dayokanu: Would Barcelona be buying Marc Andre ter Stergen like I predicted months ago?

AjanleKoko:

Who knows. He's being scouted, alongside a bunch of other young keepers. I prefer Courtois though.

Marca reported last night that he's signed a pre-contract and would be joining in the summer. I hope it isn't true

A very tepid performance. We only had 2 shots on target- one from the penalty spot. Valencia played very well. Their defending was more or less a lecture on how to defend and they created quite a number of chances and should have won but for the profligacy of Soldado and a gobsmacking double save by Valdes.

Seriously, I think we need to return to our MVP attack. Iniesta on the flanks just doesn't work against any decent side that know how to defend. Most teams always setup a deep block against us...We need someone who can stretch the play and give us width. With Iniesta on the flanks, we become too narrow and easy to defend against.

We had 6 shots in 71 minutes before Cesc was substituted. We had 4 shots in 19 minutes after Cesc was substituted. With Cesc off and Iniesta playing in midfield he was able to influence the game more - linking up brilliantly with Xavi and driving the team forward - and we were much better

dayokanu: The "lame" Chelsea midfield sets a chance for Ba in 33rd min. He gets a boot to the face for the effort

You are not doing the "lame" Chelsea midfield any favours by highlighting only one chance in 45 minutes. Chelsea has had just 1 shot on target so far

Cuenca has joined Ajax on loan for the remainder of the season.

Muniesa has joined Barca B for the rest of the season

FT: Barca B 3 - RMC 1. Araujo with a brace and Deulo from the spot

OMG! My stream froze...What a play by Deulo. Picks out Araujo with a Xavi-esque pass and it's 1-1

Nacho sees red for a foul on Deulo. Classic Real Madrid. Dirtiness is in their DNA

Building up the play from the back is the biggest weakness of this Barca B squad. Neither Planas nor Lomban nor ledes are ball playing defenders and the midfield somewhat lacks creativity without Sergi Roberto

Araujo's ability to keep the ball against physical defenders is pretty good, similar to Alexis'

Castilla lead 1-0 at half time. Morata with the goal.

Really poor defending by Barca B. They've played really well. Luis Alberto had a great chance to score but Mejias made a great save

A-40:

I only added jara about the crying part but she likes Torres a lot and till this day I'm not sure why

Blonde hair effect

Mini classico is tomorrow at the Mini Estadi.

Barca B lost when they both sides met earlier in the season. Hopefully, they can get their revenge tomorrow. They are doing very well in the league

The curse of the Anoeta continues

dayokanu:

I was coming here to break the news that Valdez might not be extending

So get ready to see some German keeper in goal, if I am to make a guess I would say Marc Andre Ter Stergen in goal for Barcelona

He's a long way off the heights of last season. He conceded 24 goals last season, only Neuer conceded less. This season however, he's making alot of mistakes - very unsure in his decision making. But to be fair to him, Gladbach have been pretty much shyte this season.
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Now that Valdes has decided not to renew, I wonder if he'd be sold in the summer or be allowed to leave on a free when his contract expires in 2014.

We will definitely be signing a keeper this summer. Any of de Gea, Guaita, Alves, Courtouis or Stekelenburg would be a good choice for me.

www.fcbarcelona.cat

01/18/2013 13:14

The FC Barcelona sports director has explained that the goalkeeper’s agent has announced to the Club that the player will not be extending his contract any further than June 30, 2014

"We have to support him and encourage him as much as we have done throughout his career" said Zubizarreta



Sports director Andoni Zubizarreta has spoken this morning about Víctor Valdés’ decision not to stay at FC Barcelona any later than 2014, which he was informed about on Thursday via the player’s agent. “We were holding the first meeting to initiate the process for renewing Víctor’s contract. The meeting began with us expressing the club’s desire to extend his contract, because we consider him to be a top class goalkeeper. But before we could make any proposal or discuss anything, his agent said the decision was already made and meditated, and that he will not be staying any later than June 30, 2014. It is an irrevocable decision”, ‘Zubi’ told Barça TV and www.fcbarcelona.com

Committed until 2014

At the same time, Zubizarreta called for supporters to “respect the professional decision of a player who has spent 12 years in this home. With that in mind, we are asking you to continue supporting him and to encourage him as much as you have done throughout his career. He is committed to this jersey until June 30, 2014 and will defend the goal with everything he has and knows. Meanwhile, we shall work together to see what the next steps should be, along with him and his agent, to work together to deal with this situation that arose yesterday”

Looks like Valdes won't be renewing his contract. His agent told the club not to bother offering him a new contract. They don't wanna negotiate.

