₦airaland Forum

holydante:
Yes stealth, the yellow submarines will surely do us a favour moro

Next stop pls

AMEN!!! RM isn't playing great and I feel Villareal should have the confidence to hold them. A few teams have come close to stopping them recently, but just didn't have the confidence to go all the way.

khanye:
Who's next abeg?

We play Betis (in Nou Camp) in the Copa del Rey quarter finals 1st leg on Wed night.

Then we play against Malaga (also in Nou Camp) on Sunday in the league.

holydante:
Suprising substitution by Pep, Bojan for Villa!! Maybe hez reserving him for the mid week match.

Bojan needs to play as often as we can afford, to build up his confidence. He's our only other out-and-out striker after Villa.

I agree with you on Pep resting Villa for midweek. Looks like he wants to kill off Betis in the 1st leg this time and avoid the tricky situation we were with Bilbao. We really have a heavy fixture list for the next 6 weeks and we need to be in top shape for all, especially the Champs League meeting against Arsenal. Luckily, we have some "easy" matches like Malaga, Racing & Gijon in the list so pep can continue to rotate.

holydante:
Lol, I was about to say that Messi will surely pop in a goal as its been a while he scored and next was his mazy slalom run, tug down and slam dunk free kick into Aranzubia's net

Ole Ole

Yeah I so loved that goal!
Messi on a mazy run, about to go one-on-one with goalies, pulled back by the defender.
Quick freekick, Pedro one-on-one with goalie, pulled back by the ref.
Messi says: I'll just have to do this from 25 yards.

Sends in the cannon & ends the contest.

Excellent result at the end. Our team is getting better by the day: we weren't at our best and still won 4-0 away from home. This result will give Pep the confidence to keep rotating the squad since our squad players have shown they're ready to step up when needed.

lovely freekick from Messi. I hope the Ronaldo fanboys will now shut up cos Messi has proved he does great freekicks too.

I stated in a recent post that Iniesta has improved with his shooting. His goal was lovely, especially for the fact that it was with his left foot from outside the box.

Our entire front 3 scored today plus 1 MF.

Villareal should just hold RM to a draw tomorrow jare so we can have some breathing space at the top.

Good goal by Villa & nice assist by Messi.
Abidal has been excellent once again & unlucky to have his goal ruled out (won't it have been great for him to score 2 in 2?!). There's stiff competition for that left back position o!
Masch has been a very good cover for the defence & it's good to see him spraying nice passes too. He gets more comfortable with each game which is really good.
Pedro has been stragely subdued but men, the guy has run himself tired in our last 2 matches.
Messi still isn't at his explosive best (still better than most though). I guess he still needs a few matches to get to his peak.
Adriano hasn't looked confident & he keeps switching to his left & making backward passes when in a good position to create something. I'm sure he'll be the 1st off in the 2nd half.

It's not been our most impressive performance (due to the absentees I guess), but good so far. If we win this one (and we should), it will help develop our depth more cos this means Pep doesn't have to rely on the 1st 11 to start every match. We'll have to play many mid-week matches once we make progress in the Copa del Rey & UCL and we really need everyone to step up or we'll have a fatigued 1st 11.

Hope Afellay can come in and actually touch the ball unlike the last match.

Surprising line up for us: no Dani Alves, no Xavi, no Busquests. I hope this wont affect our creativity, especially Keita in for Xavi & Adriano in for Alves.

medjai:
Back in the days, Riazor was a slaughter ground. Back when they had Roy Makaay, Diego Tristan and Albert Luque. . .
Anyway, I know we'll win. Our boys will be really fired up for this one because Madrid will play Villareal(Madrid might drop points) so we can extend our lead at the top with a win.

Hopefully Villareal can get some points off Madrid and we win at Riazor. That will give us some breathing space. The competition between us & RM has been extreme the last 2 seasons (at the detriment of the overall league cos Barca & RM have to take each match like a final to avoid dropping points)

I've actually tried to do a bit of research on this. How many times did Jesus reference giving in the church (or temple)? And how many times did He talk about giving to the poor? He talked about giving to the poor far more than giving in the temple. But our pastors have conveniently forgotten that & they hit everyone with a few old testament verses to support their claims. It's very disappointing.

