April 2008 - Posts

• Who is to blame for Barcelona's problems?

  Only two years ago Barcelona were the top team in Europe winning at home and abroad but now they appear to be a team which is finished and everyone says that it is the end of a cycle but why is it considering many of the players are still in their mid-20s. Ex-player Albert Ferrer said that he thought it was an internal problem that started with the team doing well and if that is the case then it is Rijkaard and ultimately Laporta's fault. Everyone knows now that Ronaldinho only was going to a third of training sessions and no one complained and this is amazing, can you imagine at Manchester United, Alex Ferguson allowing say Wayne Rooney to go to just one in three training sessions? I think that Rijkaard has been stubborn and too laid back, he has always planned to leave at the end of the season and looks as though he really doesn't care. The Barca dressing room is difficult to manage of course because of all the personalities and so they need a strong trainer.  Posted Apr 30 2008, 08:52 AM by Tim with 2 comment(s)

• Who would you like to see at Barca next season?

  Sevilla midfielder Keita is the latest player to be linked to Barca next season but who would you like to see at Barcelona next season. Keita has been a revelation for Sevilla since his move last summer from playing in France. He has struck up a good partnership with Poulsen who incidentally has also been linked to Barca. Do the blaugrana actually need another midfielder though and with Toure do they not have a similar kind of player? It will be interesting to see who they sign in attack and of course we don't know which of the present strikers are still going to be there. Will Henry return to London? Maybe with Chelsea? and surely Ronaldinho will go with Milan the most likely place at the moment. It will be difficult for Barca to sign any of the players already with top clubs like Ronaldo who has a long term deal with Manchester United and Fernando Torres has a similar contract at Liverpool. Drogba though has been linked to United but I think Barca would have to play a different style of attacking football if he came as he is more about pace than strength. Benzema is a striker who is likely to leave Lyon in the summer and says that he would like to play in Italy or Spain so maybe he would provide some more hunger in attack which Barca definitely need as at the moment only Bojan is providing this.         Posted Apr 11 2008, 09:43 AM by Tim with 20 comment(s)

• Barca suffer from player indiscipline

  Barcelona director Xavier Sala i Martin revealed what everyone had been thinking yesterday by admitting that the club had been hiding indiscipline by claiming players were injured. He revealed that certain players, without naming anyone, had been separated from the rest of the team for their behaviour and it caused storm clouds over the Camp Nou stadium on Thursday night. Ronaldinho and Deco are the obvious players to be implicated as they have both been out for long spells with dubious injuries and are known to enjoy the nightlife. Marquez is another who although he returned to the team against Schalke has had his professionalism questioned. Recently he was supposedly out injured and yet seen partying in a Madrid nightclub.         Posted Apr 10 2008, 02:36 AM by Tim with no comments