sinistyle:

So you guys want Romeu back. I'm pretty sure y'all never knew he existed until Chelsea picked him up and polished him now y'all want him back.
Romeu would be silly to return.

Polished you say?

sinistyle:

So you guys want Romeu back. I'm pretty sure y'all never knew he existed until Chelsea picked him up and polished him now y'all want him back.
Romeu would be silly to return.

u r a Buffoon! . . . .What do you expect from a rugby team supporter

Happy Nu Year peepz

Happy new year ,culés!
Pls i don't know if HiTv will be showing our copa match against osasuna. Who knows?

Where can i watch this game people?

The match will be on Al Jazeera Sports +3

Messi and Valdes out of tonights game due to flu.

medjai:

Messi and Valdes out of tonights game due to flu.

Flu, eh? Anyway, victory is ours for the taking. Another 8-0 in the waiting

OT, Xavi has emerged winner of the IHFF award for best brain (midfield maestro ) ahead of Iniesta and Messi.

No wonder fabregas do everything possible to go back to barca , hes enjoying football of his life . The 2nd goal is pure class

IS IT SUBSIDY REMOVAL THAT CAUSED THIS
Barcelona: Barcelona are charging fans an entrance fee to watch an upcoming open training session as part of a drive by the European champions to boost revenues.

Club members can invite three guests free of charge for the January 5 training at Mini Stadium, next to Camp Nou, but non-members will be charged 5 Euros to watch Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta hone their skills.

Under current president Sandro Rosell, the heavily indebted club has looked to cut costs and used unprecedented means to boost revenue. Barcelona owe 369 million Euros and lost 9 million Euros last season despite winning the Champions League and Spanish league titles.
Barcelona are charging fans as part of a drive to boost revenues.
Barcelona charge fans to attend open training


Barcelona said the club has often charged for access to open training sessions, including under former president Joan Laporta's board, and that the fee was necessary for security reasons.

The recent Club World Cup winners signed a 171 million Euros deal with Qatar Foundation, which became the first paid sponsor to adorn the club's jersey in its 112-year history.

Barcelona scrapped their 80-year-old baseball team and slashed funding to 12 small sports teams earlier this year.

While Real Madrid's debt is comparable to Barcelona's, they did not charge fans to attend an open training session at their Santiago Bernabeu stadium in August, when 57,000 spectators watched for free.
austerity measures

@Medjai!Thanks for that piece of info,i really enjoyed the game.
My only worry is Pedro,he has not really impressed me since the inception of this season.
Villa is out and we need attackers that can score plenty of goals,i hope he is not in any form of pressure.
As for Messi,he is a gift to Barca from Baba God.

ogazi007:

@Medjai!Thanks for that piece of info,i really enjoyed the game.
My only worry is Pedro,he has not really impressed me since the inception of this season.
Villa is out and we need attackers that can score plenty of goals,i hope he is not in any form of pressure.
As for Messi,he is a gift to Barca from Baba God.

I'm worried about Pedro too. Injuries have not helped. I really hope his form will pick up. If his form improves, he could be our winter signing.

usbcable:

IS IT SUBSIDY REMOVAL THAT CAUSED THIS
Barcelona: Barcelona are charging fans an entrance fee to watch an upcoming open training session as part of a drive by the European champions to boost revenues.

Club members can invite three guests free of charge for the January 5 training at Mini Stadium, next to Camp Nou, but non-members will be charged 5 Euros to watch Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta hone their skills.

Under current president Sandro Rosell, the heavily indebted club has looked to cut costs and used unprecedented means to boost revenue. Barcelona owe 369 million Euros and lost 9 million Euros last season despite winning the Champions League and Spanish league titles.
Barcelona are charging fans as part of a drive to boost revenues.
Barcelona charge fans to attend open training


Barcelona said the club has often charged for access to open training sessions, including under former president Joan Laporta's board, and that the fee was necessary for security reasons.

The recent Club World Cup winners signed a 171 million Euros deal with Qatar Foundation, which became the first paid sponsor to adorn the club's jersey in its 112-year history.

Barcelona scrapped their 80-year-old baseball team and slashed funding to 12 small sports teams earlier this year.

While Real Madrid's debt is comparable to Barcelona's, they did not charge fans to attend an open training session at their Santiago Bernabeu stadium in August, when 57,000 spectators watched for free.
austerity measures

Another indicator to the fact the Barcelona get sense pass Madrid.

^^

Not in this case ooo . . . . . very soon they will start charging you guys for commenting on this thread . . . . one euro per comment . . .

^^^^^ I'll be the treasurer. Tnx 2 you both, we worry less about our financial standings, but enjoy more of the trophy winning.Isnt that the joy of a fan the last I checked?

eyoniggar:

^^^^^ I'll be the treasurer. Tnx 2 you both, we worry less about our financial standings, but enjoy more of the trophy winning.Isnt that the joy of a fan the last I checked?

People pay to watch us train.
How BAAAADDD can a team get

someone should help me with a link to watch tonight's match abeg.

Madrid have won the league

medjai:

Madrid have won the league

Haba. Still almost a whole half yet.
They won't win all their games. But na wa for Espanyol o. They really made things tough for us. They defended very well, cut Messi out of the game. He was unable to do anything.

To win away this season in la Liga (except at Madrid) is looking like GRE these days

Up Barca


_{Toothless bulldogs}

Winning the league is 100times harder now,but we will keep trying.
we were very poor.

Disappointing result, we had the match on our hands and let it slip.

