at the top. By all accounts Madrid were simply awesome (like duh) and baring a serious injury to Casillas or an enormous hole opening up during a game at the Bernabeu and swallowing the all players they have it locked up. The majority of their games between now and the end of the season are at home where they never lose and Sevilla and Barcelona are the only teams who look capable of beating them there. It's not that I'm giving up, not by a long shot but let's be realistic. Eight points is massive. And the way Barça are playing, narrow 1-0 wins and nervous 1-1 draws, it's just not dramatic fight-back form.

On top of all this is a growing injury list which includes, amongst others; Eto'o, Henry, Deco, Zambrotta, Oleguer (what rotten luck, making his first start in ages he breaks a bone in his hand), Puyol, Jorquera, Bojan and Sylvinho. You could add 'dinho to that list too in all honesty considering how poor he's been (I think selling him in the summer is going to prove a real challenge. He's having a dreadful season and is on huge wages) The injuries to Eto'o and Henry are the most worrying as it's getting awfully thin upfront. Barça are also currently without a right back and I have no idea who's going to play there against Saragossa.

Buy buy buy

On the transfer front it would seem that Barcelona have an agreement to sign Argentine central defender/ right back Ezequiel Garay from Santander. This would certainly fit with the stories linking Gianluca Zambrotta with a move back to Italia. Garay is just 21 and very, very good. I haven't caught him this season at all (he didn't play at the Camp Nou a few weeks back) but last season he was fantastic, making thirty starts and scoring nine gols (he takes penalties). A good addition to the side if the story is true.

Finally, to my great surprise, my blog has been nominated in the category of Best La Liga Blog on Soccerlens.com. Click here to vote for me (although to be honest it's kinda a lost cause, fcbnews has it locked up :) Still, it's nice to be noticed. Bon nit.

2008-01-28T19:50:00.000Z

From Seven to Nine

Having not seen a blaugrana game since El Clasico before Christmas I've now caught two in a week and I gotta tell ya, woe is me. A turgid 1-0 win at home to Racing Santander followed up by a soul destroying 1-1 draw away to Athletic at the San Mames. The latter, coupled with Madrid's 3-2 win against Villarreal leaves Barcelona a massive nine points behind the leaders and in no way looking capable of clawing that back. If anything one would expect the gap to widen.

The game in Bilbao last night was exactly the sort that Madrid would have won. Tight, edgy, lots of fouls and the pattern of play constantly being broken up, it was made for an opportunistic Van Nistlerooij toe-poke across the line. Instead it was Lillian Thuram, 86, who toe-poked the ball past Victor Valdes late in the second half when under pressure from Llorente. It completely took the wind out of Barça's sails and they never looked like getting back on top in the last fifteen minutes. It reminded me of Betis last year. After taking the lead early they just didn't do enough to kill the game off. Bilbao are a poor side. They're down in fourteenth and while they're unlikely to flirt with relegation to the degree they did last season, when Fran Yeste is your number ten and is more likely to find the carpark with a cross than a team-mate you're in trouble.

So where does this latest disaster leave Barcelona? Nine points adrift of Real, they are still comfortably second and are unlikely to do any worse unless they have a complete meltdown. They have Villarreal, still third thanks to defeats for Athletico Madrid and Espanyol (three in a row now and Tamudo out for at least two months with a broken arm) on Thursday in the Copa Del Rey at the Camp Nou, which they ought win. That would put them into the semis and realistically the Copa is a competition they should be looking to win. La Liga is gone bar some sort of miracle or Iker breaking his arms and legs and Ruud getting deported. The Champions League is still a possiblity but Barça are among about seven teams who could win it. They'll get past Celtic but should they get Inter, Milan or Arsenal in the quarters I wouldn't fancy their chances.

