With 15 Liga fixtures to play and being still alive in Champions League and Spanish Cup, it’s surprising to read all the rumours that circulate in the Spanish media around the arrival of new players and, specially, a new manager to replace Frank Rijkaard. We can read today in Diario Marca that the club met Mourinho in Ghana during the Africa Cup of Nations. It’s even more suprising that a Catalan media like Diario Sport publishes today a list of potential replacement for the Dutch manager. Based on Sport, the Top 3 candidates to replace Rijkaard would be Van Basten, Wegner and Mourinho.

It seems obvious that this kind of news can easily disturb the atmosphere in the Catalan squad, after an irregular performance in La Liga where the team is 8 points behind Real Madrid, so it surprises us to see how the Catalan media start and emphasize this kind of rumours day after day.

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After the draw in Sevilla and the 7-0 Real Madrid victory, the spirits in Camp Barsa aren’t as good as last week, where they saw the gap with the White Team reduced to 6 points. Even though the team are still alive in the three competitions (Liga, Champions League and Spanish Cup), the vibe within the club isn’t as good as it could be, so they have started to focus in planning the next season. And the first player to be signed will be Ezequiel Garay, probably this week. FC Barcelona have agreed with Racing de Santander the transfer of the Argentinian defender for €14,2 million, after some weeks of negotiation between the two clubs.  FC Barcelona have also negotiated with Garay’s agent a 5 years contract.

This way FC Barcelona would be signing a player that was a target of some main European clubs, including Real Madrid, that negotiated with the player last summer.

Another story is the interest of the club to sign Cesc Fabregas. 76% of Barsa fans voted yesterday in the Catalan Newspaper Sport that the return of Cesc should be the highest priority for the club next season. The fans still don’t understand why the club let him go when it was one of the most young talents of the continent.

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Marca newspaper published yesterday a news regarding a potential exodus of players that would be in the spot if FC Barcelona don’t want any titles this season. The club understand that they might be facing the end of a cycle and if the squad don’t win Liga or Champions League they’ll launch a deep renovation of the team. There are five players who end contract this season: Edmilson, Thuram, Ezquerro, Pinto and Sylvinho (who is the most likely to stay in the club). There are another six players who could leave the club if offers arrive: Ronaldinho, Deco, Gudjohnsen, Giovani, Zambrotta and Oleguer.

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FC Barcelona are traveling to Sevilla without seven of their main players. Deco and Sylvinho have increased the list of unavailable players. Also, Zambrotta and Bojan came back injured from their stay with the Italian and Spanish national squads. These four players add up to the previously accounted absences of Puyol, Ezquerro and Jorquera, injured, and Etoo and Toure, still in the Africa Cup of Nations.

Ronaldinho to play from the start

The long list of unavailable players will mean that Ronaldinho will play from the beginning, 48 days after the defeat in Camp Nou against Real Madrid.

Marquez and Giovani, in the list

Rikjaard included Marquez and Giovani in the squad in spite of having returned from the US on Friday afternoon, where yesterday they played a friendly game with their national squads -the defender played the entire game and will travel to Sevilla without having completed a training session with the team this week.

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Didier Drogba is very keen to leave Chelsea. Some weeks ago he confirmed that his future was away from the Stanford Bridge Stadium. Yesterday he narrowed down his next club: “My future is in Milan or Barcelona”. The striker has approached FC Barcelona and he´s a player very muched liked by the club. However, it´ll be difficult to see Drogba playing in Barcelona in the near future.

The main aspect that concerns FC Barcelona is that by signing Drogba they´d be difficulting Bojan´s progression. At the moment there are three strikers in Camp Barça, Etoo, Henry and Bojan. Rikjaard struggles when the three strikers are available, that´s why Henry often plays in the left wing, as well as Etoo. Players like Messi and Giovani are also affected by the overpopulated roll of strickers.

The club fully trusts Bojan. He hasn´t played too much this year because it was his first season in the A squad, but next year it´ll be a different story as the managers expect him to play more minutes. And, if Drogba comes, he won´t be given those minutes.

