Fcbnews Now Found At BARCACENTRAL.WORDPRESS.COM

Wow, I really wasn't expecting this! I feel so sad about this. Even though I rarely commented, I was an active reader for almost 2 years. Loved reading your posts Nic!

I hope you come back some day. I wish you luck!!

Visca el Barça!!!

This is a sad day indeed Nic

Everytime a game finishes I always log on to check your review! I honestly don't think I have missed a single one since I started following this blog a few years ago! Although I can understand the time and effort required to put together a blog like this and to keep the high quality posts flowing. It has been great being a part of this community for the last few years and I wish to thank not just you, but everybody else who made this blog such a great place for anything and everything about the club we all love so much. We have had some good times and some bad....some silly ones too (Yaya anyone?). Living in the UK and not knowing many Barca fans locally I have always found this blog a great place to talk about the club i love so much.

You are right, there couldnt be a more fitting time to bring this blog to a close. The last game review being the 5-0 smashing of our eternal rivals

I wish you the best of luck in all your endevours mate and if you ever decide to bring this blog back please email me to let me know.

Oh and thanks for the shoutout

Hey Nic!

Devastated will be d mildest word to describe how I feel after readin' 'ur latest post. I mean it's quite heartbreakin' Nic - what u've built is more than a community - it's a UNITED FAMILY of Barça faithfuls regardless of gender, age, race, religion, location and occupation. Oh Nic, oh!!!

But I sort of tried to comprehend 'ur submission and the whys & wherefores behind it. We'll all miss u bro. About hookin' up with u in Barcelona someday? Well, I reside here in Nigeria but one of my most keen dream visitations is Barcelona ofcourse. Hop to see u sometime soon.

Barça till I die!!!

And Nic, please accept my best wishes in every good venture u lay 'ur creative hands upon.

HAVE FUN!!!

Nic - I was very saddened to read this post but I understand how "life can happen" to us. You always seemed to take each post and game seriously and I understand that such a level of dedication cannot be maintained forever. Although I seldom commented, I always read your pre and post game posts and many of the ones between. You will be missed. Gràcies!

I am really sorry NIC about stopping this blog...i can feel what is going....but we will miss the great news about the barcelona matches....really some times i do not watch the game due to work...but waiting your report regular....i have never missed after the game your report...either watched the game or not.....

all in all i wish you all the best....and also the funs who sharing their ideas in this blog...i will be more happy if some one tell me if there is any blog like this one fcbnews....

Nic thanks your working since 2007 for this community....thanks again and again.....

It's a sad day indeed.

I'm going to miss this blog, even though I did'nt post too much I would come to this site a couple of times a day to check if any new posts were up or any new comments had been posted by anyone. Ever time I went online this site was the first one I would go to, I even come here before i go and check my emails.

This blog has been excellent and I really appriciate all the work you put into it Nic and all the comments from fellow Barca fans aswell. I can understand how it takes up so much of your free time and for the effort you put into it so that people from around the world can see your opinion on all things Barca and inturn give their opinions aswell, and for that Nic I thank you for giving all us fans a place to come an catch up with everything Barca related. The one thing I love about this Blog is the personal touch that you bring to your posts which cannot be found on other sites and I commend you for that.

Before and after games this was the first place I'd come to and I even frequented this blog more than I did the offical Barca website or any of the other large footballing sites. I have only posted here in the last year/year and a half but I use to visit the site before this and just read the previews and reviews and read all the interesting and not so interesting debates that use to take place.

I wish you the best of luck in everything you do Nic and once again I want to say thank you for the all the effort you put in and that I thoroughly enjoyed reading your posts.

Barca has gone through an amazing successfull few years and this blog has helped me enjoy it more than I could have without it, Barca will live on and with all the trophies that the team will win in the future I will always remember back to the ones that were won and celebrated on this blog.

Thank you Nic!!

Visca el Barca!!

Nice touch with the picture, I just noticed it now.

Being a daily visitor of your blog ever since you pretty much started it, I find this news very sad Nic. I can't say I am all that surprised though, as you say your posting frequency had gone down dramatically lately, but its really a big disappointment nonetheless.

I Wish all goes well for you with whatever you do that keeps you so buzzy, and thanks for the many hours of fun and interesting reading.