I had said before and I maintain that this year's team hasn't been nearly as strong as last season. The numbers back me up on this: last season we lost 18 points all season (5 at this point in the season), now we've lost 13 already. The difference is even more notorious away from home: last season, we won our first eight away games with 29-4 GD, this year three wins, four draws, one defeat, 12-9 GD.

Apart from the fact that it'd be impossible to sustain such high level and the injuries we've had this season, to me the main reason for this is that we had much more firepower last season. Our attacking trio was the best of the Pep era imo: Messi, Pedro and Villa were all threats to score at any time and Villa and Pedro did a spectacular work pressing and creating space. This current trio of Messi, Sanchez and Cesc is clearly inferior imo, not in terms of talent but functionality. Messi is still the same; Cesc is scoring at the same rate Villa was last season, but he doesn't have the same relentless work ethic, ability to press the opponents when we don't have the ball - besides, without Villa, we have no one constantly making runs behind the defenders, keeping the defenders on their toes and making space for our other forwards. As for Sanchez, although his overall game is pretty brilliant, we can't really rely on him to score 20+ goals a season at this point (surely it's something he can improve). So we now have two players scoring freely (Messi and Cesc) and only one pressing relentlessly (Sanchez). Last season, we had three players scoring a lot and two pressing like mad men. This is why we killed off our games early last season and are struggling to do the same on the road this season. With Messi, Pedro and Villa from last season or even Messi, Henry, Eto'o from the sextuple season, we'd probably have killed off today's game at half-time.

I believe it is crucial that Pep inspires Pedro to regain his confidence and finishing skills. We need the Pedro who was a lock to make the most of his chances again.That version of Pedro would make us infinitely stronger and more deadly. With him, Messi and Cesc on the pitch, we'd have a trio of scoring threats and it could be very functional imo. If Pedro can't get back to his best, we'll miss a third regular source of goals up front (other than Messi and Cesc), which might see us drop some more points.

As for the league, it's not over yet but it'll be pretty difficult.

Why una dey shake? Nawa ooo! All I know is, its better to lose some or draw some few games early in the season than having that happen during the end of the season which is exactly what Madrid would be facing. Mark it down.

It's Pep . . . and Messi?  Still waiting for final announcement.

YES. It is Messi. Hat-trick of Ballon D'ors. Congrats to a special player who has traveled a long road, and will travel much further.

Percentages Ballon d'Or vote: Messi 47.88% - Cristiano Ronaldo 21.6% - Xavi 9.23%

Penaldo with 21.6%? This is a disgrace!

Congrats Messi. It was never in doubt.

Happy new year Cules.

Nice analysis on the Espanyol match medjai.

I think Espanyol played very well and gave their all in the match. Espanyol has now taken more points from Barcelona than any other club in La Liga (including madrid) in the last 5 years or so.

My biggest grouse with La Liga clubs of late is that clubs give their best when when playing Barca and simply roll over for madrid. There has been basically no Madrid derby in the last 5 years. Madrid simply show up and score a basket of goals against Athletico Madrid and Getafe.

Of course, we could have killed off the match, but once again, in an away game, we bottled it this season. As medjai pointed out, our attack has been less lethal this seson. Villa & Pedro have been below par this season and injuries have not helped either. There is also way too much reliance on Messi as he carries too much of the scoring burden for the team (this started from last season actually, when Messi scored more goals than the next 3 players combined for the club). In the sextuple season, Messi, Etoo and Henry scored about 30 goals each in the league.

In addition, I think Pep plays Messi too often. In the Copa match against Osasuna, we were 2-0 up at home and he brought in Messi. I thought that was unnecessary, especially considering that Messi just arrived in Barcelona from Argentina the day before.

Finally, I think it is now clear that 3-4-3 is wonderful at the Nou Camp (and against Madrid, Santos). However, we should stick to 4-3-3 for away games and continue to work out the various formations in the comfortable home games.

Stealthy:

Happy new year Cules.

Nice analysis on the Espanyol match medjai.

I think Espanyol played very well and gave their all in the match. Espanyol has now taken more points from Barcelona than any other club in La Liga (including madrid) in the last 5 years or so.

My biggest grouse with La Liga clubs of late is that clubs give their best when when playing Barca and simply roll over for madrid. There has been basically no Madrid derby in the last 5 years. Madrid simply show up and score a basket of goals against Athletico Madrid and Getafe.

Of course, we could have killed off the match, but once again, in an away game, we bottled it this season. As medjai pointed out, our attack has been less lethal this seson. Villa & Pedro have been below par this season and injuries have not helped either. There is also way too much reliance on Messi as he carries too much of the scoring burden for the team (this started from last season actually, when Messi scored more goals than the next 3 players combined for the club). In the sextuple season, Messi, Etoo and Henry scored about 30 goals each in the league.

In addition, I think Pep plays Messi too often. In the Copa match against Osasuna, we were 2-0 up at home and he brought in Messi. I thought that was unnecessary, especially considering that Messi just arrived in Barcelona from Argentina the day before.

Finally, I think it is now clear that 3-4-3 is wonderful at the Nou Camp (and against Madrid, Santos). However, we should stick to 4-3-3 for away games and continue to work out the various formations in the comfortable home games.

Spot on. Complacency seems to get on our players when on the road.

Maxwell sold to PSG, to leave this January.

I feel for maxwell. I say thanks to him anyway for having to ball with us.

For €4m, I say it's a good deal for everyone involved considering we bought for €4.5m and he was hardly playing any game for us.

Goodluck to him.

Fontas injured his ACL in last night's win over Osasuna. Pedro also picked up a knock and could miss the classico.