We Love Barcelona

Barcelona suffered a shock thrashing at the hands of Liverpool in a pre-season friendly game and manager Luis Enrique admitted that it clearly was not the team’s best day.

A 4-0 result in the International Champions Cup is unlikely to create a lot of uncertainty surrounding the Spanish giants ahead of the new season. They are still expected to be favourites for the league title that they won in style last season. However, Enrique will be hoping to perform much better in the Champions League where they will face opponents even stronger than Liverpool.

One of the reasons for the defeat could be that Liverpool are in a much better physical status after having begun pre-season earlier. The English league starts a few weeks ahead of the Spanish league. Even then, such a massive score would not be expected when Barcelona step onto the pitch.Enrique will be looking to improve the defence before they begin their title defence. Before the start of the title defence, Barcelona take on Sevilla in the Spanish Super Cup on August 14. The club also take onSampdoria in the Trofeo Joan Gamper as a final preparation. Individual errors were a major factor in Barcelona conceding four goals, butEnrique chose to look at the positives instead.

“It definitely wasn’t our best day. We made a number of errors. After the first goal we had chances, but then we let in two quick goals and that was the match.But as a spectacle, for the fans and the stadium, we have to look at the positive side of things.It was nice to see the affection the Liverpool have for Luis [Suarez], and it was a shame he couldn’t score,” said the manager.“It is clear that today we needed some more players back, to reach the level that Liverpool were playing at,” said midfielder Ivan Rakitic.

Manchester City confirmed that it has defeated Spanish giant Barcelona in the race to sign Benjamin Garre, the grandson of Oscar Garre who won the World Cup back in 1986.

Pep Guardiola is excited to sign the very talented player who has been making waves. The Spanish tactician signed the rising youngster from Velez Sarsfield, according to reports from Goal.

Barcelona was really keen on landing the player especially as Garre is considered one of the best players of his generation in Argentina. His father Oscar Garre is a former defender who was part of the national team of Argentina when they lifted the 1986 World Cup. Since the player was not under contract, Man City would pay only minimal compensation. The young player, who has spent time in England with Manchester United, excitedly said: “I was taken to see the club and train. Velez, as always, respected me and gave me the opportunity to travel. But I could not say if I will one day join [United] because this is something that my family is in charge of.”

Barcelona have also lost out on signing some other players this summer. One of their defenders Dani Alves left to join Italian champions Juventus recently. Alves will be plying his trade in Turin in the coming campaign but his leave wasn’t celebrated as much, especially as he was a legend.

He had his last contract extended by a year in the last minute and when he left he claimed he did because playing in La Liga for the Catalan club was too easy.

Juventus wanted to do a double swoop of Alves and Javier Mascherano but have decided to abandon the idea of landing Mascherano this summer. Juve director Guiseppe Marotta told La Gazzetta dello Sport that the Catalan giant were even not likely to sell Mascherano after the manager Luis Enrique assured him of his place in the team, despite having two years left. Marotta said he was happy with the two players he got. He said: “We have made two important signings with Miralem Pjanic and Dani Alves as we worked on the market and started building the team for next season.

Even though he came through the ranks at Espanyol, Marc Bartra was completely accepted as one of their own by Barcelona supporters.

This was one of the few occasions in which this event has happened. It was highly anticipated that Bartra would go on to become one of the finest in the Barcelona ranks. However, he has surprised many by completing a move to Borussia Dortmund at the end of the 2015-16 season.Bartra has just brought an end to 6 years at the Camp Nou as a first-team player.

Recalling back at the reasons for his exit,Bartra says that he will not talk anything bad about manager Luis Enrique. Since his return to the club as a manager, Enrique has won a lot of plaudits and many even feel that the team are playing better than the Guardiola days. They have certainly been as successful – if not better – than Guardiola’s team, while not getting the same amount of headlines. Bartra has seen the manager successfully take the pressure away from the likes of Lionel Messi, who has been the main focus over the last decade. Instead, he has been able to get players like Neymar and the Luis Suarez performing on an even better level.

Bartra says that the move to Dortmund came quickly and there was no looking back.“It was all really quick. As soon as we received the offer, we valued it as a really good one, and it filled me with excitement. It’s an important challenge for me. It was a big step, but seeing how last season was, I imagined it would happen. I think this option arrived at a really good time, in which I have gone through everything. I’ve had good years at Barça, and tough years, but in general they’re moments which have made me mature,” said Bartra.

Luis Enrique was extremely happy with the way Barcelona returned to their ruthless effectiveness in the 8-0 win over Deportivo la Coruna.