PS. Does that mean I win the FCBNewsQuiz ? You never posted the results of the last one...

damn..a real shocker man...i just logged in to read Ur osasuna game match preview...and suddenly i realized it all will end..

anyway thanx nic..i started as a narrow minded cule when i started reading your blog 3 years back..
but i matured with your posts man..ur posts really broaden up my mind about football and barcelona..

thnx for being with us trough this successful years of barca.. VISCA BARCA!! VISCA CATALUNYA!!

Nic!

OMG! I had no idea! I've been rather inactive lately myself but have always still popped in for a view without commenting in recent times.

Wow...I remember offering to help write for you about 18 months ago.

Anyway - I will keep in touch with you by email in a few days to have a chat - but publicly let me say to you it has been so insightful to have someone in the city reporting...you're passion for FCB has been awesome, your writing great and your blogging top notch.

I would very much hate to see this go to waste, so I highly encourage us all to work on a solution to keep going with the foundation you have laid.

Anyway want to hit me up can get me on darrenc_01@hotmail.com

Nic I'll hit you up in a few days.

VISCA to all!

Much love.

FCB_Darren

Sorry...

That was suppose to say "ANYONE" want to hit me up you can on my above email. Not "ANYWAY"

haha.

Dear Nic,


This is crushing/news. I am 79 years old, and this is the only blog I read. I am hating myself for not commenting more often to let you know how much i appreciate your work, but it always asked me to create an account. I create an account now to thank you for your effort over the years. This blog has become very important in my support for barcelona. 4 of my friends, all barca fans, read this blog religiously before and after games.

While, I do not know what your career goals are, I definitely think you have a talent to write about the great game of football, and your talent surely has evoked great emotions in all the losses and victories of f.c barcelona

All the comments show the great void you will leave behind. Best wishes and god bless.

Visca bARCA..

Evidently, we can't mourn the ceasure of this blog enough. Indeed, Nic has built a LEGACY!!!

"WAY FORWARD"

How can we ensure this legacy does not fade into extinction? Pls someone must do somethin'. I'd have continued on Nic's footprints b't I must say I dont possess d requisite knowledge of bloggin'.

Pls cules, do somethin'.

@ Nic

I seriously hope u'll find someone to fill d vast void u've created. Pls this BOND must not split.

All d best -- VISCA EL BARÇA!!!

At least I read this in the evening so it couldn't ruin my WHOLE day...

Thanks for all the great reads, Nic. Best Barca site I know of. Check it 2 or 3 times a day...

Denial? Right, the first stage of grief? I'm there. This can't be happening.

Seriously thanks. FCBNews will be missed.

Hi every one. I'm still shocked and very sad. And while I'm writing this I get a little bit of tears in my eyes. Maybe it's just b'coz I'm a girl. I became member of this community for a year now I guess. Hey Nic, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all those stories. You have provided us the history of our footbal club and that gave us more insight and knowledge of the beautiful game.

I live in Suriname on the North of South America. There are so many Barca fans here and I think it's 9 out of 10. We enjoy watching live footbal games from the LFP, EPL, Ere Divisie, Serie A, the El and the CL and the WC.

It's a privilege to watch the Barca players on the field.

Hey Barca fans, maybe you can go to "Barca Blaugranes" to get stories.

Once again Nic, I thank you very much and I wish you the very best in life.

It's now almost 08.30hr here and I'm at the office. Bye!! BARCA FOR LIFE!!!

Nice story.

LINK

Thanks nic for your great effort in producing an objective and quality blog . Perfect timing to call it a day nevertheless . Stopping in the wake of humiliating our most hated rival 5-0 is almost as equivalent as Muhammad Ali announcing his retirement from boxing the day after he knocked out George Foreman in the memorable Rumble In The Jungle .
Good luck nic in your future endeavors and hopefully you will be around and contribute to the NEW suggested blog .
Guys , what are you waiting for ?

yup, thanks for this great blog.

I don't know if I will ever find another site with such quality.

I was not a member, and I rarely made a comment, but I didn't miss a single review.

I'm a bit devastated to say the least.

Suddenly i am starting to realize how sad I'll be when Xavi or Messi retire.

anyway, good luck with whatever you do in your personal life.

god, every good thing has to end . . . sigh!
really been excellent all these years,.. i remember your blog to be the first one i started reading about barca. your move from blogspot to oleole. (really hoped they actually paid you). .goodbye nic and good luck. maybe you can open a twitter account where i can follow you, so in case you ever start anything new, we may get the news!

im probably the many who used to lurk regularly and really enjoyed the community. thank you a lot

and it is always great to see people like you Gonzosaurus7 still cherishing the footballing art this club serves after all this years.
I wish you and all the readers here best of luck.

the last thing I has to say on this blog must be:

VISCA EL BARCA

Totally devasted!! oh man!! I will get in touch Nic. Weird how families form!!

