Barca news ahead of the Villarreal game

Club football is back with a bang with some interesting games in Spain this weekend and the return of the Champions League midweek, amidst the sound of club coaches grumbling about their charges returning injured (poor Arjen Robben) or tired.

Internationals

Gabi Milito and Leo Messi scored the goals for Argentina as they beat Venezuela away to top the qualifying table with 6 points. Hasta El Gol Siempre has a match report, and I definitely recommend checking out Messi's goal.

Congratulations to Thierry Henry who broke Michel Platini's record to become the leading scorer in France's history. He scored both goals as France made hard work out of beating Lithuania by dominating but not breaking the deadlock until late on. The second in particular was very nice. Eric Abidal and Lilian Thuram also played.

Spain played a (brilliantly timed) friendly against Finland which was described by the press as a training match. (It was a 0-0 draw, naturally.) Puyol, Iniesta and Xavi all played 45 minutes.

Deco played 90 minutes yet again for Portugal as they beat Kazakhstan 2-1 in a victory which was reportedly more laboured than the 2-0 win over Azerbaijan. (If Portugal somehow contrive to miss out from a group featuring such luminaries, then there should be an inquest. Happily, they appear to now be on course.)

Eidur Gudjohnsen played for Iceland as they went down 3-0 (!) to Liechtenstein. Oh dear.

Ronaldinho played and scored in Brazil's 5-0 victory over Ecuador in the Maracana stadium. This was a much needed result for them after the way they played against Columbia, and apparently Ronnie is starting to look a bit better.

Giovani Dos Santos played the first 45 minutes for Mexico as they went down 2-3 to Guatemala. To be fair to him, Mexico only began to collapse in the second half, although I've heard conflicting things about his performance.

Villarreal v Barca

The big story of this game is the reunion of old Arsenal and France pals Robert Pires and Thierry Henry. So we've got Pires being encouraging and positive about Henry, as he's been since the beginning, while warning team mates to watch out for that Messi guy too. The official site has an article detailing the past history between the two, and UEFA.com's preview also focuses on them.

Problem: Ronaldinho didn't even make the Friday training sesson, so he's obviously in no condition to play 90 minutes on Saturday. Worryingly, his natural substitute Giovani doesn't get back until Friday either, although he did make training. If Yaya Toure were fit, the easy solution would be to play Iniesta in Ronnie's left-wing position, but he's not, so that won't work either. Ronnie has been left out of the squad, which is probably a wise decision, given that it will keep him fresh for the Rangers game, but I'm not sure what the alternatives are going to be in this game.

Villarreal were the last side to defeat Barca, the 2-0 result in El Madrigal perfectly summing up the malaise of last season. Ironically, that game sent Villarreal on their amazing winning run which lasted for 8 matches - straight to the end of the season. To be fair, Frank Rijkaard's Barca has often found Villarreal away a difficult game to deal with. I have painfully vivid memories of the 3-0 thrashing in the 04-05 season orchestrated by one Juan Roman Riquelme.

Other news

Barcelona have drawn CD Alcoyano of the Spanish third division in the Copa del Rey. The official website also has this great story about a Barca B game against Alcoyano: In the 2005/06 season, Alcoyano and Barça B took part in a bizarre match that saw Barça B travel to Alcoy on no less than three occasions to complete the 90 minutes. First the Barça B party had to return from Alcoy after the match was suspended due to heavy snowfall. At the second attempt the match was once again suspended in the 50th minute after a technical fault left the El Collao stadium without electricity. It was a case of third time lucky for Alcoyano, who finally won the match 2-0.

Samuel Eto'o is now a Spanish citizen, which means that the only non-EU player on the roster is Yaya Toure.

There's an interesting interview with Thierry Henry from the New York Times, where he talks about his charity work, the differences between Spain and England, and his love for Basketball amongst other things.

Update on Giovani's contract situation: the boy himself says that negotiations will probably be completed in November or December, if things go according to plan.

Txiki gave a recent interview in which he said that the club were looking to give Messi and probably Iniesta a better contract. Messi's dad and agent Jorge has come out and said that they're not actually too bothered about a new, better contract, which is about the first time I've heard that from an agent.

3 apologies and 2 thank yous (a quick note on Barca)

Dear Thierry Henry:

I'm sorry I ever thought you had lost your spark forever. I'm glad you play for us.


Dear Yaya Toure:

I'm sorry I doubted your suitability for the defensive midfield position. You have been wonderful. Get well soon!


Dear Txiki Begiristain:

I was wrong, and I apologize. You have signed well this time. Please continue in this vein.