So it's onward and downward. Watching Barça labour against such mediocre opposition this past week has been painful. Deco, back in the side after a long lay off, still isn't right and Vanilla Ice would be a better option instead. Thuram, badly caught out last night, is finished and baring a crisis should not play for the first team again. I'd sooner put Oleguer (a player that Rijkaard seems to have lost all confidence in) beside Puyol if Gaby Milito is out and take the chance rather than see Thuram lumber around, a gol waiting to happen. Henry, gol against Santander aside, has been rubbish and frequently goes missing for long periods. With Eto'o away in Ghana, 'dinho MIA for god knows how long (there's word that he'll be back for the Copa but I wouldn't bet on it) and Messi just back from injury, Henry needs to lead from the front. As it is he's been shown up by a 17 year old Bojan (scorer of an excellent gol last night). Iniesta (who's just signed a new contract), rivalling Damien Duff in the getting kicked out of it stakes, has been playing well but when the rest of the side isn't flowing alongside him then most of his efforts are for nought. Valdes, so often the weak link at the back, has been in good form too, keeping three clean sheets in a row before Sunday night. As for the rest of the side, they vary between poor and merely alright. It makes for depressing viewing.

A few words about transfers before I go. Deco 1nce again is making "I've had it" noises and sounds like he's on his way. He'd be a huge loss. Santi may be on his way to Valladolid after turning down moves to several Premier League sides. He should really make a move, even if it's just on loan.

2008-01-20T17:33:00.000Z

Henry, not bad as it turns out...

There's about half an hour to go before the Madrid derby kicks of at the Calderon and I have lots to through between now and then. A cracking 4-0 home win against Murcia followed by a solid 0-0 against Sevilla in the Copa, Deco back in the team, Messi fit again to face Santander tonight, Jose Pinto signed to replace Jorquera, Zambrotta staying put, Sammy and Yaya off to the African Cup of Nations for up to six weeks and Roberto Mancini is interested in 'dinho (he can have him).

Let's begin on the pitch. A comprehensive trouncing of Murcia at the Camp Nou last weekend with a virtuoso performance from the new face of Gillette, Thierry Henry. There were also two gols from Eto'o, who left for the African Cup of Nations the very next day. Eto'o, given a standing ovation as he was substituted, has hit top form again and his loss will be keenly felt in the next few weeks.

A few days later Barcelona produced an unusually accomplished defensive performance against Copa Del Rey holders Sevilla to hold out for a 0-0 draw, enough to put them through to face Villarreal in the quarter-finals. While there was more than one "oh my good god" hands-on-head last ditch defending, Sevilla, despite pouring forward couldn't put the ball past Valdes (okay Navas managed it but that was offside). It was more the sort of result you'd expect from Milan or Juve.

Cash Money

Onto transfer news now and Celta Vigo 'keeper Jose Pinto has arrived on loan until the summer. Celta will be paid €500,000 and the blaugrana have the option to make the deal permanent in the summer should Pinto impress or should they just wish to ditch Albert Jorquera. I seen a fair bit of Pinto at Vigo and I can't say I've been all that impressed with him. Now he's unlikely to see much action so long as Valdes stays fit but I would have rather they take a punt on Oscar Ustari at Getafe. Pinto will wear number 13.

Casting an eye over to Serie A, Gianluca Zambrotta will definitely not be joining Milan in the transfer window but will leave the blaugrana in the summer. So says Silvio Berlusconi. Joining him at the San Siro but wearing the Nerazzuri shirt could be Ronaldinho. Roberto Mancini, clearly having hit his head before the press conference, talked up Inter's chances of signing 'dinho come the end of the season. Lord know's why. Perhaps he fancies a challenge.

Finally, the squad for tonight's game has been announced and the good news is that Leo Messi, out since before Christmas is back in the game. A la Mess, a la Mess!