On Today's Game:

I do not think that we will make it to Pamplona on time because we are scheduled to arrive in Zaragoza at 5:47PM then catch a bus to pamplona, which is 187 kms from zaragoza and then get there by 08:00 to start the game? RFEF are a joke. they first say that it is rescheduled then they back track. Unbelievable, the amount of mischief going on to make us lose points.

It was weird to receive JuanFran Torres' tweet (Yeah, he quacks a lot on twitter, so I follow).He and Pandiani were crying beorehand and threatened not to show up to play Sunday. Then LFP stepped in to assert that only IT had the authority to reschedule the game not RFEF...then AS (the website) went crazy with the rules...wow...so much animosity. For those of you who are not following the news, there's a been a strike of air traffic controllers in Spain. This strike has shut down spanish airspace for a day and a few hours. In addition, to the strike, there's been terrible weather across the country (SNOWMAZILLA in Pamplona) but the crews worked overnight to clear the field and it has been cleared in time for the game.

I hope no crazy fans intentionally creates a wreck on the road between Zaragoza and Pamplona. Because that could spell disaster in that we would lose three points by forfeit....Gee,I don't have any fingernails left!!!I hope they make it on time.

NEXT POSTINGOOR PLANNING ON PEP'S PART? (argument in progress)

Dear Nic,

With greatness sadness FCBNews just uploaded (as one of my five homepage tabs) and I discover that this great blog is coming to an end. I, like many others, would have loved the blog to continue, but I realise that the time pressure must have been huge.

Whilst I don’t think it will dissuade you from stopping writing the blog, I hope the number of messages you’ve received so far have helped you realise that all your efforts these past years have been so appreciated. You have created a community for the disparate, English-as-preferred-language fans of Barcelona across the globe. As a half Catalan who can’t even speak half-Catalan but loves Barcelona your blog has been my go-to source for news and discussion. But more meaningfully it’s where we all have gone for celebration and commiseration. (Fortunately more celebration than commiseration recently!)

I’m really sorry as it sounds that you have had some challenging things to deal with on the workfront – I can’t help there, but all I’ll say is that you managed to make such a success of this blog, I’m sure you will turn this page and find something else to succeed in.

I will be in Barcelona at some point over the next six months – my father lives in Mataro – and I will be aiming to attend a game, so perhaps we could meet up. Similarly, if you find yourself in London ever and are struggling to find somewhere to watch Barca play then give me a shout (my girlfriend finally having forced me to stop damaging my eyes watching the game on the computer, I now have Sky and a reasonably big television!) I’ll send my email address over.

(Continues)

It seems everyone would like this blog to continue – I would offer to try myself but I also struggle for time (hence this season the reduction in my own comments) and also because it would be a struggle to maintain the quality of Nic’s blogs. Nic, has any of the regulars contacted you yet with an idea? If not, as an alternative to a new blog, how about instead we look to something that is more community-led?

I am not very technically expert and au-fait with all things web-2.0 (we’re still only on 2.0, right?), but I have used Facebook some, and did create a facebook group many years ago. As far as I can tell, non-Facebook users can still view these groups, including individual discussion forums, so Gonzosaurus and other regular readers could still view without needing to sign up, however you need to be a Facebook user to leave comments, but this is not too dissimilar to OleOle. On Facebook now it seems you can quite easily post links to external articles and photos so it should manage to remain reasonably colourful. We could use the homepage (wall) to leave general comments, but then use the discussion forum for particular topics.

Also, if anyone does want to test their blogging skills, they could post a new discussion forum topic, say, for an individual match, which our community could then comment afterwards very much in the manner of Nic’s blog (I’d propose that if this was the case then the would-be blogger should post on the wall to say “I will be posting a match-preview thread on XX date” or I will attempt to get a match write up thread up within 24 hours of final whistle” so that we don’t end up with seven writes ups of El Classico all duplicating one another).

