Argentina squad against Norway

Ah, yes, yet another meaningless international exhibition match mandated by a shady deal done by the Argentinian FA. Only these friendlies will become increasingly meaningful as coach Alfio Basile seeks to work out the future of a squad in transition, and decide on a formation, let alone the team for the World Cup qualifiers starting very soon. Comments on the squad first, then a note on the glaring omissions.

Goalkeepers:
Juan Pablo Carrizo (Lazio, Italy)
Oscar Ustari (Getafe, Spain)
Sergio Romero (AZ Alkmaar, Holland)

The big surprise here is the omission of previous no.1 Roberto Abbondazieri, which I'll discuss later. Carrizo has been threatening to break into the team for some time now, although I would question the timing of this promotion for him, given that he's just gone to Lazio and may need time to settle in there. Ustari is in a strange situation himself, having gone to Getafe to be backup for Abbondazieri, or at least that's the assumption given El Pato's form for the Madrid club last season. Hopefully he won't just warm the bench there, as he's an excellent prospect. Congratulations are due to Romero, who just won the U20 World Cup for Argentina. Also a big prospect, and it's good to see so many young 'keepers coming through.

Defenders:
Gabriel Milito (Barcelona, Spain)
Fabricio Coloccini (Deportivo La Coruna, Spain)
Nicolas Burdisso (Inter, Italy)
Ezequiel Garay (Racing, Spain)
Daniel Diaz (Getafe, Spain)
Javier Zanetti (Inter, Italy)

Oh dear, does that mean we might see Coloccini at rightback again? To be fair, he had a good second half of last season playing for Depor in that position, so maybe he could also be redeemed at international level. Zanetti is a no-brainer, other than the fact that I'm worried about the fitness levels of him and Burdisso, who have just returned to training for Inter after the Copa America.

Good to see Garay finally get his chance. An important member of the 2005 U20 World Cup winning side, he's become a vital player for Racing as well. Very reliable, and definitely one for the future.

I'm not sure about 'Cata' Diaz quite yet, having only seen him play one game for Argentina in the Copa America. I've heard good things, though, and hopefully Getafe will suit him.

Midfielders:
Luis 'Lucho' Gonzalez (Porto, Portugal)
Maxi Rodriguez (Atletico Madrid, Spain)
Jose Sosa (Bayern Munich, Germany)
Javier Mascherano (Liverpool, England)
Fernando Gago (Real Madrid, Spain)
Cristian Ledesma (Olympiakos, Greece)
Federico Insua (America, Mexico)

The return of Maxi Rodriguez is extremely welcome. I think we missed him at the Copa America, especially since Lucho was a bit off-colour.

I'm quite surprised by this part of the list, to be honest. No Riquelme (more on that later), no Aimar, 3 defensive/holding midfielders. Very strange. I haven't been too impressed by Insua's previous performances for Argentina, and young Sosa, who was so good playing in Argentina, has just moved to Bayern. Perhaps Basile will abandon his commitment to a single playmaker who can be stifled by heavy defending, although I don't see him playing anything else other than the diamond 4-4-2.

Forwards:
Javier Saviola (Real Madrid, Spain)
Diego Milito (Zaragoza, Spain)
Lionel Messi (Barcelona, Spain)
Ezequiel Lavezzi (Napoli, Italy)

22 year old Lavezzi is yet another player on this list who has just made a move, in his case from San Lorenzo to Napoli. I have to confess, my knowledge of him is limited, but I'm excited to see what he can do.

Messi was asking to be included in this squad right after the Copa America ended, and not surprisingly he's got his wish. He has the same fitness concerns as everyone else who was in the Copa squad and hasn't been training for too long, though. Saviola has earned himself a recall by some good performances in pre-season for Real Madrid. It remains to be seen if he will remain in contention, given the competition for a place on the forward line at Real, but he's looked good for Argentina before, especially alongside Crespo. So welcome back. Good to see Diego Milito get another chance, too. He was much maligned in the Copa, but I've always been convinced of his quality.

the omissions

It's a young squad, almost half of whom have just been involved in a transfer, quite a few of them making the jump from Argentina to Europe, which is probably a fair reflection of what happens to any young talents who shine in the domestic league these days.

On the other hand, giving a chance to all these young players means the omission of a few surprising names. The retirement of Ayala and the probably retirement of Veron we all know about, but what about the likes of Abbondanzieri, Heinze, Riquelme, Aimar, Cambiasso, Tevez, Aguero and Crespo?

I suspect the omission of Riquelme and Heinze has a lot to with their uncertain future, and the lack of Tevez can also be explained by his long, drawn-out transfer saga, which has just been resolved. As for Abbondanzieri and Cambiasso, perhaps Basile already knows what they can bring to the table and wants to see what others can do in their place. Crespo still has fitness concerns, (I certainly hope his Argentina career isn't done yet) and so does Aguero, although for him it's more a product of a strange pre-season that included being called back to help Atletico qualify for the UEFA Cup straight after winning the U20 World Cup. When he's fit properly again, I hope Aguero gets more chances at senior level. He's certainly proven his devotion to the cause. As an aside, I'd like to see Pablo Zabaleta of Espanyol back in contention too, but he's young and I'm sure the chances will come. A fit Gonzalo Rodriguez would also be nice to see sometime soon. Such a great young centerback, so unlucky with injuries.

The likes of Aimar and D'Alessandro have been figures on the sidelines for a while now, and I can't really see any of those players ever fully breaking through, given the incredible rate with which Argentina turns up the Next Big Thing, leaving the former prospects behind. Just look at the way attention has turned to the stars of the side who won the U20 World Cup.

Hmm, that was a rather cynical note to strike. It will be good to see how this group of players shape up, and to get some indication of Basile's thinking ahead of the qualifiers.

La Liga news round-up: more transfer market insanity

Transfer insanity continues apace, with the rich clubs splashing the cash like there's no tomorrow and the less rich clubs trading players like a particularly demented version of Wife Swap. If you speak Spanish, reputable newspaper El Pais has a good list of all the transfer activity so far.

Barcelona

Our 4th and last signing of this transfer window, barring any unforeseeable events, has finally been officially confirmed: Argentinean central defender Gabriel Alexander Milito is now a Barca player for a cool 17 million euros, with an additional 3.5 million conditional on trophies. The Real Zaragoza captain will arrive after the conclusion of the Copa America, where he is currently preparing for the final against Brazil, and sign a 4 year deal.

Most Barca supporters seem quite happy with this move, although some are wincing at the price tag. Given the currently ridiculous levels of inflation in the transfer market, though, I'm not sure we could have done much better. If you've been watching the Copa America, you'll have noticed that Milito's pretty slow. But having said that, he's also got a fantastic sense of positioning and I've been particularly impressed with the way he copes with high balls.

Welcome, Gabi.

The club have indicated that having achieved their signing objectives of a forward, a centerback, a leftback and a defensive midfielder at considerable expense (65 million euros total, and that's not counting the trophy bonuses), they will now turn their focus towards ushering those deemed surplus to requirements out the door. Rijkaard's preference for a small squad of 23 players or less is well known, so we can expect at least 3 more players out of the current group of 26 (including Gio Dos Santos and Bojan Krkic, who are being promoted to the first team, with both expecting to agree professional terms with Barca) to leave.

For those of you who were concerned about the various transfer rumours surrounding Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto'o and Deco, president Joan Laporta has promised that none of them are for sale. Although, frankly, if Milan really were crazy enough to shell out for Ronaldinho's buy-out clause, I could see the logic in letting him go, much as I admire the Brazilian's skills. That buy-out clause? 125 million euros. Some second division teams' entire first XIs aren't worth that much money. More to the point, that much money could fund Barca's transfer spending for a good 3 seasons.

Laporta also spoke his mind on Javier Saviola joining Real Madrid as a free agent, more on which later on in this post. He didn't condemn the move, but he didn't exactly sound approving, either. Not that Saviola will care what Laporta - who, it must be said, was the cause of some of Saviola's problems at Barca - thinks.