Dear Frank Rijkaard:

I never doubted you, and I never will. Thanks for being a class act.


Dear Leo Messi:

Thank you for being unpretentious, and modest, and fantastic.


I'm now back from Wellington - which was great fun - so expect some catch up posts soon, including one about the Argentina squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers. Let's just say I'm not too impressed.

La liga news round-up: day 1

It was a weekend that defied predictions as the 3 promoted sides all won at the expense of some of the bigger teams, Real looked better than expected, Sevilla won but it didn't matter, Barca bored and Valencia and Atletico bottled it once again.

Barca 0-0 Racing

As a certain Spanish newspaper put it, 'fantastically boring'. Fair play to Marca, it made me chuckle.

As Sid Lowe said on Football Weekly, it was all rather depressingly familiar to Barca fans: a total lack of width, urgency, agression and worryingly, not much inspiration in attack.

But Zambrotta's right, you know:

“During the pre-season we have been a 'fantastic' team and won everything. Now just because of one match there’s all this fuss."

I also second Xavi's frustration at all this 'fantastic four' rubbish. Certain sections of the press need to remember that football is a team sport.

What has sparked some worry amongst the fans and the press is that while Messi was arguably the best of the trident, he was the one who was subbed off for Henry to come on, instead of Ronaldinho or Eto'o, who would be more likely to have a tantrum about it. Rijkaard insists the substitution was done that way for tactical reasons, but he's definitely under scrutiny for his (apparent lack of) willingness to test the discipline of Ronnie and Sammy by benching them. Messi himself didn't look too happy to be bought off, but in the post-match interview he repeated his usual line of being at the disposal of the coach. To be honest, he's probably the least problematic of the 4 in terms of discipline, but that doesn't mean he should be the victim of the others' egos.

Incidentally, Cesc Fabregas implied in an interview this week that Henry intimidated too many of the young players at Arsenal while he was there. At least that won't be a problem at Barca, where most of the squad are established internationals in their 20s with their own egos and some are stars in their own right.

racing

They're better than I thought they'd be. Garay is as dependable as ever, and with a manager who knows how to marshal limited resources, maybe they won't be in trouble after all.

club news

Poor old Eidur Gudjohnsen. I know I placed him pretty low in the striker hierarchy for the season, but at least I didn't say this:

"Eidur knows the situation," said Beguiristáin. "We now have six players in front of him."

Ouch, Txiki (technical director 'Txiki' Beguiristain), harsh. Especially since 2 of those 6 are at least 10 years his junior.

Next up is the Gamper trophy, which we have to cheer ourselves up for despite the events of the opening round. To be honest, a first round draw away from home is far from a disastrous result, but as I said above, it's just the same old problems which is a bit frustrating for fans. I would certainly rather have the 3 points, but at least this damp squib of a result has damped down the absurd hype.

Real 2-1 Atletico

If it's unfair to judge Atletico on this performance alone, it's probably also unfair to say that Real are world-beaters based on one victory. However, they did look at least dynamic and up for it, and this is a great result for them after the pre-season madness. Good stuff.

As for Atletico, I think they've still got issues in defence, but having said that, they haven't conceded that many in previous seasons either, it's just the timing of the ones they do concede that hurts them.

Valencia 0-3 Villarreal

Being an admirer of the Yellow Submarines, I was very pleased with this result and with their slick performance, but where does one even start with Valencia? Angulo instead of Morientes to partner Villa? And what was with that defence? I didn't think they'd miss Ayala, having signed well to replace him (plus, Albiol's pretty good), but lord, they didn't look organised.

Sometimes, it's difficult for fans to accept the decline of a great player as age takes its toll, and Ruben Baraja is a prime example. I keep thinking that he's still brilliant like he was 3 or 4 seasons ago, and the reality of how far he's fallen was a shock. Sad, but at least Valencia have just signed Manuel Fernandez from Benfica to plug that midfield hole.

Sevilla 4-1 Getafe

A good win, but the gloss has completely been taken off it by the plight of young leftback Antonio Puerta, who remains in very serious condition after collapsing first on the pitch, and then again in the dressing room, where he had to be resuscitated by club doctors. Kind of puts all the fuss about referees and whiny players and unjust results in perspective when a 22-year-old is fighting for his life in hospital, doesn't it? At least the behaviour of Sevilla's cross-town rivals Betis in this matter has been commendable, which is a nice break at least from the childish acrimony that often characterises the rivalry.

All the best wishes to Puerta and his family.