@OP: don't listen to the pastor's "curses". Just give according to what you can afford and according to your faith in God (or according to God's direct command if that happens to be the case). Don't let any pastor force you to give any more than your're willing or able to give.

We are playing Deportivo at the Riazor tomorrow.

What are your predictions guys?

Personally, I expect this to be one of those tough away matches. Depor is one of those teams who only get fired up when playing Barca, but let down their guard against RM. Anyhow, I would have predicted that we win 3-0, but with fatigue after the mid-week Copa match, I feel we'll just shade this 2-1. Hopefully we can return to our best in the coming weeks.

chic2pimp
The lady loves your profile. You guys will make a perfect couple,

Hopefully we can thrash Betis in the 1st leg and use our team B for 2nd leg.

I read somewhere that if all results go thir way, the Kings cup final may end up being Barca vs Real. Now that will be a great advert for this under-hyped cup (even the useless English league cup gets more press coverage).

@medjai: This was actually Abidal's 1st goal for Barca and the 2nd of his professional career. the only other goal he has ever scored was for Lyon in 2007

AjanleKoko:
Milito is done, with all his injuries, and Caceres is not the current Barca quality. Maybe we should look to strengthening the defence. That was the whole idea behind Chyggy, a major flop.

It's unfortunate Milito keeps getting injured. However, he is still valuable as a squad player. Caceres has actually improved tremendously since he left Barca onl oan. Did you see him at the world cup? He was very confident & solid at the back. In reality, we only need him as a back-up anyway so he doesn't need to be the best defender out there to be our squad player.

I agree on Chygrynsky, although I feel the board got rid of him due to the serious financial pressure at the time. He's actually better than he looked in Barca & that's why Pep went for him in the 1st place.

AjanleKoko:
Bro, actually this attitude is as a result of the EPL craze in Nigeria.  I started to support Barcelona as a team when Ronaldo Da Lima moved their in 1995/96. Prior to that, I supported players, not teams. I followed Platini, Baggio, Del Piero, and even Ronaldo as a teen at PSV.
It is the EPL that has brought this attitude of 'Man U Fans, Arsenal Fans (biggest culprits actually), etc'. We all love the game, and we should appreciate what every other team brings.
Even as a Barca fan in 96, I appreciated Capello's team, and later Zidane and his galacticos, and only rooted against them when they were playing us.

Very true talk! I remember supporting even Inter Milan (gosh!) when Ronaldo moved there. I also liked the old Ajax of Jari Litmanen, Kluivert, etc (who didn't? They were the precursors to the current Barca team).

medjai:
I think we would be short of experience and steel at the back if Milito leaves. I was even thinking that we need to bring back Martin Caceres from his loan spell at Sevilla because Puyol is in and out every now and then and there arent many quality and experienced options.

I agree too. Muniesa/Fontas/Batra are good, but can they live up to the pressure of a CL semi-final game against ManU in Old Trafford? We need experienced heads like Milito/Caceres around - Puyol and Pique will get their fair share of injuries & suspensions sometime,

Goal! Excellent goal by our man of the match! Abidal has been superb in defence & crowned it with the goal.

I knew we would have problems creating chances with Keita in MF (yes, it's obvious I don't like him). Our team thrives on bossing the MF & we just never do this when Keita plays. As soon as Iniesta came on, we got the creativity we so lacked early in the game & subsequently got the goal.

Pedro was hardworking as usual - I wonder how the guy can play 90mins with so much energy! Messi was off-colour today, but I guess he can be forgiven.

All-in-all it's good we managed to squeeze through. This match should show the EPL fanboys that La Liga teams rarely allow Barca (and sometimes RM) to have their way. Bilbao pushed us all through the 180 mins of the 2 legs of this Copa tie.

babapupa:
You really should be tired for yourself because of your inability to spot the differences and dynamics  between  The City Of Los Angeles and Lagos State.