Confusingly, Belletti's agent claims that his client isn't looking to leave Barca, despite having complained loudly about lack of playing time at the end of the 06-07 season and having threatened to look elsewhere for opportunities. He also confirms Roma's interest. So let me get this straight: he's definitely leaving, and you're just trying to drive down the price so he can get a decent deal. Great.

Lastly, Yaya Toure speaks about his desire to win the Champions League with Barca (join the club, lad, you're far from the only one thinking that) and his admiration of Frank Rijkaard.

Real Madrid

Real shocked everybody by announcing the prompt signing of Porto's young Brazilian-born defender Pepe for - allegedly - a whopping 30 million euros. At first glance, this is a puzzling bit of business, although the quiet efficiency with which the deal was done is very impressive. Real are probably in need of a defender, but they just signed the highly rated Christopher Metzelder for free. Surely 30 million euros is a bit much to be spending on an uncapped young player who's unproven in Spain. I have no doubt that Pepe is very talented and will prove useful for Real, who've had trouble with the centerback position in the past. (For more discussion of Pepe's signing and issues associated with Real's defence, see the recent posts by Gonzalo at All In White.)

Iker Casillas has already come out in defence of the price tag. He makes a lot of sense, as always, although my personal theory regarding the price tag is that the 'blame' can be laid squarely at the door of the Porto chairman, who has done some very good business in the past: 30 million euros for Ricardo Carvalho, 20 million euros for Paulo Ferreira, 15 million euros for Maniche (!) and so on.

More boardroom business: Sergio Ramos has got himself a much deserved pay rise after his impressive performances of the last few seasons and striker Roberto Soldado has earned himself a nice five year contract after having a good season on loan at Osasuna.

I'm going to remain in denial about the latest Real signing until he's presented in a white kit, but it seems to be official: Javier Saviola has joined as a free agent. Isaiah over at the Barcelona Offside and most of the commenters there are taking it much better than I am. It's not that I dislike him - far from it. I'm quite fond of Saviola. But I'm cringing in anticipation of his first visit to the Camp Nou now.

It wasn't a wise move in that sense, in my opinion, although it's nowhere near a Luis Figo-type case, but also I can't see how he's going to get regular playing time, which is a concern of mine because I support the Albiceleste. This is Real's current striker list: Ruud van Nistelrooy, Raul, Robinho, Gonzalo Higuain, Antonio Cassano, Roberto Soldado. So how many of those are Schuster going to play in his formation? 2 or 3, most likely, and you'd think van Nistelrooy and Raul will be default starters. We'll see, I suppose. (Please correct me if I'm wrong about any of this, Madridistas.)

Sevilla

(Allegedly) batty president del Nido has reacted predictably to Freddie Kanoute's frank request for a (probably deserved) pay rise - I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a massive contract right now - by pretty much flipping him the metaphorical finger. Kanoute has already had a 15 million euro price tag slapped on him, so watch this space.

Meanwhile, the club have signed Malian international Seydou Keita from Lens on a four year deal for an undisclosed fee.

Atletico

Atletico presented young Brazilian striker Diego Costa da Silva, but confusingly enough he's probably not going to play for them in 07-08.

Their failure to qualify directly for the UEFA Cup in 06-07 has seen Atletico's players 'punished' with having to cut their vacations short and start pre-season early to get ready in time for the Intertoto Cup. Coach Javier Aguirre held his first press conference of the season and discussed the impending campaign.

Others

New Recreativo coach Victor Munoz spoke about the difficulties he anticipates for the club in their second season, and having had a glance at that list of departing players at the end of that article, I agree with him. Yikes. They need some signings, alright.

In departures, having already lost captain Arruabarrena to AEK Athens and Diego Forlan to Atletico Madrid, Villarreal have also lost influential midfielder Alessio Tacchinardi, who has ended his loan period and returned to Juventus, where he's looking to join another Italian club.

Relegated Real Sociedad have let midfielder Mikel Alonso - brother of Xabi - go on loan to Bolton. I promise I'll stop writing about La Real soon, but they've just been relegated after all.

Lastly, Depor, Mallorca and Betis can give themselves a pat on the back for one excellent signing each. Betis have secured themselves a replacement for dodgy 'keeper Toni Doblas in Sporting Lisbon's Ricardo Pereira - yes, that Ricardo, and he only cost 3 million euros. I'm looking forward to having the Portuguese no.1 in La Liga.

Mallorca have signed Cameroonian forward Pierre Webo, who just left Osasuna on a free transfer. They do need a goalscorer, especially after selling one of their only decent attacking players in the form of Bosko Jankovic (the other one is the Venezuelan Arango) and Webo's a fairly good one who knows La Liga.

In my last round-up post, I wrote about the hole Depor have found themselves in. They avoided a relegation struggle in 06-07 chiefly because they could defend a bit, and now they've sold several of their best defenders (Capdevila to Villarreal, Andrade to Juventus) and are looking to flog another decent one in the form of Fabricio Coloccini to Zaragoza.

Not sure how they're going to line up defensively in the new season, but at least they've started splashing some of the cash they got from those sales in order to solve their attacking problems. Signing promising young Mexican Andres Guardado from Atlas for around 7 million euros is a good start. He's a fine midfielder and I'm very much looking forward to seeing him play in Spain. Depor fans must feel slightly better about the next season now - although they're not out of the financial doghouse yet.

Barca 06-07 wrap-up: player by player (3)

Last post in this series, dedicated to Barca's many forwards, the technical staff and club management.

Forwards

Name: Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen
Age: 28
Evaluation: It's hard to say that Gudjohnsen has had a successful season, but at the same time it's hard for me to blame him for his inability to completely step into the quite large shoes of Samuel Eto'o. After all, the technical staff were misguided in signing someone who seems fundamentally incompatible with Barca's style - especially when deployed at center forward, the position he was bought to fill. Gudjohnsen's a good player, who can provide a telling pass, hold up the ball with his back to goal and - extremely rare for a Barca player - head the ball, but Henrik Larsson he ain't.

For Barca supporters, watching his displays when replacing Samuel Eto'o were a study in frustration as he worked extremely hard but missed important chances due to either a lack of pace, difficulty integrating into the Barca system or a plain lack of predator's instinct. Gudjohnsen can't be faulted for his exemplary attitude, but I still have my doubts about him as a center striker in the Barca system.
Probability of transfer: low if you listen to his father and agent, but the club have yet to speak publicly about their plans for him and I wouldn't be surprised if he did leave. It would be a shame, but better that than sitting on the bench except when a Copa del Rey tie comes up.

Name: Samuel Eto'o Fils
Age: 26
Evaluation: Unfortunately, Eto'o's season was defined by the knee injury that ruled him out of action for 5 months. This was his 7th season in La Liga, and the first major injury of his career. You could say he's been extremely lucky up to this point, but he's still quite young and that disastrous night in Bremen practically sealed Barca's fate this season. Aside from the direct impact him missing 5 months worth of games had, the furore over it had a ripple effect that eventually led to the dressing room unrest that was the final nail in the coffin.

That's not even mentioning the fact that he's never looked the same since coming back from that injury. Apparently medical experts estimate that it may take up to a year for him to recover his form fully, or he may never be the same player again. Happens to a lot of people. Hopefully it won't happen to Eto'o, who always gives 100% in every game and managed to score some important goals either side of the season.
Probability of transfer: practically none, despite what every big club in need of a striker and rumour-mongering tabloid likes to think. He wants to stay, the president is mates with him and wants him to stay, and that's that.

Name: Javier Pedro Saviola
Age: 25
Evaluation: It's hard to believe El Conejo is still so young, partially because he's already had so many low points and revivals in his career. Opting to stay at Barca this season was a curious decision, especially given Barca's offer to him of letting him leave on a free transfer, and it divided the supporters into those who sympathized with his lack of playing time given his obvious talents and those who dismissed him as merely there to earn his huge wages for another season.

