Tag: Barcelona

Valverde Defends Resting Messi

Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde has defended his decision to not use Lionel Messi in the penultimate game of the campaign. Barcelona’s unbeaten tag came to a conclusion after the 5-4 defeat against an unlikely opponent in the form of Levante. Even though Barcelona came up with four goals going forward, they were unable to keep out a brilliant Levante outfit, who had a 4-1 lead at one point in the game. Philippe Coutinho’s hat-trick was responsible for getting Barcelona out of a tricky situation but it was not sufficient to prevent a first defeat of the campaign for the Catalan outfit.

Valverde defended his decision not to utilise Messi in the match. He said: “I feel very angry but I have to look forward because what makes me angry isn’t going to give me solutions. Continue reading Valverde Defends Resting Messi

LA LIGA REJECT PAYMENT FOR NEYMAR

La Liga have rejected the payment for Neymar as lawyers of the star seek to trigger his release clause of £198 million.


The 25-year old is expected to move to Paris St-Germain in a record shattering move this summer. The player has informed the club of his decision to exit and even his teammates. However, La Liga have refused to sanction the deal, claiming PSG are violating Financial Fair Play rules.

Spanish sources earlier claimed that Barcelona would report the incident to UEFA but nothing so far. In Spain, players need to buy themselves from their contract with clubs which is what Neymar’s reps have done.

Players would deposit the buyout clause with La Liga so he/she could be release from his/her contractual obligations. It is the league that then releases the money to the club involved.

“We can confirm that the lawyers of the player have come to La Liga to deposit the clause and that it has been rejected,” La Liga claimed. Continue reading LA LIGA REJECT PAYMENT FOR NEYMAR

DE GEA’S STOCK KEEP RISING

It was the start of an important season and Manchester United were in dire need of making a comeback statement after a recent pause of their title winning spree no thanks to Manchester City and Chelsea.


The once dominant traditional contenders where now at full fledge war with Arab and Russian billions.

Something else troubled The Red Devils though;They were entering a season without legendary goalie Erdwin Van der Sarand there was a lot of uncertainty over the success of whoever was going to take the baton from the then 31-year old. The last time Manchester united faced a goalie crisis; it took years to land one capable of really standing in the big shoes of legend Peter Schmeichel. And that person was yes Van der Sar.

The first few matches of David de Geawere far from fun. The Spaniard was soon under fire for having a very poor foot work. Even as flashes of his brilliance were sometimes aired the uneasiness refused to go. Continue reading DE GEA’S STOCK KEEP RISING

Eusebio is not going to be the successor of Luis Enrique

Earlier in the season, Luis Enrique announced that he will step down as the head coach of Barcelona when the end of the season arrives and this has sparked rumors to spread around in relation to who is going to step up and become next manager of Barcelona, one of the candidates that was being heavily linked with the coaching position in Camp Nou was EusebioSacritan.


Eusebio Sacristan is a former player of Barcelona; he helped the Spanish club in lifting 4 La Liga trophies as well as more pieces of silverware during his time spent as a player back in the 1990’s.

A few years later on and Eusebio went on to become the assistant coach of Barcelona as well as the head coach of the youth academy of Barcelona. Eusebio is currently the head coach of Real Sociedad and even though he has the chance of making a return to Camp Nou, the 52 year old Spanish tactician recently said that he has no intentions of leaving Real Sociedad. Continue reading Eusebio is not going to be the successor of Luis Enrique

Neymar not Frustrated about Ballon d’Or award

Neymar is not frustrated at not being able to have his hands on the Ballon d’Or award yet in his career.


In the opinion of Neymar, personal awards are not the biggest prizes in the game and even though he has aimed for Ballon d’Or in the past couple of years, it has not affected him that he hasn’t got it to his name.

