The Summer Season

 Even though the playing season is off this time of the year, there is what I like to call the “behind the desk season” with club managers faxing and calling each other to close transfers. To me, this is the stepping-stone of a successful season. Players transfer is an art in which success depends not only on the players’ name but also in the economic contribution to the club, the quality and skills that he brings to the team and, of course, its effect on the moral of the team.

Tito’s Barcelona has started on the right foot with the signing of Jordi Alba but there are still some questions that must be answered. For instance, who will the club sign for the center-back position? All signs point at Javi Matinez but if that’s the case I don’t expect to see him signing until mid August. Why? His club does not want to negotiate and expect any buyer to pay them the exit clause price. This means that any buyer would need to spend 57 millions (40 for the clause, 17 in taxes) unless they convince Athletic to negotiate.

Barcelona has already made it clear that they have 26 millions available for the transfer of the center back but they also will go a bit further if necessary. A believe the idea is to reach a similar deal to the one for Alexis Sanchez a year ago. That is, a deal that have a significant amount of hard cash right in front an some easy to reach variables like making it to the champions league, the amount of minutes played in the season etc.  It’s a win-win situation as the selling club gets a total amount close to what they wanted originally while Barcelona gets to write on their books just the cash part of the deal. That’s the beauty of finance.

I do think it is possible to reach such deal but it will require some heavy negotiations along with the help of the player. He would probably have to forgive part of his salary in the same way Mascherano and Fabregas did. The question is: is Javi Martinez worth so much trouble? In the current market I’d say yes. He’s young; he’s definitely a good center back though originally he is a defensive midfielder; and best of all he’s teammate with several members of the Barcelona squad who are also in the Spanish national team. Valuation of players is a misguided practice because it’s based on the past but it’s evaluated on the future. Alves’s cost was 35 millions but it almost seems like a steal based on his performance. Ibrahimovic cost 65 millions and it couldn’t have been a worse deal.

But signings aside there is still one name that seems to come back to the rumors: Ibrahim Afellay. His situation is complicated because he was in the injured list for the entire season. Just when he was starting to adapt to the team and show his talent he injured his knee ligaments. He’s back and he’s still got a good reputation behind his name, which means there are some big teams interested in singing him.

But this is when I ask: should Barcelona sell him? Don’t get me wrong; from a financial point of view any transfer operation will give us a large margin. Thanks to the expiring day of his contract with PSV, Barcelona was able to buy him for 3 millions euros and his exit price would not be less than 8. But to me, it feels rather cheap to sell him without giving him a good opportunity first. After all, he was the man behind Messi’s first goal at the Bernabeu in the Champions League semifinal in 2011. I think the right thing to do would be to give him a year to test how can he contributes. It’s not every day that you find a good player, with a good attitude. He can also play in the midfield as well as the wings.  Barcelona gave Henrik Larsson an opportunity after missing his debut season thanks to a similar injury and the results were more than positive.

If there is an important lesson that Barcelona should take from the past season is that there is no such thing as too much talent. Injuries occur throughout the season and it’s important to have players that can contribute to the team.

Mission Accomplished

Yesterday Barcelona qualified for their sixth Champions’ League final after a 1-1 tie with Chelsea at Stanford Bridge. Unfortunately this game will be remembered mostly because of the horrendous refereeing rather than the amazing goal by Iniesta in the last second of the added time. To be frank, the referee made a lot of missed call specially the red card to Abidal. That decision cost Chelsea a lot of the match; the referee saw that he made a huge mistake and tried to made up for it by ignoring a very controversial hand ball by Pique with the argument that it wasn’t voluntary.

Essien Zidane & Super Iniesta: Michael Essien wore yesterday the suit of Zidane when he scored an amazing and gorgeous goal in the 9th minute that remembered Zidane’s best goal ever- in the Champions’ League final against Leverkusen- and from that point on Hiddink played the game he wanted: anti-football. Despite the fact that Barça was missing their 2 center backs-Puyol & Marquez- Chelsea did not make enough effort to create more danger around that area. Instead, they decided to defend for the rest of the game and wait for a counter attack that would reach Drogba. To make things even more shameful for Chelsea’s game, they allowed Barça to take control of the game –even when they were missing one player- Barcelona on the other hand played one of their worst games in the year. They didn’t make any shot on target for 92 minutes; something very uncharacteristic of this team. Alves played horribly and will be missing the final due to unnecessary fouls. Eto’o barely appeared throughout the game and Messi was being covered by 3 players every time he was ready to receive the ball. In the end the heroes of this team were Valdes and Iniesta; Andres for scoring that goal that represents the chance of winning the third European championship and Valdes for stopping a one on one against Drogba. In the end, if Chelsea is not in the final is not because the penalties that the referee missed but because they couldn’t finish the job.

