Gudjohnsen could join West Ham on loan

British newspaper The Guardian claims that West Ham could sign Barcelona attacker and Iceland international Eidur Gudjohnsen (30) on loan.

The English Premier League club hopes to sign both Gudjohnsen and Bayern Munich striker Luca Toni by the end of this summer's transfer window, with each deal potentially being on a loan basis.

While West Ham has been in discussion with Toni's entourage for weeks and is confident any contractual difficulties can be negotiated, Gudjohnsen's arrival is a decision that may rest, in part, with the player. The Icelandic has been in contact with West Ham officials in recent weeks but is thought to have some personal affairs that may affect his future.

Read more:
Wage demands Gudjohnsen block West Ham move
Gudjohnsen still didn't make decision on future
Gudjohnsen to start talks with Celtic and West Ham

Are defensive forwards the future?

author: Jonathan Wilson
source: The Guardian
date: 4 June 2009
editing: fcbtransfers.blogspot.com





Amid all the praise for the way Barcelona maintained possession against Manchester United in the Champions League final, one comment from their manager, Pep Guardiola, tended to be overlooked. "Without the ball," he said, "we are a horrible team. We need the ball, so we pressed high up the pitch to win the ball back early."

From a Barcelona manager, perhaps that isn't so surprising. After all, since Rinus Michels took charge there in 1971, they have favoured the classical Dutch model, which demanded pressing and an aggressive offside trap. "When I went to Barcelona," remembers Marinho Peres, the Brazilian defender who joined the club in 1974, "Michels wanted the centre-backs to push out to make the offside line. In Brazil this was known as the donkey line: people thought it was stupid. The theory was that if you passed one defender, you passed all the others.

But what Cruyff said to me was that Holland could not play Brazilians or Argentinians, who were very skilful, on a huge pitch. The Dutch players wanted to reduce the space and put everybody in a thin band. The whole logic of the offside trap comes from squeezing the game. This was a brand new thing for me. In Brazil, people thought you could chip the ball over and somebody could run through and beat the offside trap, but it's not like that because you don't have time."

What Barcelona achieved, in other words, was to find a way of pursuing the classic tenets of Total Football – short passing, intermovement of players, winning the ball high up the field – under the modern interpretation of the laws. Their solution, in truth, is not especially complex. Certainly it does not require the intellectual leap of faith Marinho found he needed to accept the efficacy of aggressive offside.

If defenders cannot move forward to defend high up the field because the weakened offside law makes them reluctant to leave space behind them, then logically forwards, when they do not have the ball, act as defenders. This is nothing particularly new but what is surprising is the extent to which Barcelona's forwards are deployed as ball-winners. To traditionalists who prefer to think of forwards as fragile artists who should not be troubled by such negative thoughts that may be unpalatable but the statistics are telling.

For Barcelona Dani Alves stands alone, having committed twice as many fouls as anybody else in the back four last season, but Opta stats show that Thierry Henry committed more fouls than any other member of the back four, with Gerard Piqué only one ahead of Samuel Eto'o, and Leo Messi and the other regular defenders within one foul of each other.

Full-back has become the most tactically interesting position on the pitch because full-backs, as Jack Charlton noted in 1994, tended to be the only players on the field who regularly had space in from of them. Logically, the next step was to close that down, which means forwards, and particularly wide forwards, taking defensive responsibility.

Of course the corollary to defensive forwards is that more defensive players must learn to create. The deep-lying play-making of Falcao and Cerezo for Brazil in the 1982 World Cup, it could be argued, was facilitated by the defensive work of the centre-forward Serginho. More recently, Shevchenko helped drive back the opposition defence to create room for Andrea Pirlo's successful reinvention as a deep regista (central midfield playmaker, literally 'director'). In the Premier League we have seen Michael Carrick and Xabi Alonso offer interpretations of the same role. Would Xavi or Andrés Iniesta be quite so effective without three forwards who tackle in front of them?

Lobanovskyi evangelised universality, foreseeing an age when players could interchange at will, and it is perhaps towards that that we are heading. Some defenders have always been selected with their creative qualities in mind; now we are seeing the rise of the defensive forward.

read the full and original article here


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Manchester United confident of signing Eto'o

British newspaper The Guardian and The Times report that Manchester United is interested in Barcelona forward and Cameroon striker Eto'o (28).

The latter claims that the English champions are lining up a move for Eto'o. Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson is eager to find a replacement for Cristiano Ronaldo as soon as possible and would have made a firm inquiry about Eto'o.

Manchester United would be confident of getting the striker and looks like beating their city-rivals Manchester City. While City reportedly offered 30 million euro° for Eto'o and was prepared to make him the highest-paid player in the Premier League, United would hope to secure a deal for less.

Italian sports paper La Gazzetta dello Sport claims that Barcelona has offered Eto'o, whose current contract expires in 2010, a three-year renewal worth 7,5 million euro a year, while Eto'o's agent Mesalles is asking ten million euro. Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola would have set 20 July as deadline: when the pre-season starts, the coach want to know who will be his centre forward next season.

Asked about the renewal negotiations, Barcelona president Joan Laporta said in an interview with Spanish news agency EFE that he hopes to renew the contract of Eto'o: "A lot of clubs want to sign him. We'll do what we can to renew him, to extend his contract because in my opinion he's the best goalscorer in the world and a very professional player. Things depend on two parties but I believe we can reach an agreement, although not any price."

Madrid sports tabloid As claims that like last summer Barcelona has put Eto'o on the market and has discretely offered the player to several clubs. British tabloid The Daily Mirror claims that Barcelona has offered Eto'o to Liverpool in exchange for Liverpool defensive midfielder and Argetnine international Javier Mascherano (25) (read more here).

Read more:
Agent Eto'o repeats wish to continue
Mascherano ideal candidate to strengthen midfield
Eto'o close to joining Manchester City

Premier League Clubs Deep in Debt

author: David Conn
source: The Guardian
date: 2 June 2009
editing: fcbtransfers.blogspot.com





England's 20 Premier League clubs owe a total of £3.1bn in bank overdrafts, loans and other borrowings, according to the latest published financial information. The accounts for the clubs, mostly documenting the year to May, June or July 2008, show that the FA chairman, Lord Triesman, significantly underestimated football's indebtedness when he cautioned last October that debts in the sport as a whole, including the Football League and the FA itself, were at £3bn.

Manchester United and Chelsea were by far the most indebted, owing £699m and £701m respectively, Arsenal were third, with £416m debts and Liverpool, the other top four club, were understood to owe around £280m; their accounts, due to be filed at Companies House last week, are overdue*.

The debts of those top four clubs, incurred in very different ways, demonstrate the extremes to which Premier League clubs' finances have been taken. United, Premier and European Champions League winners in that 2007-08 season, nevertheless made a loss of £44.8m because of the swingeing interest the club pays on its debts. United owed £699m to financial institutions because the Florida-based Glazer family, who bought the club in 2005 largely with borrowed money, then loaded their own debts on to the club. In just three years to 2008, £263m has become payable by United in interest alone**.

Liverpool's debt is similar, owed by the club's holding company, and including the £185m borrowed by the north American businessmen, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, when they acquired the club in 2007.

