medjai:

Nice one, Pique. They don't call him 'Piquenbauer' for nothing, LOL.
Before his last girlfriend, the supermodel, he had also dated a Bollywood actress.
Swagger ti poju

Cristina go don nearly kill himself with envy.
Messi dey fall am for game, Pique dey fall am for the other game

LWKMD
Abeg, make Christina no go hug transformer o

Tall fine boy wey dey collect trophies with better bar every week,upon
all dey play for the best club in the world. Why she nor go open totro?

The club's official website, has confirmed that Josep Guardiola, our amiable coach, has agreed on a one-year contract extension till June 30,2012.
Guyz, why do u think he keeps signing in bits? Why does he not go ahead and sign g long term contract, running into years?Does it mean he has his own reservations with the management ? Is he protecting his own integrity and authority? These and other questions, beggars for answers. Thank u guys, as u brainstorm on those.

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola has agreed to a one-year contract extension and will remain with the club until the end of the 2011-12 season.

The Spanish champions revealed the news on their official website on Tuesday evening, adding that the deal will be officially signed in the next few days.

"FC Barcelona announce that they have reached an agreement with Josep Guardiola to renew his contract with the club for another season, until the 30th of June 2012," read a statement.

"The signing of the contract will take place in the next few days."

The 40-year-old's current deal was due to expire at the end of this season and he had been linked with coaching jobs abroad, with English giants Manchester United reportedly eyeing him as Sir Alex Ferguson's successor.

Guardiola was appointed the Blaugrana's coach in 2008 and has worked wonders with the Catalan club, winning two successive Spanish Primera Division titles, the Champions League and the Club World Cup among other triumphs.

Nah which kind shakara be this self? . . he should sign something like 3 to 5 years contract and forget this obsession to coach abroad or succed alex ferguson. So he wants to go to manchester and stay there for how many years instead of staying in barca for 5 or maybe 10 years. I really have a strong feeling that he might not perform well abroad ( he did not do much even as a player ). Most spanish coaches do not have great success abroad with teams that do not play the spanish tip tap. Juande ramos shined little bit with spurs and that was it. Benitez also with liverpool for about 2 years and that was it.

He should stay in barca for up to 5 or 10 years and i would love him to takeover from debosky someday in the future or after some other coach. ( He is very fit to be the spanish national team coach after gaining some experience). He should only go abroad to gain experience if he wants to and not some useless ambition, If he fails people will not remember his past exploits. He should take a cue from ancellotti, benitez, rikcard and even mourinho that is feeling the heat and abuse even though he had lots of support when he was winning with chelsea and Inter milan.

Johnpaul88:

The club's official website, has confirmed that Josep Guardiola, our amiable coach, has agreed on a one-year contract extension till June 30,2012.
Guyz, why do u think he keeps signing in bits? Why does he not go ahead and sign g long term contract, running into years?Does it mean he has his own reservations with the management ? Is he protecting his own integrity and authority? These and other questions, beggars for answers. Thank u guys, as u brainstorm on those.

What kind of issues could that be? . . except you guys are very good in concealing your internal problems because at madrid it is always in the open. So i do not really agree with that, the new president wants to save some cost and reduce the clubs debt but they have not starved him of money to buy players. Does he want more control over the selling of players as well ( especially non spanish as he would not mind if alves leaves the club ) or maybe he wants the club to quickly renew the contracts of these players?. He should not allow this little success to cloud his brain and understand that managing a club is not easy and he should surely not expect the management to meet all his needs. They are in business to make profits and as managers with varying stake in the day to day operations, they will not be taking instructions from a mere disposable coach.

I also just read about Pep's contract extension. I've also wondered why he only extends for a year, but from what I read a while ago, it seems like he does this because he believes this is the best way to keep himself motivated. He also says that in case he fails in any season, he and the club can simply not renew the contract the next season, rather than the club having to give him a big pay-out to cancel the contract.

Pep is a very wise young man and i trust his judgement absolutely.he knows what he want and he had demonstrated he is ready to leave the club if things are not done properly.i wish him all the best of luck and next now is Dani Alves.you guys should pray o!,we do not want any of our players on international duties to pick a knock.we need them better and stronger to finish what they have started.London go hear from us next week.

I have been praying. All our players 'll surely come back, sound and kicking! - also our various opponents. No injuries, of any sort. We have busy week ahead. We can't afford it - at least now nor ever.

I think Pep is being cautious. He doesnt wanna get carried away by his success at the club. The most important thing though is that he's signed and that's good news for us and trouble for the rest of Europe.


Meanwhile, we've ruled out a move for Fabregas in the summer.
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/227999/Arsenal-ace-Cesc-Fabregas-dream-move-to-Barca-is-dead-


Also, a goal for Villa today will make him Spain's all time top scorer. He's currently tied with Raul on 44 goals.

