With the transfer window finally closed until the winter break it is the time to have a look at our squad and assess our possibilities for this season. Once again our first team squad looks very small but this is something we are getting used to and the success of the last two seasons suggests we have nothing to worry about. This summer we have seen the departure of Rafa Marquez, Thierry Henry, Toure Yaya, Chygrynskiy and Ibrahimovic, while we have bought David Villa, Adriano and Mascherano. Of course this means we have two players less than last season but this gives the youngsters the chance to break through and this season I'm sure we will see more of the likes of Johnathan Dos Santos, Thiago Alcantara and Andreu Fontas.

For a long time this...

Barça began the defence of La Liga title with a comfortable 0-3 win over Racing Santander. Leo Messi got us off to a perfect start with an early goal and Andrés Iniesta scored a great second before half time, David Villa got off to a good start with his first league goal for the club just past the hour to wrap up the three points. Racing worked hard to stay in the game but after Victor Valdés saved a first half penalty from Tchite there really was only going to be one winner of the game.

The first danger of the game came in the first minute when Tchite threatened on the right but Piqué got across well to force a corner. However, Barça drew first blood soon after,...

The big talking point before tomorrow's opening league game of 2010/2011 is the absence of Zlatan Ibrahimovic from Pep Guardiola's 18-man squad list. With negotiations continuing with Milan the players future is clearly in the balance. I can understand that by keeping the player may cause some problems with team spirit but we should hold out for a decent price if we are going to sell a player who can clearly offer us different options this season. Of course it could be argued that we will still save on his wages whatever the selling price and I imagine that is on Rosell's mind, if it is he and not Guardiola behind the decision. So, it may turn out to be good business even if we sell at a big loss, however, it may turn out to be another Rosell...

After a few days of negotiation Barça and Liverpool have reached an agreement for the transfer of Javier Mascherano for a fee of €22 million. Since the departure of Toure Yaya it seemed that if we were going to make any more signings then it would be for a defensive midfielder to cover for and compete with Sergio Busquets for the position. With 55 international appearances for Argentina, the 26-year-old has plenty of experience, and of course speaking Spanish is always an advantage when it comes to fitting in. However, I admit to having my doubts about the move: Mascherano does not seem to me a Barça style player and this may also block the progress of the promising Oriol Romeu. But of course, Romeu is still very young and perhaps not ready to step up in a Champions League semi...

So now we know our opponents for the group stage of the Champions League and at first sight we should not have too many problems to get through to the last 16. Panathanaikos and Copenhagen would appear to be among the easier teams in Pot 2 and 3, respectively, though getting Rubin Kazan out of Pot 4 put a downer on things especially as we only managed to take one point from two games against the Russian champions. Rubin still have the lightning fast Gokdeniz Karadeniz who scored the second goal in Rubin's 1-2 win at Camp Nou last season and other players who I remember from last year such as Sharonov, Ryazantev, Noboa and the wonderfully named Macbeth Sibaya.

Last season was a good one for Panathanaikos who won the Greek...

Three penalty saves from José Manuel Pinto won Barça the Joan Gamper trophy after a 1-1 draw with AC Milan with Ronaldinho returning to Camp Nou for the first time since leaving the club in 2008. Ronnie was given ovations before the game, when he was substituted and also at the end of the game in a night that had a distinct party atmosphere with over 96,000 fans in attendance. The public also turnedout to see David Villa who scored his first goal as a blaugrana early in the second half to put us ahead but Milan hit back with a magnificent volley from Inzaghi to take the game to penalties. 

Before the start of the game Carles Puyol received the presentation of La Liga trophy for last season's success, and Loan...

Barça won their eighth title under Pep Guardiola with a fantastic display of football to beat Sevilla 4-0 and thus overturn the 3-1 defeat last week in Seville. An own goal from Sevilla defender Konko put us into an early lead, and the festival was completed with a Leo Messi hat-trick. We also had the treat of seeing half an hour of David Villa playing on the left, and our new signing fitted in well playing a part in the fourth goal. If last week we played with four youngsters to fill in for the Spanish World Cup players, tonight we saw a much stronger starting eleven with Valdés, Piqué, Xavi, Busquets and Pedro all returning to the team. 

We were in control right...

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The first trophy of the season is up for grabs tomorrow but it will be a tough task for Barça to overturn the 3-1 defeat in last Saturday's 1st leg in Seville. At least Pep Guardiola now has a full squad to choose from but it seems unlikely that he will start with all eight of the Spanish World Cup heroes, it all depends on their state of fitness and from reports in the press it seems as though the players in best shape are Carles Puyol and Sergio Busquets.

We saw last week with Leo Messi that it often takes a player more time to reach full fitness, so we are likely to see starts for the players who have been trainig for longest, and so I expect to see players such as Milito, Abidal, Keita, Ibrahimovic and Bojan in the starting eleven. Messi has had another week...

Barça have an uphill task next Saturday after going down 3-1 to Sevilla in the first leg of the Supercopa at the Sanchez Pizjuan tonight. After a decent performance in the first half which saw us go ahead through a Zlatan Ibrahimovic goal, we fell apart in the second half as our players tired, demonstrating the lack of time we have had to prepare for the game, and Sevilla hit back with goals from Luis Fabiano and Freddy Kanoute twice.

With three debutants, Ruben Miño, Sergio Gomez and Oriol Romeu in the team and Messi sitting on the bench I was a little worried at how we would fair, but from the start it seemed as if we would have no problem holding our own, we won two early corners on...

At last, it's been thirteen weeks since our last treat of Barça competitive football, admitedly we had the World Cup between, but there is nothing to compare with seeing the blaugrana in action. Of course our team tomorrow will not be at full strength, all eight of our Spanish World Cup heroes have been left out of the group travelling to the game, and of course we are without Pinto who injured himself this week which will probably mean an official debut for our 21 year old keeper Ruben Miño. The other youngsters who have been included are Oier, Nolito, Sergio Roberto, Thiago Alcantara, Sergi Gomez, Johnathan Dos Santos, Muniesa, and Oriol Romeu which gives us a fair idea of which players are most in line for a possible promotion to the first team in the next year or...