At Chelsea, by contrast, no money is owed to banks; the entire £701m was an interest-free loan made by the club's owner, Roman Abramovich, since he bought Chelsea in 2003. The Russian oligarch has poured money in to pay for players whose wages the club would otherwise not be able to afford, in his hunger to claim football trophies. Since the accounts were published, Chelsea, partly as a response to Triesman's warning about high debt levels, announced that Abramovich had reduced his loan to £339.8m, converting the rest to shares in the club.

Arsenal is the only Premier League club that incurred significant debt to carry out long-term investment. The club borrowed £260m originally to build the new Emirates Stadium, and a further £133m to convert the old Highbury ground into flats.

The 20 clubs' accounts*** show that despite booming incomes, which include the first season of a record £2.7bn TV deal which runs from 2007-10, Premier League clubs increasingly rely on subsidies from billionaires who now mostly own the clubs. Manchester United's takeover may have resulted in huge sums going out of the club in interest payments, but 15 of the 20 clubs in last season's top flight are now subsidised by owners. The smaller Premier League clubs are struggling to compete financially, and as they are desperate to avoid relegation out of football's golden circle, they have been urgently seeking backers of their own. In the last week, two more clubs, Sunderland and Portsmouth have announced takeovers.

The Premier League defends the financial picture presented, arguing that the levels of debt are generally manageable, given rising turnovers and the improved TV deal. Wages, for players and administrative staff, rose to £1.095bn, but at an average 55% of turnover that is generally reckoned to be sustainable.

The top clubs' directors have also seen their salaries rise way above those for directors of non-football companies with similar turnover. Ten directors in football were paid over £1m in 2007-08. Keith Edelman Arsenal's former managing director, was paid the most: £2,726,000 in total, including a £1,056,000 payoff when he left the club on 1 May 2008.

Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, maintained his status as Britain's highest paid trade union official, with a salary package of £972,087.

* Some reports have been published since this article appeared about Liverpool’s finances. Read more here.
** Read more about Mancehster United's debt here.
*** More details with figures included of the returns filed by all 20 clubs here.

read the full and original article here


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Guardiola has restored the philosophy of Cruijff

author: Sid Lowe
source: The Guardian
date: 28 April 2009
editing: fcbtransfers.blogspot.com





On the night of 16 April, 1986 Barça had overturned a 3–0 first-leg deficit in the European Cup semi-final with IFK Gothenburg thanks to a hat-trick from the third-choice striker Pichi Alonso, before their goalkeeper Javi Urruti took the shoot-out into sudden death by saving one penalty and scoring another.

Then Víctor Muñoz's strike sent them to their second ever final. As Muñoz celebrated, a delirious 15-year-old ballboy in a Barça tracksuit sprinted over, grabbed him by the arm and pleaded for his shirt. That night Josep Guardiola i Sala was a Barcelona ballboy; 11 years later he was made Barcelona's captain; 11 years after that he became Barcelona's coach.

Guardiola was slow, rarely scored goals and insisted that but for Johan Cruyff he would never have escaped the Third Division. But he won six league titles, a European Cup and Olympic gold. Born in the Catalan town of Santpedor, schooled barely 100 metres from Camp Nou and resident at La Masia, the traditional farmhouse that stands incongruously in its shadow, he was the metronome at the heart of the finest side Barcelona produced, ordering, constructing, constantly moving the ball. The midfielder an opponent described in a single word: "pam". "Pam-pam-pam-pam-pam-pam-pam-pam". As if that was not enough, he was also an intelligent and impassioned defender of Catalan culture, language and identity.

It is hardly surprising that Andrés Iniesta admits he pinned up Guardiola posters, or that when Guardiola became coach last summer he was granted the benefit of the doubt. The trouble was, there were doubts. Goodwill couldn't disguise the apprehension. Guardiola had won the Third Division with Barcelona B, but he was only 37; it was his first ever season coaching.

Barcelona had finished 18 points behind Real Madrid the previous year. Barcelona needed guarantees. Barcelona needed Mourinho, not some inexperienced novice. Even the president, Joan Laporta, described the Portuguese as the "safe option". Instead, he chose Guardiola.

People who knew him knew what he could bring. "Even at La Masia he was known as The Wise One," recalls the former player and coach Charly Rexach. One of Guardiola's closest collaborators insists: "Those who said he had no experience are idiots: Pep was a coach when he played. Experience isn't things happening to you, it's learning, seeking solutions."

He certainly found solutions. He imposed discipline, with fines of €6,000 for being late to training, €500 for missing breakfast with the squad. He sold Ronaldinho and Deco, won over those who stayed with a combination of tough demands and bright psychological management, and brought knowhow, perfectionism and seriousness – right down to weaning Leo Messi off pizza, steak and Coke.

His analysis is exhaustive; its presentation digestible. Videos were unheard of last season; now they are standard. The detail is striking, its application sharp and to the point. Results bear him out: top of La Liga and in the final of the Copa del Rey, Barcelona could yet win the treble. But it is not results that have made Guardiola an even greater idol; it is the way his side gets them.

Bobby Robson could not win even when he won. His Barcelona side took the Cup Winners' Cup, the Cup and the Spanish Super Cup in 1996-97. They finished second, two points behind Madrid, and scored a club-record 102 league goals. But he was treated like a loser. "In England, I'd be a bloody hero," Robson complained. "Sometimes I ask myself why everybody has it in for me." The answer was simple: Robson was not Johan Cruyff and his Barça were not the Dream Team.

More than just a team that won four successive league titles between 1991 and 1994 and the European Cup, the Dream Team were an ideal, a model of touch, technique and movement. Cruyff gave Barcelona an unshakeable identity that runs right through the club, one whose roots are in the Ajax school and Dutch Total Football. "Show me 20 kids in a park and I can tell which are at Barcelona," insists one pundit.

The model was embodied, above all, by Guardiola and is traceable through Xavi Hernández, Iniesta and even Cesc Fábregas. Xavi describes himself as a "child of the system"; Iniesta recalls the message: "receive, pass, offer, receive, pass, offer." The first time he saw Iniesta, Guardiola – by then a veteran – told Xavi: "You're going to retire me; he's going to retire us all."

He may have departed as a player but Guardiola's commitment to the Dream Team's ideal remained deep. One colleague says he has "suckled from the teat of Cruyff" and that was what brought him back as coach. As Laporta, advised by Cruyff, admits, Guardiola contrasted with the self-promoter Mourinho. "We chose a philosophy, not a brand," Laporta says. "Guardiola knows the club and he is part of its history. He represents continuity with Cruyff's model." "Pep knows Barcelona better than anyone," says Rexach. "It's all about the Dream Team," adds Eusebio, Barcelona's assistant coach last season.

Even Guardiola admits: "We are sons of the Dream Team, trying to emulate them." Evidence comes in the exaltation of intelligence, positioning and possession, in pressuring opponents high, the non-negotiable collective commitment to slick attack. Not just to scoring goals but to building them. Leo Messi is the Champions League's top scorer yet 33 players have taken more shots. This team walks the ball into the net.

For those coaches, like Robson, that followed Cruyff, the Dream Team was the Sword of Damocles, a mythologised image of perfection that subsequent sides could not live up to. Until now. Guardiola has not just emulated the Dream Team; according to Josep Lluís Nuñez, president between 1978 and 2000, he has "bettered" it. The declaration is premature but it speaks volumes. In the Catalan capital there is no greater compliment. Guardiola knows that better than anyone else.

read the full and original article here


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The goalless draw may prove awkward for Chelsea

author: Kevin McCarra
source: The Guardian
date: 29 April 2009
editing: fcbtransfers.blogspot.com





A goalless draw at the start of a tie is a spectral presence. Someone may well be haunted by it when Chelsea's Champions League semi-final with Barcelona is completed next Wednesday. Neither manager got what he truly wanted this week. The advantage held by Guus Hiddink's team following the away leg is marginal and ­success is measured in the fact that he must be fractionally less frustrated than Pep Guardiola.