Pharoh:

What kind of issues could that be? . . except you guys are very good in concealing your internal problems because at madrid it is always in the open. So i do not really agree with that, the new president wants to save some cost and reduce the clubs debt but they have not starved him of money to buy players. Does he want more control over the selling of players as well ( especially non spanish as he would not mind if alves leaves the club ) or maybe he wants the club to quickly renew the contracts of these players?. He should not allow this little success to cloud his brain and understand that managing a club is not easy and he should surely not expect the management to meet all his needs. They are in business to make profits and as managers with varying stake in the day to day operations, they will not be taking instructions from a mere disposable coach.

I think you have it wrong. I've followed Pep personally from when he captained the Azulgrana till date, and I read most of his interviews online.
Graham Hunter on Soccernet wrote an article on Pep Guardiola that I think you should look at here.
Check out Tito Vilanova's comment:

During Year 1 of his managerial reign, Guardiola's assistant, Tito Vilanova, speculated that: "This is a club where all that goes on around it, plus the pressure to win with style can burn you out. It's likely that we are here for a two- perhaps three-year project."

So Pep is trying to avoid burnout. He has often said that if he leaves Barca he will walk away from footie for some time. Unlike most glory-seeking and fame-hungry managers like you-know-who , he's done it all at a really young age, but it doesn't faze him, or define who he is. As a player, he played at the highest levels and won laurels for club and country. He has also done so as a manager, albeit club level. But the guy has a life, and doesn't want it to be all about football. I don't know him personally, but what I have read about him showcases him as a man with a deep and interesting personality. I personally admire him a lot.

medjai:

I think Pep is being cautious. He doesnt wanna get carried away by his success at the club. The most important thing though is that he's signed and that's good news for us and trouble for the rest of Europe.


Meanwhile, we've ruled out a move for Fabregas in the summer.
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/227999/Arsenal-ace-Cesc-Fabregas-dream-move-to-Barca-is-dead-


Also, a goal for Villa today will make him Spain's all time top scorer. He's currently tied with Raul on 44 goals.

AMEN!!! I have always been against the chase for Cesc and I hope it is not resurrected soon. We have Thiago & Afellay to take over from Iniesta & Messi (although they both play more like Iniesta than Xavi, but really, two Inestas in a team will still win you trophies!) so no point paying the high price tag Arsenal have placed on Cesc's head. Besides, Xavi still has a few good years left in him - it's not like he'll stop playing football next season or something.

I'm watching the Argentina-Portugal match. These portuguese guys are not taking the match like a friendly o! They want to kick Messi off the pitch! The coach should remove him abeg - I don't care if Argentina loses this unimportant match. The wear and tear from this kinda rough match may affect his performance for Barca in the next few matches. Ronaldo can claim victory in this one, while Messi claims victory when it matters.

My God messi wnt 2 finish portugal dfendas career.

Guys, I saw the article series below on CNNSI.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/sid_lowe/01/08/laliga.duopoly/index.html
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/sid_lowe/01/14/laliga.competitiveness/index.html
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/sid_lowe/01/17/la.liga.competitiveness3/index.html
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/sid_lowe/01/20/real.pressure/index.html

The author has a lot of good points and I mostly agree with him. However, he did not mention that the gap in points between the Big 2 in la Liga and the rest really started last season.

Why do I say this?

In my opiniion, it was caused by Real Madrid. Normally, Barca and Real have a ying-yang relationship - Barca tends to play poorly in seasons when Real is great and vice versa. This means that the two are rarely chasing each other all season long for the title. The one having a poor season usually drops off midway into the race. However, after Barca's history-making season in 2008-09, Real Madrid spent almost $300m to try to break the ying-yang mode (the period from 2009-now being Barca's peak and normally would be Madrid's trough). Barca also panicked that summer, splashing cash for Ibra and Chyg. This meant both teams upped the stakes so much that neither could afford a drop-off in the title race.

To put things in perspective: As recently as 2007-2008 (Rijkaard's last season), Barca finished 3rd in the table, 10 points behind Villareal! That is simply unacceptable to both teams now - winning has become almost a matter of life and death.

So what should be done?
A more balanced TV deal as exists in the EPL would have been good. Earnings should be based on league position mostly. But that is water under the bridge.

I hope to see more La Liga sides bought up by foreign owners - this is about the only way other clubs can source funds easily to compete with the Big 2. Malaga & Racing Santander have already been bought by foreigners. Once this becomes mainstream in the league (as it now is in the EPL), I expect more traditional clubs like Depor, Sevilla, Athletico Madrid, Villareal, Valencia to start to attract foreign investors too and this can only be good for the league's competitiveness.