2008-01-11T20:00:00.000Z

It's Illmatic

Having spent much of this week coughing and blowing my nose it's taken me until now to get it together. In that time Barça have hobbled through two games, a convincing 0-2 win away to Mallorca and a 1-1 draw at Sevilla in the Copa. Edmilson, just back from a knee injury that's kept him out for the last seven months, tore his left thigh at the Ramon Sanchez on Wednesday night. Deco and 'dinho remain on the sidelines, the former likely to be included in the squad to face Murcia tomorrow night. Yaya Toure is off to the African Cup of Nations and Samuel Eto'o will be joining him on Sunday. Marc Crosas is out on loan, though not to Real Sociedad as has been mooted, but, rather surprisingly, to Lyon. Messi is still out and with seemingly little progress being made on signing a new golkeeper to replace Albert Jorquera, turning up at the Camp Nou with a pair of boots on match day may well earn you a spot on the bench.

So what else has been happening? It appears that both Santi and Gianluca Zambrotta are staying, though I can see Zambrotta slinging his hook in the summer, possibly to Milan. Santi will of course be out of contract by then and there is zero chance of him signing a new one. Ezquerro has said that if he were to leave Barça he'd want to go to another big club, which is fair enough I suppose, if somewhat fanciful. He's thirty-one now and hasn't played regularly for almost three seasons.

I'm curious to see how Crosas will do at Lyon. I've never seen him play but I've heard good things. It's a better move than Sociedad only if he sees some playing time, which considering OL have and abundance of midfielders, seems unlikely. We shall see.

That's about it in the round-up stakes, I didn't see either game this week and will probably miss Murcia on the weekend too but I'll cobble something together on Sunday.

2008-01-01T23:43:00.000Z

Madrid cabron

New years resolutions are such bullshit. "I'm going to get fit this year" "I'm going to start my novel" If you were actually resolved to do it there wouldn't be any grand declarations of intent, you'd just do it. To that end I'm not going to say anything about my lack of blogging in the last month, I'm just gonna get on with. And my there is much to get on with; el Clasico, Albert Jorquera's injury and the possible signing of Canizares , Santi Ezquerro's impending departure, 'dinho's fall from grace, Rijkaard's future and the Champions League draw. As Delia Smith would say, "let's be 'aving ye!"

White Christmas

Watching el Clasico in my dreadfully hungover state (yes I know it was on at six in the evening, I was in a bad way) was a painful experience, and not just because I felt like I'd just been kicked in the stomach. Barça were incredibly poor, their passing wasn't as crisp or an incisive as it needed to be, they were slow and ponderous going forward, shaky in defense and no one bar Iniesta and Bojan, who came on for the last ten minutes showed any zip or guile. It was as if all the air had been let out of the team. That said, and to give Madrid credit they put in a very good away performance; strong at the back, breaking up the midfield well and scoring a fabulous breakaway gol. Diarra, Pepe (all €30 million of him) and Canna did a top job of stopping Barça playing and when called upon, Superman Iker Casillas did what he always does.

Madrid are now seven points clear of a Barcelona team, who, should they continue to play like they did on the 23rd, have absolutely no chance of catching them. Sid Lowe, The Guardian's La Liga columnist has said more than once this season that Madrid, while not setting the world alight, have no discernible weaknesses while Barça have them in abundance. As much as I'd love to see this blaugrana side roar back after the Christmas break I just don't see it happening.

Watching Ronaldinho huff and puff, continually give the ball away and play like he'd been given a dose of Adriano before the kick off was distressing. His overly-elaborate play and lack of pace completely slows the team down. Lightening quick counter-attacks become laboured and frequently break down. The pass is never played, he's always trying to beat three or four players and score some wondergol like it was two seasons ago. Having sat out the Valencia game and been on the bench against Espanyol after a string of hopeless performances, el clasico was probably 'dinho's last chance to convince Rijkaard, the cules and the board to keep him at the club. And he ballsed it up in remarkably mundane fashion.