Press reaction in Spain was tentatively defiant. "It's not a bad result," said a headline in Mundo Deportivo. There was an undercurrent of disquiet to that comment and its source probably lay in recollection of Barcelona's removal from this tournament last season by Premier League opponents, with no goals registered against Manchester United.

Statistics do show that the team has an enhanced impact now that Guardiola is in charge. Yesterday he was very close to the 1-0 win that would have constituted a poor result for the visitors. Wolfgang Stark's refusal to award a penalty for José Bosingwa's tug on the vibrant Thierry Henry displayed obstinacy rather than judgment as he defied the demands of the home support.

The match, despite a fairly satisfactory outcome, had not been as Hiddink intended. He is straightforward in his comments and we ought to take him at his pre-match word. He had said then: "We should not wait until the storm is coming. We must take what is in our team and do some harm as well."

Chelsea failed in that mission. There was the masterful double save by ­Victor Valdés from Didier Drogba, but the ­opening had arrived with a lapse from the Barcelona centre-back Rafael Márquez. The visitors mostly blunted themselves with their inferior technique. About a third of ­Chelsea's passes were misplaced. Barcelona, despite the obstacles placed before them by Hiddink, found their man over 80% of the time.

While Chelsea should certainly fare better at Stamford Bridge, it would be presumptuous to conclude that they are bound to seize control against ­opponents of deeper talent.

Irrespective of the outcome on the domestic front, Barcelona will continue to be rueful that they have to handle the remainder of the semi-final without two centre-backs. Gerard Piqué coped well with Drogba at Camp Nou, but now he will have to function in a makeshift pairing. The early suggestion is that Eric Abidal will be shifted to the centre while Sylvinho comes in at left-back. In principle, there ought to be additional opportunities for Chelsea when there is less rapport in the Barcelona defence.

All the same, a great deal of resistance is going to be demanded of Hiddink's squad. The visitors do not even have the right kind of players to stonewall and they must be mindful, in any case, that a minimum of one goal has to be recorded. Chelsea's aim will be to get and keep the ball often enough to exploit defects in the Barcelona back four. None the less, there will be phases in which the second match resembles a restaging of the first. ­Hiddink's men had better be ready to scurry and cover once more.

While Lionel Messi was hindered as professionally as could have been expected in the first leg, it should be a boon to have Ashley Cole, with his suspension served, around to try and bar the Argentinian's path in the return. John Terry will have to be as dominant as he was in Camp Nou. On a rare occasion, a wonderful turn by Samuel Eto'o was too good for both the captain and Alex, but Petr Cech got a boot in the way of the striker's finish. Chelsea's goalkeeper thrived and might have appreciated opponents whose first thought is not to try and duff him up while crosses rain down on the six-yard box.

He and many others should escape with minor bruising in the semi-final, but this a very tight affair and there will be some severe cases of heartache when it comes to an end at last.

read the full and original article here

Barcelona offers Eto'o to English clubs

British tabloid The Daily Mail claims that Barcelona is offering Barcelona forward and Cameroon international Samuel Eto'o (28) to clubs from the English Premier League.

Barcelona president Joan Laporta is said to have flown into London yesterday seeking to sound out several possible buyers, with a Spanish source being quoted as saying that Manchester City is on top of the list: "Laporta will meet first with Manchester City, but will also listen to any club ready to pay a good fee."

Barcelona would be asking a transfer price of around 35 million euro° for Eto'o, who could be the sort of high profile player Manchester City want to sign during the summer transfer window. Chelsea and Tottenham would also be asked if they are interested.

British newspaper The Guardian claims that Laporta met in London with Manchester City chief executive Garry Cook and that Barcelona is asking a fee of 45 million euro° for Eto'o, whose contract with Barcelona expires at the end of next season. The rest of the British media have taken over the report.

British sports site Sky Sports meanwhile claims that Manchester City officials would have denied that talks took place on Monday and have dismissed reports about having made a formal approach and a bid for the Cameroonian forward.

pep's opinion:
quite unoriginal attempt by the british press (i cannot understand that also presumed quality paper like the guardian and the times are bringing this) to destabilize barcelona ahead of tonight’s game. if they had done their homework, they would at least have suggested that it was txiki who has travelled to london…

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Barcelona are the cream of dream teams

author: Sid Lowe
source: The Observer/The Guardian
date: 26 April 2009
editing: fcbtransfers.blogspot.com





Josep Guardiola is fighting a losing battle. Not on the pitch but off it.

If his calculations are correct, and they usually are, he has sat through 104 press conferences this season. He has answered questions in Catalan, Spanish and English, but whatever the language the message is the same. "We have not won anything," he says over and over, as if it were a mantra. He's desperate to quash the euphoria surrounding FC Barcelona. He's also quite right: they have won nothing. But no one seems to hear him.

They would rather respond to El Mundo Deportivo's appeal for a title for the current team, likening it to Johan Cruyff's Dream Team – the aesthetes' aesthetes, the side treated with an evangelical reverence after winning four successive league titles and the 1992 European Cup, their first triumph in the competition; the side that did so with a commitment to attacking, possession football that bordered on the obsessive.

Guardiola admits that he is a "son of the Dream Team", having himself starred in it, committed to the style that prompted Guus Hiddink to describe his Barça as "the most beautiful" he ever saw. A successful son too. The midfielder Yaya Touré believes Chelsea are the "worst team we could face" but the feeling must be mutual. After all, three Barcelona players – Leo Messi, Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto'o – have scored more goals between them than the entire Chelsea side.

One is a 5ft 4in Argentinian who needed growth hormones to get that far; one is a Frenchman who was considered past it, dismissed as a "dinosaur"; and one should not be at the club. But together they could be the finest forward line football has known. The question everyone is asking is: how do you stop Barcelona scoring? Since the opening day, no one has.

Fifty games in a row they have found the net. Time and time again – 136 times to be precise. They have scored so many that they have rewritten the rules. Once, teams went to Camp Nou and defended, hoping for a draw. If Barcelona scored, they would come out. Now, they keep defending. A 2-0 defeat is a respectable result. Recent modest results speak not of weakness but preservation of the team's energies. Chelsea should not be taking comfort. "It's not that their opponents are small," Cruyff says, "it's that Barcelona make them small."

Eto'o, Messi and Henry have 27, 21 and 18 respectively; 66 league goals, 90 in total, between three players. Ninety. It is not just that they have outscored every other attacking trio, it is that they alone have as many as any team in Europe's other major leagues. Collectively, they are Barcelona's best ever forward line. Even Alfredo Di Stefano, Kopa and Puskas could not match them: their best season, 1959, yielded 54 league goals.

"The secret," Guardiola says, "is that they are very good players." Henry is Arsenal's all-time leading scorer, Eto'o Spain's top scorer over the past five years, and Messi has averaged just under a goal every other game before this season. Yet they have outdone themselves, all three on their highest-ever totals, and such success is something of a surprise.

