Category: Football
Barcelona upset over Gabriel
Spanish giant Barcelona is upset about the way Santos sold forward Gabriel to Inter Milan.
It is believed that Barcelona has an agreement in place with the Brazilian club that allows them to have the first option on the purchase of some players. The Spanish side argues that they were not given enough time to decide whether they will buy the player or not.
The agreement is in place since 2013 when Barcelona signed Neymar from Santos. It is reported that they pay an additional fee of €7m to guarantee that they have a preferential option for the purchase of several players among which was Gabriel.
Barcelona feels that they were not given sufficient time to consider whether they will be purchasing the striker or not. It is believed that the Brazilian club only gave Barcelona 48 hours to decide whether they need the player or not. The Barcelona board argues that they were given incomplete information about the player and that they could not make a proper decision in the timeframe that they were given.
It is believed that the Spanish side might be reporting Santos to FIFA for a breach of agreement. Continue reading
Luis Enrique Expecting Different Game from Sevilla
Luis Enrique says that he is expecting a different mentality from Sevilla under the management of Jorge Sampaoli.
The former coach of the Chilean national team has a very tough task on his hands to match the achievements of Unai Emery. The former Sevilla manager led the club to 3 successive Europa League titles. This led to his appointment at French outfit Paris St Germain. Sevilla were unable to keep their manager due to the lack of spending power. They have appointed Sampaoli in the hope that the recent tradition with regard to European football will be continued.
However,Sampaoli has very little experience of European football after having previously coached only players playing in the European leagues like Alexis Sanchez. In terms of club football, he has managed the likes of Universidad de Chile primarily in South American region. He could not have wished for a tougher opening at his new job. Sevilla came up against Real Madrid in the UEFA cup final but lost 3-2 in extra time even after some extraordinary comeback. They are now up against Barcelona in two-legged Super Cup match. They start the new La Liga campaign with a home match against Espanyol.
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Luis Enrique to get new deal
Barcelona will not offer a new deal to their manager Luis Enrique until January.
Their vice-president has stated that the Spanish team is keen to keep their manager, but any extension will be only offered in January. This statement has given rise to speculations that the club will offer an extension if they are satisfied with the results of the team.
Luis Enrique managed to win the treble with Barcelona during his first season at the club and only won the La Liga title last year. With Real Madrid appointing Zinedine Zidane as their manager last season, there is news that Barcelona might also want to appoint a high profile manager for the club.
However, Barcelona’s Vice-president Jordi Mestre has denied these rumors and has stated that the club does not have any other alternatives in mind. He said that Barcelona is fully satisfied with Luis Enrique, and they do not have any intention to replace him at the head of the club.
Since his arrival, Luis Enrique has managed to keep the team together and allow them to remain at the top of the Spanish league. Jordi Mestre said that they are satisfied with the manager and what he has achieved so far for the team. He admitted however that there are no contract talks going on at the moment and that the manager will be offered a new contract in January.
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Barcelona agreed to pay Neymar’s tax evasion charges
Ever since Neymar joined Barcelona on May of 2013, there have been investigations going on involving his transfer from Santos to Barcelona as the transfer fee was initially disclosed and later on it was discovered that fee which was made to the public was not the actual amount of money that Barcelona had spent in signing the Brazilian superstar.
These transfer investigations led to Rosell resigning from his position as the president of Barcelona and the Spanish club was charged with tax evasion fraud as well as other things which emerged.
It’s been over 3 years since that transfer was completed and move investigations have been taking place involving Neymar’s move to Barcelona as there was a portion of the money which actually went to the wrong parties but nonetheless it has recently been revealed that all of these issues have finally been resolved.
It was recently announced that Barcelona had agreed to pay €9.3 million in back taxes and the Spanish club will also pay a fine of €5.5 million to Spanish authorities due to everything that emerged in relation to Neymar’s transfer to Barcelona.
At the age of 24, Neymar is already being viewed as the next true leader of Barcelona, someone who might be able to follow the footsteps of Messi and accomplish everything that the Argentine superstar has done with Barcelona. Continue reading
Will Arda Turanbeoffloaded in the summertransferwindow ?
Arda Turanjustwentthroughhis first season as a player of Barcelona afterhavingjoined the Spanish club for a transferfee of €34 million as the Turkish midfielder completed his move from Athletic Madrid over to Barcelona.
Unfortunately for Arda Turan and for Barcelona, thistransferappears to have been a failure as the Turkishplayer has not settled in to Camp Nou and struggledtrying to findhis place in the team of Luis Enrique.
