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.

Real Madrid VS Barcelona: Worlds Apart

Worlds Apart: after watching the round 32 of La Liga it is impossible not to see the immense difference between the two championship contenders Real Madrid and Barcelona. Despite the fact that both of them got the three points from their respective encounters their games are world apart; Real Madrid wins suffering and in the last minute, they allow their rivals to dominate them in their own stadium; if they’re still fighting for the championship it is based only on the never-ending hope that this team has. Barça, on the other hand, is able to liquidate their rivals in just 45 minutes and we are talking of the likes of Bayern Munich, Lyon, Atletico de Madrid and others; at home they dominate completely and mesmerize viewers all around the world with their continues passes and never ending pressure. Playing like that, Barcelona should claim their well deserved title; however, football is an ingrate sport so it is not over until it is over.

Iniesta is Just Too Much: a lot of the time when we refer to Barcelona we talk about the main players such as Eto’o and his goals (27 so far), about Henry and how he’s now a more mature player, about Messi and how he’s the team’s main star. However, right now there is only one player that is making the difference in this team and deserves to have a bit more of recognition; Andres Iniesta. This player right now is one step ahead of everybody, he has the same touch of gods as Xavi, the one-on-one skills that Messi has and now he’s even scoring a lot of goals. Last night, Pep played without Messi and the team played like they always do: dominating and crushing their rivals in less than 60 minutes. Andres brings so much to the game that it is not even funny; just as Eto’o said in the after-game interview “Andres deserves a Golden Ball award along with Messi”. The best thing about Andres is that despite the fact that he plays like only few in the world and that the Nou Camp chants his name on a daily basis he still very humble and his professionalism is enviable.

Pepe’s Madness: while Andres Iniesta mesmerize football fan with his beautiful skills Real Madrid defender Pepe shocks the world with his unforgivable action against Casquero. The defender made a fool of himself losing control and tackling the Getafe striker after he was already in the floor; and not happy with himself, he threw a punch at another Getafe players; and to make things even worst he exists the field insulting the referees. The Spanish Football Federation has to take serious actions against this kind of despicable behaviours; so far it is known that he can miss four games at the very least even though it should be around the 10 games mark. This should be a lesson to anybody playing for a professional club. Pepe not only created a bad image for himself but for the shirt and the colors he represents. Diario Marca from Madrid says today that we shouldn’t make a devil out of Pepe and to some extent it is true; but no explanation can justify what he did. He shouldn’t be playing the rest of the season (7 games) so that the message is clear and a situation like this never happens again.