Arriving in the summer to succeed Frank Rijkaard, Guardiola got lucky, but he also got busy. It was his good fortune that no one wanted to pay for Eto'o. The skill came in his collective handling of the forward line, and it has made all the difference. Privately, Guardiola insisted last season that, such was the talent available, all it would take was seriousness and organisation to get Barça back on track. It was a fresh start under a new coach: in came Guardiola's strict regime, with checks and fines.

The timing was good. After two years without success, Guardiola discovered a receptive squad. The vices of Rijkaard's laissez-faire approach were ditched. "You mean we have to train too, boss?" ran the joke that revealed the change. Eto'o, whose beef was with the failure of other players – in particular Ronaldinho – to put in the same effort as he did, was delighted.

Guardiola's method is characterised by the asphyxiating pressure on the opposition. The whole team push forward, chasing every ball in packs. During pre-season, sessions were constantly stopped while he berated players, Messi especially, for not pressuring at throw-ins. Guardiola never let up, nor did he want his players to. "You're the best player in the world with the ball – you have to be the best without it," he told Messi.

The pressure begins with the ­forwards. This team is built from the front. Henry, Messi and Eto'o have all committed more fouls than centre-backs Márquez and Carles Puyol. The benefits are not just ­defensive. "The closer we are to the opposition's goal when we win the ball, the easier to score. There's less ­distance to cover, fewer players to beat and ­normally the other team's out of position," Alves explains.

Attentive and perceptive, Guardiola has had to handle Eto'o, Messi and Henry personally, to mould individuals into a collective. Despite their own egos, they are suited to playing together. Eto'o chases and harries and moves, ­constantly opening gaps for others, always on hand; Henry is gracefully quick coming in from the left; Messi meanders inside, opening up the combination with Eto'o, Iniesta or Xavi and leaving an avenue for Alves to exploit.

It was Guardiola who persuaded the club to allow Messi to travel to the Olympics with Argentina, where they won the gold medal. Guardiola's clever handling, from personalised training to careful rotations (nine times Barcelona have started without him in the league alone), has resulted in an injury-free season. Fully fit and with a functioning team around him, Messi is the world's finest footballer. He is, says the former Barcelona coach Louis van Gaal, "like Luís Figo and Rivaldo mixed together: he provides the goals and the assists".

And that is the thing. The functioning team. One where even the water carriers can play. Xavi moves the team, providing more assists than any player in La Liga – "I think he misplaced a pass once, in 1996," jokes Van Gaal. Alves and Iniesta – the former a new signing, the latter, Guardiola's particular weakness, finally handed genuine responsibility – have added something extra. Everyone is fitter, better organised, brighter and hungrier than before. The identity of the side – the Dream Team's identity – is clear. It is not just the goals that blow you away but the control. The whole package.

"What do Henry, Eto'o and Messi have that makes them so special?" former Barcelona striker ­Stoichkov asks. "Xavi, Iniesta and Alves behind them. Just as me and Romário had Laudrup, Eusebio and Bakero. And, of course, Pep Guardiola."

read the full and original article here


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Barça's beauty lies in their bite

author: Amy Lawrence
source: The Guardian
date: 9 April 2009
editing: fcbtransfers.blogspot.com





After Barcelona's destruction of Bayern Munich it is legitimate to ask if this is the most attractive side of the modern age.

Uli Hoeness, sat in the away dugout next to Jurgen Klinsmann with an expression that summed up his team's ritual humiliation pretty well. His red face somehow managed to be both round and very, very long all at the same time. "We were rabbits caught in front of a snake," he lamented. Hoeness, like everybody else in Camp Nou, knew that the rabbits only lost 4-0 because the snake decided it may as well save some venom for its next victim.

It is not unreasonable to suggest this Barcelona team is extraordinary enough to make grown men cry for joy. The emotions sweeping the vast majority of observers were all about elation, over-excitement and possibility. In the morning's papers, El Mundo Deportivo captured the mood by stating that football "owes" Barça its third European title.

It is hard to make a case for a more deserving winner of this Champions League edition. In terms of attacking spirit, they wipe the floor with everyone else. Barcelona's 85 La Liga goals looks even more astonishing with a little perspective.

Consider the ratios elsewhere:

Barcelona: 85 goals from 29 games (2.93)
Internazionale: 55 goals from 30 games (1.83)
Man United: 52 goals from 30 games (1.73)
Lyon: 41 goals from 30 games (1.37)
Wolfsburg: 58 goals from 26 games (2.23)
Porto: 44 goals from 23 games (1.91)

To appreciate Barcelona in terms of statistics is to miss the point. Better stop counting, sit back and feast your eyes. They play so beautifully, the Camp Nou socios are beginning to debate whether this is the most attractive side of the modern age.

Barcelona have evolved from the 2006 Champions League vintage, most visibly in midfield, where the line-up of Deco, Edmilson and the crunching aberration that was Mark van Bommel could not weave the kind of passing patterns created by Xavi and Andres Iniesta, with Yaya Toure in control just behind.

Further forward, Ronaldinho at his pomp arguably gave Barça more fantasy, and a greater sense of the spectacular and unexpected, and the intelligence of Henrik Larsson was a pleasure to watch. But there is more cut and thrust about today's front three, whose collective speed of thought and movement compliment each other brilliantly and to devastating effect. Samuel Eto'o must certainly feel immense relief he did not follow Ronaldinho and Deco out the door last summer, as was on the cards.

It is worth pointing out that Pep Guardiola's goal addicts have a vastly superior Champions League record to the class of 2006. Frank Rijkaard's team had notched up 19 by this stage, halfway through the quarter-finals. Messi and company are already on 28.

The little Argentinian spoke for all of them when he tried to play down the plaudits until there are medals to back them up. "I think from one to 11, each of our players put in an excellent performance against Bayern. But to be considered the best team in Europe, is about winning the Champions League and regaining the Spanish title."

The only nag for Barcelona is the fact they might feel they are in the 'wrong' side of the draw. They would obviously feel confident in a pure footballing contest, as they would expect from a semi-final against any of the contestants from the other branch to the final - Manchester United, Porto, Villarreal or Arsenal - but the power play of Chelsea, or Liverpool if they were to achieve a miraculous turnaround, is not their favourite flavour of ice cream.

Chelsea, incidentally, might think they have done the hard part with that thrilling win at Anfield but they ain't seen nothing yet. The prettiest snake on earth, with razor sharp fangs, lies in wait.

read the full and original article here


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Manchester City prepares summer bid for Toure

British newspaper The Guardian claims that Barcelona defensive midfielder and Ivory Coast international Yaya Touré (25). (read more here) is on an extenive list of transfer targets drawn up by Manchester City.

Touré is thought to be part of a summer recruitment programme worth 225 million euro that the English Premier League club would be planning.

Other names on the list would include Chelsea defender John Terry (in a cash-plus-Robinho swap deal), Valencia forward David Villa, Arsenal defender Kolo Touré and Blackburn Rovers forward Roque Santa Cruz.

Asked about his contract renewal (read more here), Touré said last week at a press conference that he's not worried about the issue: "I'm a real professional and I'm very happy here. I know that my agent is pushing a bit but that's his job. For me, the important thing is to work hard and to win a lot of trophies here. I'm a calm person and I don't like polemic. My contract only expires in 2011, so we have a lot of time left to talk."