For the majority of the season, Turan has had a substitute role in Barcelona whichissurprising for a playerthatwassigned for a fee of €34 million, he was initially expected to become a regular starter for Barcelona after they splashed out so much cash.
During the first few months of ArdaTuran as a player of Barcelona, he was actually a starter but after a string of underwhelming results, his time in the main team started to get more limited.
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Barcelona thrashed Deportivo La Coruna to stay top of the league
On a day where both Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid won, Barcelona needed to win their game if they wanted to stay on top of the Spanish league.
Indeed, after a poor run of form, Barcelona has surrendered a 9 points lead and found themselves levelled with Atletico Madrid and only one point over the Real Madrid.
Barcelona responded brilliantly by beating a poor Deportivo La Coruna side by 8-0. This was a humiliating defeat for Deportivo, who was playing at home. However, with the form demonstrated by Luis Suarez and his mates, it would have been difficult for Deportivo to stop them.
Luis Suarez has a magnificent game where he scored four goals and contributed 3 assists for Barcelona. This ended a losing streak which saw Barcelona lose 3 times in succession.
The first goal came in the 11th minute when Suarez connected well with a Rakitic corner. He added a second in the 24th minute after collecting an excellent pass from Lionel Messi. These two goals gave Barcelona a two-goal cushion at half-time.
After the break, Luis Suarez will assist Rakitic for the third goal only 3 minutes after the restart. Five minutes later, Suarez will complete his hat-trick five minutes later and add another goal to make it 5-0 for Barcelona. The remaining goals will be scored by Messi, Neymar, and Batra. Continue reading
Barcelona messed it up at Villarreal the other night
From a winning position, Barcelona messed it up at Villarreal the other night as the hosts made it a draw with their incredible comeback.
But, in spite of that, Luis Enrique was not a disappointed man and that’s because even that draw was good enough for Barcelona to extend the lead as the table toppers.
Atletico Madrid, Barcelona’s challengers for the title in the Spanish top tier this season, had been upset by Sporting Gijon the day before which had kept their points’ tally unmoved.
Barcelona, however, by the virtue of this draw increased their total no. of points by one and thus, still widened the gap between them and Atletico.
According to Enrique, any result which takes you further ahead of your nearest rival is a brilliant result.
The boss said, “One point at a Stadium which has always been hard for the opposition to come and compete at, it has got to be a good result.”
“Also, if you see the side at no. 2 was beaten, while, we have had a point which means our lead has stretched. So, it’s great from that point of view too.”
“Frankly speaking, this performance from Villarreal was not out of the blue. They are actually a class team and whenever you play them here, you won’t find it easy to put brakes on them because they have very good idea of their game.” Continue reading
Luis Enrique has admitted that he would like to add some players to Barcelona
Luis Enrique has admitted that he would like to add some players to Barcelona squad in this January transfer window.
The Catalan giants are known for having a thin squad, but they have been able to get away because of good luck with injuries. None of the stars like Lionel Messi or Neymar have spent major portions on the sidelines in recent years. The 2015-16 season, though, has exposed this weakness quite drastically. Barcelona have been able to maintain their momentum in the la Liga but it has been tough work for Enrique since many stars have been out for a considerable amount of time.
The transfer ban imposed on Barcelona for their transfer of underage players has been lifted recently. The club already made some signings in the summer, but they will now officially be able to play for the club starting from January. Further, there is the possibility of adding more to an already thin squad.Gerard Pique, Neymar, and Luis Suarez scored in the 3-1 win against Athletic Bilbao. Enrique has likened the arrival of new players as a Christmas present. Since the club are short on numbers in almost every department, there is likely to be a few arrivals this winter. Continue reading
Barcelona enjoyed success in 2015 after lifting the Club World Cup
Barcelona enjoyed success in 2015 after lifting the Club World Cup with a fine 3-0 win over River Plate.
The team had already won the likes of the Champions League and the league title this year. Even though they were clear favourites for the Club World Cup, the prospect of facing Argentine champions River Plate was always going to be daunting. However, they came away with a quite comfortable victory following goals from Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi. The former had a bigger say with two goals compared to the Little Argentine, who opened the scoring. This was the second consecutive win for the club in all competitions.
The Catalan club will now be able to enjoy a much deserved break before returning to the league campaign with a home game against Real Betis. There were doubts about Barcelona succeeding at a Club World Cup due to the recent domestic form. Dropped points against Deportivo la Coruna and Valencia have allowed the likes of Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid to close the gap. The 1-1 draw against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League, though, had little significance since the team had already qualified as the group winners. Barcelona will be hoping to become the first team to defend the Champions League ground when they take on Arsenal in the last 16. Continue reading