As per the striker, out of so many fantastic players in the world, Ballon d’Or has to go to just one individual and he understands that. It will not be a big regret for him if he has to bid goodbye to the game without adding that award to his cabinet because it is not a matter of life and death for him. It is not the reason why he is involved in the game either. The reason for his involvement in the game is only the enjoyment that he gets from the game and nothing else and he is enjoying himself to the fullest at the present moment in his career. Continue reading Neymar not Frustrated about Ballon d’Or award

Enrique is happy despite losing

A few days ago on October 25, Barcelona suffered a rather surprising 1-0 defeat against Espanyol and the aftermath that rose with this result has seen Luis Enrique receiving heavy criticism mostly due to his selection decisions as none of Barcelona’s truly influential players were given playing time in this match and they ultimately succumbed to defeat.

When the match reached it’s end, Luis Enrique was questioned about his decision to drop his high profile and star players such as: Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez. Continue reading Enrique is happy despite losing

Barcelona planning for life after Dani Alves

Dani Alves will be 34 years old next year, and it will be hard to imagine Barcelona giving their long-serving right-back a new contract.


For this reason, Barcelona will have to start planning for a replacement at the moment itself.

One possibility will be Hector Bellerin. The latter has come through the ranks at Arsenal and has established himself as a first-team player. Given that he is a former Barcelona academy player, he may appear to be the obvious player to fill the void that will be left by Alves. However, you should expect Arsenal not to give up on their player easily especially now that they are not a selling club anymore. Bellerin is an established player for the Arsenal defence, and it will be hard to find them allowing him to leave their team.

Another possibility for Barcelona will be CesarAzpilicueta. The Chelsea player is currently frustrated playing on the left side of the defence, and it is likely that a good offer coming from Barcelona may tempt the defender to make the move to Spain. However, it is very unlikely that Chelsea will let the player go, and we will have to wait for the arrival of Conte to find out how he is going to structure his team. Continue reading Barcelona planning for life after Dani Alves

Barcelona in danger of being caught by rivals

Just a few games ago, it was believed that Barcelona already won the Spanish title.

Indeed, they were leading the table with a 8 points lead over Atletico and a 12 points lead over Real Madrid. But with only 1 point in a possible 9, Barcelona has found their lead being cut off to only 3 and 4 points over Atletico and Real Madrid.

The latest defeat has been in the hands of Real Sociedad where Barcelona has always found it hard to win during recent seasons.

Real Madrid’s coachZinedine Zidane had previously already conceded defeat in the title race and suggested that the title was already won by Barcelona. Atletico Madrid’s coach Diego Simeone, on the other hand, has always claimed that they were not in the title race. But the recent run of results from Barcelona has blown the title race wide open, and any of these three teams can still claim to win the title.

This poor run of form has started with the draw against Villareal. In this match, Barcelona was leading 2-0 at some point, and they conceded two goals only to draw the game. After that, it was their poor performance in the Classico where they were beaten 2-1 by Real Madrid on their home ground despite having opened the score. Continue reading Barcelona in danger of being caught by rivals

NO SURPRISE FOR ENRIQUE

The success that Luis Suarez has achieved at Barcelona, it has not surprised Luis Enrique a single bit.

According to Enrique, Suarez has scored goals fluently right from the start of his career.

So, the kind of numbers he has produced at Barcelona, it’s not to be surprised with.

Many had doubted Suarez’s ability to dominate as much in Spain as he had done in England, but, he has proved all of them wrong.

This season in particular, the Uruguayan has played some spectacular Football in the Spanish Premiership and in other tournaments and is presently leading the goal scoring chart for Barcelona.

Praising him in his press conference the other evening, Enrique said, “It doesn’t surprise me to see Luis come to Barcelona and deliver the goods this consistently. His goal-scoring rate has been fantastic throughout his career. He has contributed heavily for all the teams he has played for. He is a player with great ability.”

When asked if 2015 was the most successful year of his managerial career as he guided Barcelona to huge amount of success, the Spaniard said, “Look, past is past. We did wonderfully in 2015, but, it’s gone now. It’s history. We need to start afresh and look to repeat it all over again and hopefully, we do that.”

“There’s not too much gap in the level of the top teams in Europe. So, you can’t take anything for granted. You have to look to keep getting better and better. And, that I am saying not only for players, but, for us coaches as well and for each and every person who is a part of the club. Everyone can improve.”

Barcelona literally won every competition they took part in, including the Champions League, the previous year.