Read more:
Toure to join Arsenal in the summer
Agent Toure criticizes postponing renewal talks
Bid from Manchester City for Toure

Alves second best player in the world

author: Sid Lowe
source: The Guardian
date: 26 January 2009
editing: fcbtransfers.blogspot.com





Madrid didn't want him, Liverpool didn't want him enough, and Chelsea wouldn't pay for him. After all, they reasoned, he's only a full-back.

Forget dark and brooding or squeaky-clean: he doesn't do adverts, has a cheeky grin rather than a winning smile, a wife not a WAG, and couldn't pout if his life depended on it. He came to Europe for a million euros, isn't the outstanding man for his club, doesn't play regularly for his country, and didn't get a single vote at the Fifa World player awards. Not even from the representative from Guam.

But don't let that fool you. Because Dani Alves is still the world's best player. Well, maybe not the best. That's Leo Messi. And that's also the point. Because while in Brazil they giggled at the unlikeliest of metrosexuals, commenting more on the six tubs of facial cream Alves had confiscated at the airport than the six touches he had on the pitch last time he travelled thousands of miles for a handful of international minutes, while he got ignored by Fifa's judges and France Football's correspondents and while, above all, the eulogies fall on the unbelievably brilliant Messi, Alves has built a case to be considered the world's second best player.

From right-back. And right-wing. And just about everywhere else. Roman Abramovich decided €30m was too much for a defender but Alves is not just a defender. He's a one-man band. He offers killer passes and crunching tackles: a screeching lunatic kid, perfect technician, tactical genius and - let's face it - sneaky little cheat, all wrapped into one hyperactive ball.

You've got to love him. Or least you would have to if you weren't so busy loving Leo. Take this weekend. It was the first game of the season's second half and Barcelona had broken more records than anyone: more points than any other team ever, the biggest lead ever, and the best debutant coach in Pep Guardiola.

Something, though, was missing. And not just defeat for Madrid, who scraped another win off Raúl's ear. Barcelona sought revenge on Numancia, the only side to beat them. They also sought reassurance after the sinister shadow that saw off Ramón Calderón cast a cloud over Catalunya. Florentino Pérez, said Marca, would soon make a comeback – with Messi under his arm.

So, when Messi scored the opener for a struggling Barça with a clever flick four minutes into the second half, they breathed a sigh of relief. When he kissed the Barcelona badge, they went all gooey. When he scored another, provided an assist and was denied a hat-trick by the bar, leading them in a brilliant 45 minutes that finished 4-1 and eclipsed a ropey first in which, but for the ref, they would have been trailing, they were doing cartwheels. And when he insisted he'd "never leave", they were dancing through a summer meadow.

Messi was brilliant again. But amid the dreamy eulogies, another decisive performance from Alves went relatively unnoticed. The Brazilian is the only consistent starter who wasn't there last season when they finished 18 points behind Madrid. Now they are 12 ahead. That's not to say he's responsible but his contribution has been colossal. He's buried the mistaken belief that Barça need defenders who defend and has brought dynamism, bite and desire, helping inject life into a moribund mob.

In September, Alves insisted he wouldn't be the Sevilla Alves. Under Guardiola's guidance, he's been better - and he was pretty good before. It's no coincidence he's played more minutes than anyone else or that Barcelona's right wing has delivered three times as many goals as the left, with the full-back providing 10 assists. Not just any assists either, key assists.

For all their collective brilliance, Barcelona have been accused of Messi-dependency. But who wouldn't depend on him? And, besides, Messi's not alone. He might be just a right-back, he might not be glamorous and he might not even be the best player in the team, but right now Daniel Alves might just be the second best player in the world.

read the full and original article here


Read more:
Barcelona Is Winning With Style
Barcelona's home-field advantage explained
Why are Barcelona scoring so many goals?

Why are Barcelona scoring so many goals?

author: Sid Lowe
source: The Guardian
date: 12 December 2008
editing: fcbtransfers.blogspot.com





Blunt doesn't do it justice. The cover of El Mundo Deportivo showed a gigantic red arrow pointed to the Camp Nou goal below the headline "lads, it's over here!" The second week had gone and Barcelona had a solitary point. Worse, they'd scored just once – from the penalty spot.

Yet still it felt like before long someone, somewhere was going to be on the wrong end of a huge hammering. That someone was Sporting Gijón in week three, against whom Barcelona scored six. It was, they said, a one-off: Sporting were desperate defensively.

But Barcelona had only just started: they scored three against Betis, five against Almería and six against Valladolid. They beat their first big opponents, Atlético Madrid, 6-1; they scored four against Málaga on what was more public pool than perfect pitch; they travelled to Sevilla, the team with the best defensive record in the league, and beat them 3-0. Valencia arrived unbeaten away; Barcelona dispatched them 4-0. Since that arrow pointed the way, Barcelona have won 11 league games, drawn one and lost none, scoring 43. They're on course for a new La Liga record.

Add the five goals against Basle and five against Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League, plus 17 shots against the post, and Barça are Europe's most impressive attacking side. The question is, how did it happen?

Know exactly what you're playing at
Since the arrival of Johan Cruyff – first as a player, then coach, now unofficial presidential advisor, a kind of eminence gris - Barcelona have shown an almost obsessive desire to maintain possession, best expressed in the Dream Team that won four successive titles between 1991 and 1994.

"Everything revolves around the ball," says one of Pep Guardiola's closest collaborators. It's all about quick and constant movement, short, one-touch passing, intelligent positioning. About running, sure, but running the right way.

Barcelona have had more seven, eight, nine and 10-man moves than any other side - and by over 50% in every case. The key is just how entrenched the Cruyff method is: while Cruyffism can be fundamentalist, it works because it is so much a part of Barcelona's DNA, running right through the club. As Michael Robinson, Spain's most famous football commentator, puts it: "put 20 kids in a park and I can tell you which two are at Barça."

There is a Barcelona model, common to Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta and Cesc Fábregas - traceable to Cruyff's ideology and the classic Barcelona central midfielder: current coach Guardiola. It is the commitment to an identity that led Barcelona to opt for continuity with him rather than employing the iconoclast Jose Mourinho. The inclusion of La Masia graduates like Xavi, Carles Puyol, Leo Messi, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets, Gerard Piqué, Bojan Krkic and Pedro makes that innate feel for the system even more self-perpetuating.

Re-establish seriousness and hunger
As Barcelona collapsed last season, Guardiola privately commented that with the talented players they had, all it would take would be to add a bit of effort, discipline, togetherness and hard work to make them half decent again. Although there's more to Guardiola's method, that's exactly what he has done. Out went Ronaldinho and Deco, in came a new code of conduct. Now, stung by failure, particularly the humiliation of handing champions Madrid a guard of honour, Barcelona have renewed determination.

Give width and depth to your attacks
Barcelona's 4-3-3 is not the 4-5-1 in disguise adopted by many sides. All three of the front three play as real forwards, opening up the pitch and create space for the midfield to exploit, constantly interchanging but within a clear framework. "Barcelona make the pitch look bigger than it really is," says the former Barcelona midfielder and current Getafe coach Víctor Muñoz.

On the left, Thierry Henry plays right on the touchline, getting through more running than he ever has before. Behind him, Eric Abidal rarely ventures forward. On the right, it is a different story: Leo Messi dashes inside, leaving the wing free for right-back turned hyperactive child Alves to zoom past from deep.