The game was always expected to be an easy one for the Catalan club. However, cause for concern was raised a few days ago after the club suffered a shock loss against Valencia. This was the third consecutive defeat for Barcelona and this phenomenon has not taken place for more than a decade. Suddenly, Barcelona looked like a shadow of the team that went on an unbeaten run of 39 games before it was finally broken by Real Madrid winning at the Camp Nou.

The team has been looking tired and devoid of ideas. Manager Enrique has been criticised for having a thin squad when he was aware of the club being involved in competitions like the Club World Cup aside from a whole host of domestic and European commitments. Barcelona have been fielding the same starting line-up for a number of matches. Goalscoring was a major factor in the success, but the forward line up of Messi, Suarez, and Neymar have not been functioning well in recent weeks. They provided the best answer possible after thrashing Deportivo la Coruna.

Suarez came up with four goals on his own, while Messi, Neymar, Ivan Rakitic, and Bartra were also on the scoresheet.”The game was very similar to Valencia (a 2-1 home defeat). We did a great job today and I don’t know if we had more or less chances, but of course we were incredibly effective, that was the fundamental difference.This time we had infinite solutions and we moved the ball around midfield really well, but I insist that we did the same against Valencia and look at the result.In this job you have to be prepared for everything to happen and always be aware,” said Enrique.

Fortunately for the supporters of Birmingham City, Gary Rowett announced his desire to stay with the Football League Championship club on a long term basis and this is excellent news for everyone who wants to see the English outfit excel with positive results.

When Gary Rowett took control of Birmingham City on October 27 of 2015 and he has guided the club from the bottom of the League Championship to the top spots of the league and are in a comfortable position of snatching a playoff position with a possibility of getting promoted to the Premier League.

So far, it’s been a very impressive campaign for Rowett in St.Andrew’s. who has gained the support and trust of the fanatics of Birmingham City. There were rumors going around claiming that Gary Rowett was going to join a number of different clubs some of these were: Fulham and Queens Park Rangers but all of these rumors were shut down when the director of Birmingham City confirmed it as Panos Pavlakis said: “Fans can rest assured that everyone at the club is together as one, striving for further improvement and success with Gary at the helm as manager.”

When this announcement was officially made to the public, fans of the club voiced their happiness through social media as they said that this was a huge relief and Gary Rowett truly deserves to have his contract extended. Making a club go from the bottom spots of a league into the higher section and have a chance of competing in the Premier League and this was accomplished in a relatively short period of time.

Even if Birmingham City does not manage to make that final push and enter as well as stay in the highly coveted play off zone, Gary Rowett has earned his stay with the club.

It has been confirmed by the president of Barcelona, Josep Maria Bartomeu that Luis Enrique is interested and attempting to sign another attacking powerhouse to the team and this new player might be signed within the upcoming few weeks when the winter transfer window opens.

Barcelona was fined by FIFA and not allowed to make any transfers for an entire year due to inconsistencies that were found in some of their previous signings but this sanction will be reaching it’s end in January of 2016 and the Spanish club will be able to add new players.

Despite the FIFA ban that was issued to Barcelona, they still managed to secure the services of ArdaTuran and Aleis Vidal but none of them have been actually able to play in any competitive game for the team of Luis Enrique, they will be able to finally get some playing time starting from January.
Even with the addition of these players, Luis Enrique is still interested in signing a few more performers that can improve his squad even further; this was recently announced by Barcelona’s Josep Maria Bartomeu.

The president of the Spanish club voiced the plans of Luis Enrique as he said: “The coach and the technical staff want a striker. If he comes it will be a loan deal with a right to buy. We’ll also have ArdaTuran and Vidal coming in, who are two great players.”

It comes as a surprise to know that Luis Enrique and the rest of the technical staff are interested to sign yet another offensive player, taking into consideration that Barcelona 36 goals in 15 matches which is the 2nd highest amount of the entire La Liga followed behind only by Real Madrid.

It’s likely that this new attacker will be used as a backup option more than anything else as the offensive duties of Barcelona are already being carried on by Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar.

Lionel Messi was often spoken as the driving force behind Barcelona’s success in the last five years, but it is seems that the club are finally moving away from depending heavily on the Argentine.

When it was revealed that Messi would spend a couple of months on the sidelines, Barcelona feared for the worst. However, they have been able to tide over this period largely by the brilliance of Neymar and Luis Suarez. The two strikers combined to provide a three-point advantage for the Catalan club in the la Liga table. It is a massive advantage for the team ahead of the first El Clasico this weekend.

Neymar and Suarez have almost played every game in the last couple of months, but manager Enrique says that he will not rest either of them for the upcoming Champions League match against Bate Borisov. This game appears to be an easy victory for the home team. A victory would put them closer towards qualification for the last 16, while other results going their way could also be a major help. BATE are bottom of the group but Barcelona are not significantly far ahead. The team had a disastrous opening game against Roma following a 1-1 draw.