What do people think? I am not proposing that I play a big role in managing / administrating this service – I’ll set it up but would be looking for regulars to volunteer to act as admins – and I guess what we’d be looking for is a group that is self-managed by its members. What do you think Nic? If we could get this up I think we’d expect at least one blog post from you a year giving us your season round-up?

Right, I will leave this proposal hanging to see what kind of response it garners – really not precious about the idea so if others have other ideas do please put them forward!

Finally, to end this post, I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to Nic one last time!

Very best regards,

LokiFCB

@Diatus - sorry, posted my comments before seeing yours? Is that a promise of regular posts of some form? If not, sharing news such as the above is exactly what I'd appreciate.

OK, They are in Stadium...so, we are playing and I will predict that Osasuna will come out swinging. If we sustain the first 15 minutes without taking a goal then we will win this game. I do not think that this year's game will be like the last 2 we played in Pamplona. Again, if we sustain the first 15 minutes then it's on. ESPN Deportes just showed the Barcelona Bus snake through Osasuna fans at the stadium entrance and players filed out of it one by one (Pep, Pique, Keita, Pedro, etc,etc.).They seem to be ALL BUSINESS. I am not settling for anything less than a 3-0 for us today!

@Loki

Hey thanks, I actually might be interested in posting (as long as we keep Nic involved).Maybe we could pick our topics, write the piece, send it to him and let him correct what he needs to then post the ones he thinks are good for the forum. I understand Nic's life is changing a little bit (time) but I agree that we kinda took him for granted (a little bit). Lately, the posts have been and few in between...and just like the saying goes:"you don't know what you've got until it's gone". But yeah, hash it out and let me know. I am def. game!

Cheers

Okay, Guys are warming up on the field!!! Same line up as the Classico...looking good guys!

This is a huge win for Barça despite the usual Spanish football dirty business !!

I agree...Glad I called the score 3-0 (popping my collar )...and Pep is pretty pissed at the Media...hahaha..."We are from a country called Catalunya..." he says...Dammit...I agree Pep.

@NIC. Why? I am dumbfounded with this hard decision of yours to call it a quit on here! This blog is the only ONLINE BARCA FAMILY that i know that functions well. I will suggest you should handover the management of this blog to a person in trust by casting a vote of who it should be by we SOCIOS, there must be some criteria that the nominees must meet before been shortlisted for the takeover. Please think a bout this

This is very sad news.. this has been my favorite Barca blog for years now, my number one source of match reviews and insights.

Does it have to be a final goodbye? Can't you return later?

A roller coaster of a week. First we demolish Galacticos III and even more satisfying is shutting up The Irritating One at the same place where he was jumping around like a mad man a few months back...

Then, we find out the one place where most of us turn to for anything related to Barca - the virtual sports bar/Nic's objective pre and post-match news and views/discussion forum/ranting range etc. is being wound up...

Nic, THANKS a zillion for the valuable time and effort you put in to creating this brilliant Barca blog/world where every Barca fan from Suriname, USA,Holland,Nigeria,Pakistan,Malaysia,Australia etc. was free to let out and express their Barca spirit. We have all laughed,argued,fought,moaned over here about Barca but most of all ENJOYED your posts/views/responses to some of my annoying questions.

THANK YOU NIC!

I understand you have other more pressing commitments and I would like to wish you all the best in your other endeavors.

FCB-NEWS - more than just a blog.

add me if you have facebook my email is elite1family@yahoo.com and my name is experience wisdom, I MISS THIS BLOG

Rarely commented but I was a constant reader of your blog for the last few years. Great job! Hopefully someone else continues the good work.

Goals and highlights .
Osasuna was very fortunate . The score line could have been even more one sided . Messi hit the post and Villa should have had a hat-trick .
LINK

Thank you all so much for your kind messages, this is all quite moving for me. I don't want this to be the end and I hope we can sort out a new project to keep things going. It was strange to watch yesterday's match without taking notes but it was nice to enjoy the game as a simple fan again (I can stop being so anti-social to the people around me in the bar now, as I always avoided conversation as it would distract me).

It is nice to see some interest in continuing with a new blog or something similar (the facebook group, or a forum). I would definitely be interested in contributing articles but I do not want to be involved in the administration/technical side of things, however, I am happy to help with trying to coordinate the beginnings of a new project. If Loki, Darren and Diatus all want to get involved that would be fantastic - guys send me an email at the above address and we can try to get something started. Anyone else interested? Hilal, Pabman, Omer? Email me, at least to let me have contact emails.