By the middle of the season, however, most supporters had joined a growing chorus of voices calling for him to start games ahead of Gudjohnsen. He was obviously more compatible with Barca's system, despite the complete lack of aerial presence that would result from fielding him alongside the rest of Barca's height-challenged attackers.

When he did play, he mostly did very well and scored some great goals, although there were occasions in which he found it difficult to lead the line against teams with large defenders. On the field, I'd say he's done right by Barca this season, and while I'm sad to see him depart, it is for the best. Like Gudjohnsen, he doesn't quite fit our requirements for a center forward.
Probability of transfer: already gone. Saviola's contract expired on the 30th of June. I'm surprised he doesn't have a club already.

Name: Santiago Ezquerro Marín
Age: 30
Evaluation: Poor old Santi. He used to know what playing regular football was like, but that was before he moved to Barca - or more precisely, the Barca bench. Most of his starts are in the Copa del Rey and Rijkaard doesn't really field him unless he's truly out of options. It's hard to say what kind of season he's had (other than a very restful one) given the above. He's not a bad player, but I wouldn't field him before Ronaldinho, Messi and Eto'o either.
Probability of transfer: now that Henry has been added to be above list, and with the two young maestros Gio Dos Santos and Bojan Krkic joining the first team next season, there is a possibility that Ezquerro will be sold. On the one hand, he's handy to have around, on the other, let's face it, being at Barca is destroying his career. If he does go, I hope it's a return to Athletic Bilbao, because they could use some help over there, and he'd be just the man to add some offensive spark.

Name: Ludovic Giuly
Age: 30
Evaluation: Ludo found it difficult to get a game whenever Messi was fit, but stepped up when the Argentinean was injured and did fairly well in those 3 months. His goalscoring return wasn't very good this season, but he was fairly consistent when he did play, bringing his usual skills - pace, a great work rate, decent crosses and actual width - to the team in most games.
Probability of transfer: high. Giuly wants to play a few more full seasons before the end of his career, and who can blame him, having borne being stuck behind a kid 10 years younger for 2 seasons without much complaint.

Name: Lionel Andrés Messi
Age: 20
Evaluation: Yet another player whose season could have been defined by injury, as he had several shorter lay-offs earlier in the season before the big one, in which he broke his metatarsal and had to take 3 months out. Only it wasn't. Instead, it was defined by an improvement upon his performances of last season, more goals, some wondrous, some controversial, and by him becoming at several times during the latter half of the season the only one of the attacking trio who was afforded any respect by the fans.

His attitude placed a major part in that, but the fact that starting with that hat-trick in El Clasico, he scored 14 goals in the last 15 games of the season (only one of which he wasn't involved in - the 4-0 drubbing by Getafe, of course), accounting for roughly 40% of the goals Barca scored in that period might have helped too. And the fact that he was Barca's best player for many of the aftementioned games. So the story of his season is instead: got injured, came back stronger and a better player. As you might have guessed by now, he's my third candidate for Barca player of the season.
Probability of transfer: zero. Maybe if someone shells out for his buy-out clause - and I only say that because said clause is an astonishing 150 million euros. Barca aren't actually asking anyone to pay that much money for a football player, because that would be ridiculous. What they are saying is that he's not going anywhere. The future of the club, along with Iniesta, Dos Santos, and Bojan.

Name: Ronaldo 'Ronaldinho' de Assis Moreira
Age: 27
Evaluation: Ronnie's been criticized a lot this season by the fans, me amongst them. His lack of discipline is pretty appalling. Having said that, I'd like to buck the trend and point out that he's had a good season by some standards. Maybe not his best season since coming to Spain - that's probably the first season (03-04), despite him being injured for a bit and Barca not winning anything.

He has scored a hell of a lot of goals for someone who isn't a natural striker, though, accounting for 32% of Barca's total with his 21 strikes. So many of those were match-winners, too. There's quite a few lovely goals amongst those, notably the wonderfully struck freekick against Zaragoza and that overhead kick against Villarreal. Then there are the assists, of which there have been many, some of them sublime and inspired.

The biggest criticism I have of Ronnie's behaviour on the pitch is that he seemed tired, sometimes disinterested and unfit this season. He's not the young, hungry genius full of pace, strength and stamina that we remember anymore. I don't know if that's fixable. I hope so.
Probability of transfer: low. A lot of the transfer speculation revolved around Ronnie's brother and agent's attempt to get him a better, longer contract at Barca, and having realized that's not a wise thing to do when he's just had a below-par season, they've stopped - for now. I still don't think Milan would shell out the amounts Barca would ask for Ronnie, and plus, as Laporta told Galliani, if he sold Ronaldinho he'd probably have to leave the city.

Technical and support staff

Frank Rijkaard, coach: he's had a rough season, plagued by all the possible problems that could beset a coach at a big club - infighting, ennui amongst the players, lack of power, major injuries, stupid scheduling (all the extra tournaments that Champions League winners have to play, plus all the commerical crap) and a poor pre-season forced upon him by the club. To compound it all, his experiment with 3-4-3 turned out to be a bit of a disaster despite starting well.

I have enormous sympathy for the difficulties he has faced and will continue to face and an almost irrational faith in his ability to turn things around. We'll see.

Txiki Beguiristáin, Director of Football: he got Gudjohnsen's signing wrong, for starters. Then he handled the Saviola affair terribly. I'm not convinced by Beguiristain's eye for players, since our last batch of really good signings were when Rossell was still around - he may be annoying with that agenda against Eto'o and Rijkaard, but he was damn good at getting the right players. We'll have to hope he's improved since the latest batch of signings were probably all mooted by him.

Joan Laporta, president: if I were scoring everybody out of 10, he'd get a 0. I suppose that goes for anybody else who was involved in the planning of this season, although Laporta bears the brunt of my anger because he also opens his mouth before the press and inserts his foot in it on a regular basis. The most important blunder though was made in the boardroom. I veru much appreciate the way Soriano and Laporta have stabilized our finances, but that's not the be all and end all of a football club. Just ask Real Madrid.

All the gratuitous tours and random trips half way around the world to play exhibition games may have paid well both directly and long term, but in a season which was preceded by a World Cup and in which we had to play tons of games thanks to UEFA saddling extra obligations on the winners of the Champions League it proved disastrous.

Barca may be more than a club, but it's certain not a travelling circus, and he'd do well to remember that.


Interesting sidenote: the Barca offical site has taken down the squad page in preparation for the new season. Are there going to be more leaving announcements soon?

News round-up: Barca transfers and La Liga title race

Barca transfer news

Edmilson says that he's ready to leave if the club want him to, with Marseille a possible destination. He also has some sober insights about the Liga finale.

Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon denies reports that the Saviola deal is done. I really hope he's right, here. This move would be the worst possible outcome, from my perspective.

Undeterred by the angry response from Lyon which greeted Barca's rather low offer for Abidal, we have enquired after Tiago instead, according to the French club. Not sure about this idea. I see what they're trying to do, and yes we do need a defensive midfielder, but we don't need another Motta, as much as I love him. What we do need is someone like Edgar Davids in his prime, who had such an effect when he was signed 3 years ago. (I keep saying we need a Frank Rijkaard, really, but where are we going to get that?) What little I've seen of Tiago doesn't give me much confidence that he's the one we're after. Surely we can spare some cash for such an important position.

Eto'o's not going anywhere, like I keep saying. AC Milan can stop trying to unsettle him any minute now...any minute now. Great friendship between the two clubs and all that. Really.

Title race updates

For those of you who are not living and dying by this title race, the fixtures for the last week of La Liga are:

Real v Mallorca
'Nastic vs Barca
Sevilla v Villarreal

As the table stands now: Madrid 73, Barca 73, Sevilla 71

Differences are decided by head to head results, which are as follows: Madrid 5 - 3 Barca, Barca 4-3 Sevilla, Madrid 4 - 4 Sevilla (Sevilla has the superior goal difference)

Related news items

"The single motive of my life is to defeat Barça." - 'Nastic coach Paco Flores gets just a little carried away. I know they don't like us there, but that's a bit much, isn't it?