Another problem is his high salary. He makes 7 million euros after tax, which seems like a lot of money for a player that, theoretically, it´d be Etoo´s natural sub. Only if Mourinho signs for FC Barcelona, the story could change. Time will say.

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In an interview with UEFA.com, Croatia star Luka Modric talked about his likely summer switch away from Croatia…

Luka Modric admitted again how keen he is to switch to FC Barcelona in June.

He told UEFA.com, “My goal is to move to bigger club during the summer and into one of the world’s best leagues.

“I am ready to play in any of the five best leagues, but I am most attracted to Spain, especially Barcelona. I am honored that they are interested in me.”

Allegedly Arsenal wanted to sign him last summer. Modric confirmed that Arsene Wenger showed his interest in bringing him at the same time as Eduardo, but he decided to wait and take the step to Barcelona.

A group of visiting journalists from Catalunya have named him the ‘new Cruyff’ and have given a famous Cruyff-esque number 14 shirt. “The journalist from El Mundo Deportivo cheered me up with this gift,” he said.

Here it goes a video with a few goals from Modric:

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Very good article and interview to the Argentinian genius Leonel Messi. A piece very worth reading:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/story/0,,2249095,00.html

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We all know that, in football, things change within minutes. One day Real Madrid is unbeatable and the following day they become only humans. One day the league looks decided and, the following day, closing the 6 points gap with the eternal rival seems like an achievable quest. If we bear in mind that there are 16 remaining league games to played -a total of 48 points- it feels obvious that it’s a bit too soon to consider the league finished. FC Barcelona fans don’t forget that last season Real Madrid achieved something very similar, so they are specially keen to get their revenge.

A big percentage of the real chances to reach their target will depend on the result of the two next games, both outside the Nou Camp, against Sevilla and Zaragoza. If FC Barcelona comes back with two victories in the pocket, we might be talking about a completely different story until the end of the season. After those games the team will also add two important players, Toure Yaya and Samuel Etoo, playing the Cup of Africa at the moment.

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It’s difficult for a person like Abramovich to stay unnoticed wherever they go, and Barcelona isn’t an exception. Obviously, the Chelsea’s owner can have many reasons to visit a city like Barcelona, but is well known how eager Abramovich is to hire Rolandinho, so a visit like the one that he paid over the weekend inevitably started the rumor about the nature of the Russian’s visit.

What is known for sure is that Abramovich didn’t attend the game in Nou Camp, which would have turned on all the alerts in Camp Barsa, not just regarding Ronaldinho but also Frank Rikjaard, a manager that is much liked in Stamford Bridge.

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Xavi´s goal two minutes from the hour was enough to beat Osasuna and reduce the gap with Real Madrid to six point, after the White Team lost against Almeria on Saturday. It´s true that now all the teams come to Camp Nou to put 10 players behind the ball, but it´s also true that the squad are not making good use of all the chances of goal that they generate. We saw that against Villareal on Wednesday and last night against Osasuna. It seems the opposite to how Real Madrid have been winning their games lately, which is taking advantage of every goal chance.

Rikjaard’s men chased Ricardo’s goal for the entire half, but the Osasuna goalkeeper’s performance was outstanding. The best chances for FC Barcelona came from Messi (15′), from Iniesta in a one to one with Ricardo after a great pass from Bojan (28′), and another great kick from Messi that missed the goal by centimeters (40′). Also Henry showed his class (32′), and Bojan, who was very active during the first half, tried in the minutes 38 and 44.

Second half to be forgotten

The second half was a completely different story. Apart from the goal, two minutes from the end, there was just one goal chance by Deco (69′). But the miracle came in the minute 88′, when Xavi took the Camp Nou from their depression with a superb goal, the most celebrated one in the last times.

La Liga is not decided

FC Barcelona reduced to six the nine points disadvantage with Real Madrid, after their unexpected defeat in Almeria on Saturday.

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