Push the side right up the pitch, suffocating the opposition
"It's simple," says Guardiola, "I'm happy when we're in the opposition's half and not happy when we're in our own." The defending starts from the front. Messi, Henry and Samuel Eto'o have committed more fouls this season than centre-backs Puyol, Rafael Márquez and Piqué. "I prefer pressuring the opposition to scoring goals," says Eto'o.

But it's not just defending – it's attacking too. Pressuring high, swarming over their victim en masse doesn't just mean winning the ball; it means winning chances. "Barcelona play very high up the pitch and if they get the ball off you there, they're lethal," says Muñoz.

Be alert and get the small details right; work on set plays and quick thinking
Graeme Sounness recently said: "When play stops, bad players rest. Good players ask 'where's the dope?'" Barcelona have good players, properly tuned in after two years of cruising. At the Camp Nou Valencia stopped to appeal for an offside; Alves didn't, steaming 30 yards in the blink of an eye to score. Against Atlético, goalkeeper Gregory Coupet was leaning against the post as if waiting for a bus when Messi clipped the free kick into his empty net.

Meanwhile, a clever free-kick to Messi, pretending not to be interested, broke Recreativo's resistance. Barcelona have already scored more from set-plays this season than in the last two under Rijkaard. "We're working on strategy now," says Xavi. The "unlike before" goes without saying.

Score early
Virtually every team that plays Barcelona does it the same way: 10 behind the ball and on the break. The longer it takes to score, the more entrenched the opposition get, the more edgy Barça become, and the harder it gets. If the opposition score first, the anxiety really kicks in for the Catalans. The solution: score first. Resistance broken, that massed-ranks tactic no longer works. Forced out, Barcelona can pick them off.

Barça scored after just 20 minutes against Sevilla, twice in the first 43 minutes against Sporting, twice in the first 23 against Betis, twice in the first 19 against Málaga and twice in the first 28 against Valencia. After 44 minutes against Valladolid it was 4-0 and after 36 against Almería it was five. When Barcelona faced Atlético they were one up after three minutes, two up after five, three up after eight, four up after 18 and five up after 28.

Have great players
Finally, there's another, very simple reason why Barcelona are so good: Xavi, Eto'o, Iniesta, Alves, Henry and the rest are very, very good football players. Messi meanwhile is the best in the world. And, this year he's fit.

read the full and original article here


Read more:
The impressive start of Guardiola
Barcelona's home-field advantage explained
An introduction to the coming stars

Messi and Eto'o on Manchester City wish list

British newspaper The Guardian claims that Manchester City will try to sign Barcelona right wing attacker and Argentinian international Lionel Messi (21) and Barcelona forward and Cameroonian international Samuel Eto'o (27) when the next transfer window opens in January.

The new Arab Manchester City's owners would be determined to try to land a "world superstar" in January and have drawn up a list of targets, headed by Kaka and Lionel Messi. The other names that have been discussed are Fernando Torres, Carlos Tevez, Cristiano Ronaldo and Samuel Eto'o.

The Abu Dhabi United Group would be prepared to pay a record transfer fee of more than 80 million euro° for a top-name signing. The owners of the English Premier League club would sense they can make a bigger impact by signing a big name rather than acquiring lots of players.

A source who has been involved in the discussions is quoted as saying: "They are going for a big player. If they really want to be a big club and move to a new level they need to get a big player in and that would mean one of Kaka, Messi, Ronaldo or Tevez, because of his availability. Unless a player like that can be signed then it will be a struggle and the sooner it is done the better, which means trying to do so in January. Then others will follow."

Read more:

Manchester City will launch bid for Messi

Last-minute Manchester City offer for Eto'o rejected

Manchester City will come after Henry in January

Barcelona interested in Man United striker Tevez

British newspaper The Guardian claims that Barcelona has expressed an interest in Manchester United forward and Argentine international Carlos Tévez (24).

Tévez, whose rights are owned by investment fund Media Sports Investments (MSI), is playing on loan with Manchester United since the summer of 2007.

The English Premier League club has the option to buy Tévez in January for 37 million euro° but it's uncertain if the Champions League winners are ready to put down the money.

Read more:
Nani was on top of the transfer list
Looking for a star
Xavi is top target for Manchester United

The impressive start of Guardiola

British newspaper The Guardian had last week an interesting view on Barcelona's start of the new season.





'Pep Team' win hearts, minds and games around Spain

Josep Guardiola has guided the same Barcelona players that finished 18 points off the pace last year to the top of La Liga this time around

Sid Lowe - The Guardian

There's plenty to see through the windows of La Masia, the Catalan farmhouse that stands proudly alongside the Camp Nou, dwarfed by the city that's grown around it - home to future generations of players, a kind of footballing indoctrination centre in all things Barça that's housed 493 players. Caught between life and death, there's the maternity hospital on one side and the crematorium on the other. Then there's the stadium itself; the tiny, soon-to-be abandoned training pitch in the shadow of its concrete stands, eye-holes ripped from the screens protecting players' intimacy; and the assorted streetlife gathering as night falls, not so much protecting its intimacy as selling it - from women to men to both.

But while David Beckham recalls a trip to La Masia spent watching the "other lads" hanging out the windows whistling at prostitutes, Andres Iniesta only had eyes for one man: Josep Guardiola i Sala. When Iniesta was a little lad plucked from the tiny town of Fuentealbilla, he plastered Pep Guardiola's picture all over the walls by his Masia bunk bed. And who could blame him?

After all, Guardiola won six leagues, a European Cup and an Olympic gold. He claimed he would have been a Third Division player if it hadn't been for Johan Cruyff but became the focal point of the emblematic, mould-breaking Dream Team that racked up four successive league titles; the metronome that kept them ticking over, constantly moving the ball on with a single touch; the man Atlético Madrid striker Kiko described in a word: "pam". "Pam-pam-pam-pam-pam-pam-pam-pam". No wonder Iniesta Blu-Tack'd him up. Born in Santpedor, schooled 100 metres from Camp Nou, a former ball-boy and La Masia resident, intelligent and engaging, a charismatic and eloquent defender of a Catalan and footballing identity, club captain and a model whose legacy survives in players like Xavi, Iniesta, and Cesc, Pep couldn't have been more of a hero.

Only he could and now, suddenly, he is. Because although he's the youngest coach in primera, much as he's losing his hair and losing weight - his staff complain that he rarely stops to eat from the tupperware tubs he takes in every day - Guardiola has proven that not only was he a unique player, he's an impressive coach. Suddenly the Catalan press that complained at losing José Mourinho is falling over itself to proclaim the "Pep Team" - "Pep's Dream Boys" was that little bit too ridiculous, even for them - the greatest thing in the whole wide world ever. Even the Madrid press is impressed, Marca's Miguel Serrano declaring: "If I was a kid now, my dad would have a hell of a job stopping me supporting Barcelona. The Pep Team's too late because you can change house, job, wife, political party and even your sex, but not your football team, yet when they play it's glorious."

Guardiola's done it with a commitment to Barcelona's ball-playing style and emotional roots: in one match in October, eight of their starting XI were youth team products and still they won. Which is what they do most weeks. In fact, it's what they've now done every week for seven weeks, hitting six past Sporting, five past Atlético and Almería and four more past Málaga this weekend, racking up 28 in nine league games - on course for the 107 set by John Toshack's Real Madrid in 1989-90. For some, this latest success was the best. A 4-1 victory against the odds on a surface more swimming pool than perfect pitch - even after four blokes attacked it with giant hairdryers. The kind of surface that, Captain Caveman Carles Puyol and hyperactive child Dani Alves apart, shouldn't have suited them. A 4-1 victory against a side that had won four on the trot, secured with spirit and practicality and even Guardiola admitting, "I told the players to hoof it." One that had every single bloody paper "Singing in the Rain", likening Xavi to Gene Kelly and, oddly, Fred Astaire; one, more importantly, that had them declaring: "it's games like this that win leagues".