Sevilla's Chevanton is not happy about the refereeing, which he says has affected Sevilla's title changes. No doubt he's right, and if the bias towards the big two, especially at home, didn't exist Sevilla would probably have an easier time of it. Although to be fair they've blown their chances almost as many times as Barca have this season. No matter what happens, I think they're going to be my team of the season, just for their accomplishments thus far, which are no mean feat given the domination of the established old order in European football.

Barca 'keeper Victor Valdes (who has had an excellent season, really) still believes in the remote possibility of the blaugranas coming out on top.

The ever-wise Raul says that nobody should believe that the title is already won and urges caution ahead of their game. The Madridista media, for one, don't seem to have heard him, but fair enough given the circumstances.

In related news, Calderon denies celebrating winning the league one game early. Again, I can understand why he was excited - I would have been, too, and as the media are saying, they've got 9 fingers on the trophy. Just one more week. You've waited 3 years (which is I believe about the same length of time as Barca's last drought), surely that's not difficult?

The ever-sensible Juande Ramos of Sevilla isn't too happy about Real's celebrations, but still thinks they'll probably win it. I really like Ramos. He's a good manager who just gets on with the job and is always diplomatic.

The Brazilian national team are adamant that Robinho report for international duty instead of staying for Real's game.

Diarra, on the other hand, is ready to abandon club for country to play for Mali in their crucial qualifer for the African Cup of Nations.

On the other hand, Eto'o's not going to play for Cameroon, but they're doing pretty well anyway with 12 points from 4 games, so unlike Mali they don't have much to worry about. He also has some harsh but very pertinent words regarding the Liga finale in the article linked above.

Just as an aside, I have to say, this entire mess where as many as 27 players could be missing from their final game because of international commitments can be entirely blamed on the ineptitude of the LFP (the Spanish FA). Nice scheduling, guys.

Update: Real claim that they have made deals with both Diarra and Robinho's national federations that will allow them to play in the last round. Dunga still doesn't sound happy, though.

Gudjohnsen has been ruled out for Barca with a knee injury. On the Real side, David Beckham's ankle is still giving him problems and he is racing to be fit.

Controversial Spanish NT coach Luis Aragones wants Barca to win the title. Aragones used to coach both Barca and Real's opponents Mallorca (not at the same time, obviously), where he had a stormy but ultimately successful working relationship with a certain Cameroonian striker with the first name Samuel, who calls him 'grandpa'. Anyway, I really don't know what to add to this weird bit of news. Some part of me wants to say that it's really inappropriate for Aragones to comment on this issue, as there are players from all three title-chasing clubs in his national team and there have been enough controversies over selections and who gets to rest ahead of their club matches as it is. But then I suppose he's free to say whatever comes to his mind, as his record shows. So thanks, Luis - I think.

Barca striker Maxi Lopez, who is on loan at Mallorca, has vowed to do his best to help Barca win the title. That is rather sweet of him, and I dare say that if he manages it his own stock will rise amongst those in charge at the Camp Nou. Talk is easy, but the sentiment is definitely appreciated. Vamos Maxi!

Edited to add: updates on a few of the news items above

Barca odds and ends

my opinion on some transfer rumours

• The Old Lady needs to keep her grubby hands off Saviola (he wants to stay in Spain, remember?)
• Frank Lampard? A thousand times no. What would he do? And before anyone asks, this swap deal with Deco idea better be nonsense dreamed up by the press. There aren't many players I'd swap Deco for.
• (I wouldn't say no to a world-class defensive midfielder though, since both of Barca's seem to be cursed with permanent injury problems.)
• C Ronaldo? I don't think so. Why would Man Utd sell? (If this does go through with Xavi going in the other direction, a lot of people are going to be very angry, including me.)

the two amigos

Att: Eurosport - Andres Iniesta's career is not 'fledgling'. He's 22, has already played 100 games for Barcelona as well as captained the side, and in 6 years time he will probably be captaining Spain and directing the midfield alongside Cesc Fabregas.

While we're on the subject of players who have achieved more than a lot of players will do in a life time at an astonishingly young age, Leo Messi will play his 50th official game for Barca against Racing this weekend. That might not seem like a big number until one is reminded that he doesn't turn 20 until the end of the season. If his injury problems didn't exist he would have played as many games as Iniesta by now.

So congratulations to a fearless prodigy, and long may he prosper in a Barca (and Argentina) shirt.

FORCA SAVIOLA! (and Zanetti is forever, or at least I hope so)

France 0 - 1 Argentina

How many times am I going to end up singing the praises of El Conejo this season? First Barca, then for my beloved Albicelestes, he's made the difference. More later on the game itself (France put out a good line-up, and that was an old, old Argentina side, but the amount of experience helped) as well as the other friendly results (Iniesta scoring at Old Trafford!), but for now...

Frankie, Txiki, Laporta:

Can we keep him? Please?

Sincerely,

An increasingly antsy supporter

more good news

Roberto Ayala has signed a 3 year contract with Villarreal after contract negotiations between him and Valencia broke down yet again. I'm glad he's going to my second team, because he's still got a lot to give, even at his age, and I was so pissed off with the way Valencia's sporting director Carboni treated him despite the vital role he has played for the club during his many years at Valencia.

Barca update: the glass half full version

The best thing about this week so far:


Welcome back, Sammy.

Also in the 'good news' column, Leo Messi's finally back in training, straight after his return from Argentina.

Javier Saviola has finally fired his agent. How is this relevant, you may ask. Well, this is the man who made sure that Saviola's move to Barca cost about double what it should have (naturally, he pocketed the extra cash), and allegedly botched a move to Sevilla for his client because of - ahem - financial issues. This has interesting implications for the possible renewal of Saviola's contract at Barca, given that most people assumed his agent was one of the main stumbling blocks towards such a move. Hopefully this means he can now sit down with the club and talk it over without the previous baggage.

Alright, Ronaldinho's injured and will miss the Osasuna game, we're half way out of the Copa del Rey, we haven't won away in 2 months (!!!), but look on the bright side. At least our squad doesn't look as depleted anymore.

Barca issues and Copa del Rey round-up

Barca 3-2 Alaves

What would we do without Saviola? Funny thing to say, isn't it, after all the shenanigans during the summer, but seriously, what would this currently lost side do without the player who has scored all of Barca's goals in the last 3 games? Without whom we could have endured an embarrassment in our own stadium against fricking Alaves? Good for him, and a hat-trick is always nice. That's 6 goals in the span of a week, and I'll be very, very surprised if he doesn't play a big part in the next league game.

Even his old enemy, technical director Txiki Begiristain has indicated that the club has to think about possibly renewing his contract now, although he indicated that financial factors (like El Conejo's massive salary, perhaps?) may still be a stumbling block. The initial signs are if he is willing to bring his salary into the same range as the rest of the non-regulars (around 3 million euros, plus various performance and trophy related bonuses) that would be more acceptable for the club.

The media and the fans are certainly on his side. The latest poll by El Mundo Deportivo indicated that a whopping 94% of fans reckon that he should start the league game against 'Nastic, and 95% think the club should renew his contract. That's not even going into the banners in the Camp Nou urging the club to renew him. Poor Gudjohnsen must be feeling a little unpopular, although rumour has it that Giuly will be the one relegated to second-half substitute instead on account of both the rest he surely needs and his poor recent form.

From Saviola's point of view, no matter how much he likes living in Barcelona, surely if his stated ambition of starting for Argentina in the next World Cup is to be fulfilled, he needs to start for a club. That's not going to happen at Barca when Eto'o gets fit again. Maybe Espanyol is a good place for him. Maybe. I'm not convinced. In any case, he's keeping his options open for now.