So where to for 'dinho and when? Milan seems to be his most likely destination, they're definitely making all the right noises. Whether this will be as soon as the next few weeks or will in fact happen in the summer is hard to say. Given that 'dinho has lined out for Barça in the Champions League he could only play for Milan in Serie A which is something of a lost cause for them, having fallen to 12th place (albeit with games in hand) after the derby defeat to Inter. That and the fact that a transfer of this magnitude (probably something in the region of €25 million) takes time to negotiate we'll all have to put up with that look of exasperation when he loses the ball, his lack of fitness and all round uselessness now that he seems to have given up until the summer.

January Sales

Not hanging around that long and on the first plane out of BCN will be the long suffering Santi Ezquerro. Having been out in the cold since his move from Bilbao he finally seems to be on his way, either to the Premiership, where Bolton, Everton and 'boro are all reportedly interested in him, or to bonnie Scotland (both Celtic and Hearts are keen). Santi is better than all that lot but at this stage of his career he needs to be playing and after wasting away on the bench at the Camp Nou for two-and-a-half years now I think it's a case of 'anywhere will do'. Ideally he'd sign a short term contract, put in some decent performances and a good team would come along for him in the summer. I have a lot of time for Santi and was a big admirer of him at Athletic. If he goes I wish him well.

At the other end of the pitch Barça are will be signing a new golkeeper on the back of Albert Jorquera's ruptured ankle ligaments. He sustained the injury playing for Catalunya against the Basque Country over the Christmas break. He'll be out for at least six months. His most likely replacement is another Santi, Santiago Canizares. Cast out by Ronald Koeman (along with David Albelda and Miguel Angulo) he's looking for a new club and would be available on either a free transfer or on loan. At 38 Santi is very much nearing the end of his career and from what I've seen of him in the past two seasons he's nothing like the 'keeper he was five years ago when Valencia were beating all around them and had the tightest defense in La Liga but as a short-term fix he's a good bet. All being well he's not likely to see much action anyway with Valdes in pretty good form thus far.

That will in all likelihood be the sum total of the ins and outs in January unless Marc Crosas is loaned out to Sociedad. I can't see anyone else leaving or coming in and that includes Frank Rijkaard, who will stay until the summer.

Glasgow kiss

Finally, before I go to bed, a word about the blaugrana's next opponents in the Champions League. Next to Fenerbache I don't think they could have gotten an easier draw. Celtic, while stubborn at home, are absolutely hopeless away and Barça ought give them a good going over. More on that closer to the time. G'night now.

2007-11-13T11:47:00.000Z

Gonna. Get it. Together. Watch it!

I know just how Xavi feels. Barcelona have two away wins thus far this season (1-4 at the worst side in La Liga, Levante, and 2-0 at Stuttgart) They ought get their third tonight in the Copa del Rey at CD Alcoyano, a Valencia based side who play in the Segunda B.

The squad for tonights kick about is as expected. 'dinho, Messi and Milito are away for World Cup qualifiers, Zambrotta is suspended and Santi "I can't catch a break" Ezquerro has a groin injury. Marquez is back, having recovered from brain freeze or a mild form of amnesia or whatever he's been suffering of late. He'll likely start in the centre of defence. Number two golkeeper Jorquera, Marc Crosas, Bojan and Gio Dos Santos should be in from the jump off too. I don't think the game is on tv here to I'll post up a link to highlights later on.

2007-11-11T15:46:00.000Z

It's like deja vu all over again...

"Those responsible are the players as we are the ones who have to fight. I am worried. After every game we say the same things but another two weeks go by and the same thing happens again."

"We try to play our football but our rivals put more into it than us and if we don't put more in we don't win. They played more as a team. You have to look at the way you lost and this is what worries me. We are not playing as a team and everyone can see that."

"We need to speak among ourselves but it is clear that we cannot continue like this. We are the first ones who want to forget about last season but what we are doing reminds us of last year."

Carles Puyol after Saturday night's defeat away to Getafe. He is of course right.