#1. Los Angeles is a city, not a state like Lagos State.

#2. The population of the City of Los Angeles is 3 million and their budget is 7 billion dollars (A city, not a state)

#3The population of the State of Lagos is 18 million and the budget is only 2 billion dollars (A Real state)

#4. The infrastructure in Los Angeles is fully developed and most of their budget is not going towards capital projects, they are basically maintaining decades old infrastructure.

#5 The state of Lagos is starting from scratch with a huge chunk of the budget going towards capital projects.




Now, to deal with your misguided comment about toll roads in LA. Who really should be tolling roads? A rich and fully developed city with 7 billion dollars budget and just 3 million people or a non developed and poor state with a budget of 2 billion dollars and 18 million people?

There is little or no need for a fully developed and rich city like LA to toll roads, but there is more than enough need for the State Of Lagos to toll roads, Lagos is a poor state saddled with the ultimate responsibility of taking care of millions of folks from every corner of Nigeria in search of a better life and opportunity, the same better life and opportunity that the federal government is not providing. 


A whole lot of you people are too petty, shortsighted and unrealistic, you have little or no life experience to guide and help you think wisely and formulate good judgment.

I tip my hat to the Great State of Lagos for doing so much, looking after and taking care of 18 million people with chump change less than 3 years into Fashola's administration.

Lagos is a city-state - kinda similar to Singapore which is effectively a city, even though it's country. Next thing, you'll be telling me the Lekki "expressway" is an intercity road within the state of Lagos, abi? Anyways, for comparison, Lagos can be compared to the LA county, which consists of different cities. The point is that there are no tolls when driving from LA to Pasadena/Glendale/Pomona, etc.

[color=Black]You referenced USA so much, implying that tolls are commonplace in USA. My point is that you are gave misleading info and that tolls are indeed rare in USA, especially within cities. Is this true or false?[/color]

#4. The infrastructure in Los Angeles is fully developed and most of their budget is not going towards capital projects, they are basically maintaining decades old infrastructure./quote]

Are you not the same guy who has been using the presence of tolls in USA to justify tolls in Lagos? Now you say both shouldn't be compared since USA is essentially developed! Ok then, let's compare Nigeria to countries that are just building new infrastructure: China, India, UAE, etc. Pls give us a comparable example to the Lekki situation in these countries, ie putting 3 tolls on a 25km road within a city.

#5 The state of Lagos is starting from scratch with a huge chunk of the budget going towards capital projects./quote]

Really? Lagos has been collecting it's fair share of the ECA, which has been depleted to $3m (see my earlier post on this). The truth is that none of us knows exactly how much money any state government in Nigeria actually receives in total. The books are not publicly audited and the $2bn you keep throwing about here is just the official budget figure published. no inclusion of the ECA allocations and other incomes.

[quote]A whole lot of you people are too petty, shortsighted and unrealistic, you have little or no life experience to guide and help you think wisely and formulate good judgment.

Read your post again. I made my point, yet you start to throw words at me. Which of us sounds petty? I don't engage in online arguments/insults as you can tell from my previous posts, so cool it abeg.
As for saying people don't have real life experience, the truth is you simply don't know. Don't underestimate others simply because you don't agree with their position on an issue. I won't tell tell you what I do or the annual budget I control, cos I'm not the boasting type. Besides, you prob wont believe anyway.

Pls let's respect each other. I've not thrown words at you, don't throw 'em at me.

[/quote]

Pep Guardiola Admits Gabriel Milito Will Likely Leave Barcelona In Search Of More Playing Time


By Subhankar Mondal
Jan 4, 2011 7:30:00 PM


Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola has admitted that Gabriel Milito will likely leave the club for more playing time.

Earlier on Tuesday there were reports suggesting that the Argentine centre-back wanted to leave Camp Nou on loan for the rest of the season with Genoa as a possible destination.

However, Guardiola has revealed that he has not talked to Milito about a potential switch but admits that he won't stand in his way if the 30-year-old wants to leave the Blaugrana in January.