On an amusing note, for those of you who don't know, the current president of Spain, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, is a Barcelona fan. Apparently when asked about Saviola's recent performances, Zapatero was of the opinion that the club should not let Saviola leave. So there you are, club suits.

As for the game itself, alright, we had to play Gio in midfield because both Deco and Iniesta are injured, but what the hell? It's funny, I wasn't nearly as annoyed about losing to Espanyol as I am about winning against Alaves (and going through 5-2 on aggregate).

Our defence is frighteningly bad right now. To leak two goals against a team who are fighting relegation from the second division is unacceptable. (Want to know who the only other team to score 2 at Camp Nou this season are? I'll give you one guess: they're owned by a really, really rich Russian guy.) Yeah, I know the tie was wrapped up in the first half, but it's still damn embarrassing.

Marquez has blundered far too much lately. Maybe give Oleguer a chance at center-back? We certainly don't lack right-backs, and he's been wobbly there this season, but Ole's not a bad center-back. Motta seems to be having one of those spells again. Thankfully Edmilson is back to full fitness.

40000 spectators, incidentally, which is interesting. It's an impressive number on its own, but given the capacity of the stadium and the fact that the club offered a 4 for the price of 1 deal from their ticketing office, turnout really should be higher. But at least they were nice, chanting Saviola's name and 'applauding everything', according to El Mundo Deportivo (and my trusty Google Translate), and were fairly forgiving of the team's blunders, although Ronaldinho didn't have the greatest time of it with some scattered noises of disapproval aimed in his general direction. I suspect that generosity towards the team's mistakes by the fans might not last for too long, given past record.

(Hilariously, the audience included on-loan striker Maxi Lopez and...wait for it...Peter Crouch!)

current situation

Interestingly, both fans (through polls) and club management (through Johan Cruyff) have conveyed that they think the players, not the manager, are to blame for the current slump. Incidentally, I feel the same way.

They also factor in injuries, which is fair enough - poor Rijkaard hasn't been able to field the same side, especially defensively, for a while because of various injuries. When the Zambrotta-Marquez-Puyol-Gio defensive line played together for a run of matches, they looked very good, but they all took turns to get injured, and a lack of consistency is a killer to defensive organization.

And then there's that energy-draining trip to Japan. Interestingly, Rijkaard seems to be implying that the team's recent performances are down to a lack of fitness. If so, they should probably get on to fixing that. Still, we should be doing better than we are.

However, I don't agree with people who are saying that Rijkaard needs to be harder on the players. Yeah, being hard on someone like Ronaldinho is really going to make him go for it. That really worked at PSG. Not. 'Frankie' has his own way of working, let's just leave him to it for now and see what happens.

By the way, I'm getting a bit worried (and annoyed - he has a contract, people) about those rumours of him leaving in the summer. For those of you going 'but we'll get Koeman in, and he's a Barca hero and everything', the man has a club job. Which means he's signed a contract. I don't think PSV would be impressed if we tapped up their coach. Also, if you've seen them play this season, it's really not a style the Camp Nou faithful would be impressed by.

On a positive note, we are getting players back from injury everyday, and evidence of the benefits were clear when Edmilson and Zambrotta came on in the Copa game. Our injury list has now shrunk from as many as 7 or 8 players to just 1 who isn't able to train - Messi, who's doing recovery work in Argentina. That means we'll finally fill the bench again, Rijkaard can play his first choice midfield and defence, and make some attacking substitutions.

The recovery of Samuel Eto'o is, of course, the big one. Even though he's already working with a ball, the doctors are being very, very careful about his comeback, since this is his first serious injury. (Surprising, isn't it? Sammy's 25 years old, this is his 8th season in La Liga, and he's never been injured this long before.)

The latest is that he may not play a full game until the 11th of February, which is slightly worrying. I would imagine that's the most conservative estimate, though. 4th of February looks more likely. Other than Saviola, he's the other player getting massive amounts of good press, with his hard working attitude and commitment a marked contrast to some other squad members I could name.

There's no need to panic yet, of course, but we can't afford to drop any more points in the league, so this current run of bad form has to stop soon. If it doesn't, then we can start worrying properly.

Copa del Rey round-up

The biggest shock of the round came from Villarreal, who put out their first team and were beaten at home (0-1) by second division team Valladolid, who now progress to the next round as the only non-first division team with a 3-1 aggregate scoreline. Good work from the minnows, terrible from Villarreal. Nothing's going right for them. From their present form, I would have said winning the Copa was their most realistic chance of a return to Europe, but now even that's out of reach.

I can never tell what Depor's first team consists of these days since they have so many young players, but congratulations to Barca cantera graduates Verdu and Rodri, amongst others, who as predicted secured entry into the next round with a 1-1 draw at home against battling (and improving) Mallorca. They go through 3-2 after winning away in the first leg.

The most impressive performance of the round probably has to be the one Getafe produced away at the Mestalla, beating a full-strength Valencia 2-4 to go through after a 1-1 draw in the first leg. In fact, the performance prompted Valencia coach Quique Sanchez Flores to compare Getafe to Barcelona (although persumably he did not mean Barca on current form).

A half-strength Sevilla side avoided what would have been another shock set-back, 2 late goals securing passage to the next round with a 3-1 victory over second division Madrid side Rayo Vallecano, having managed only a goalless draw in the first leg.

Zaragoza also rested half the squad and lost 0-1 to second division Malaga at home, not that it mattered as their 0-3 away victory in the first leg takes them through.

Osasuna, who are showing definite signs of improvement (although I shouldn't say that since the last time I said Betis were improving, they went and got thumped 5-1), also got a great result, dumping an almost full-strength Atletico side who are flying in the league out with a 2-0 home victory after a 1-1 draw in the first leg. Aguirre sent Antonio Lopez and Sergio Aguero on in the second half to try and salvage things, but by then they were 2 down and it was too late.

Real Madrid's newly youthful side drew 1-1 at the Bernabeu with Real Betis to go out of the Copa after a goalless draw away in the first leg. Quite a turnaround for Betis - but after all, they are cup specialists. If I recall correctly they are currently the club with the most Copa del Rey titles, jointly with Barca on 24. From what I've heard, Real were unlucky not to win the game. However, it may actually end up looking like a stoke of good fortune for them and Valencia if the title race continues to be so close - less fixture congestion is always handy.

quarter-final draws

Zaragoza - Barcelona: aww, crap, not Zaragoza again. For those who don't remember, Zaragoza were the losing finalists last year, but this came after a great run which included a quarter-final thrashing of Barca 4-2 (which ended Barca's 18-match winning streak) and then losing the return leg at Camp Nou 2-1 amidst Ronaldinho being given a dodgy red card to go through; and the unbelievable spanking of Real Madrid 6-1, losing the return leg at the Bernabeu 4-0 to go through. This year, they're even better, although their away form is still a bit dodgy. This fixture (again) is really not what Barca need right now.

Osasuna - Getafe: could go either way, really. Both have got some form going, and winning the Copa represents a really good chance to get into European competition for both teams that they shouldn't pass up by fielding weakened teams.

Depor - Valladolid: a bit of a dead rubber, unfortunately. Depor are inconsistent, but I doubt they're bad enough to get beaten by a second division side over 2 legs.

Sevilla - Betis: pick of the bunch, for me. The Seville derby is the craziest La Liga has to offer, and probably the only one in which you'd bet on mayhem both on the pitch and off every single time. Sure, Betis are not in a good place right now, but they'll be fired up to get one over their hated city rivals. Betis pushed Sevilla close when they played this season, despite the now obvious gap between the two clubs, at least in terms of the league table. Can't wait - this should be good.

