Barcelona got off the perfect start with a 3-0 win over Racing Santander and with the dust settling over the club's recent transfer activity it all looks very positive for the new season. It did not take very long for Messi to pick up where he had left off last season as he sprinted through and clipped the ball over the keeper to give Barça the lead. There was to be no hangover for the Argentine from the World Cup in which his country had abjectly failed against the Germans. David Villa opened up his account with the third goal but the memorable moment from the game was the delightful lob by Andres Iniesta from the edge of the area after the keeper had punched the ball away. He knocked the ball back first time over the stranded keeper and into the goal. With the job completed, Barça could sit back and watch the Real Madrid show turn into disappointment as they failed to score against Mallorca. All eyes had been on Mourinho for his first game but his expensively assembled team could not break down a solid Mallorca backline. Barca now go into the international break with a comfortable start and the incorporation of Mascherano still to come while the Ibrahimovic saga has come to an end. Unlike with Cesc earlier, Barça finally got their man with Mascherano making clear that he did not want to play for Liverpool. It was a sad ending for the Argentine but Barça now have a quality defensive player who is more suited to Spanish league than the physical Yaya Toure that left for Manchester City. There will be few Barça fans who will shed a tear at the news that Ibrahimovic has moved to AC Milan. The Swede had a disappointing first season considering he had been billed as one of the best players in the world and never showed the desire or workrate to win over the fans. The Champions League semi-final against Inter Milan was a classic example as when Barça needed his strength and skills he once again disappeared on the big stage. It was quite clear that despite his size he did not fancy the physical confrontation against Lucio or Samuel. Barça made a big mistake in spending over 65m euros for him and they were never going to be able to recover that so it is better to accept 25m euros and see the back of the player and start again. That money also saw the club able to splash out the same amount for Mascherano and so not add to the club debt. "It is not the right moment to talk about Ibrahimovic, he was the centre of attention during the Joan Gamper Trophy but not here. I am grateful for what he did as a Barça player and I wish him all the best in the future," said an always polite Guardiola, "I wouldn't say that the squad is now closed as there are still possibilities of bringing in new players but I am happy with what I have."

Barcelona striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic started the friendly match against AC Milan while talks continue between the two clubs continue over his future at the Nou Camp. Milan sports director Adriano Galliani said that negotiations will begin again at 12pm on Thursday. "It is very difficult as the price is very high but we at Milan are working to bring a great champion and I do not want to disillusion anyone. I am not going anywhere and the relationship with president Rosell is very good," he said. A solution is looking likely as Rosell spoke with the player and his agent before meeting Milan representatives for a lunch before the traditional Joan Gamper friendly match. Ronaldinho has been one of the star attractions in the city and received a great welcome from Barça fans at the airport for his success while an azulgrana.

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola is set to make a final signing before the end of the transfer window and it could well be Liverpool's Javier Mascherano. Guardiola is still looking to bring in a midfielder following the departure of Yaya Toure to Manchester City and according to Catalan television, Barça are now trying to entice Mascherano to join them with Liverpool having opened the door for him to leave. With the new season around the corner, midfield is one of the areas where Barça are a little light in cover for Busquets who will be the first-choice defensive midfielder. His international team-mate Leo Messi has already spoken publicly about how much he would like to see Mascherano, a friend of his, at the Nou Camp, and Liverpool coach Roy Hodgson has invited Barça to make a 'just' offer for the player. "Another player may arrive but if not then we have 19 players and up to five from the youth team as well. We will see what happens," said Guardiola. Meanwhile, Barcelona face Sevilla in the Spanish Super Cup looking to turnaround a 3-1 defeat in the first leg. They were missing many regulars and that is set to be the case also at the Nou Camp. "The team has been training well but they are not in perfect condition. The Spanish international's are still not ready to play for 90 minutes," Guardiola added. Barça are looking for their ninth Super Cup and their first trophy of the new season but Guardiola is keeping his cards close to his chest and has not revealed who will start the game.