The Best Philosophy Won: sadly, Hiddink did his job very well in the first game. He nullified Barcelona completely and with the 0-0 result at the end it seemed as though they had done the job properly even though that meant a disgraceful display of his men. Barcelona on the other hand always had the possession of the ball and had a philosophy that Guardiola has been applying since his first game: Attack, Attack, and Attack. The moment Essien scored Chelsea try to re-apply the dosage to their rivals but the difference is that now only one goal from Barça was enough to eliminate them as it did happen at the end. Barça played the same game over and over again and dominated one of the most difficult stadiums in the world. It’s true that yesterday the display wasn’t pretty at all but throughout the season it has been a different story and this spectacle football that Guardiola is showing every game deserved to be seen in the final. Chelsea lost the chance to repeat the final and it is due mostly because they gambled with the result; unfortunately, when you gamble you can win…or lose. Now against Manchester United Barcelona is going to be playing without Alves and Abidal but Pep will know that to do best as he as shown every time he has to improvise something.

Now, To Finish the Job: Barça is in the final of the two cups it fights for and one step away from winning La Liga- if Madrid loses this weekend or tie and Barça wins they’ll be champions- so it means that the objectives are almost done. Johan Cruyff has said something that is very true and it is that the objective in the Champions League and in the King’s Cup has to be being in the final. Once you are there the objectives has been achieved and you just need to give 110% to try to win it but at the end of the day the final is just one game and a lot can happen in just one game. In La Liga is a different story as it represents an award to the most constant team; Barça has to make sure to win that tournament as soon as possible so they can concentrate in the other 2. All year long Barça has shown that they are displaying the best football in Europe and it would be nice for a change to see football being a bit fare and do some justice. This team is at the entrance of the house of glory; now it’s time to give a few steps forward and finish the job.

Game, Set, & Match: Barça!

Unforgettable: what happened this past Saturday in the Santiago Bernabeu will not be forgotten ever by football fans around the world. Saying that Barça had been superior to Madrid in terms of their game was a statement that needed to be confirmed and Guardiola and his players were responsible to show the world that without any shadow of doubt they were the best team. In the 50s there was the Barça of the 5 cups -the best Barça to date in the writer’s opinion- then the Barça of Cruyff (player) is remembered for the 0-5 in the Bernabeu; then there was the Dream Team of Cruyff, now the coach, who’s remembered for many things such as the first champions league title and the 5-0 against Madrid at home; lastly we had the Barça of Frank Rijkaard which was a team called to make history but died sooner than they expected; they will always be remembered as the team that brought the second champions league title and the one that beat Madrid 0-3 at the Bernabeu the day that the Madrid’s fan cheered for Ronaldinho. Now Guardiola’s team has entered history; they will always be remembered for the 2-6 victory at the Bernabeu. The display of football as an art is appreciated even by the most ultra fans of Real Madrid.

Only 2 New Faces: Comparing this game to what happened a year ago when the Catalans lost 4-1 to Madrid one may think that Guardiola did an intensive renovation of the team bringing new faces and getting rid of many but the truth is that Pep used only two new players yesterday: Alves and Pique. Henry, Eto’o, Messi, Xavi, Abidal, Toure, Iniesta, Puyol, & Valdes were playing for this team last year. This goes to show that what Barcelona needed was not a new philosophy of playing or new players but a strict working ethic. Pep is a coach who was being blamed of lack of experience; however, he acts as a veteran coach guarding every single small detail. Against Madrid, he cracked down were the weak points were and placed Messi in that spot- in between the defensive mid-fielder and the center back- and to do this he had to “sacrificed” Eto’o in the right wing. The strategy worked to perfection and shows that Guardiola spent hours figuring out how to beat Madrid. His next job is not to see how Chelsea plays because he has done that already; instead, he has to fix the problems that his defence is having with corners and free kicks.

Next Objective = Rome: with La Liga almost won and the objective in the king’s cup already achieved- being in the final- the next objective is to eliminate Chelsea at Stanford Bridge in two days. This team deserves to be in the final of the champions’ league but deserving it is not enough and just like they did against Real they have to prove it against Chelsea. Whether the final is won or not is not something they have to think about; the objective has to be a place in the final as it shows that you were a direct championship contender. The biggest concern that Guardiola has is that Marquez is out for the rest of the season and Puyol is serving a suspension so he will only have Pique. Some suggest that Toure will be used as center back and other suggest that Caceres will have the opportunity of a lifetime to shine. Whatever happen I’m confident that this team has the tools to make it to Rome… a 1-1 will do.