Having defeated Rangers 2-0 during the week without really having to try (both iron man Puyol and Iniesta were fantastic against Gers, who were incredibly poor) it was back to earth with a bang in Madrid. It was the same old story. The blaugrana dominated possession but could do nothing with it. Getafe, a limited but disciplined team, had a few chances and put them away. Barcelona on the other hand, failing to get the first gol, became more and more frustrated and until the wheels completely came off with Zambrotta's sending off on eighty-five minutes.

One really has to wonder when Barcelona are going to get over this hump. After the meltdown that was last season it was all going to be different. The defense was re-enforced with Milito and Abidal, and Toure added some more steel to the midfield. They were no longer going to be the soft pushovers they were last time out when they came up against strong, physical sides. How little has changed. Now third behind Real and Villarreal, the blaugrana look to have learned nothing from the fiasco that was the second half of the 06/07 season.

Watching Puyol on Wednesday night was inspiring stuff, he was everywhere. His teammates would do well to watch and listen to Carles. Otherwise there'll be a whole lot more wailing and gnashing of teeth come May.

2007-11-07T17:49:00.001Z

Seven of Nine

So what have we learned from the past three games? Barça still can't win away from home. Thierry Henry is ever so slowly adapting to the blaugrana's style of play (witness his gol against Betis). 'dinho, three gols in two games, still isn't right but that overhead kick did show that he's making progress. Deco is sorely missed, he won't be back for at least another three weeks. Yaya Toure adds the bite to the midfield that they've been missing. Rafa Marquez seems to have hit his head and forgotten how to play futbol. Charly Puyol is a fantastic attacking right back. And despite their not playing all that well Barcelona are but a point off the top.

It's Gers at the Camp Nou tonight. Zambrotta is out thanks to an ankle ligament injury and is replaced by Milito. Gaby will probably start in the centre of defence with Thuram with Charly powering forward down the right (he's probably a good bet for a gol tonight). The full squad is:

Valdés, Jorquera

Márquez, Puyol, Oleguer, Sylvinho, Milito, Abidal, Thuram

Xavi, Iniesta, Toure (rather thin in midfield isn't it?)

Henry, Bojan, Giovani, Messi, Ronaldinho, Gudjohnsen

This will be the first game since the Almeria match which featured a whole lot of huffing and puffing but little else. My Dad tells me that they were much improved against Betis after a woeful performance against Valladolid ("Marquez is absolutely rubbish"). I'd expect the game to go much like the last time out against Gers 'cept with Barça putting away three or four gols.

2007-10-25T19:55:00.000+01:00

Hack and slash futbol

Tuesday seems like an awfully long time ago. The game at Ibrox is one I'd rather forget. Rangers, who beat Lyon 3-0 away and did a similar number on Celtic the previous weekend were awful. Masters of the long aimless punt, the needless foul and putting it out for a corner, they ofered little or nothing going forward and played, in the words of Leo Messi, "anti-football". That said, Barcelona hardly lit it up either. Plenty of possession, over 70% but absolutely no penetration, few genuine chances (a 'dinho free kick tipped over the bar, a Puyol header also saved and an Henry header that went over the bar were about the best) and a general lack of verve about their play.

That said, despite being so poor Barça still drew and one would imagine that they'll lay waste to Gers at the Camp Nou. A win would give them 10 points. Before I move onto La Liga, a word about Ronaldinho. Slow, ponderous, laboured, Robbie Keane-ing it when a simple pass would have done, he had one decent free kick, a good cross that Puyol got on the end of (Puyol was frequently Barça's most attack minded player, which says it all) and that was it. After missing the Villarreal game he needed to be showing more than this. No doubt he'll turn it on against Almeria on Sunday, doing some pointlessly showy step-over or flick and El Mundo Deportivo will be extolling his virtues again. *sigh*

Speaking of Almeria, they've done pretty well thus far. Mid-table after eight games, Cobeno is solid in gol (he did well at Sevilla when Palop was out last season) , they're unspectacular but look good to avoid relegation. I still don't give them a chance on Sunday evening. The Barça squad features Toure, Zambrotta and Rafa Marquez, all back from injury. Crosas, Thuram and poor old Santi miss out. Leo Messi, training by himself these last few days may be rested, with either Bojan or Gio stepping up. The game kicks off at 6.