Big hopes will be placed on the shoulders of David Villa this season as Barcelona look for a marksman who can lead the line and he had his first training session with coach Pep Guardiola on Thursday. Last season Barça noticed the loss of Samuel Eto'o and more responsibility was put on Leo Messi as Zlatan Ibrahimovic failed to make as big an impact as had been expected. With Thierry Henry in decline, Pedro Rodriguez also played an important role in Barça's success. Villa, though, is a proven goalscorer at the highest level and is set to take the team onto another level. He signed for Barcelona at the end of last season but had never been under the orders of Guardiola due to international duty and also having been given a break after the World Cup. "The truth is that I thought I would start in a different situation to this as I am tired but still I am ready to work. I was happy to have a break but at the same time I wanted to get going because when you have a new start you want it to begin as soon as possible," said Villa. Meanwhile, following so many Barça players having featured in the World Cup, Pedro says it is now time once again to fully concentrate on the club. "We have to focus on Barça and everything that will happen in the new season." he said, "I am not quite physically right at the moment like most of the rest but this is the time when we have to get ourselves in condition and do it quickly." This weekend Barça will look to take a big step towards their first silverware of the new season as they face Sevilla in the away leg of the Super Cup.

Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano would like to join Barcelona according to his agent Horacio Zandonadi, who encouraged the club to make an offer for him. Barça were interested in signing Mascherano several years ago but were not prepared to pay the asking price of 35m euros but now with the failure to sign Cesc Fabregas from Arsenal, they are keen to bring in another midfielder all-be-it that the Argentine is more defensive and would be a like-for-like replacement for Yaya Toure, who left for Manchester City. "The player would love to come to Barça," said Zandonadi, "we are talking about a price of about half that which Barça would have had to pay for Fabregas. Mascherano has not signed a new deal and they promised this year that they would allow him to leave and so we are talking about a much easier situation than in the past." He added that he was keen to link-up with Messi: "Mascherano and Leo Messi are friends and they have very similar personalities. They are very professional, focused and they love football." Meanwhile, Barça are also considering the signing of German international Ozil. The club were ready to move for Manchester City's Robinho but Guardiola was not interested in him and now the board are waiting to hear whether he would like Ozil who is coming to the end of his contract at Werder Bremen and so would be available for around 12m euros. Barça would face competition from Premier League clubs including Manchester United although Ozil has said he would like to move to the Nou Camp.

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola will study the market but following Arsenal's decision to refuse Cesc Fabregas' wish to come to the Nou Camp, he will not be rushed into signings and may promote players from the youth team. "I understand Arsenal and I understand Wenger. I wouldn't have allowed Cesc to leave either and I just hope now that he continues to enjoy playing in a leave as attractive and competitive as the Premiership," said Guardiola. "I do not worry about players that are not here and for that reason I'm not bothered by the fact that he hasn't arrived. I will see what players are available until the end of the transfer window but there is no rush. People are worried but we have a very good squad to allow us to compete in all competitions and the idea is to continue to do it. "I know the youth team very well and there are a lot of players there who have the quality to make it through to the first team squad." One of those who appears ready to make the jump is Jonathan Dos Santos, who has made a positive impression during the pre-season tour of Asia. "He understands our way of playing and if I need him then he is someone I can rely on. He is a young player with a very good football brain," said Guardiola. The coach was not so happy about the reasoning behind the trip to Asia with the Barça players already suffering from a tightly-packed schedule. "In the last game the pitch was very poor but what can you do? Between marketing and the sporting needs it is always the marketing that comes first," he added. The whole tour had appeared in danger when Guardiola refused to field a full first team squad and planned to blood youngsters on the fringes. It led to a major diplomatic row with the president Sandro Rosell becoming involved. In the end Guardiola was forced to backdown and field some of his star names who he had preferred to rest.

Already the old rivalries at Barcelona have returned to raise their heads at the club as Johan Cruyff, a legend as a player and a coach turned down the chance to be elected as the president of honour. Politics and football go hand in hand at the club, and this has caused serious divisions over the last 15 years. Following the election of Sandro Rosell as the new president there appears to be no end in sight even though on his arrival he announced that as one of his big aims. In 1996, Cruyff was sacked as manager by the increasingly dictatorial president Josep Nuñez and so created a division which still exists today. Such a powerful figure, Cruyff was a dangerous figure to have as an enemy and he felt he had been unfairly dismissed by Nuñez. Cruyff became a major critic of the presidency and played a big part in Nuñez resigning in 2000 and remained a fierce opponent of Joan Gaspart who took over but fell from grace in 2003, standing down with the club in crisis. A supporters platform called the Elefant Blau had been set up to oppose Nuñez with Joan Laporta as spokesman. Many were successful middle-aged businessmen who had grown up on the magic of Cruyff on the pitch and so it was natural they sided with him in the mid 1990s. When from that group a presidential campaign was launched in 2003, Cruyff sided with them and the man they put forward for president - Laporta - who had become a close friend. When Laporta won the 2003 elections, he made Cruyff an influential part of decision making even though he had no official role on the board and his interference angered Sandro Rosell, who ended up resigning in 2005. That is why now five years later with Rosell as president there is so much tension between him and Cruyff. When the new board decided to hold a vote to see if Cruyff should remain as the president of honour, Cruyff walked into the club's offices and returned the insignia. Now he has refused an olive branch which was handed out by Rosell. "It would be ridiculous for me to accept the position after a vote among fans, with the role having been taken away from me. I will leave the board alone and let them get on with their job," said Cruyff. Meanwhile Rosell is in South Africa talking to Cesc about a move to the Nou Camp. Along with Chygrinskiy, Thierry Henry is also leaving the clubs and is presently finalising a deal with the New York Red Bulls.