“He has not spoken to me about it," revealed Guardiola to the club's official website. "[Sporting director Andoni] Zubizarreta told me about the situation and Milito knows how I feel, so he has to decide.

"There are decisions I make and those the club makes, but this is purely down to him. Knowing him, I understand, but I’m not hurt.

"It is impossible to feel hurt by Gaby. I understand him. Believe me, I’ve been a footballer, and know what it‘s like."

Guardiola then spoke of Wednesday's second leg clash against Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey with the Round of 16 tie delicately balanced after the 0-0 draw at Camp Nou.

“We expect a packed stadium. That doesn’t mean we underestimate other games, we don’t do that.

"If that was the case, we wouldn’t have achieved what we have. At 10.00 we will be trying to qualify, and at 12.00 we can talk about what’s happened.

"[If Barca are eliminated] we will have more days to rest. That’s no problem, because last season, without the cup, we got 99 points in the league and got to the semi-finals of the Champions League."

http://www.goal.com/en/news/12/spain/2011/01/04/2289871/pep-guardiola-admits-gabriel-milito-will-likely-leave


I personally don't like this. Milito is our only experienced sub CB. Yes, Aidal can also play in that position, but that's not his natural role. Batra, Munies & Fontas are very good, but we still need the experience of Milito. Pep really needs to play him more, when he's not injured.

I don't like getting rid of experienced squad players (eg Henry & Marquez last summer). What I sense is that Pep is very biased in favour of la Masia players and the non-spaniards especially are feeling left out. Pep will always favour la Masia graduates above everyone else. Look at last season: Busquests was the single biggest reason Barca didnt make it to Cl finals, mwhile Toure was head & shoulder above him last season (Busquests has improved very much this season though). If Busquests was a non-la Masia graduate, Pep would have benched him the rest of last season, which is exactly what he did to Ibra after the CL debacle. Yet, Toure was always kept on the bench for Busquests. ANyone who has seen toure play for Man City will relize that we threw away a gem - the guy is just sooo versatile!

Also, look at Bojan this season - he has been a total flop, yet he gets far more minutes than Nolito (who though plays in team B, is not a la Masia graduate). In the few matches Nolito has played, he has been outstanding, but Pep will always go with Bojan. Hleb was rarely given a chance before he was shoved out. Same applies to Chygrynsky. Henry played badly against Arsenal in Cl and Pep refused to use him the rest of last season!

I really hope I'm wrong because such an obvious bias doesn't portend well for the team. I hope Pep can keep the ship tight.

tpia1:
google is your friend.

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/04/toll_exemption_for_grand_isle.html

Lol! What a laughable way to try to debunk my points.

I didn't say: No single city road is tolled anywhere in USA. I asked how many? How common is it? Even in the example you gave, the residents clearly oppose it deeply. Also notice that there was attempt to exempt people who permanently reside in the place.

As I said, even in very rich LA, the stars don't have to pay tolls to reach their homes. Tolling on city roads in rare in USA. That's a fact. No one would complain much if Lagos-Ibadan is tolled because people typically wont commute that road daily. No one complained when most express-ways in Naija had tolls - the tolls were removed when trailers/tankers with failed brakes kept killing people at the toll gates.

Give me an example anywhere with similar specifics. I quote myself again:
Worse still that it's 3 toll gates on such a short stretch (compare to 3 tolls previously on the ~120km Lagos-Ibadan expressway). Even worse still, the road construction has significantly reduced increased traffic on that road and only about 25% of the work is complete. This can only happen in Naija!

tpia1:
they will applaud when they hear things like this overseas, but shout foul if govt tries anything like it in nigeria:

The reason Nigerians are generally oppossed to more tax, more fees, more tolls:
In USA, you have Police to protect you. In Naija, the police tax you and you still have to pay for maigard, OPC, etc to actually protect you.
In USA, there is a good electricity system. In Naija, you run your own mini power plant
In USA, there is a good public water system. In Naija, you need to have your own borehole/water treatment plant.
In USA, there is a good drainage system. In Naija, you & your neighbours will contribute to clear the drains.

