As we near the end of the year the personal awards keep coming in recognition of our excellent year. Leo Messi has been named the best player of 2009 by the French magazine Onze Mondial, and in a final list of 57 nominations Barça were the team with the most candidates, besides Messi there were nominations for Valdes, Alves, Piqué, Puyol, Xavi, Toure, Iniesta, Ibrahimovic and Henry making a total of ten players from Barça which beat Manchester United who had eight nominations.

There was also an award from the Observer Sports Monthly Magazine who named Pep Guardiola as the Best Coach of the Year. There is also an excellent article from John Carlin on Guardiola. Click...

The Comité de Competición de la Real Federación Española de Fútbol (RFEF) have given Pep Guardiola's assistant Tito Vilanova a two match ban for his sending off against Malaga while Malaga's defender Weligton who was clearly seen treading on Leo Messi's leg and swinging a punch at Gerard Piqué has escaped punishment. Vilanova may deserve his punishment but the fact that Weligton gets off scot free is really alarming. This can only encourage violent players who can find no other way of stopping talented players and will also add fuel to those who believe there is a deliberate campaign from the powers that be against Barça.

Better news today from Italy where the Appeal Tribunal of Brescia have refused to reopen the...

The 1-1 draw with Bayern Munich was Pep Guardiola's 50th game in charge of Barça's first team. Not many would argue that Guardiola has done a great job since taking over from Frank Rijkaard last summer. In those fifty matches Barça have won 37 drawn 8 and lost only 5, scoring 133 goals and conceding 42. Pep's record is only second to the legendary Helenio Herrera whose Barça won 40 of his first fifty games as first team coach in the 1958/59 season with 5 draws and 5 defeats, with an incredible 164 goals scored and 49 against. Behind Herrera and Guardiola are Johan Cruyff (31 wins 13 draws 6 defeats), Louis Van Gaal (31 - 8 - 11), Terry Venables (30 - 14 - 6) and Bobby Robson (30 - 12 - 8).

Last spring, when things began to look bleak for Frank Rijkaard, there was a lot of debate amonst Barça fans over who should be brought in to replace the Dutch coach. At the time I ran a poll on this blog asking the question: "who do you want to be Barça's coach in 2008/9?" - Link  The continuation of Frank Rijkaard was supported by only 37.85% of voters, and of the other candidates Jose Mourinho was the clear favourite receiving 117 votes (36%) followed by Arsene Wenger on 14.46% and Michael Laudrup on 4.62%. Pep Guardiola was hardly considered, receiving just 13 votes (4%).

Admittedly Mourinho is doing an excellent job at Inter...