Elsewhere, Zaragoza cost my fantasy team a few points as they were surprisingly beaten 2-1 by new boys Murcia, for whom Pablo Garcia did a good job and record signing Baiano opened his account (although I did get some points because of this game courtesy of Ricardo Oliveira). Depor also cost me a few points in being thrashed 3-0 by Almeria. So much for the fortress Riazor.

(I should explain that I have a 'no Barca or Real players' policy for my fantasy team, which is probably going to cost me points, but has made things more interesting by forcing me to look harder at some of the other sides in the league.)


(Coming up, a post on the new Barca signings.)

Barca news round-up: from the sublime to the slightly ridiculous

It has gotten to a certain point in both my study semester and the season that my workload means I'm no longer able to keep up with all that goes on in La Liga. So no more general news round-up posts until I get the time again. There will be a couple of posts about transfers in general before the season starts, but I'm reverting to mostly talking about Barca, Argentina and sometimes Villarreal. Well, and Real. It is an interesting season from their perspective. So, onto the Barca news.

The first item is unfortunately an unhappy one, as a good man central to the history and development of Barca for many, many years has died. Honorary Vice President Nicolau Casaus, who was vice president of the club in the time of Nunez's long reign at the club, led an extraordinary life, much of it dedicated to the club he loved. He worked tirelessly to expand the network of supporters clubs exponentially in his time, and was the man who bought one Diego Maradona to the Camp Nou. His life story is well worth reading if you're at all interested in Barca. His time at the club was before I became a supporter and I was amazed and very impressed at the kind of life he'd led.

A great man by all accounts, and (as the Spanish King wrote in his telegram) a great ambassandor for the club, since he was a 'gentleman' who aptyl demonstrated the ideal face of the relationship Barca would like to have with wider society.

a few words on the tour

The positives and negatives of touring have been discussed to death by now, and I won't rehash all the arguments here. My own position is that I broadly agree with Lilian Thuram: commerical tours - let's not mince words here, that's their major function - are a necessary evil. They also serve a more positive function, with the charity work done by the club while on tour (yes, all the song and dance is a bit much, but at least it's doing some good) and the Catalunya tourism board apparently making use of the occasions to promote the region.

(Sidenote: I understand when people say that our conceit and self-righteous posturing annoys them. That's fair enough. But is it actually better to do nothing at all or to at least try to do something good, even if it's done in an obnoxious way, and perhaps not always with the purest of intentions? Reasonable people can disagree on this one. Sure, sometimes it can go too far, especially when Laporta opens his mouth, and seem like a parody of itself, but I personally find it difficult to cope with the idea that it's somehow bad to aspire to something. Anyway, rant over.)

Now, let me detach that chip from my shoulder. Ahem. Back to the original point: I can tolerate the idea of a tour this time around, because only a few of our players had an international tournament during the summer, but what I hear about next season does not make me happy, given that Euro 08 will affect almost as many of our players as the World Cup did. We'll see what happens, but my patience with the board is quickly running out over this issue, and I'm not the only one.

By the way, the Chinese press reports that none of the boys were caught out clubbing in Hong Kong, even with the extra time granted to them by the rescheduling of the game. If true, good for them.

Further positives, this time relating to the mini-tour of Scotland: according to at least 2 articles I read, our PR staff are excellent, and our players (Zambrotta and Thuram in this case) were courteous interviewees. These may seem trivial to you, but as I've said before, these things are important to clubs like Barca and Real, and it's always reassuring when I read that the club is run in an organised and sane manner, which is the memory of the chaos of the Gaspart years haunting me as much as anything else.

On the football front, the most widely-reported aspect of the tour has to be the emergence of Gio Dos Santos, who is so far top scorer of the pre-season with 4 and has impressed everytime he came on. He's undoubtedly talented, and I for one have been convinced that he's ready for rationed appearances in La Liga and perhaps starting roles in Cup games. It's funny how having Gio and the even younger Krkic on the first team has changed the role of Messi, who was used to being the youngest. He's now a role model and something to aspire to at the age of 20, which is a bit bizarre. About as bizarre as every up and coming young Argentinian player being labelled the 'next Messi', in fact. By the way, I hear that Gio's younger brother Jonathan is a pretty promising midfielder himself.

Besides the fact that the new legislation UEFA have bought in will increasingly force clubs to use more home-grown players (not a regulation Barca will have trouble with, given the number of canteranos in our current squad), it's nice to see players come through the system and succeed at the club. Barca has long been a proven source of midfield talent of a particular type - in fact, we produce so many that we end up 'exporting' some of our best, and we've had a few excellent defenders come through, but only now has La Masia really started producing world-class forwards.