Pharoh: The most logical and easiest option of the available jobs to guaranty success domestically and have a better shot in Europe. With this move of pep then i will continue to admire Mourinho more for his will to face challenges and prove himself with challenging projects.

Chelsea were the richest club in England when Jose took over. Inter were only club in Italy when he went there and Real Madrid had/have the most expensively assembled ever. . . Lots of challenges TBH

That was robbery

Johnpaul88: Barca fans bashing Valdes here are simply pathetic!

One desperate fan up there even could not remember how we conceded against Real Sociedad last season and how Valdes recovered in the fair play situation to gather the ball . Let me remember for you - we conceded that day through a David Villa inexplicable back pass NOT through the fair play you mentioned.

Pls get your facts right to avoid sounding even more pathetic.

I'm sure when Barca does get another keeper, you 'll be the first to crucify him.

The thing with Valdes is that whenever he does his job, no one notices. When he does his job extremely well some give him credits but the day after that everyone forgets about what he did. When he makes one mistake (or two) in a game the shitstorm begins.

I'd never forget how Valdes almost single-handedly won us the CL in 06 - two 1v1 saves from Henry and another from Ljunberg or the CL semis vs Chelsea in 09 where he made countless point blank saves from Drogba and co.

Yes! He's made mistakes but so have other world-class goalies. Just some weeks back, Buffon's clanger cost Juve 3 points.

I hope he signs up soon. I think he's gonna stay. I don't see any reason why he would want to leave

Dnaz: 2011 : Ronaldo scores more goals, Messi wins the prize because he won the league.

Messi won the league and the CL and they both finished with 53 goals.

Dnaz: 2012 : Messi scores more goals, Ronaldo wins the league but this time, it is judged by more goals...WTF ?

But Ronaldo didn't win the CL. Messi had the most outstanding season ever for a player scoring 91 goals eventhough he didn't win the league

Johnpaul88: FT : FCB 4 : 0 ESP

Pedro scored brace and should have had another, were it not for the guffed linesman.

The boys had an impressive game. They were on top of the game until the last minute.

Fantastic win for the returning Tito. This adds his strength.

Pedro was unreal this match. After 20 plus games without scoring, he scored a brace...should have been a hat-trick. The linesman goofed big time.

Fantastic start to the new year. Great performance. Busquets MoM for me. That pass for the third goal had me jizzing my pants.

Tito deserves alot of credit for how he has been able to fit in Cesc and Iniesta into the line-up without resorting to 3-4-3. It's one of the key reasons we have been invincible. Pep trying to shoehorn Cesc into the line-up last season leading to alot of experimentations was one of the reasons why we lost our title. Tito has successfully integrated Cesc into the system and key to this is Alba. He allows Iniesta drift inside without our play losing width.

Great thread here. I'm a topologist. Mathematics is the sluggish, little brother of topology. I'm offering myself to the house. If time permits, I'd be here to answer some of the problems.

Keep up the good work guys

To all my cules, have a Messi Christmas and a Xavi, prosperous new year

Stealthy: Nice win for the boys, Tito will be proud of them. Way to end the year!

Alexis is good at dragging defenders away from Messi. but his finishing is just too poor.

Did anyone see Alves trying to pass the ball when he got a 1-on-1 chance (81st min or so), that's what I was complaining about last week.

That would have been an amazing tiki-taka goal

Ahahahahaha "Mourinho we love you, please stay"

I swear if schandefreude could kill, I'd be dead

CU

Luca Toni: A person who has failed a lot of courses.

Terrible news about Tito. Wishing him speedy recovery.
Good thing is that the tumour was discovered early and according to reports, he could be back within a month.

Jordi Roura to take over in the interim.

Scoring one goal is so 2011. Messi only does braces these days.

Camp Nou crowd singing "We love you Mourinho, please stay" had me rotflmao

Nice one Asspanyol, lol. After 6 games without a point and without a goal vs Madrid, they sack Pochettino, hire Aguirre and they get a point off Madrid.

Just a matter of time before Mou gets the sack, surely.

bravehost4u: Atleast i know nobody and i got a job with Diamond Bank

Wow! Congrats

lolololol How to toast?

Nateevs