La liga and Copa del Rey round-up

Barcelona

On the Barca front, there's further good news about Samuel Eto'o, who has earned great credit during his recovery from injury. On the one hand, his absence has made Barca fans appreciate his importance and character even more, and now people who wanted to replace him with Fernando Torres at one point (in response to which I can only say that person knows nothing about football) think that he's irreplaceable - which is true. It works both ways, of course - I think Eto'o himself has matured during his unfortunate down-time. His behaviour in the past 3 months has been impeccable, earning plaudits from the fans for his determination and work ethic. Anyway, his nightmare is nearly over, and he's set to return to training on Monday. Oh happy day indeed.

To be honest, I was quite worried about the team at the beginning of the year, especially after the whole delayed arrival thing. Which, by the way, Ronaldinho still hasn't really explained, although Deco is now exempt from criticism in my book since he apparently presented medical documentation of his (pregnant) wife's sickness scare in Brazil to the club - which was the cause of his late arrival.

Neither of the Brazilians were in the squad for the Copa del Rey game, because they were doing double sessions of physical training to get fit in time for the big one this week: the Barcelona derby, an always exciting and contentious affair. Both Zambrotta and Oleguer should be fit for the clash, which combined with the recovery of Motta and Gio would abruptly end Barca's short injury crisis. And good thing too, since Espanyol's Olympic stadium is never an easy place to get a result.

...except that would be too easy. The latest is that while Oleguer will be fit, Deco will not be, having injured himself in training on Wednesday. It's a shame since he has such a good scoring record against Espanyol. Zambrotta has been declared fit, but Rijkaard has decided not to risk him.

Espanyol have their own problems, of course, with a rash of injuries ruling out several players including possibly veteran striker Walter Pandiani, which would be a big blow for them. Unfortunately my favourite young Argentine right-back Pablo Zabaleta will also miss the game through suspension.

Another little twist in the saga: Espanyol have all but announced that they intend to bid for Saviola after his contract expires in June of this year. Nice timing. I don't see this happening, but I didn't think Becks was going to MLS so soon either, so we'll see.

My hopes for the game? A win for Barcelona, of course, and no red cards would be nice too. I think last week's sparring match between Diogo and Fabiano in the Zaragoza-Sevilla game has satisfied the universal demand for perverse footballing entertainment for a while.

Alaves 0-2 Barcelona

Forca Saviola! He's now Barca's third highest scorer, after Ronaldinho (whose 14 goals, many of them crucial, have kept Barca alive so far this season and himself second in the pichichi table) and Gudjohnsen, which is incredible given how little playing time he's had. The press, who were rather nasty to him during the pre-season, have been won over and are pretty much firmly on his side - for the moment.

If it weren't for El Conejo, things could have been very embarrassing indeed. Barca had 70% of the possession and 29 fricking shots, only 7 of which were on goal. Poor Ezquerro in particular really needs to find his shooting boots.

Second-choice goalie Jorquera got a run out in place of on-form number one Valdes, which was nice, and Gudjohnsen got a rest, but other than that Barca played pretty much the first team, which is surprising from Rijkaard, since he's shown no sign of caring about the Copa before, until you realize that he doesn't exactly have a lot of choice where players are concerned right now. Mourinho's moan about having 'no players'? Frankie knows how you feel, Mou.

Gio and Motta who have been laid up in dry dock both got a run out as substitutes, and in Gio's case he got to play in midfield, which doesn't happen too often. Also notable: is this the first time Saviola and Gudjohnsen have played together? In any case, Saviola and Giuly seem to have a good understanding. Plaudits also go to Xavi and Marquez, the latter after his howler against Getafe, a match in which his other contributions were actually quite good.

Xavi deserves special mention though. The reason I prefer him ahead of Iniesta, despite the youngster's brilliant form, is because Barca control games better when Xavi is playing. He also made 8 successful interceptions in this game, which is astonishing for a midfielder who was never famed for his defensive efforts. What's Rijkaard going to do when Deco is fit? There's a nice selection dilemma for him.

(Curiously enough, Barca had never won at Alaves' ground before this game in 3 attempts. Not a team we enjoy playing against.)

Valladolid 2-1 Villarreal

Villarreal put out pretty much their strongest squad (without the dropped Riquelme) and got beaten away by second division leaders Valladolid. 'Striker' Guillermo Franco, whose continued inability to actually shoot on target has frustrated me for the longest time, even managed to get sent off. I'm not all that surprised, given his tendency to put in stupid tackles, get booked and then run around looking like a pissed (as in drunk) guy spoiling for a fight for the rest of the game.

Villarreal will probably still go through of course since they play the second leg at home, but they need to do something about their limp form and the general malaise first. As for the Riquelme mess, maybe I'll write an analysis of the problems later on, but for now I just feel too crushed about it all. My initial impression, however, is that the off-field problem is solely between the coach, Riquelme and the president.

There is some good news for them - Bobby Pires and Gonzalo Rodriguez are finally back in training after being sidelined with knee injuries at the beginning of the season. The Submarines can really use both of them right now, especially since Riquelme missed training yet again with a 'muscle injury', according to the club (yeah, right).

Atletico 1-1 Osasuna

10-man Atletico held on for a draw against manager Aguirre's former team Osasuna in the Calderon, increasing their run of bad results at home. A draw with ten men wouldn't be so bad if they didn't give up an away goal. Osasuna are not very good right now, especially away, so I expected Atletico to take this, despite missing Argentine goalie Leo Franco and a couple of other players through injury.

Young Argentine striker Sergio Aguero is having quite a good season so far, and for me he's been far more impressive than strike partner Fernando Torres. Critics have pointed out that Aguero has gone missing in some matches, but I believe that's more down to his playing style being somewhat incompatible with Atletico's. Aguero needs to have the ball at his feet near the penalty area to be effective, but Atletico aren't the type of team who like to keep possession. So it's not easy for him to be doing as well as he is, although of course his pace is helping in that respect.

Rayo Vallecano 0-0 Sevilla

A second-string Sevilla side were held to a 0-0 draw by third division Madrid side Rayo Vallecano, who boast the most awesome (slightly mental) female club president in Spain. Needless to say that Sevilla will be confident of picking the minnows off at home in the second leg.

Malaga 0-3 Zaragoza

Congratulations to Barca cantera (youth program) graduate and Andres Iniesta best pal Sergio Garcia for his brace against Malaga (who were in the first division last season) for Real Zaragoza. They put out a fairly strong squad, which doesn't surprise me. Zaragoza have a great track record in the Cup and I expect them to take it seriously, since after all the winner gets an UEFA Cup spot, which would be nice insurance to have if somehow they manage to botch it in the league. I doubt that will happen, but you never know. It would be an understatement to say that Zaragoza will be confident of going through, even if they play a bunch of reserves in the second leg at home.

By the way, I caught some of Zaragoza v Sevilla, and Aimar is on great form. Just wonderful to watch his passing and dribbling. He's even making successful tackles. In my opinion, he's the next best thing Argentina have to an on-form Riquelme, and if he continues on like this I'll be very annoyed if he doesn't start the friendly against France in early February.

Mallorca 1-2 Deportivo

Reserve Baby Depor (Embryo Depor?) won away at Mallorca, with on-loan Barca striker Maxi Lopez scoring what I suspect could be just a consolation goal for Mallorca at the death. Still, congratulations to him for finally getting another one. I doubt Mallorca have what it takes to get a result in the return leg in such a difficult ground. Looking at Depor's team sheet and counting the number of former Barca cantera players makes me smile and wince at the same time. It's good that the likes of Rodri and Verdu (part of Messi and Cesc's age group, I believe) are part of what could be a great new era for Depor, but what a shame that they had to leave Barca to get regular first team football.

Getafe 1-1 Valencia

Getafe got a good draw at home against Valencia (who also put out their first team, go figure), although they will be distraught at conceding a very, very late equaliser after having taken the lead so early. At least their shiny new striker Paunovic got the goal, which is always nice. I thought given their injury problems Flores might want to be careful in the Copa, which supposedly no one in Spain cares about, but it appears that everyone is going for it this season.

