June 2008 - Posts

• Guardiola to be presented on Tuesday as new coach

  Having successfully guided Barcelona B to promotion in his first year in charge of the youth team, Pep Guardiola has now got bigger fish to fry next season at the helm of the first team. It will be no easy task for the former youth-team player, a favourite among cules, to reorganise the dressing room after two difficult seasons but he is a strong minded person which should make up for his lack of experience. Although the expected clearout has not yet happened, surely in the next few weeks the stars of the past four or five years like Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto'o and Deco will move on for new players to take their places. The question will be whether Barca can entice the same level of quality with players like Villa, especially after a successful European Championships to date, likely to be very expensive. Posted Jun 16 2008, 07:15 AM by Tim with 1 comment(s)

• Laporta set to face a referendum on his future as president

  The future of Joan Laporta will be in the hands of socios this summer and if they decide to vote against him then new elections will be held most likely in September. The voto de censura appears to have been successful and so now a referendum will be held among socios with Laporta forced to go if there are two-thirds or more of fans against him. In that eventuality elections will be held in which other members of the board will be able to stand but not Laporta himself. It is unlikely that as many as two-thirds of fans will vote against president but in any case even if it fails it will be a clear demonstration to Laporta of the dissatisfaction of fans over the way that he has approached his role almost like a dictator. Posted Jun 13 2008, 05:56 AM by Tim with no comments

• Would Benzema be a good buy for Barcelona?

  It was interesting watching France against Romania in the European Championships and the chance to see the Barcelona players in action but one of the big questions I was left with was how good would Benzema be for Barcelona. He is currently keeping Henry out of the French side which is no big surprise considering his form for Barca this season while Benzema has received plenty of plaudits but I have to say that I am not convinced either that Benzema would be the right player. Benzema has been linked to a lot of the top clubs in Europe and says that he would like a move to Spain but I would say he still has to prove himself worthy of a large transfer fee. In the game against Romania Ribery was a lot more convincing but unfortunately there will be no chance of him moving this summer as Bayern Munich have refused to give him permission to talk to Barca. Posted Jun 10 2008, 07:00 AM by Tim with 2 comment(s)

• Should Laporta remain as president of Barcelona?

  It looks as though the personality of Joan Laporta could be his undoing if he is finally deposed as president this summer but is this best for the club? Since he became president he was always had an autocratic style of leadership which alienated a lot of people and so that when the team stopped playing so well, they were quick to attack him. It is incredible that while the team has played badly fans have only complained about Laporta and it shows how distant he has become. There are many examples of where he showed himself to be undeserving of this elected position such as the speech he made a couple of months ago to fans where he sounded like Fidel Castro, dictating to the masses rather than a man representing the fans. I think a need for change is necessary but I'm not sure that having elections now would be best for the club as it means they can have no clear plan during the summer for rebuilding the team as there will be little time left after the elections before the start of the new season. Posted Jun 03 2008, 03:56 AM by Tim with no comments