Barcelona defender Carles Puyol has tried to play down his header which sent Spain into the World Cup final against Holland this Sunday. With Pedro brought into the starting line-up ahead of Fernando Torres you could have been mistaken for thinking you were watching Barcelona as seven took to the field for the match against Germany. It was an opportunity to see the potential new striking line-up of David Villa and Pedro for Barcelona fans. Spain were not at their best but their neat football passing was enough to outdo Germany as their organisation was finally broken down. However, it was a thundering header from Puyol which was the difference between the sides as he out-jumped the defence to power home a corner. "I don't think I will be famous for this goal. I am sure of who I am and I know that on Sunday someone will score a goal which will be more important," he said. "I am very happy because the team is now were it deserves to be. We knew that the game against Germany was very important for Spanish football and now we have just one match to go and we are very excited." Focusing on the goal: "I asked Xavi to put the ball there and in the first half it didn't quite work but for the goal it was perfect." Meanwhile, Barça have agreed a new one-year deal with coach Pep Guardiola, an offer which was on the table from the presidency. While Laporta and Rosell have tried to tie him down to long contracts, the former Dream Team player prefers to go step by step and has turned down more years. Rosell has talked about keeping him at Barcelona for a similar period to Ferguson at Manchester United and making him an institution but it is unlikely he will stay for more than a couple of years. Even Johan Cruyff predicted he would coach the club for a maximum of three years. Guardiola is the type of coach who enjoys seeking new challenges and his future is most likely abroad.

The worrying financial situation at Barcelona has seen the new board off-load Dmytro Chigrinskiy back to his former club Shakhtar Donetsk for just 15m euros, ten less than what they paid for him a season ago. The 23-year-old Ukrainian made a poor start to his career in Catalonia, struggling to adapt to the Spanish game and coach Pep Guardiola accepted that he had made a poor judgement by asking for his signing. While it was always going to be difficult to recoup all the money for Chigrinskiy, there had been interest from other clubs including Louis van Gaal's Bayern Munich, but in the end Barça prefered a quick sale, so that they did not have to continue paying his salary. New president Sandro Rosell claims that the financial problems at the club have forced the board to to get a 150m euro bank loan but assures that the club is not bankrupt. He said that otherwise the board would not be able to pay the players' salaries. Rosell said that the club was not bankrupt because of the amount of money that it brought in which meant that they would be able to pay off the loans. Meanwhile, Rosell has assured that Barça would not pay 40 or 50 million euros for Cesc but was confident that they would sign the Arsenal player this summer

The appointment of Sandro Rosell as the new president of Barcelona means that the club are set to make some big name signings with Cesc Fabregas leading the way. With Joan Laporta seeing out his final days in office there had been a stalemate in the transfer discussions especially over the move for Cesc from Arsenal. While the player made it clear that he wanted to move back to Barça, the club had an arrangement with Rosell that he would unveil him as his big new signing and so this put off any proposed deal. There is likely to be plenty of further movements in the transfer market with Toure Yaya ready to move to Manchester City and when that deal is finally agreed then Barça are set to bring in Javier Mascherano from Liverpool as a direct replacement. Mascherano made it clear a couple of seasons that he would like to move to Barcelona and now due to the financial crisis at the Merseyside club, it means that they could accept an offer of around 30m euros. Finally the World Cup has brought German winger Mesut Ozil to the attention of the world audience and while several clubs are interested in signing him, Barcelona lead the way with the player having revealed it would be a dream to play for them.