Stealthy:

Guys, I saw the article series below on CNNSI.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/sid_lowe/01/08/laliga.duopoly/index.html
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/sid_lowe/01/14/laliga.competitiveness/index.html
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/sid_lowe/01/17/la.liga.competitiveness3/index.html
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/sid_lowe/01/20/real.pressure/index.html

The author has a lot of good points and I mostly agree with him. However, he did not mention that the gap in points between the Big 2 in la Liga and the rest really started last season.

Why do I say this?

In my opiniion, it was caused by Real Madrid. Normally, Barca and Real have a ying-yang relationship - Barca tends to play poorly in seasons when Real is great and vice versa. This means that the two are rarely chasing each other all season long for the title. The one having a poor season usually drops off midway into the race. However, after Barca's history-making season in 2008-09, Real Madrid spent almost $300m to try to break the ying-yang mode (the period from 2009-now being Barca's peak and normally would be Madrid's trough). Barca also panicked that summer, splashing cash for Ibra and Chyg. This meant both teams upped the stakes so much that neither could afford a drop-off in the title race.

To put things in perspective: As recently as 2007-2008 (Rijkaard's last season), Barca finished 3rd in the table, 10 points behind Villareal! That is simply unacceptable to both teams now - winning has become almost a matter of life and death.

So what should be done?
A more balanced TV deal as exists in the EPL would have been good. Earnings should be based on league position mostly. But that is water under the bridge.

I hope to see more La Liga sides bought up by foreign owners - this is about the only way other clubs can source funds easily to compete with the Big 2. Malaga & Racing Santander have already been bought by foreigners. Once this becomes mainstream in the league (as it now is in the EPL), I expect more traditional clubs like Depor, Sevilla, Athletico Madrid, Villareal, Valencia to start to attract foreign investors too and this can only be good for the league's competitiveness.

Well said! I think the Barca-Real rivalry is at its fiercest state. The competition has always been there and if you look into it deeply, you will see that it has a cultural and political undertone so I don't think it will ever go away. Asides football and sports, Catalans and Madridstas are rivals in their everyday life. The cut-throat competition as we have it now was reignited by the megalomaniac Madrid president, Fiorentino Perez. Naturally, it hurts Madrid to see Barca win a trophy but watching Barca win 6 trophies is a fat no, no. Then came Perez's second coming, spent over €300m and created a situation where the rivalry became so strong that both sides take each game as a cup final. With the introduction of J-Mouth into the fray, I expect the rivalry to become even more intense in the coming seasons until one of the teams(Madrid most def) peters out.

I will also love to see more takeovers and foreign investments in the league. There's simply no other way for the other teams to get by financially. The gap between Barca, Madrid and the rest of the other teams in terms of finance is astronomical.
In the early 2000's, Barca and Real couldnt beat their chest and boast of getting wins at the Riazor or Mestalla or even at Mallorca and sometimes Sociedad. I will love to see the league return to such heights.

Messi gets one over Ronaldo yet again. He scored the winner via a penalty and also made an assist in Argentina's 2-1 win over Portugal.
Messi has been in good form for Argentina lately. He scored against Spain, Brazil and now Portugal. Those anti Messi that say he doesn't do well without Xavi and Iniesta had better start looking for another story.

Spain also returned to winning ways after a David Silva late winner gave them a 1-0 win over Colombia.

Dani Alves was on the losing side as France with Abidal beat Brazil 1-0.

Afellay also starred as Holland beat Austria 3-1.

^^
Surprisingly Milito played for most of the 90 minutes (if not all) as stopper. Made a couple of mistakes though.
He's in dire need of more matches.

Messi showed some brilliance, what with the Portuguese kicking him all about.
But you can see how much he is put under pressure by the fans to live up to Maradona's name, in spite of the many deadwoods that are in the Albiceleste. Which is why I am happy the boy is with a good group like Barca. There he can keep his morale up.

Argentina look solid, but they don't look a brilliant, technical side. They seem to always struggle to get a game under control, same as the World Cup. Portugal look no different than they've always been - also-rans. That is one thing I have never been able to stand about the Iberians.

Did anybody see the Spain game? Xavi and Iniesta, and in particular Pique, looked like they were just back from Ibiza. The Colombians effectively kept their back line tight and shut Spain out. I guess all the guys were thinking of the important league games at the weekend, and CL next week. Nobody wanted to go at the Colombians and risk picking up an unnecessary knock.

Thank God they didnot injured messi,i nearly had heart attack the way meireles with his bald head was just following and kicking messi all over the place.

Thank God the guy scored,you can hardly achieved much with that kind of line up Agentina used yesteraday.i could not watched our spainish bois,so far so

good,no injuries news coming from anywhere.sporting gijon is next.