Speaking of youth, our new 3rd choice goalkeeper Oier Olazabal was handed his debut in Beijing. The 17-year-old Basque player, who will spend the season with the B team, was surprised to be told that he would be playing against Guoan, and giving instructions to veteran defender Lilian Thuram, who is twice his age, which apparently prompted some good-natured teasing of the venerable Frenchman by the other players.

squad news

First, a quick tour-related comment: I feel quite bad for Henry, who is still coming back from injury and hasn't really hit form. The press have already started criticising him for not being sharp enough - no amount of reputation is going to protect him here. But guess who's coming to his defence and talking up his contributions so far? That's right, his longtime friend Sammy Eto'o. Not quite what the more cynical amongst us expected when the transfer went through.

With the conclusion of the tour, Rijkaard finally has all his players in the same place, including the 3 Ms (Messi, Marquez and Milito) who were in the Copa America and therefore came back from holiday later, and Deco, who has returned from the extra holiday the club gave him to go to Brazil and see his newborn son.

This is the squad of 25 that Rijkaard has at his disposal right now:

Valdes, Jorquera, Belletti, Zambrotta, Oleguer, Milito, Marquez, Olmo, Thuram, Sylvinho, Abidal, Motta, Toure, Xavi, Deco, Iniesta, Crosas, Dos Santos, Messi, Gudjohnsen, Ezquerro, Maxi, Henry, Eto'o and Ronaldinho.

That list excludes long-term injury victims Edmilson and Puyol, not to mention Bojan Krkic, off on international duty for the Spanish U17s, and includes short-term injury victims Sylvinho and Gudjohnsen. It also includes two youth team players who will go back to Pep Guardiola's B side when the season starts in Marc Crosas (reportedly a target for Liverpool) and frequent backup defender Jesus Olmo. The club are trying to offload 4 of the players on the list (Gudjohnsen, Maxi, Ezquerro and Motta), 3 of which are forwards, which is perhaps understandable given that we currently have 9 of them. That's a ridiculous number, even for a team that plays 4-3-3, especially given the fact that Rijkaard doesn't like big squads.

For interests' sake, this was the line-up for the 11-a-side game in training:

Valdes; Zambrotta, Oleguer, Thuram, Abidal; Toure, Xavi, Iniesta; Ronaldinho, Eto'o, Henry

vs

Jorquera; Belletti, Marquez, Milito, Crosas; Motta, Deco, Ezquerro; Messi, Maxi, Gio.

The hilarious thing is that the second rag-tag side with no leftback and some players played completely out of position won the game 1-0, via a penalty converted by Messi from Oleguer - who else, bless him - tripping Gio.

transfers

Given Txiki's previous statements, this week is vital in terms of the 4 aftementioned players who the club are trying to usher out the door. The Spanish press reckons that deals for Motta (with AC Milan) and Gudjohnsen (with West Ham) aren't too far off, and Ezquerro has a couple of suitors himself, but although Maxi's agent assures us he is actually trying to find a team for his client, that is seen as the most difficult transfer.

This might be illustrative of the limbo the 3 forwards find themselves in.

Current list of forwards: Henry, Eto'o, Gudjohnsen, Maxi, Ronaldinho, Ezquerro, Messi, Dos Santos, Krkic

Current order of preference for center forward (1): Henry --> Eto'o --> Ronaldinho --> Gudjohnsen --> Messi --> Krkic --> Dos Santos --> Ezquerro --> Maxi

Current order of preference for wing forward (2): Ronaldinho --> Messi --> Eto'o --> Dos Santos --> Henry --> Ezquerro --> Krkic --> Gudjohnsen --> Maxi

The reason Henry is so high on that first list and so low on the second is that he's proven to be - how shall I put this - not very good when played as a wing forward. His performances as center forward have been much more convincing. On the other hand, Eto'o is pretty good on the wing, even if I personally prefer him in a more central position.

Gudjohnsen might not be too far down the pecking order when Rijkaard needs a big target man, but he's really not suited to the wing positions. Krkic is more of a center forward than Dos Santos, who is more suited to the wing. Ezquerro is also better played on the wing, although he can play in the center. Maxi just had an unimpressive season on loan and is unbelievably out of favour.

(I once saw someone on a Barca forum do a list like the above during our double-winning season in order to (jokingly) demonstrate how far down the pecking order Maxi was. It had Valdes and Jorquera (our two 'keepers, for those who don't know) ahead of him in the 'wing-forward' list. Says it all, really.)