After watching an exciting end to the Champions League and Barcelona pipping Real Madrid to the title with the highest ever points title, after all the waiting and expectation, the World Cup has been a big disappointment. Players have failed to perform, matches have been slow and depressing, while the refereeing also appears to have suffered. It has all been summed up by an ultra-defensive Brazil who are looking strong but at the same time likely to send you to sleep. "I would never pay to watch this Brazilian team play," said Cruyff, "they have talented players but they play in boring style and are not very interesting. It is an embarrassment for the fans and the tournament as they are one of the teams that people have come to see." While in the past Brazilian stars like Pele, Socrates and Romario have stood out at World Cups, this year the players likely to be remembered are defender Lucio and keeper Julio Cesar. Coach Dunga has certainly done well in building a team in his image. Of course it hasn't only been Brazil, England came to South Africa with plenty of expectation and now there is plenty of analysis at what went wrong - was it Capello or Rooney? Were the players generally not interested or were they simply not good enough. Rooney's former team-mate Ronaldo also might as well not have turned up. People could be forgotten that the 90m euro player was actually on the pitch as Portugal limped out against a Spain style who did the minimal to win. Argentina offer the most hope for entertainment with Messi, Tevez and Higuain showing their skills on the pitch while Maradona is always good value for money for his reactions on the sidelines. They play Germany this weekend but while they are favourites to win there are question marks over their defence and especially Dimechelis so don't be surprised with an upset. The main reason why the World Cup has been a disappointment is that fans are now used to watching Champions League football and a higher level of competition with the best players in the world together, but also the players have gone to South Africa clearly tired and feeling the strain after a long season. One element that can be addressed is the bringing in of technology to decide contentious decisions and it seems as though Fifa are finally listening to reason. Finally the biggest positive so far for Barça fans has been the form of new signing David Villa who has been banging the goals in for Spain

Manchester City forward Robinho could be used in an exchange deal involving Barcelona's Zlatan Ibrahimovic who would join the Premier League club. Robinho's future has been in limbo after finishing the season in Brazil following a disappointing spell with City in which he never showed the necessary commitment to succeed. Having arrived from Real Madrid, he suddenly found himself in a team with much lower expectations and in a city very different from what he was accustomed to. However, rather than adapting he looked for a way out and took every opportunity to return to Brazil. One thing is for certain, that Robinho will not return to Manchester and he has made it clear that he would like to return to Spain to prove himself after failing to impress also at Real Madrid where he left under a cloud. Guardiola is known to be an admirer of Robinho and he thinks that he could fit in well to Barca's style of football unlike Ibrahimovic who has struggled this season. For that reason Barça are looking at the possibility of a swap deal and Dani Alves, a close friend of Robinho's, says that his international team-mate will be at the Nou Camp next season.

Barcelona are considering making a move from Ajax defender Gregory van der Wiel. The 22-year-old has played in the Ajax first team for the last four years and is already a Dutch international. Sports director Txiki Begiristain sees him as a useful cover for Dani Alves at right-back but due to his versatility, pace and tactical strength he can also play at centre-half. However, after a good campaign for Ajax he has attracted admiring glances from teams around Europe and his price is now thought to be in the region of 10 to 12m euros. Meanwhile, Barça are keen to sew up the signing of Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas. Their initial offer of 35m euros was turned down by Arsenal and the club said it had no plans to work with the present Barça board but this has not put off president Joan Laporta who says that they are still speaking with the London club although it appears that so far there has been no new breakthrough. It is likely though that Barça will make a new bid substantially higher than the first so as to bring in the player sooner rather than later. One player who won't enter into a swap deal is Toure Yaya who is set to sign for Manchester Cuty and play alongside his brother Kolo. Toure is definitely on his way out of the Nou Camp and City are in the process of arranging a deal in the region of 20 to 25m euros, less than Barça were jhoping as they set out to make as much as 35m euros from his sale.

Arsenal have slapped a 60m euro asking price on the head of midfielder Cesc Fabregas although Barcelona hope to get the player for considerably less. Cesc headed to Arsenal in 2003 believing that it was the best move for his future and he has established himself as one of the best midfielders in the world as well as becoming the Arsenal captain even though still in his early 20s. Now though having seen the success of former team-mates like Gerard Pique and Leo Messi in Barça's junior ranks, he wants a move back to the Nou Camp. Arsenal are reluctant to lose their talisman player and have put a price of 60m euros on Cesc but the player is still confident that he will be able to convince manager Arsene Wenger that his future is elsewhere and so reduce the asking price. One alternative is a player plus cash deal with Ivory Coast midfielder Toure Yaya moving in the opposite direction but while the player's agent says that Toure is more than 90 per cent sure to leave this summer he is not prepared to be the makeweight in a deal and is seeking a move to Chelsea rather than Arsenal. Cesc has made it clear though that he wants to leave this summer and get the move organised before he goes to the World Cup next month. Some fans though are asking whether they need a player like Cesc in their ranks when they boast similar players in Xavi and Iniesta while they are loathe to losing the physical presence of Toure