My point? You are essentially your own govt in naija - the govt is only efficient in collecting tax/fees/tolls. In the USA & other developed countries, you see your tax at work, so there's more willingness to pay extra for some services. In naija, it's not the same! As I posted earlier, the Excess Crude Account has been effectively wiped out, with claims that the money is withdrawn for "infrastructural development".

I hope you guys can see the difference and compare more objectively. Lagos is not Detroit/Houston/London/Chicago/LA/London/Kuala Lumpur.

I tire for folks like tpia & babapupa. U guys keep bringing up USA. But in reality how many roads within cities are tolled in USA? I was in LA recently. I did not drive on a single tolled road. I know some intercity roads are tolled abroad. But that's like putting tolls on Lagos-Ibadan - no one would complain about that.

It is unfair to put tolls on a road that people use on their daily commute to work/school/shop. Worse still that it's 3 toll gates on such a short stretch (compare to 3 tolls previously on the ~120km Lagos-Ibadan expressway). Even worse still, the road construction has significantly increased traffic on that road and only about 25% of the work is complete. This can only happen in Naija!

I forgot to add: does anyone here know how much LASG collects for CofO (Certificate of Occupancy) for a plot of land in the Lekki area? At least N650,000 in areas like Lekki phase 2. Lekki phase 1 is even higher. This is one of the many fees that LASG collects in addition to 25% income. Yet, the govt cannot provide these people with a road to their homes? People who keep comparing to other countries, abeg compare reasonably. I've lived in naija & outside and really some of the comments from peeps outside naija (or who don't know the specifics of Lekki) are just laughable.

Even in the West that so many people compare to, very few roads are actually tolled. I was in SoCal recently & didn't drive on a single tolled road. In UK, most roads aren't tolled. Why don't you guys compare to the Mid-East now? At least we have oil like them, yet they don't even pay income tax in most of their countries,

With these kinda events all the time, why wont people resist paying tolls? They keep saying they're withdrawing money from the ECA for "infrastructure development". Abeg, where's the infrastructure?

http://www.thisdayonline.info/nview.php?id=191100

Excess Crude Account Shrinks to $3m
From James Emejo in Abuja, 12.31.2010
After an emergency meeting of the Federation Account Allocation Committee yesterday, the sum of $1billion was deducted from the Excess Crude Account and approved for distribution to the three tiers of government.

Yesterday’s deduction has reduced the balance in the Excess Crude Account, created to provide succour in rainy days to only about $3 million.

A rundown of the distribution of the $1 billion released after the meeting showed that the federal government received $458.31 million while the states shared $232 million. The local governments shared $179 million.
The remaining $130 million will be shared among the oil producing states based on the existing controversial derivative principle.

FAAC said latest disbursements are expected to be channelled to infrastructural development in different states.
Minister of State for Finance, Hajiya Yabawa Wabi said shortly after the meeting in Abuja that it made sense to disburse the votes to the states to enable them fund more developmental projects.

The minister said: “We are here because we got an approval to share $1bn from the ECA to the three tiers of government and this, we are doing because the ECA is a financing item in the 2010 budget of both the federal and state governments.

“As you are aware, the budget year has been extended to March 2011 by the National Assembly and that is why we need to share this amount to form part of the 2010 budget. Since only the capital budget was extended to March, the money will only be meant for capital projects. The money was approved by Mr. President. No other money was shared apart from this and the money has already been cash-backed.”

President Jonathan was said to have given in to pressure from state governors to share the $1 billion because the governors worry that most infrastructural projects in their respective areas have been stalled by lack of funds, a situation they argued could make their second term bids difficult.

It was learnt that the governors feared that their electorates might criticise them for under-performing and reneging on previous campaign promises.

Chairman, Commission-ers Forum, Alhaji Rebo Usman dismissed speculations that the amount shared may have been an end-of-the year bonuses to governors and other government officials.Said Usman: “We have to meet because there is no way we could share money without a meeting of FAAC members. That was why we had to hold this emergency meeting to take care of that decision that was taken by the National Economic Council.