Krkic is 16, and Dos Santos is 18. Understandably, nobody likes being stuck behind kids ten years younger. Just ask Ludovic Giuly, who spoke out about the 'unhealthy competition' at Barca from the safety of Rome. (I sympathized with your plight, Ludo, I really did, but did you expect any coach in the world to play you ahead of Messi when he was on the sort of form he had in the last couple of months of last season?)


Lastly, I'd like to draw your attention to this photo. That's Rijkaard's son Michele in the Abidal shirt. As El Mundo Deportivo wrote jokingly, we're not too sure what kind of line-up Frankie will put out, but we know who his son would have starting at left-back.

Posts forthcoming within the next week or so: a word about Barca's new boys, and more about how we're going to line up this season. My full squad preview for the season ahead is still in the works.

Edited: for starting line-up of the practise game and a photo.

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?

Barca news round-up

It's not been a vintage season, but there is one thing Barca have achieved that we didn't in the glorious 05-06 season, and that's maintain an unbeaten record at home in the league. It's the four months we went without winning away that let us down.

Club president Joan Laporta sent out a forceful statement that things will change at the club next season in a press conference, although he insisted that Rijkaard, Ronaldinho and Eto'o would be staying put.

In the same press conference, the club's stated transfer targets are said to be "A left back, a centre back, one or two midfielders and one or two forwards". Sounds good to me, although I'd prioritize the midfielders, which we desperately need.

Also mentioned: Barca C is going to be folded, given Barca B's relegation.

Speaking of Barca B, guess who's been tasked with guiding them back up to the third division? One of my favourite players of all time and former Barca idol Pep Guardiola has signed a two-year contract to coach the team, bringing him back to the youth set up which made him as a player. I definitely approve, and hope that he proves to be a success.

From Guardiola to one of his successors, both on the pitch and as a leader of the squad. Xavi Hernandez spoke frankly about the season in a recent press conference, in which he laid the blame squarely on the players for not being up to the job, backed Frank Rijkaard to continue, and insisted that the squad was a great one which was very capable of winning more titles. Also, this:

Xavi is already looking to the future and is determined to win more silverware next season: “You always get another chance in football. We can’t allow ourselves another year like this one”.

Given that Xavi is the squad member who has been in the first team the longest and therefore experienced most of Barca's last long dry spell, his words carry some weight. He knows what it was like in the bad old days. Let's not do that again.

Technical secretary Txiki Begiristain also spoke about the changes in store for next season, strongly hinting that discipline would be tightened up in all respects, including speaking to the media and training. Three guesses which two players those concerns were directed at, and the first two don't count.

There's been a flurry of teams all over Europe unveiling their shirts for next season. If you're impatient to see Barca's, the designs for the home and away shirts have been leaked already. Looks genuine enough to me. I definitely approve of the home shirt. Not too sure about that shade of blue on the away one yet, although I like the collar. Having blue on both the home and away shirts probably means another season of getting out the third kit a lot on away trips. As long as it isn't the same unpleasant shade of brown as the last time we had blue on both home and away jerseys, I'll be fine.

Yes, another Asian tour. I thought we'd been over this enough times this season with the players complaining about how much pre-season tours screw up their physical preparations for the season? Ah well, at least it's a short one. Before that, Barca have broken with tradition and chosen to conduct their pre-season training in Scotland instead of Denmark. They'll play Dundee United and Hearts while they're there.

The Vexing Case of the Little Rabbit: Javier Saviola and FC Barcelona

As someone who is both a Barca fan and an Argentina fan, I've commented on blogs all around on one or the other about Javier Saviola's current situation at Barcelona. Having seen Argentina fans and Barcelona fans break into all-out flame wars over this topic on forums more than once, I felt that a full write-up of the facts and my own opinions on the problem might be useful.

the past

another new Maradona - the beginning

It is the year 1999. Javier Pedro Saviola is a small youth loved by the fans of his club River Plate for his boyish enthusiasm and clever eye for goal. They nickname him El Conejo, the Little Rabbit, for his dangerous scurrying runs into the opposition box (and for his front teeth, which resembled that of a rabbit). Together with prodigious midfielder Pablo Aimar - brilliantly talented and hailed as the next Maradona - Javier is part of a marvelous River Plate side. The magic four of Aimar, Saviola, Columbian striker Juan Pablo Angel and the legendary Ariel Ortega lift this great Argentinean club to two league titles ahead of eternal rival Boca Juniors. El Conejo, for his part, finishs as the league's top scorer for one of those winning seasons and with the South American Footballer of the Year award for 1999. He is 18 years old at this time.