For all you readers out there - keep checking back here, as soon as any new project begins I will post details of it here.

@Josep - yes, you did win the quiz, though BarçaLegend pushed you close. I was extremely impressed with your knowledge/detective skills. Apologies for not keeping up with the posting the answers, etc.

This is sad news indeed. It was hard to find a really good blog about Barca, but then I found FCBNews two years ago (i think). And it has been my only non-official source for Barca-news ever since.

Nic, you've done a great job for all of us, and I'll be missing your match re- and previews. I must say I DID see it coming sooner or later, as the re- and previews has been the only updates for many months now

For all of you regular readers of this blog, I would like to introduce you to www.totalbarca.com, witch i've been using for the last week. I'm not sure of the quality of the contributing readers yet, but it sure has A LOT of nice updates including front page translation from spanish newspapers, videos, quotes, man of the match, breaking news and of course the match pre- and reviews (+ more).

Hope to catch some of you guys in there along the way..

And Nic: thanks again.

@Frede ,
I have also come across that site but I can't find where you can actually post a comment there .
I'm NOT a big fan of facebook or twitter . I hate that social media crap !!

hey nic,


this was a great blog, so congrads to u. you put in a great effort and i always thought it must have been tough watching games with notes and then having to do reviews every time.

having been one of the original regulars on this site, must have literally been a month after is started, it came in my life when i really needed it. i was so sick and tired of premier league obsessed fans, i was desperate for a barca outlet. this site was one where a decent amount of intelligent football fans came, despite others.

i was sad to see it coming to an end.

ive been using totalbarca for a while now, as that was the evolutionary site of a fantastic barca site before (forgot the name now). the contributors are too many and mostly neebie fans that arent very knowledgeable so i dont write much there. ive come in once or twice, under a different name, to write some things that were against popular opinion to stir things up, but felt i had to set some things straight at times. i mean for gods sake this one dude from dallas, texas wrote a whole piece about how he is so in love with barca but the article went something like this "i never really liked SOCCER", "then i supported bayern munich, not sure why", "then i loved man u after the 99 final", etc. get my drift. so anyway, that site is great though for the most part for very regular news bits, interesting articles, funny videos, football videos, quotes, etc. so check that out if this was ur only source. in fact that site will make u much more knowledgeable.

so cheers nic. hope things go well for you in the future. visca el barca

One more thing I wanted to share that I thought Nic might get a chuckle out of. I can still remember the first time I came to this blog. It was a few years ago (I think 2007/0 when there was a rumor floating around that Puyol had shaved off all his hair as part of a bet or something. I scoured the internet and all the typical Barca blogs I visited to see if this was true (I also wanted to see a picture), and Nic's was the only one that had the full story explaining it. That experience really stuck with me and I remember thinking "hey, this guy is really insightful" and I favorited your blog and have visited frequently ever since.

The comments above are a great testament to you as a blogger and Barca fan. You will be missed here, but hopefully this community can survive elsewhere. Cheers.

You should take a look at LINK it lets your readers contribute to your blog so you don't have to.

sad ! sad ! sad !!
the blog i check daily for news and updates.. to get reliable info regarding transfr rumors... hard to accept that its not going to be there in the future.. !!
anyways if u hv already taken the decision, v can't do anything ...so thanks a lot Nic .. u hv a great retirement life ( from blog) ..

Hey there,

I write from Dubai UAE, and although i havent commented much over the years, i have really thouroughly enjoyed this blog, your excellent and insightful comments nic, and the comments from everyone here.

Your news has really saddened me.

I really do hope this blog does continue.

Wish you the very best nic

Well, I've finally got around to making a comment after the horrendous news. It appears that many of us are busy in our lives at the moment. The news has come as quite a shock to me, as to some of the other readers I imagine.

I might start off by telling you all that I have followed this blog for some years now as you may know. Over that time we have linked inextricably. When travelling around the world I have sought out a computer with the sole intention of reading the refined words delivered by all on this blog. Whilst in Mumbai, Cairo, Mexico City and of course London. If I was not on my Iphone, I was on the slowest Hotel computer of all time.

