Rumour-mania 2009 II

Last month we started to get the first round of rumours which included the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Benzema. Now it is a little bit deeper and new names have shown up. Some rumours start to have some logic background while others are just pure speculations. So let’s look at the new media stories

Eto’o…only he knows. Samuel Eto’o will have to decide this coming summer whether he wants to stay in Nou Camp or not. His contract will expire in 2010 and Barcelona cannot afford to have the best striker in the world leave and not make a reasonable 30 million or more profit. There are those who think that Eto’o will likely score more than 30 goals this year just to leave to another team. Others think that he wants to stay in Barça. But only he knows; Barcelona has already tried to establish some contacts with his manager to set a contract extension deal but Samuel has strongly denied such possibility now due to the fact that he wants to be focused on the team only. This can only mean that he will negotiate a new contract but under his terms. His business card: 118 goals in 5 seasons so far. This season alone he’s scored 21 goals in 21 games.

Cristiano Again. Real Madrid is at the moment like that annoying kid who won’t stop crying until he gets what he wants. Every day there is a new “secret”, yet known, plan to finally bring the so called first, second and third best player of the world Cristiano Ronaldo. The last plan seems to be the one that finally will work. According to Spanish sports newspaper AS Real Madrid got a loan of 50 million euros approved by Santander Bank that will help them pay the high cost of Ronaldo which is expected to be around the 100 millions. Meanwhile, recently signed player Huntelaar is barely playing and hasn’t even scored. Not a good situation for a 20 million euro player. To add just a little more to the rumour party that is currently Real Madrid they just announce that if Florentino Perez is running for presidency again he will more likely bring Ancellotti as his coach for the team. This is not the best scenario for a team that needs to win La Liga and the UEFA Champions League…or are they passively surrendering?

The New Addition to Team Rumour. Recently a new name has been the talk of the month. This time is not Ronaldo or Benzema. Instead this is a new face which can engage Barça and Madrid in a never-ending battle once again. The man is a fantastic player worth 28 million euros and a place in any team in world. I’m talking of course about Frank Ribery. The Frenchman is said to be a bit unhappy at Munich and willing to change air in the near future. Barcelona and Madrid have expressed their desire to add this fantastic player to their line-up. For Barcelona, it would mean to add the final piece of the puzzle to their already fantastic attacking line. Ribery is a wing by nature that does wonders in both of them; at Nou Camp his place will be at the left wing. Madrid on the other hand wants to make an impact and forget about the present season. Recently on loan player Foubert seems to be more of the same low quality players that they have bought so it’s time to open the wallets again and bring some names and pretty game along.

One More Step

It wasn’t until Barcelona played against Sporting at “El Molinon” stadium when we saw what Pep’s team could do. Before that game Barcelona was being hammered by the media after losing their first game against Numancia and then tying 1-1 against Racing at their debut at home. Four months later Barça received the first victim of their assault to La lIga.

Sporting dictates the pace. It wasn’t because they dominated the game nor because they showed a menacing attitude; instead, Sporting showed very little in the first minutes of the game and Barça knew how they had to play. Barça won despite the fact that they didn’t bring the A-game throughout the game; instead, they understood what Sporting came to do and showed that they were not going to need to bring the A-game. When a team is as effective as Barcelona is at this moment even a somehow good performance can be devastating. It is a shame that small teams such as Sporting don’t go to Nou Camp wanting to play but instead trying not to lose by too many goals. If the end result is going to be a lost game anyways they should instead create more danger play face to face to Barcelona. Getafe did it and got a point. Hey that’s something.

Eto’o…21 goals and counting. When the Cameroonian scores the team wins; as simple as that; today he scored at minute 21 after a textbook counter attack lead by Iniesta. Then in minute 40 he scored again. And in the second half he almost scored twice. It’s been 2 seasons since we got somebody in Barcelona scoring 20+ goals. Coincidentally, the last 2 seasons were damned by injuries that did not help at all. Barcelona is walking straight to the title and Messi, Eto’o and Henry are leading the way. In all competitions they’ve scored 102 goals of which more than 60 have been by these 3 players. If injuries give Barcelona a break these team is going to break many more records including the most goals in la Liga in one season which currently stand at 107 goals by Real Madrid.

Top 10 Barça:

1- Messi (last week 1): today he didn’t score but created a lot of dangerous situation and combined well with Alves in the third goal.

2- Alves (last week 3): Amazing performance by Alves tonight. A beautiful goal that not many players can do. He still is my MVP of the year.

3- Eto’o (last week 5): he’s in love with the goal. When he scores Barça is heading to a victory. Don’t be surprise if he reaches the 30+ goal mark

4- Xavi (last week 2): a couple of places behind with respect to last week ranking not because he played bad or something like that but because the top 3 are just too good.

5- Iniesta (last week 4): Iniesta is just the kind of players that do their job and more. He created game and on top of that he’s very good on every one on one play.

6- Henry (last week 6): Can’t complain about anything he’s doing this season. He scores goals, he make passes on goals and is the reference of the team in the left wing.

7- Busquets (last week 10): today he did everything good. He creates game with very precise passes and he also recovers many balls during the game. He was called by the national team. Watch him become a key element of Barça in the future

8- Valdes (last week 8): Victor can be easily a top 5 player but he just doesn’t have too much work to do when the whole team plays good defence. Couldn’t do much in the goal today.

9- Puyol (last week NR): the captain debuts in this top 10 after coming from a minor injury. Didn’t have too much work today.

10- Bojan (last week NR): Bojan didn’t play tonight but he did play against Mallorca last Thursday. He’ll be a reference of this team in the future.

Effortless Victory

Was that a semi-final? That is the question many people who followed the Barcelona VS Mallorca game asked after seeing such a low standard encounter. Being a semi-final of what it used to be the second most prestigious tournament in Spain turned out to be a pseudo- friendly match between these two teams. Let’s be honest, the king’s cup is no longer a desired cup for big clubs such as Barcelona; and it’s even worst for teams in relegation zone in the league as they basically care more for staying in the first division which is perfectly understandable. The script was well written. Barça: Top team in his way to winning the league and with hopes for their 3rd European crown. Mallorca on the other hand is battling to stay in first division and winning this cup will do nothing for that cause. The final result? Teams playing their bench players, fans not showing up to the game.

Barça takes a nap and win. Slow game, poor spectacle with only 2 players giving us a reason to care; I’m talking about Bojan and Iniesta. But I cannot blame Barcelona for napping all the game. Mallorca showed no desired, no ambition to do an effort to at least try to win. Add to that the fact that the referee wanted to be the highlight of the game giving up to 4 yellow cards in the first half of which only 1 was a “maybe”. The good news is that Barça, even when napping, was able to pull a nice result. 2-0 with 2 gorgeous goals was the best reward to the die-heard fans that show up for that game. This lead is important because should the score at Ono Stadi, Mallorca will have to score 4 goals to pass. Barcelona as of now has a foot and half of the other in the final

Good news for Pep. Guardiola had more than one reason to worry at the end of last game in Santander when he learned that he had no defenders available for this weekend game against Sporting. Puyol was out due to an injury; Marquez saw red card as well as Pique; and on top of that, Alves saw the 5th yellow card which cause a suspension of one game. Things could be worse for Barça as one of the reasons for their success attacking is their solid defence. Nonetheless, Puyol seems to be recovered sooner than expected and he might be playing this weekend and the committee of sport decision revocked the 5th yellow of Alves after Barcelona presented reasons to backup that petition. This weekend the defence will be better than expected and sporting is not in very good conditions. A tough game it will be but it is hard to see sporting resisting Barça’s arsenal.