Meanwhile, over in Spain, Louis van Gaal's Barcelona is winning titles. However, behind the veneer of success a subtle decline is beginning, on the playing front from a team of glorious attacking players who knew how to win to a collection of dispirited individuals addicted to the losing habit; this decline is matched by the once-glorious institution of the club rotting from within as it begins to lose track of its identity and its bank balance. A period of pain for all Barca supporters marked by gross mismanagement from the club board on all fronts arrives, with the election of Joan Gaspart as club president in the year 2000, as van Gaal and long-time president Nunez are ousted for failing to deliver in Europe.

It is the year 2001. Javier has just taken the World Youth Championship by storm as a member of the winning team, crowning his marvelous tournament by taking both the Golden Boot and the Golden Ball awards, the former with a goal tally of 11, a record that will take some beating. The only other person who had finished the competition with both awards was none other than Diego Maradona himself, and the race is on to claim Javier as the next Diego, the great hope that Argentinean football always desperately craves. This makes him hot property - and highly prized - for a possible European move.

Meanwhile, over in Barcelona, things are not going so well. Gaspart had managed to lose star Luis Figo to Real Madrid, an event which is still a bitter memory for many Barca fans, and one which some believe had a traumatic effect on Gaspart. Over the next few years, he would spend incredible amounts of money on the player of the moment, regardless of the desires of the coach, desperately trying to buy some success in the face of the unstoppable Galactico machine. The Juan Roman Riquelme transfer was one such dealing. Even worse, some believe that the trauma of losing Figo to Real - who offered better conditions - lead to Gaspart tying his star players to unreasonably expensive contracts in order to prevent them leaving, despite the club being near-broke. Here's a telling illustration of the results of that policy: when he left office, paying Patrick 'Nightclub' Kluviert's took up 10% of Barca's wage bill. Gaspart spent 200 million euros in his 3-year rule on 16 players, most of whom have now been sold off at bargain prices. And how many trophies did this madness bring? None.

It was under these conditions that the 20-year-old Javier Saviola left his native Argentina for the seriously big time, to be thrown in at the deep end at one of Europe's most impatient clubs, with some of the most demanding supporters in the world.

At such a young age, he cost Barca an astonishing 33 million euros, which is a very large sum for 2001, plus 6 million for his agent. In comparison, Pablo Aimar cost Valencia 24 million at around the same time.

Here's another comparison. How much did Ronaldinho cost? 30 million. Samuel Eto'o? 25 million, and even then some fans were grumbling that the club overpaid for him. (Overpaid! The very thought of suggesting such a notion is hysterically funny now.)

In many ways, the Saviola transfer was a perfect representation of the excesses of the Gaspart era, and it set the stage for the problems of today.

"Saviola, Saviola, Saviola" - 3 seasons at Barca

The part inside the quotation marks came from an old frontpage headline of Catalan sports daily - entitled, imaginatively enough, 'Sport'. It came after Saviola had scored a hattrick for Barca. The wonderboy made a good start to life in Spain under coach Carles Rexach, forming a useful partnership with Kluviert (and that phrase tells you how quickly football changes - 01-02 wasn't that long ago). He scored 17 goals in 36 appearances - not bad, given that 'main' striker Kluviert only got one more. The fans became very fond of El Conejo. His commitment and hard-working attitude was refreshing, especially when put next to Nightclub Patrick and many of the other players.

Things began to go downhill in 02-03, however. Saviola was played out on the wings, where he was largely ineffective, by the returning van Gaal in a truly horrible run of results that ended with the coach's sacking. At that time, the club was just 3 points outside the relegation zone. Emergency coach Antic was bought in to save Barca's season, which he duly did, ensuring that Barca would not say goodbye to European football for the first time in its history by guiding the club to a 6th place finish. Javier also fared better under Antic, scoring 11 goals under his charge in the second half of the season to take his tally up to 16.

03-04 represents a historical upturn in fortunes for Barcelona as a club, as new president Laporta got very, very lucky with two deals. One of these was signing Ronaldinho as a consolation to the fans for not getting Beckham, which was what he'd promised to do if elected. The second was taking a gamble on Frank Rijkaard as coach after Koeman and Hiddink had turned the job down. It certainly didn't look like a smart hire in the first half of the season, as Barca remained mired in the bottom half of the table with a string of bad results leading to increasing calls for Rijkaard's head. Then the club bothered to listen to the coach and actually signed a holding midfielder during the January transfer window, and results took off. A 15 match unbeaten run left Barca with a second place finish, above Real Madrid.