The hours I've spent Lap Top in hand scrolling through the sentiments shared by my fellow Cules. The precious moments of excitement in post match bliss, some of us couldn't even wait for you to get the review up Nic before we started churning out our comments of joy. Seldom was there times when we felt the need to moan, but when the need came we had a place to vent. Then others would lift us back up again and remind us of our fortune. Disagreements have been had, such is the nature of discourse. Generally though there is quite a general consensus amongst the die hard followers here. It has been a great pleasure for me to have the opportunity to exchange opinions with you all. Similar to some here, I live in the UK and know nobody else personally with the same love for our dear Barcelona Fc. One can feel quite disenfranchised when surrounded by nonchalance and envy. Then I would Log on and there you were.
Hilal, B-Boy, Loki, Holland, Diatus and others. Thank you all.


Now to you Nic. All this has been possible because of you. Your write ups were delivered with style and grace, with a good eye for detail. You never took sides despite us knowing you sometimes must have wanted to. It takes much sacrifice to contribute all you have week in week out. So I'm sure all understand your situation.

TBC

Your situation that I hope much improves. Despite my quiet confidence that it shall.

On behalf of us Cule's, I salute you Sir.

In addition when I come to Barcelona it would be an honour and a privilege to buy you a beer. (More than One)


I hope this is not the end and am relying on one of you to continue this legacy.

Remember that old Movie Field of Dreams......,

"If you build it, they will come".

I look forward to hearing from you guys soon. I will check this Post for updates.

Eternal thanks

Pabman (Paul)

this is a bad.i really feel bad about it.Anyway, u ve contributed ur quoted and every barca fan will continue to appreciate it. I wish u the best in life.i am going to miss u.

Nic,

I rarely leave comments but have been reading your blog faithfully since 2007. As a Barça fan living in the states it was by far my favorite resource for all things Barça. Since I don't know many other blaugrana fans here in San Francisco, reading the comments was like having a virtual community whose collective wisdom shed a lot of insight into the ups and downs of the seasons.

I can't thank you enough for the staggering amount of work it must have been to keep up the blog. Your writing was exceptional and your opinion always fair. What's more, the fact that you live in Barcelona meant that you were giving the rest of us outsiders the inside scoop on the politics and culture surrounding the club that I've never found anywhere else.

I am very sad to learn that the blog is ending, but I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the huge gift of FCB News that you gave to us for more than 3 years. Your writing greatly enhanced this dynamic and historic Barça run for us English speaking culés. I wish you the very best in all your future endeavors and hope that we'll one day see you return to blogging in some form or another.

Moltes gràcies!

Jeff

Thank you so much Nic, I deeply enjoyed following your blog since it started, I hardly missed a post no matter what.

I will always remember your blog as one of the best and you as a diehard true cule and a dedicated football fan. It was a great blog and I m sure you are so proud as we all are to be part of it, a big and warm thank you for creating such a lovely community from all around the world to share our true and only love.

You will surely be missed, have the best of luck in your life and thanks again for all the great work and hard effort you put all these hours to give us here all FC Barcelona fans something to celebrate and feel happy about.

This blog has become one of my leading sources for Barca news. It is heartbreaking to see it end but I am glad to have at least had the chance to read your great posts. I hope people continue something like this, it is a great compliment to other news sites. Thank You for the great reporting these past few years.

Well as they say, all good things come to an end.

I was shocked when I saw the post, as Fcbnews, was a place where I like many other Culés could come and express our joy and sometimes frustrations about Barca, and I am really glad that I have been a part of this.

I started reading the blog towards the end of 2007 and have never looked back, as like many of you i too have been busy so my commenting started to slow down, but that didn't stop me from regularly checking to read the posts.

Thanks Nic, for all the time, effort and sacrifice that you put in to make this blog a success and all the best in your future endeavours.

On another note the shortlist for the Fifa Balon d'Or is: Messi, Xavi and Iniesta !!!

Futher proof that Barca creates the world's best players.

It's touching that Messi won the last awards when they were individual prizes and now a Barca player will win the first joined award.

Also Guardiola has been nominated for manager of the year.

On another year, we must all be proud that this blog has carried us through the most joyous and exceptional period of FCBacelona's history and I certainly hope that this period of success is not about to end anytime soon.

Visca El Barca

Still coming back and checking the site a few times a day. Hoping to find out that it was all just a bad dream or a well-intentioned but inappropriate joke.

But every time I come back the only thing that changes is the number of people expressing their appreciation for what you've done, Nic. Thanks again.

Thanks for all your hard work over the years, Nic. I haven't posted a comment here in a long time, but I think I started following your blog just a few months after you started it. Your commentary was always informative and thought-provoking, and your player ratings were unfailingly provocative.