Oh yeah, to the small section of racist idiots who abused Valencia's excellent defender Miguel: the whole club gets a bad reputation because of you. I hope you're pleased with your bigoted selves. It's sad, because Getafe's president Angel Torres (a Real Madrid member) is a pretty cool guy, and coach Schuster's doing a good job with his team. That should be the news coming out of their stadium, not this crap.

Scary and awesome Argentine center-back Roberto Ayala's tranfer saga goes on at Valencia, with the Argentine center-back (reportedly targeted by Liverpool and Chelsea) stating his desire for a new deal - which he is not going to get. While coach Quique Sanchez Flores wants him to stay on, sporting director Carboni doesn't. (Kind of like the Saviola situation at Barca). Also, while Ayala was wonderful at the World Cup and continues to put in some excellent performances, he's had problems this season with form and injuries. And he's 33. So that's that.

Poor Vicente is injured yet again. When will the misery end for him? At least Angulo has been in good form lately.

Real Betis 0-0 Real Madrid

Real Madrid were held to a goalless draw by improving relegation battlers Real Betis. Both teams played half a first team squad, although one can't really be sure who's first team at Real Madrid these days. Higuain and Gago both started and looked promising, which is good news for us Albiceleste supporters. Err...not much else happened, I'm afraid.

At least there was an improvement from the last couple of games, with signs of a return to Capello's early season style of uninspiring forward play but great solidarity at the back. Roberto Carlos had to come off injured, further compounding Capello's injury problems (since his back-up Marcelo got injured in training right after his first game in Spain), but at least new boy right-back Torres (not the Atletico Madrid forward) did alright. Interestingly, Capello said that Torres (who seems like a keeper - nice kid) could start again in the league game against Zaragoza, which means that either Helguera or Cannavaro will be dropped, in Cannavaro's case for the second game running - unless of course Capello is stupid enough to play Sergio Ramos at left-back again, and I don't think he is. Although it is understandable that anyone facing the prospect of having to start Raul Bravo tries everything else before resorting to that.

The next big piece of transfer news after Becks to MLS is that Ronaldo is officially being shoved out the door by Capello. I'm surprised teams aren't rushing in for his signature - fat or not, he can still score goals with great technique and instinct alone, as he showed in the World Cup. That said, I have a lot of respect for the player he was, but slightly less for the player he is now. The way his career has gone is incredibly sad. So ends the galactico era, I guess.

By the way, Luis Fernandez seems to be doing very well with Betis so far. I've always maintained that they have too much talent to go down, and it seems like some defensive solidarity was exactly what they needed to pick things up. As long as they don't leak too many, players like Dani and Sobis should ensure that they win enough games to survive. All of this makes Barca's rescheduled trip to Betis' stadium on the 24th even more interesting.

Argentine watch: transfers round-up

It's been a while since I posted about the Albicelestes (mostly because there hasn't been too much to write about). But with the opening of the January transfer window, Argentineans seem to have become hot property all over Europe. Below is my round-up of transfer activity involving Argentinean players, both rumoured and confirmed, organised by league of origin.

Spain

Espanyol's excellent young right-back/left-back/attacking midfielder Pablo Zabaleta, who captained the U20 World Championship winning Argentina side of 2005, has been linked to...wait for it...AC Milan! Of course, the Italian giants have been linked with every single able defender in the world under the age of 35 recently, so this is probably just a wild rumour, but contrary to my usual stance on young Argentineans moving to big clubs in Europe, I think this wouldn't be too bad if it were true. Zabaleta's always been a mature lad - he has handled his own contract negotiations since he was a teenager - and he's been playing in Europe for a while, so there's less of an adaption issue.

The owner of Milan's other team has long had his beady eyes on the young Argentinean plying his trade for Barcelona's other team. Moratti's monthly ponderings about how much he wants Lionel Messi to move to Inter have gotten just a bit creepy lately, as his declarations begin sounding ever more desperate - which is funny, since Inter aren't exactly a side in need of a saviour (or Messi-ah, even, ha ha) at the moment. Barca, for their part, haven't even bothered denying the rumours of an 100 million euro bid, or 40 million plus Adriano, or whatever it is this week. Bottom line: if the current management are stupid enough to even think about selling Messi, there will be probably be a riot. So there's that one dealt with.

On to the more troublesome of Barca's two Argentines, Javier Saviola, who seems to have a knack for picking the most horrible agents in the world - I was barely done being thankful that he fired the greedy bastard who screwed up his relationship with Barca and profited enormously from his transfer when his new one started talking like an asshole. Along with Mascherano, Tevez, and Fernando Cavenaghi, he's the finest example of what mismanagement can do to the promise of young talent. Of course, he's still a fine player, and his career could still pick up if he goes to a club that works for him.

To me, that club seems to be Villarreal. I might be a bit biased because the Yellow Submarines are my second team, but it seems like the perfect solution. Saviola himself has stated that he wants to stay in Spain, so that rules out the outlandish talk about Juventus, as well as Spartak Moscow's interest. The Russian club, who have seemingly not learnt from the Cavenaghi fiasco, are reportedly willing to pay 10 million euros for his services. Undoubtedly Barca would be pleased with such a sum, but I really don't see Saviola being attracted to the Russian league despite the good wages Spartak can pay. Besides, they want him in January, which I don't think is going to happen, given Saviola's own insistence on staying til the end of his contract and Barca's need for striking cover.

So that leaves the Spanish clubs. Espanyol seems a distant possibility to me - Barca will probably do all they can to stop it, for one, and I doubt they'd be able to pay a level of wages that would be satisfying to Saviola. Sevilla has been bought up time and time again, but they've already got quite a few strikers sitting on the bench and just bought a couple more. I don't think the demand is there.

Villarreal on the other hand apparently want Saviola on loan in January, which neither Barca nor Saviola will like, but they would seem to be a sensible destination for El Conejo in the summer. Of Villarreal's strikers, Jose Mari is inconsistent, Franco can't hit a cow's arse with a banjo, and in my opinion Nihat and Forlan don't seem compatible. They've got money in the shape of their club owner, and plenty of ambition too. Besides, it's a South American haven, has a good record for rehabilitating the careers of former Barca players, and they have a cordial relationship with Barca management.

Roberto Ayala has fallen out of favour yet again at Valencia, despite the coach Flores asking the board to renew his contract. Sporting director Carboni - who I have a healthy lack of respect for - hasn't made a habit of actually listening to the needs of his coach, though, and want to ship him out the door. Kind of the opposite of how he signed Tavano over Flores' head, when the coach hadn't asked for yet another striker, but even more annoying. Carboni makes Barca's sometimes-frustrating technical director seem like a model professional. But anyway, back to El Raton. Likely destinations are either Liverpool or Chelsea, although I'm hoping the Villarreal move mooted earlier this year is still on. They need a good center-back since young Argie Gonzalo Rodriguez is still injured, and their offence is less threatening than a kitten banishing a wilted daisy at the moment.

The Yellow Submarines are a club in a bit of trouble at the moment, though, with reports of unrest between the players, the coach and the club president. Occasional captain and Argentinean left-back Arruabarrena is going to be out of contract in the summer and he hasn't been offered a renewal, prompting the usual speculation. Espanyol have been mentioned, but I have no idea how reliable that is.

There's also been a lot of speculation about Argentines moving back to the Argentinean league, which makes me wonder where they're getting all that money from, since even clubs like Boca and River are supposed to have financial problem - hence the quick cashing-in on talented young players. Deportivo defender Aldo Duscher (infamous for breaking Beckham's metatarsal) and Zaragoza defender Leandro Ponzio have both been linked with moves to River Plate, while part-time comedy defender and occasional competent midfielder Lionel Scaloni, currently plying his trade at Racing Santander, has been linked with a move to Boca.

Argentina

AC Milan have already signed one young Argentinean this season, although I'm guessing most people won't have heard of him. Full-back Leandro Grimi, 21, turned up in Milan and promptly announced that he had the potential to become the new Maldini. Which...okay. Right.