Especially when they coincide with Valencia and Sevilla losing and Madrid rounding off a disastrous week in which Ramón Calderón fended off allegations of corruption and the team couldn't fend off a Second Division B side, by drawing 1-1 at Almería. Because those results carried Barcelona top for the first time since May 2007 when they took the first of two easy steps to blow the title.

"The secret," says Guardiola, "is that Barcelona have fantastic players." "The secret," counters one insider, "is that Barça have two things they didn't have last season: hunger and a coach." After all, the vast majority of Barcelona's players were there last year too, and they finished third - 18 points behind Madrid and utterly humiliated. There was no professionalism, no work, no togetherness; now, at last, there is. The complacency has gone, with Guardiola bringing huge energy. Last season, as he guided Barcelona B to the Second Division B title in his debut season as a coach, he believed that, such was the talent, just getting the first team going again would be enough.

Yet while Guardiola has changed Barcelona's attitude, got them pressing higher up the pitch, he has done more - much more - than that. "Those who said he had no experience are idiots," says one of his contemporaries, "Pep was a coach when he was a player. Experience isn't things happening to you, it's learning from them, seeking solutions." Intensely inquisitive, Guardiola was always learning - from pioneers like Cruyff and Lillo, from his spells in Qatar, Italy and Mexico. Now his players are learning from him. Obsessed with anticipating problems, his analysis of opponents is as exhaustive as it is exact, his findings presented to players in bite-sized chunks. His training sessions, worked through with those close to him and carried out behind closed doors, are to the point. "He remembers everything," says Xavi. "And everything is done for a reason, never just for the sake of it."

He is, says one of his closest collaborators, "hugely seductive". He's won over his players, got them running again. Well, some of them: he's had to tell Yaya Touré not to run so much. Busting your guts can be a red herring. The key to football, Guardiola insists, is positioning. And right now Barcelona's positioning couldn't be any better: back on top, 18 long months later.

Manchester City will come after Henry in January

Asked about the transfer prospects of his club, Sulaiman Al-Fahim, a board member of the Abu Dhabi United Group, the new owners of English Premier League club Manchester City, has said in an interview with British newspaper The Guardian that his club is interested in Barcelona forward and French international Thierry Henry (31) and could come after the player in the January transfer window:

"I just wish we could have done the takeover earlier to give us more time to spend but unfortunately I was on vacation travelling across Europe when the proposition reached me. Thierry Henry and Brazil's Ronaldo can add the confidence and the experience and provide the mix with the younger players. These are the kind of players we are looking for. And we have deep pockets. Money is not a worry to my board. The aim is to make City the best team in the Premier League."

Catalan sports paper Sport claims that Manchester City will closely monitor the performances of Henry until the end of the year, planning to make him by that time an offer the Frenchman cannot refuse. If Henry cannot raise his level in the coming months, Barcelona would be willing to listen to offers.

Read more:
Barcelona would consider offer for Henry
Guardiola holds on to Henry
Manchester United considering Henry bid

News of the day - Friday

(This post will be updated throughout the day.)


Txiki wants to bring in another player for the left wing, there's a three-men short list: Palacio, Arshavin and Van Persie, the board has already contacted the entourage of all three and the reactions were positive, Zenit could lower the asking price for Arshavin to 20 million euro, Van Persie is the last option since he already made his debut with Arsenal in the Champions League last week, Guardiola will have the final say (Sport)
read more

Léo Rabelo, the agent of Thiago Neves, doesn't exclude that the player could leave this transfer period, Fluminense vice president Tote Menezes says that the club doesn't own the player so his future doesn't depend on them (Lance)
read more

Delcir Sonda, the president of Grupo Sonda who holds 66 per cent of the transfer rights of Neves, says that the attacker could leave for Manchester City although there are also other interested clubs, his agent Rabelo is in Europe since yesterday trying to close a deal (Lance)
read more

Manchester City are investigating the possibility of making Thierry Henry a "box office" signing in January (The Guardian)
read more

Benzema says he wants to play one day with a team that can win the Champions League although he doesn't yet know the date of his exit nor his destination (French sports weekly Sport)
read more

If São Paulo lowers the 25 million euro asking price for Hernanes, Barcelona plans to make a new attempt to sign the midfielder next summer (Sport)
read more

Barcelona is interested in Brazilian attacker João Bueno de Camargo "Joãozinho" (17), who plays for Brazilian third division club Noroeste and is currently on trial with Inter Milan, Barcelona also invited the player for a test period (Calcio Mercato)
read more

Manchester City and Chelsea not giving up

With Milan finally having come out of their "here's ten million euro, he only wants us and the transfer market ends on the 31st of August" position and now going all in, two English Premier League clubs are said to be still trying to convince Barcelona playmaker and Brazilian international Ronaldinho (28) to reject the Italian offer.

British tabloid The Daily Mail claims that Manchester City officials flew into Barcelona last night. President Thaksin Shinawatra's chief negotiator Pairoj Piempongsant led a delegation for meetings with Barcelona president Joan Laporta and for fresh talks with the Brazilian star himself.

Manchester City executive chairman Garry Cook said last night in an interview with British newspaper The Guardian that his club had made significant advances in their attempt to sign Ronaldinho from Barcelona: "You sometimes wish all the clutter would move out of the way. But I continue to be encouraged because we are ticking all the boxes. That has been the case all the way through and we are ticking those boxes really quickly now.

I can confirm that we have made a bid. It has been a complicated process, not least because the Barcelona organisation has just gone through a fundamental change because of their elections, meaning that a new general manager is in place and we are talking to different people than before. But in the simplest terms, we have made an offer, it has been received and Barcelona are reviewing it.

We are determined to do everything we can to make this happen. The player has a commitment to play in the Olympics, which is another complication, but we, like any good club, would allow him to honour his responsibility to his country.

As for his intentions, they are somewhat muddled because of the interest from elsewhere, but what I can say is that he has shown a genuine interest in playing for Manchester City. He is not playing games with us. He just wants to play football. And the really important thing is, does he want to play in the Premier League? If you were to ask him that, his answer would emphatically be yes."

British tabloid The Sun meanwhile claims that also Chelsea has joined the race with a last minute attempt by new Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari. The Brazilian coach spoke by phone with Ronaldinho yesterday. Chelsea would offer Barcelona 20 million euro°.

Read more:
Ronaldinho on his way to Manchester City

Milan and Chelsea back in for Ronaldinho

Ronaldinho will arrive in Barcelona today

Where was Arshavin all those years?

Interesting article from British newspaper The Guardian about why it did take the west european clubs so long to discover the 27 year old Andrei Arshavin:

How the impish Arshavin became Russia's danger man

Two Dutch coaches have helped the previously immature Andrei Arshavin gain the international recognition his talent deserves

Luke Harding in Moscow - guardian.co.uk - Wednesday June 25, 2008

It has been one of the great enigmas of Euro 2008. Why has a forward of the quality of Andrei Arshavin, Russia's exquisitely gifted playmaker, not previously attracted international recognition?