2007-10-22T16:59:00.000+01:00

We all lose to the yellow submarines

After a two weeks absence due to internationals Barcelona fell to earth with a bang (and without Ronaldinho) this weekend, losing 3-1 away to Villarreal and Deco for at least five weeks. At least Madrid lost too. The blaugrana are now forth, still two points behind leaders Real.
Villarreal were spectacular against Barça, completely dominating play, with old duffers Robert Pires and Marcos Senna controlling the game with ease. Even the introduction of Gio Dos Santos at the beginning of the second half for Oleguer didn't shift the balance and the yellow submarines stood firm. Deco hobbling off

Conspicuous by his absence was 'dinho, no doubt still drunk from his all-nighter with Robinho in Rio after the Brasil beat Ecuador. The story in O Globo puts him in the boot of a car at 11am the next morning to avoid being photographed leaving the club. Whether this is true I don't know but he certainly has previous and one must being to wonder if he's worth the bother. Hopelessly off the pace thus far this season and completely eclipsed by the explosive form of Leo Messi, 'dinho seems to be going down the same road Adriano, a road littered with night clubs, magnums of Cristal and XL jerseys to hide the flab.

There were few positives for Rijkaard's side but one was undoubtedly Bojan Krkic's gol, a fine finish from a deft Leo Messi pass. His first senior gol for the team, he became the youngest player ever to score for Barça. Bojan had a fabulous U-17 tournament for Espana during the summer and has looked very sharp in his first team appearances (typically limited to the last ten to fifteen minutes before Saturday's start).

The Old Firm

After their 3-0 victory over Celtic at the wknd, Gers are understandably in bullish about their chances at Ibrox. Barcelona's injury list is lengthy (Deco, Marquez, Edmilson, Toure, Eto'o, Zambrotta) and of particular concern is midfield, where either Marc Crosas or Ice Ice Baby will make their first start. Crosas is very raw and Guddy incredibly rusty given his lack of minutes. Crosas is also pretty lightweight. I think a draw would be a decent result for the blaugrana given how thin midfield is, an area that Gers, who like Barça have won their first two group games, will look to control. The game is live on Sky Sports 2 from 7:30 tomorrow evening.

2007-10-10T19:08:00.000+01:00

The best of the best

The elite. The shortlist for FIFA World Player of the year was published today and it's a farce. The full list is here. It's hard to know where to begin so let's start at the Camp Nou. There are seven blaugrana on the list; Messi, 'dinho, Eto'o, Deco, Thuram, Marquez and Henry. Now Barcelona's season was far from disastrous but of the seven, Thuram and Marquez were among the worst players to wear the shirt, Thuram in particular has been very poor at times. Deco has been up and down too and far from the player he was in the European Cup winning season (though he's very much on point again right now). Of the others Eto'o spent the majority of the year out injured and again wasn't the best when he did return.

But that's not the half of it. Among those listed are: Canna, who's been rubbish at Madrid, Lahm, Nesta, Torres, Viera and Lampard. There is no place for any Sevilla player (that's right, no Dani Alves), no Iker Casillas, no Zlatan, no Totti (again, ala Sevilla not a single AS Roma player), no Sergio Ramos, no David Villa, no Jamie Carragher (who's picking this, Steve McLaren?)... it goes on.

Obviously this is a load of bollocks and who's to say who the best player in the World is but still, this is just a random list of famous players. Anyway, rant over. Kaka will win in any case and he deserves it. 100% Jesus. Good night.