After a World Cup’s worth of transfer speculation, Manchester United chief executive Ed Woodward typically felt the need to offer some headline-creating words of his own. “Our financial position allows us to do things in the transfer market that most other clubs cannot do,” he said last week. It was quite a statement, especially […]
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From bad to worse for Barcelona – the tarnishing of a golden image
For many years, Barcelona enjoyed a golden image around the globe. But that image has been shattered by a series of negative episodes – of which a transfer ban is just the latest. …It didn’t used to be like this. Barca’s ‘More Than A Club’ motto suggested a club morally superior to their rivals, who […]
El Clasico of the Century?
As one former Barcelona player puts it: “It is the game of the century, even if there are eight of them a year.” It is a comment not just on the excellence and the expectation that comes with Real Madrid v Barcelona but also on their eclipse of all else, on the dominance and potential dilution of a […]
Xavi: Enjoy him while you can
… Oh, Xavi. What a player he is, even now, aged 34 and with 250,000 miles on that refined dashboard clock. In fact there was something agreeably warm and nostalgic about seeing that familiar keep-ball trinity, Xavi, Andrés Iniesta and Lionel Messi once again in action against an English team. Although, with this in mind, […]
Arsenal and Manchester City: the key Champions League lessons
Forget all the nonsense being written across the tabloids…. This by Michael Cox is what clubs and their fans should be concentrating on. Playing a more ‘English’ style can cause problems … Bayern are a more powerful side than Barcelona, but they had no answer to Arsenal’s extremely forceful start at the Emirates, seemingly unable to deal with […]
Loss to Athletic Shows Barca Need Winter Signings
It can hardly be described as a crisis. Barcelona sit top of La Liga with an amazing 40 points from a possible 45 and are through to the second round of the Champions League as group winners. But two losses in the space of five days have taken the gloss off the Catalans’ superb season […]
Latest injury a turning point moment for Messi
…”There’s fitness and conditioning, of course, but there are other things that might seem on the periphery, like sleeping in the right position, having the same pillow when you are away and training in different places. Do you really know how to clean your hands? Without leaving the bits between your fingers? If you do […]
Barcelona – Champions League’s most successful team
Barcelona are the most successful club in the modern era of the Champions League, according to a Goal study. The world’s biggest football website collated the yearly records of every club ever to qualify for the European Cup under its new banner since 1992 and found that the Catalan outfit pip AC Milan to the […]
Martino defends approach
Gerardo Martino has suggested that there would be less criticism of his tweaks to Barcelona’s style if he were from the Netherlands or had come through the club’s La Masia academy. Pundits in Catalonia were quick to notice that Rayo Vallecano had actually had more possession of the ball than Barca during Saturday’s meeting in […]
Everyone’s a liar during the transfer window
… From the other side of the negotiating table, Spurs were saying much the same thing. Their official statement noted that they did not want to sell Bale but that his resolve to leave was decisive. He had forced their hand; they had little choice. Coach Andre Villas-Boas added that “the pressure we were subjected […]
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