So that's all great. What about Saviola? Rijkaard's 4-3-3 favoured the use of only one central striker, which was the increasingly useless Patrick Kluviert. So it saw Javier benched a bit, although he still clocked up 33 matches. More importantly, Kluviert - much like the Ronaldo of today - was frequently unfit and therefore injured a lot. This gave Saviola opportunities to start, and he grabbed them with both hands, forming a great understanding with Ronaldinho and Luis Garcia upfront. He finished with 14 goals - not a lot, but far more than Kluviert had managed, and just 1 off team top scorer Ronaldinho's 15.

rabbit overboard - transfers and loans

In the summer of 2004, an atmosphere of optimism enveloped Barcelona after the way the team had finished last season. Optimism, and increasingly daring ambition. The board splashed out on new players, including 2 great center forwards in Henrik Larsson and Samuel Eto'o. Saviola came back from his stint as a substitute in Argentina's Olympics victory to find himself surplus to requirements. He was loaned out to Monaco, where he had a torrid league season, scoring only 7 goals, but not a bad Champions League campaign, with 4 goals in 7 games.

He was loaned out yet again in 05-06, this time to Sevilla, missing out on Barca's Champions League triumph. Again he found it difficult to find the net in the league, managing only 9 goals, but things went much better in Europe. His first European trophy came in the form of the Spanish club's UEFA Cup win, during which he again performed admirably, netting 6 goals.

That brings us to this season, which is the last on Saviola's contract. It's clear that Barca tried to sell him during the transfer window, but to no avail. Reportedly the club received many offers, but most were either outside the Argentine's requirements (he only wanted to play in either Spain or England) or they got spooked by his salary demands. No offer came that would suit both parties. Desperate to trim the squad (and cut down on salary costs), the club eventually offered to let him leave as a free agent. Yet in the end, Javier opted to stay.

the current situation

the squad

By even the most hostile reports, Saviola has not made a negative impact on the team spirit at Barca. He gets along well with a lot of the players from his last stint at Barca, particularly Ronaldinho and Xavi, with whom he has an instinctive partnership. Popularity in the dressing room is not hard to come by for an amiable guy who simply stays out of trouble and works hard, and maybe that's why Javier is so well-liked amongst the squad.

Under previous coaches, the Barca dressing room used to be plagued by the Dutch gang, who were all powerful. The current group of Brazilian players who dominate the squad are careful to avoid the tag of a clique and have great relationships with both Argentineans, which is a great credit to them. One only has to look at the problems Inter had with Adriano and their 7 Argentineans to see what can happen. Not at Barca, thankfully.

the press and the fans

A survey in one of the Catalan sports papers found that most fans were of the opinion that Saviola had stayed at Barca for the money. His case divides opinion bitterly on fan forums. The aftementioned papers, who often sing the same tune as the club management had been attacking him for weeks on end during the transfer window.

Despite this, most want him to start ahead of Gudjohnsen now that Eto'o is out injured, and the faithful at the Camp Nou week in week out love him. No sooner had he appeared as a substitute against Valencia, his first official appearance for Barca after 2 seasons - 854 days, to be precise - out in the cold, an appearance which was much heralded by the home faithful and described by Sid Lowe in this excellent Guardian column, then some fans unveiled a giant 'FORCA SAVIOLA' banner, as captured by the TV cameras. The response to him coming on against Zaragoza was an ovation and a massive roar; the response to his stoppage-time goal against Zaragoza was ear-drum shattering and went on and on.

Overall, there seems to be a shift in the balance of power. The press are now being easier on him, perhaps confused by the conflicting signals sent out by the coaching team and the board. There's a lot more talk about his good attitude, his popularity within the squad, and how his hard work in training (not to mention goals scored) has perhaps earned him a starting spot. Even some of the more anti-Conejo fans have come around to this last idea. After all, it's difficult to sustain a vendetta against someone who just puts their head down, works hard and doesn't complain, even more so when that someone has bags of skill that the team urgently needs.

club management

Just for purposes of clarity, when I say 'club management', I mean the president, the director and their gang, who make a lot of transfer-related decisions and aren't necessarily loyal to the coach. (In fact, director Beguiristain was all ready to stick the knife into Rijkaard's back when he wasn't doing so well.)