“This money is not an end of year bonus. It is fund that belongs to the three tiers of government and the ECA is like savings. The governors believe that there is need to fund some on-going projects that are taken place both at the federal and state levels.
“So, it is normal that the money was taken at this time of the year to fund some of our operations. The ECA is an account that belongs to the three tiers of government and anytime we are in need, we have a right to use.

A lot (not all though) of people who don't live in Nigeria just don't get it! People are reluctant to pay these tolls because we still don't have accountability in govt. You simply can't compare what obtains in USA/Europe/Asia to Nigeria. We have a tax rate of 25%, but almost no public utilities to show for it. You pay for your own power company, your own police (OPC, etc), your own water corporation, etc. Govt is almost inexistent other than to collect tax, bribes & now tolls. Why wont people protest?

In this specific case, the construction re-surfacing & addition of 1 extra lane to this 25km road has taken 4 years! Yet, only about 5km is completed. Now they want to introduce tolls at 3 points on the road. Please show me a similar case in the US, those of you who keep referring to USA.

ddippset:
GOURDIOLA BETTA WATCH IT. HE IS UP AGAINST AN ALWAYS OVER AMBITIOUS MOURINHO. A MAN WHO WOULD NOT REST ANY KEY PLAYER EVEN AGAINST A DIV 3 TEAM, A MAN WHO WOULD KILL EVEN 2 WIN A TEE SPOON. STOP RESTING MESSI UNNECESSARILY! PLEEEESE. WE MITE PAY 4 IT SOMEDAY.

I disagree with you. I think in fact Pep does not rest Messi enough & rarely subs him out of a match, even when we're obviously thrashing the other team. We really should not need Messi to dispatch with teams like Levante. If we use Messi every match, he'll simply become tired & less creative, as happened towards the end of last season. We need a fresh & imaginative Messi.

As for RM playing their 1st team in every match - well, you can see the results in terms of their injury list. Also, their fringe players rarely play & tend not to blend in as seamlessly as ours do. In the last Copa de Rey round, while we were winning away with our B team, RM was held 0-0 playing their 1st team. A few matches later, their 1st team which had been overused in all competitions (while we were rotating our players) was humiliated 5-0 by our team in El Classico.

Johnpaul88:
Guyz i love all these analysis u all gave. I also love my FCB! 3 pionts all the way! How i wish RM will slip, so that they will not be on our tails like before. Please guys, how long will Piqué last in the suspension he is currently serving?

Pique's suspension was only for 1 league match. He will be available to play in the Copa del Rey match against Bilbao midweek and also available to play against Depor at Riazor next weekend.

He got the suspension from amassing 5 yellow cards, as per La Liga BBVA rules.

mystikal:
Without Messi, Barca plays like Arsenal

Lol! Are u joking? Every team has their star man whom when he's not playing, the team just plays a little below par. I feel it's a complement that we only play as badly as the best EPL team when we have Messi, Puyol, Pique not playing!

Bojan really was the problem with our attack today - poor control, poor passing. i don't know what's wrong with him. It was the same story against Bilbao in Nou Camp - we weren't incisive because Messi & Villa were on the bench. In any case, what I see Pep doing the next time Messi isn't starting is to either play Afellay as the 3rd striker with Villa & Pedro or play Iniesta as the 3rd striker, with Thiago in MF with Xavi.

Barca 2-1 Levante

My thoughts on the match:
This was tougher than many predicted. I know many people expected us to score a basket-ful of goals against Levante especially after what RM did to them in the cup. In truth, I always knew it would be tough. 1st, we don't play very well after breaks: we struggle at the beginning of each season & also after international breaks. 2nd, the Levante team that played RM is essentially their B team. 3rd, no team wil lose 8-0 and not try to improve in their next game - Levante were always going to come to defend in Camp Nou.