Perhaps Perez and Mourihno gave specific time their players will last on the pitch yesterday, cos i noticed that Ronaldo and Di maria left earlier than 65th minute while Our Messi, Mescharano and Milito all played their hearts out the full 90+ minutes. I believe it is unfair to them, though no injury recorded anyway.

Perhaps Perez and Mourihno gave specific time their players will last on the pitch yesterday, cos i noticed that Ronaldo and Di maria left earlier than 65th minute while Our Messi, Mescharano and Milito all played their hearts out the full 90+ minutes. I believe it is unfair to them, though no injury recorded anyway.

ogazi007:

Thank God they didnot injured messi,i nearly had heart attack the way meireles with his bald head was just following and kicking messi all over the place.

Thank God the guy scored,you can hardly achieved much with that kind of line up Agentina used yesteraday.i could not watched our spainish bois,so far so

good,no injuries news coming from anywhere.sporting gijon is next.

Johnpaul88:

Perhaps Perez and Mourihno gave specific time their players will last on the pitch yesterday, cos i noticed that Ronaldo and Di maria left earlier than 65th minute while Our Messi, Mescharano and Milito all played their hearts out the full 90+ minutes. I believe it is unfair to them, though no injury recorded anyway.

It almost looked liked a conspiracy against Barca! Messi was played the full 90 mins in a meaningless friendly even though the Portuguese kept kicking him. Milito & Masch also played 90 mins. Also, for Spain, I would have expected Del Bosque to try out fringe players, but no - he used his 1st team (of mostly Barca players) and hardly subbed.

Anyways, no wahala - no injuries as far as I know and even though we normally struggle after internationals, I expect us to win against Gijon & more importantly Arsenal.

medjai:


In the early 2000's, Barca and Real couldnt beat their chest and boast of getting wins at the Riazor or Mestalla or even at Mallorca and sometimes Sociedad. I will love to see the league return to such heights.

True talk!

Stealthy:

It almost looked liked a conspiracy against Barca! Messi was played the full 90 mins in a meaningless friendly even though the Portuguese kept kicking him. Milito & Masch also played 90 mins. Also, for Spain, I would have expected Del Bosque to try out fringe players, but no - he used his 1st team (of mostly Barca players) and hardly subbed.

Anyways, no wahala - no injuries as far as I know and even though we normally struggle after internationals, I expect us to win against Gijon & more importantly Arsenal.

ozil and khedira played 90 minutes
and did benzema.
So i dont know where conspiracy came into play or is it a portuguese or spaniards fault that an argentinian is left to suffer on the pitch by an argentinian for an argentinian cause. Conspiracy my ***.
Good game from both players(leo and chris), but if it were chris that scored from a spotkick na abuse una go abuse am say na penalty e dey take score. Its nice that leo is now doing better with the argies.

usbcable:

ozil and khedira played 90 minutes
and did benzema.
So i dont know where conspiracy came into play or is it a portuguese or spaniards fault that an argentinian is left to suffer on the pitch by an argentinian for an argentinian cause. Conspiracy my ***.
Good game from both players(leo and chris), but if it were chris that scored from a spotkick na abuse una go abuse am say na penalty e dey take score. Its nice that leo is now doing better with the argies.

Hey! Chill out! I wasn't serious about a conspiracy!

I was just expressing my frustration that our players were overused in meaningless matches,

Feb. 16 on ma Mind. . . .

^^ I can't wait but Gijon first.

medjai:

^^ I can't wait but Gijon first.

Gijon go chop am tonite . . . . we need to put those a.s.s-anal boyz in their place . . 

khanye:

Feb. 16 on ma Mind. . . .

Whatz up with feb 16

jamebex:

Whatz up with feb 16

Lol na champions league match with arsenal . . . . . . i have been waiting for the return to the champions league matches.


Time for all these madrid and mourinho haterz to chop some serious cane . . . . hope them see wetin messi do portugal lol . .

My preferred line-up against Gijon tonight:
Valdes

Alves-Pique-Milito-Maxwell

Mascherano

Afellay Iniesta

Messi Bojan Villa

Hopefully, we can score a couple of goals in the 1st half. If we do, Messi & Villa out at half time, replaced by Keita & Nolito. Keita slots into MF, while Afellay moves to attack.
After 65 mins, Iniesta off, replaced by Thiago.
Alves to play 90 mins to gain full match fitness.

Against Arsenal, if Puyol isn't back, we may need to play Busquests as CB, with Masch in DMF & Abidal at LB. If Masch gets a yellow card, Adriano can replace him, with Abidal going to CB & Busquests playing his normal role.

If Puyol is back, I'd put Busquests on the bench for Masch. Everyone else stays the same.

Whatever Pep plays, I hope we win both games.

I once stated it that this wud be 1 of our remaining tough away games this season. And as we can see, its already tough. But 3 points will be earned 2nyt.