Here's Rijkaard's explanation of the transfer process at Barca:

"If I think the team need something extra I discuss it with Txiki Beguiristain, our technical director, and with [then] vice-president Sandro Rosell and president Joan Laporta. Then they go to find the players who fulfil those criteria. Where they come from is immaterial. The priority is having the right players for the needs of the team."

To be fair, they also have to worry about the financial aspects of the club.

There's a lot of gossip about who's really pushing for what in the Saviola saga, and the following is my own view of events. I've arrived at these conclusions by a mix of what's accepted as conventional wisdom in Spanish football circles and reasoning based on hard evidence.

Firstly, the management's position. Let's be clear what the sticking point is. Javier's very expensive contract - 55 million euros is the sum Barca have spent on him - ends in June of next year.

It's not hard to see why a board as financially careful as Laporta's want to sell him in January. They've probably pressured Rijkaard not to cup-tie him for that purpose, hence his non-appearance in the Champions League so far this season. (I hope to be proven wrong on this point, but that's what events so far point to.) Barca has spent a lot of money on Saviola and the money-men would like to get some of it back by selling him on, instead of letting him leave on a free at the end of the season.

Reportedly Saviola actually wants to renew his contract, but even he must know that's not possible, especially with its current salary demands. Even if he were to accept a contract on reduced terms - which, let's face it, would be no great shame since the likes of Xavi and Puyol had to do the same at the beginning of the Laporta era, only to earn themselves better contracts after successful seasons under Rijkaard - it seems like Javier is permanently out of favour with Beguiristain, and not likely to ever be back in it. There are commonly 2 reasons cited for this. The first is his unwillingness to renegotiate his contract, and the second his insistence on going to the Olympics in 2004 to sit on the bench for Argentina.

As Saviola himself tells it, he came back to find himself out of favour and was quickly sent out on loan. The fact that the club had signed Henrik Larsson and Samuel Eto'o during that time probably didn't help matters. Beguiristain is probably the biggest obstacle to Saviola getting games while at Barca and certainly a decisive factor in any decision about his future, especially since his word seems to be final on transfers.

coaching staff

Everybody says that Rijkaard doesn't like Saviola, and that's why he's not getting games. I think this is rubbish. The latest reports before Javier got injured hinted at divisions within the club on whether or not to play Saviola. After the above discussion about the technical staff, it's easy to guess who's arguing for what.

I think after the Depor game (his first start this season in the league) and the cup game against Badalona Saviola had actually worked himself up to about almost equal status with Gudjohnsen in the coach's eyes. Even though he didn't get to start against Zaragoza, Rijkaard was becoming more willing to throw him on, if Gudjohnsen's particular qualities weren't making an impact.

The bottom line is that apparently Rijkaard prefers a target-man type forward as his center striker in the 4-3-3, which is why he wasn't even convinced by the purchase of Eto'o. I'm not sure how much I buy this theory, given his previous success with using Saviola as the tip of the forward 3, but I do see the possible objection about using him when the other forwards don't exactly have much physical presence in the box. It would be very easy to muscle them out of games. This throwaway comment from the Eurosport livescore of the Depor match made me laugh out loud at the time, but it is illustrative:

"Saviola loses out to Lopo, tough leading the line solo when you're only a little wabbit."

On the other hand, he knows the system that Barca play in and have a good understanding with players like Ronaldinho, Xavi and Messi. That results in great, defence-ripping passing moves. And of course his pace and technique are wonderful.

conclusions

For those who don't know, Saviola pulled a muscle in the Zaragoza game, where he once again put in a great performance, which would have surely earned him even more chances. He'll be out for at least a month. As that would make his return date mid-December, a lot of this post wold seem a little redundant, especially if Barca try to offload him in the January transfer window.

Personally, I don't think this is going to happen. From what Beguiristain has been saying about the possibility of getting a player in the transfer window for cover (basically that it would result in Barca having '8 forwards' when everyone is fit - a number which includes Saviola) and their actions near the end of the summer transfer window, I'm guessing that club management are finally resigned to letting him go for nothing at the end of the season. The other option, a new contract - which Saviola reportedly wants - doesn't look too possible right now, as I wrote above, but who knows what can happen between now and next June?

This whole saga has been extremely frustrating for those of us who want Saviola to be an option for the Argentinean NT, because he can't do that if he's not playing regularly for a club. He managed to have a good World Cup after a mediocre club season, and his striking partnership with Crespo is still the best we have. Plus, it's always annoying when the career of someone with so much obvious potential and talent is stalling because of a stupid combination of factors.


Edit: to clarify a couple of things regarding Saviola's contract.