Enrique is keen to avoid a drop in form by resting key players. “The objective is to beat Bate Borisov and to win the group. Obviously the importance of finishing first depends on who is second in the other groups but we want to give a message that we are ready and prepared. Last year I was able to do what I wanted with the amount of minutes that players had, even though I was criticised at the time, and now I am restricted by the number of players available. We will have players back soon, along with others available in January,” said Enrique.

Barcelona’s election is scheduled to take place on July 16 and the former president of the Spanish club Joan Laporta announced his intention to make a return and take charge of Barcelona just how he used to starting from 2003 until 2010.
Joan Laporta says that he is now more experienced and prepared than ever before.

Former president, Laporta said: “I feel more prepared than ever to preside over the club. I have more experience. I have my faults, most of you already know about them, but I have kept the same principles and those principles are those same ones that belong to the idea of ‘Mesque un club.’ those of JohanCruyff, La Masia, Catalonia and of UNICEF.”

There are 6 candidates that desire to be selected as the new president of the Spanish club including: Toni Freixa, AgustiBenedito, JordiFarre, JordiMajo, JosepBartomeu and Joan Laporta.

MARCA.com is a Spanish website which shares news concerning numerous sports but it’s known for being one of the predominant locations for finding up to date news involving Real Madrid and Barcelona.

A few days ago there was a Barcelona poll which was made in MARCA.com where readers could vote as to which president they would like to see taking charge of the Spanish club and Joan Laporta emerged as the clear favorite as he received 54% of the votes and JosepBartomeu came in 2nd place as he received 23% of the votes.

Bartomeu wants to continue being the president of Barcelona and he has urged the public of voting for him as he still has a lot of more things planned for the club. Barcelona won the treble in this past season but Bartomeu is aiming to accomplish much more things if he remains in his current presidential role.

Barcelona boss Luis Enrique has managed to cement himself in his role after guiding the club to the quarter-finals of the Champions League by overcoming Manchester City.

Former boss Gerardo Martino failed at the quarter-final stage last season. After having recently retaken the lead in the la Liga, Barcelona will be facing Paris St Germain in the quarter-finals of the European competition. It will be one the toughest tests for the Catalan club, as PSG look very much improved compared to recent years. They have just knocked out Chelsea before reaching this stage.

Enrique says that this provides Barcelona with a huge warning that they cannot take PSG lightly despite the fact that they will be without their star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

The Swedish striker has been suspended for the next three matches after receiving a straight red card against Chelsea in the second leg. This would likely mean that Uruguayan forward Edinson Cavani will be leading the line, but the former Napoli man has not been in the best of form. Barcelona may be playing great football at the moment, but Enrique wants that PSG have the capability to knock them out. Both clubs faced each other only a couple of years ago with Barcelona narrowly edging out in front.

“The absence of Ibrahimovic and Verratti is important but they have other players who are equally dangerous. Having the return leg at home is big. It’s important to get a good result in Paris and try to qualify for the semifinals in front of our fans. We have experience from the group stage, with a win and a defeat. After beating Chelsea they showed they’re a strong candidate to win the competition,” said Enrique. Barcelona, meanwhile, have to look forward to beating Real Madrid in the upcoming El Clasico.

The media always seem to exaggerate things concerning certain clubs and players in the world of football and this is especially true when it comes to C.Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

A few months ago C.Ronaldo stated that he misses Manchester United and the Premier League club still has an important place in his heart as it was the place where he managed to become a superstar before he went on to join Real Madrid.

When that interview was over, news and reports started spreading around saying that C.Ronaldo could be making his return to the English club which was completely false.

A similar thing is happening with Lionel Messi and Barcelona. The Spanish club was going through difficult problems in the past few weeks and months as they lost against Real Sociedad some time ago and important staff members of the club have been resigning or leaving. This sparked a series of rumors which suggested that Messi was going to leave as well due to him having a negative relationship with the manager which later was rejected by the President Bartomeu.

There was a short period when Lionel Messi was underperforming and did not seem to be performing at his best and this is another one of the reasons on why rumors kept on spreading around claiming that the Argentine was just not happy at Camp Nou.

These reports and rumors have managed to calm down in some way but still exist.

In Barcelona’s latest La Liga match, Messi netted a hat-trick as Barcelona defeated Deportivo La Coruna by a scoreboard of 4-0. Messi was unstoppable in the pitch and this just shows how determined he is on playing and forget about everything else that is going on.

As bad as a relationship as Messi might have with certain members of the club, it’s incredibly difficult to see him leaving the club where he has accomplished everything with. On different occasions Messi has said that he wants to finish his career in Barcelona and this is the most likely thing that is going to happen.