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January 2010 - Posts
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Barcelona vice-president Alfons Godall has officially put his hat in the ring for this summer´s presidential elections and can count with the support of the present incumbent Joan Laporta.
There has been plenty of debate over the last year about who will take over from Laporta with no clear candidate having emerged who has the support of the whole board. Added to this mix there are previous board members who have left in controversy like Rosell and Soriano who are also set to have a say in who wins the elections. It is set to be an interesting few months with the different candidates presenting their cases and several of them are bitter enemies.
Another board member Jaume Ferrer had already announced he would be standing and this was greeted by the wrath of Laporta who complained that he should have told him first out of courtesy. Former vice-president Soriano, who has plenty of enemies inside the present board but is the early favourite with a lot of support from the fans, says he will also be a candidate.
Initially Laporta appeared to favour the economist Xavier Sala i Martin as his successor but the latter was never a vote puller. For Laporta his successor is very important as he wants to continue to have an important say behind the scenes at the club although he is prevented from standing for a further term according to club rules.
With all the controversy over who the continuation candidate will be and also whether Guardiola would stay the club has been forced into action in the last week firstly confirming Guardiola will remain and now naming Godall as Laporta´s chosen replacement.
"We want more success, more economic growth, and to invest 1,000m in six years. We want more members, more fans, more young people, and a Barcelona more global and for this reason I present myself as a candidate," said Godall, with Laporta onlooking.
"The club has enjoyed the best period of its history which has been confirmed by older members such as my father who has supported the club for over 50 years. We have been able to win eleven titles in six years and with our own personal style of leadership. We are the inheritors of Johan (Cruyff) and we have believed in what we have done.
"In this period we have only had one sports director and two trainers. Laporta could never be described as a president who fires at the drop of a hat and at the same time we have given our support to the youth and development of quality football."
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Despite the convincing 5-0 victory away at Tenerife, coach Pep Guardiola still had words of criticism for his players.
Guardiola has showed he is a perfectionist in all areas of his job and prepares for each match leaving no aspect unturned. He has a team of coaches helping him view videos of the opposition and consider different tactics. In terms of performance he also expects 100 per cent and it is this that helped Barça to their historic six titles and also has attracted the attention of other top clubs in Europe to his services.
"In all games there are good and bad things but we cannot afford to go out as we did against Tenerife as if we do that then we are not going to win anything. Until it was 1-0 the difference was that Victor Valdes was superb and they lacked luck. After that we were able to have more of the ball with Bojan and Titi who both did very well in opening up space," he said.
"Tenerife are an aggressive side and and we knew that they were going to try and play the long ball against us so we could not afford to lose the ball cheaply. Pedro is also each day more comfortable in the first team and I always say that if there are any youth players coming through then we will consider them in the first team."
Guardiola also hit back at those who have criticised their recent form which has seen them draw, lose and win. That includes the cup defeat against Sevilla last Tuesday.
"I don't listen to those who say that we are not the same as we were a year ago, things do not change in only a few days. I understand that if things are not working well then you have to correct them and I am thinking now of the important game on Wednesday," against Sevilla.
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