As for our team, I was quite happy with the display considering Messi, Pique & Puyol were all missing. Busquests was excellent in defence, while Abidal was also confident in the role, although he strayed off position too often. Masch is also improving & Xavi/Iniesta did their usual damage. One nice improvement I've seen with Iniesta is his new willingness to shoot from afar. He used to be the worst party in our MF in terms of trying to play the ball into the net. Iniesta of 2 seasons ago would not even shoot from inside the box - now he shoots from outside & he's good at it too.

As for the attack, Pedro & Villa were helping out the MF too much in the 1st half & it looks like Pep told them at the break to just go & attack. Both of them were key to our win. But Bojan! I don't quite understand what's going on with him this season. is it the weight of expectation of the No 9 shirt? He's one of my favourite young players in the team, but I have to confess that he's been really poor this season. Even last season when he had fewer games, he looked sharp whenever he came on. I was begging for Pep to take him off today.

Subs:
Keita: Did a decent job in the MF when he came on. I guess he will also appear in the cup in mid week.
Milito: Good to see him back. I don't really like Abidal in CB & even though Milito wasn't great when we conceded the goal, the fact is that he's match-rusty after missing so many games.
Thiago: Boy! Is he a joy to watch! He's a mix of Xavi & Iniesta, with a dose of Messi lol! This boy is going to be one of the greats in future & we're lucky to have him in our team. Hope Pep starts to use him more.

All in all, I'm happy we got the 3 points. We wont win every match 5-0 & kudos to Levante for putting up a good fight. At least, we're improving in the way we play teams who park the bus. We just wear them down & with a good DMF & strong CBs, we wont give up cheap goals on the counter. Let's beat Bilbao in the cup & Depor next weekend to start this year in a great way.

Happy new year to all Cules!

medjai:
Nolito has signed a contract with Portuguese side, Benfica and will leave Barca on a free in the summer

http://www.totalbarca.com/2010/news/nolito-accepts-benficas-offer/

I really hope this isn't true. I've not seen it on the official Barca site yet. Nolito is a very good player & I feel Pep should have given him more chances this season (more than Bojan, who has been surprisingly poor so far). I understand his dilemma though: he's 24 and hasn't broken into the 1st team yet. I feel the club is making a mistake by letting him go so cheaply, with no buy-back clause as RM usually does. I feel a loan deal would have been perfect, instead of a free transfer. I hope this wont come back to haunt us sha.

chic2pimp:
^^^^^Before Nko?Wetin you Expect? . . . . . . . .Most peeps on this thread only started following Barca after the 2005/2006 season.

The fact that there are more Barca fans than Real Fans only Validates my point. Even as far back as 2003, I willing to bet you would have found two times if not three times more Real Fans. Buncha Gloryhunters!!!

Really? I've been supporting Barca since the days of Stoichkov & Romario. I remember the CL win when Koeman scored our only goal with a memorable freekick. The reason I never got on the EPL bandwagon was that I already was supporting a European team before DSTV came along.

BTW if you hate Barca so much what are u doing on this thread? I can't understand the haters who come here. I can't imagine myself wasting my time going to post crap on the Chelsea of Arsenal threads,

Xavi named World Soccer player of the year

FC Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernàndez has been named player of the year 2010 by British magazine World Soccer’. Readers gave him 25.8% of the vote, and FCB’s Leo Messi cam second.
Xavi certainly seems to be on a lot of minds when it comes to picking the most outstandinmg player of the year that is about to end. World Soccer’s award from the United Kingdom is the latest in a series of prestigious recognitions of the Barça man’s amazing year. The magazine valued both his involvement in the Spanish success at the World Cup and also everything he has been doing at Barça.

Ahead of Messi

This is the 28th edition of the awards, and Xavi was followed in the voting by Argentinian team mate Leo Messi, the 2009 winner, who got 24.1% of the votes. There are two other Barça men in the top ten: Andrés Iniesta came fifth and David Villa came seventh.

Guardiola, who was named manager of the year in 2009, came fifth this time round.

Barça third

The World Soccer readers also picked the best team of the year, and FC Barcelona were named third behind the Spain World Cup squad, which included eight FCB men, and Champions League winners Inter Milan.

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