Victory for Russia on Thursday night against Spain would be likely to confirm 27-year-old Arshavin as the player of the tournament. This would follow his pivotal role in Russia's 3-1 demolition of Holland during the quarter-finals and their 2-0 mobbing of Sweden.

In fact, Russian sports journalists identified Arshavin as a world-class player a long time ago - in 2004. But several factors conspired to prevent Arshavin from reaching his current inspirational greatness, they suggest. These include Russia's failure to progress at major tournaments.

A more profound obstacle has been Arshavin's immaturity or - as one observer put it - his propensity to behave "like a spoiled kid". "We started to talk about Arshavin when he was 23. He was playing for Zenit St Petersburg. It was already clear he was very talented," Anton Lisin, a journalist with Sovietsky Sport told the Guardian.

"He was driven. He was highly skilful. Technically he was a very good player. He could see the pitch. And he was an outstanding passer of the ball." The problem, according to Lisin, was Arshavin's erratic temperament. Born in St Petersburg, Russia's gritty second city, Arshavin grew up in a working-class Soviet family. His father was a gifted amateur footballer, but never quite made it professionally.

Aged seven, Andrei enrolled in St Petersburg's 'Smena' football academy. Contemporaries remember him as a slight, rosy-cheeked boy - with a preternatural ability to read and pass the ball. "Arshavin was always quite small. He didn't stand out. But as soon as he received the ball he was a totally different person," Sergei Gordeev, who coached Arshavin from the age of 11, said. "He was very good at draughts. Unusually for a footballer he had strong mathematical abilities."

He had also, improbably, managed to attend a technology and design institute in St Petersburg devoted to sewing. Here, he designed a range of sportswear. He later boasted that he enrolled on the sewing course because he was the only boy in a group of 20 attractive young women.

In 1999 Arshavin began playing in the reserves of Zenit, his local team, making his first-team debut in 2000 in an Intertoto Cup tie away to Bradford City. Zenit won 3-0.

At Zenit, Arshavin was among a nucleus of young, outstanding players who included Vladimir Bystrov and Alexander Kerzhakov. The three formed an exclusive circle. Arshavin was known as 'Shava', an affectionate nickname meaning little dog. "They were enfants terribles and rather stand-offish," Lisin said. "Nobody else could get close to them."

Tensions with Zenit's coach Vlastimil Petrzela saw Bystrov depart Zenit for FC Spartak. Kerzhakov pushed off to FC Dynamo. Arshavin, meanwhile, was passed over for Russia's national squad, and didn't take part in the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea. Russia failed to qualify for Euro 2004, again depriving Arshavin of a chance to shine on the international stage.

Contemporaries suggest that Arshavin's self-confidence - at times bordering on arrogance - did him few favours. Critics accused him of laziness and lack of match fitness. They suggested he failed to help his defenders, often jogging back languidly from his opponent's goal.

In 2006 Dick Advocaat, Zenit's Dutch trainer, famously benched Arshavin and two other Zenit players after they went clubbing the night before a crucial game with FC Spartak. Arshavin's exile did not last long: he was swiftly recalled from the B-team.

But Arshavin reacted badly to the snub. "He basically behaved like a big child. He was disappointed by Advocaat's decision. His football suffered. He didn't have a good 2006 or early 2007," Lisin said. "Advocaat even remarked: 'I don't know what happened to Arshavin.'"

Others recall that Arshavin would behave disdainfully towards journalists. While other players would give interviews in the post-match 'mix zone', Arshavin would saunter past, munching an apple.

Ultimately, however, it was Advocaat and Guus Hiddink who proved the key to unlocking Arshavin's late-blossoming talent. Realising that Soviet-style coaching methods were not getting results, Russia's Roman Abramovich-backed football association sent for Dutch managers - in much the same way that Peter the Great sent for Dutch shipbuilders in the 17th century in an attempt to transform Russia into a great naval power.

The Dutch coaches injected a new seriousness and professionalism into Zenit - since 2006 backed by Russia's state gas juggernaut Gazprom. Gradually, Hiddink revolutionised Russia's national side. In 2007 Arshavin became Zenit captain. His late-discovered maturity may also have something to do with his personal happiness. He married his girlfriend Yulia in 2003, and now has two small children, Artyom, two-and-a-half, and Alina, two months.

There have been occasional flickers of Arshavin's former sulkiness. During Russia's Euro 2008 qualifier against Andorra, Arshavin got himself sent off for a reckless foul during a moment when it seemed England would qualify at Russia's expense. The red card meant he missed Russia's first two Euro 2008 matches - the 4-1 drubbing by Spain and 1-0 victory over Greece.

Latterly Arshavin has shone. He led Zenit to victory in the Uefa Cup final against Rangers and was crucial to Russia's 2-1 victory over England last October during the Euro 2008 qualifiers. In Austria and Switzerland, Hiddink has handled Arshavin to perfection, hinting before the tournament that Arshavin - now a national icon in Russia - might not play a part.

After the debacle against Spain, Hiddink opened up Russia's training session to the public. Angry Russian fans heckled the squad. The trick worked. He also roused the Russian team an hour earlier than scheduled for its encounter with Greece.

Today Zenit confirmed that Arshavin will almost certainly leave the club following Euro 2008. "If Arshavin feels he needs to bring on his career in one of the top footballing countries we will not stand in his way," Alexei Blinov, Zenit's spokesman, told the Guardian.

Arshavin has made it clear his preferred destination is Barcelona and La Liga. He is a passionate Barcelona supporter. Friends recall how as a teenager he would spend hours playing Football Manager on the computer – he would start by managing a fourth-division English club, but would inevitably finish as manager of Barca.

"As a boy his dream was to play for Barcelona. He worshipped Barcelona," Gordeev, his former coach, said. But with no offer from Barcelona so far, there is still a strong possibility that Arshavin could play in the Premier League. Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City are all reportedly interested in him.

And yet despite his superlative Euro 2008 run, there are still question marks over Arshavin's temperament. This may persuade top European clubs to modulate their offers for him - which are said to be in the region of €10-20m. As Lisin says: "During this tournament Arshavin has been like Cinderella. But nobody quite knows whether, when the clock strikes midnight, he will stay a princess or turn back into a pumpkin."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/jun/25/russia.euro2008

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Barcelona pushing hard for Adebayor

British newspaper The Guardian claims that Barcelona is preparing a final 38 million euro° bid for Arsenal forward and Togo international Emmanuel Adebayor (24).

A 30 million euro° offer made by Barcelona sports vice president Marc Ingla in London earlier this week was rejected. With the initial asking price being 45 million euro°, Arsenal made nevertheless clear that they are prepared to sell if the price is right.

Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger was initially opposed to a move but the mixed messages from Adebayor and his entourage about the future of the player and the difficult negotiations on a pay rise seem to have burnt the bridges between the player and the club. Wenger is understood to be disappointed by Adebayor's attitude and doesn't want to hold the player in London against his will.

Madrid sports tabloid Marca meanwhile claims that Barcelona sources have confirmed that the club has not yet made any formal bid for Adebayor so far and it is not planning to launch a bid before Eto'o has left the club.

Asked about how things stand at this moment, Adebayor's agent Stéphane Courbis has yesterday said in an interview with French football weekly paper France Football that at this point all options are still open: "At this moment, no decision has been taken and everything remains possible. Because there were too many things written lately, the player and myself will not speak with the press anymore at this stage."

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