They will be missed.

All the best,

blaugranafan

Just an update guys - I've sent Nic and email so lets see what happens - not to jump the gun but I'm hoping to work something out with Nic and a few of the other old-school regulars to get the ball rolling on pressing forwards and continuing with the great work Nic has done.

I'll let you know when I hear more - as I'm sure Nic and the other guys will too?

FCB_Darren

Barca 2 - 0 Rubin Kazan. That's a nice result for the team with most of the regulars out. Nice to see many of the youngsters playing CL. RK was bad, they didn't even try to play to get a positive result even though they knew that they needed it. That was strange.

Anyway, I miss the reports sooooooooo much.

@Darren:

Thanks for taking the initiative and anxiously awaiting any further developments.

I loved this blog, sad to see it go. This site featured in my daily news progression with CNN, espn, slickdeals etc..Very sad to see it go, but thankful it existed for as long as it did.

As Darren has said we are in the very early stages of a new project. Hopefully it will become bigger than Fcbnews, we'll see. I'll keep posting here any new updates.

Hey Nic, how are you?
I have a question/request. This is just an idea for the timebeing for the fans. Is it possible that you post a new page with only the result after a game? You don't have to give a review as we all know you don't have the time for it, but as you wish you can give a comment like one of us do. Others will follow to give their comments and express their feelings about the game. (Don't wanna be disconnected you know). Thanks.

Nic! I admit I haven't visited in a while, but I see that something new for FCBNews might be in the horizon. I'm eager to see what you, Darren and the others can conjure up.

But if this really is the end, I just want to thank you dearly for your efforts in the past few years. When I came across this blog, I really knew nothing of the game of football, much less Barca. Coming from the US, coverage of European football just isn't available- and your posts were a glimpse into a wonderful game and club. Today I am a big Barca fan, and I can say largely it's because of this blog. Thank you.

I will visit Barca someday, and I will take you up on that beer offer. Good luck, Nic!

Well, took me a certain time to overcome the blow...
As for many readers here, FCBNews.com had become my main source of news related to Barça. I would strongly underline the quality of your posting Nic, which I believe wasn't unrelated to the quality of the debate we had here. Having fared through a good number of Barça-related websites, this one was by a long long way the best of the bunch for the quality of the writing, the balance of the information and the love for the beautiful game that transpired through it.
So thanks a lot Nic, it's been a pleasure to read you.
I think you chose your moment pretty well too, as this will have allowed you to avoid to have to comment on the matter of the day. I believe all this trend and a progressive disenchantment for football in general will have played their part in your decision, which is a pretty sad reflection on the state of the game. When people like you get pushed out of football, you know the Blatters and Rosells of the world are really hurting the game.
Wish you all the best Nic, hope we will still have the chance to read you in a way or another, and I'm eagerly awaiting the news of what you can come up with as an ersatz for our dayly FCBNews fix!

I have never contributed to this website before but have subscribed to it through Google Reader for a number of years.

I have used your blog as my prime source of FCB news, previews, match reports and opinion and I'd like to add my thanks to you for your hard work over the years and also express disappointment that it is coming to an end.

As a result, I'm going to need to find an alternate source for my FCB news so if anyone has any recommendations of blogs/websites that can match the quality of this one then please give me some ideas...

Thanks again for keeping this going as long as you did,
Chris

@ chris,
There are several Barça oriented sites but hopefully this blog will re-emerge in some form or another in the near future .
In the meantime , here is an interesting site .
LINK

It looks like we should have a new site running very soon, hopefully before the Espanyol game on Saturday. I'll post here when it gets started or if you send me an email at the address given in the article above I'll email you as soon as we get going.

Great news . I can't wait !!

OK, the new site is up - LINK

There may be a few problems at the beginning so please be patient with us, I'm sure everything will be running smoothly in a few days :-)

Fotballreiser Barcelona LINK

I just saw this... Had a good time visiting your site and reading the previews and post match write ups.

Peace and good luck Nick to your future endeavors.

Barca is most popular team in world. Brawo Barca, you will European master

Thanks for some great post at OleOle.com! FC Barcelona is a great team, but I think Manchester United is going to take the 2011 UEFA Champions League Finals in Game 3 coming from behind on a 1 goal aggregate.

Had a good time visiting your site and reading the previews and post match write ups.