24-year-old Rodrigo Palacio of Boca Juniors, who has just become the highest paid player in Argentina has been persistently linked with Barcelona. He's something of an anomaly, Palacio. Normally the best young players in the Argentinean league can't wait to move to Europe (and make no mistake, Palacio was/is the best striker in the Argentinean league, his team's general malaise in the Opening season notwithstanding) but he seems pretty patient. Maybe that's for the best. Personally, I can't see where he's going to fit in at Barca, if we do sign him, unless he can play as a wing-forward. Even then, he'd be holding up the progress of promising youth team players like Gio Dos Santos and Bojan Krkic. For all intents and purposes, though, the deal appears to be off for now.

Another transfer that the Barca press are very keen on is that of young Argentinean international (okay, third choice, but still) 'keeper Oscar Ustari. This is actually one I'm quite excited about. Ustari is very, very good, not to mention incredibly composed and mature for his age. Barca number one Valdes' current backup Jorquera is solid enough, but he's older than Valdes, not as quick and I wouldn't be very comfortable having him for more than the occasional match. If this transfer does eventually come off, which looks likely (maybe in the summer) Valdes could have some actual competition on his hands, which would be no bad thing.

(If Ustari does come to Barca, all of Argentina's international 'keepers would ply their trade in La Liga. There's El Pato, who's doing so well at Getafe; Leo Franco, great as ever at Atletico, and German Lux was said to be moving to Mallorca, although I'm not sure what has happened to that transfer.)

Real Madrid's new management has continued the club's time-honoured tradition of drawn-out transfers, but at least this time Calderon actually delivered the three South American youngsters he promised. The two Argentineans, 19 year old striker Gonzalo Higuain of River Plate and 21 year old defensive midfielder Fernando Gago of Boca, took a bit more wrangling than the Brazilian defender Marcelo.

I regarded these two moves with varying levels of disapproval, it must be said, and not just because they were going to Real. At first glance, Gago seems to be better placed for playing time since Capello's formation demands two defensive midfielders - and the current squad only has two, Diarra who is out of favour and Emerson, who the fans don't like. Poor Gago did indeed get a start against Deportivo alongside Emerson, but it all went horribly wrong for him. It's rather strange that he was given a start - Real haven't won in the Riazor for 14 years, and it's not the ideal type of match to throw a young man who has never played in La Liga into. Left to his own devices - meaning without Calderon's declaration during the transfer saga that Gago would be playing against Depor - I'm not sure Capello would have made the same decision.

But at least it looks like Gago will be getting plenty of games, if he can manage to improve on this performance, which is surely not beyond a player with his natural talent, and fight off the pressure of ridiculous expectations which comes with both the 'new Redondo' hype and his price tag.

On the other hand, I'm not sure what's going to happen to Higuain. He's undoubtedly very talented, but I can't help feeling that he's moved too soon. There was still room for him to grow in Argentina. But what can you do when Real Madrid come knocking? The problem now is that even with Cassano out of favour, and Ronaldo lacking match sharpness (although he can still score goals with superb positioning and touch alone) I can't see him starting. Van Nistelrooy is far too important to Capello's Madrid, and if Ronaldo and Van Nistelrooy aren't compatible, Higuain and Van Nistelrooy would be even worse. Maybe he'll play some Copa del Rey matches, but what a waste that would be. On the other hand, Van Nistelrooy isn't getting any younger...

Real's city rivals Atletico were cruelly described by one paper as having had the door slammed repeatedly in their faces during attempts at strengthening the injury-hit squad. The latest target seems to be Estudiantes midfielder Jose Sosa, who has built up a bit of a reputation for himself in Argentina this season. So that seems like a pretty smart move, Atletico offering 5 million euros for his services. The only problem is that Estudiantes (no doubt learning from the way in which Boca and River did their business with Real) want double that. So we'll see how deep Atletico's pockets are, having (somehow) managed to shell out year after year for a host of expensive signings. They're kind of like the Newcastle of La Liga, in a way, although to be fair to Atletico they're actually doing quite well at the moment.

Relegation battlers Real Sociedad need all the help they can get right now, especially on the cheap. They've signed central defender Victor Lopez from Argentinian club Arsenal (who incidentally have a co-operation agreement with Barca) and are reportedly looking to sign striker Federico Higuain (Gonzalo's older brother) from River Plate. The potential stumbling block for the latter being that Federico is currently on loan at Argentinean club Nueva Chicago, who will be less than pleased to see him go.

England

I had high hopes for young Argentinean defender Gabriel Paletta when he joined Liverpool. His take-no-prisoners style and physical presence seemed ideally suited to the Premiership, and while I harboured the same misgivings I always have when young Argentineans join big clubs - will they end up not acclimatizing quickly enough, rotting on the bench or in the reserves - I thought maybe he could follow in the footsteps of Heinze, who had such a promising debut season at Manchester United and earned the affection of the fans with his wholehearted approach to the game (as opposed to, say, Rio Ferdinard).

Anyway, Paletta fell victim to the fate I feared for him. But it's not all bad news - the team rooted to the bottom of the league table in La Liga want him on loan.

No, really. It's not as bad as it sounds. The new 'Nastic coach is apparently a pal of Rafa Benitez and wants a couple of players on loan to boost the Catalan minnows in their relegation battle. It would be good for Paletta to actually get some experience under his belt instead of tolling away in Liverpool's reserves, even if turns out to be experience fighting relegation. The biggest problem I can see with this is that Paletta's tough-tackling style might get him sent off quite a lot in La Liga.

Speaking of Gabriel Heinze, he's not been having the best time at Manchester United this season, what with being kept on the bench by Patrice Evra and all. He has taken it pretty well, which I assume will last right up until he drops out of contention for Argentina. The one thing I admire the most about Heinze has always been his commitment to the Albicelestes. He won't sit around and wait to be dropped by Argentinean coach Basile for not playing regularly enough.

Luckily, a host of clubs have been watching Heinze's situation, ready to spirit him away to fill holes in their own defences. These reportedly include his former club PSG, Valencia and the obligatory Juve and Milan links (Juve being the more concrete, since the coach has expressed interest). There are also reports that Bayern could be his destination in a part-swap deal that will finally end the Owen Hargreaves saga, which would probably happen in the summer. Can't see where he'd play at Bayern, personally, but certainly some of the other names mentioned look very possible.

And then there's the turkey of the season so far, poor Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano. Tevez actually looks like he will be staying with the Hammers til the end of the season, and has looked good when he's been let out to play. Masche though has been rotting in West Ham reserves and has had enough. Curiously enough, I've seen Hammers fans complaining about how bad he has been, but I've also seen Hammers fans complain about how little playing time he's had to demonstrate his actual ability. Anyway, he's desperate to move, and everyone involved in his dodgy ownership deal will be glad to get some money out of this whole disaster.

As has been widely reported, Juvenus were apparently interested, but the suits there were put off by the complexity of his ownership. (Juve suits daunted by dodgy dealings? Imagine!) But good old Rafa Benitez is ready to come to the rescue with a loan deal and an option to buy attached, if only FIFA are willing to bend their own rules a bit.

Others

Leandro Romagnoli - anybody remember him? Promising attacking midfielder, part of the 2001 World Youth Championship-winning U-20s along with Saviola and D'Alessandro? Anyway, he's owned by Mexican club Veracruz but has been on loan with Sporting Lisbon for a while. There's talk of him joining Getafe on loan now. Apparently some other clubs were keen on him, but he wanted to play in La Liga. Smart lad.

Fernando Cavenaghi looked to be joining Romagnoli as another entry in the formerly promising, now forgotten book. Fortunately, as I've mentioned before, he's now heading out of Spartak Moscow. In La Liga, Racing Santander are apparently interested, presumably as striking cover for their comical but successful strike pairing of Zigic and Munitis. With clubs in Italy, France and Portugal also reportedly interested, the Russian club have made it clear that how much a club can offer Spartak will be the key to this transfer.