Excellent news this morning. As expected Toure Yaya reached an agreement with the club to extend his contract until 2012. Toure, who is 26, will see a rise in his pay although the details of this were not given. His release clause has gone up from €60 million to €100 million euros. Toure definitely deserves the improvement in his contract, having been one of the team's most consistant performers since joining the club in 2007. 

Well, yes. There is no proper football for two weeks and I'm left here twiddling my thumbs. The only news is the confirmation of Toure and Iniesta's injuries, but seeing as they are both said to be out for two weeks it is quite possible that they don't miss any games. Anyway, while there is not much going on El Mundo Deportivo have published a poll to vote on Messi's best ever goal. While it seems pretty obvious that the Goal against Getafe two years ago is by far the best it was fun to watch the ten goals. Follow this LINK to enjoy the ten goals. I also think they have missed out some of his better goals. What about...

December has been another great month for Barça with wins over Valencia, Madrid and Villarreal, only the defeat at home to Shakhtar spoilt it but then again that game didn't really count for anything. Having now checked the points totted up by each player you can imagine my surprise to find that the December player of the month is none other than Thierry Henry. Regular readers will know I have not been Henry's biggest fan since his arrival at Camp Nou but his improvement this season has been notable, he started this month with a hat-trick against Valencia and yesterday he grabbed the vital winner at Villarreal and was for many people the man of the match. In an interview last week...

Last week I wrote a piece in praise of Leo Messi, Samuel Eto'o and Thierry Henry. However, it could be argued that the form of Barça's defence is just as important if not more so to this season's success. Victor Valdés has only been beaten nine times in fifteen league games which makes Barça's the best defence in La Liga so far this season.

At the start of the season there were still a few problems at the back especially when it came to defending at set pieces.  The first clean sheet in the league wasn't achieved until the 0-1 win at Athletic Bilbao in the seventh jornada. Since then we have managed another six clean sheets in La Liga and have now only...

Not really much surprise here. Despite some excellent performances from his team mates in November, Leo Messi who won the award in October is once again my player of the month. Messi played in 7 games this month, and the only one of those games that he didn't score in was possibly his best game of the month: the 6-0 victory over Valladolid. Toure Yaya comes in second and it is great to see the big man back in such excellent form after a slow start to the season. Captain Carles Puyol is third, he has excelled in every defensive position this month but he was especially impressive in the swimming...

Toure Yaya has today finished with two weeks of speculation over his future by declaring he is staying at the club. Toure stated that he is very happy in Barcelona and his family is too. "I am happy to play here because my objective is to be in a big club and Barcelona is just that. I don't want to leave, I'm very happy at this club and to play in this shirt is great."

Reports had claimed Toure could be on his way out and he was linked to Juventus, Liverpool and Arsenal. However, most of these stories surfaced in the international break when the press always prints any old rubbish since without...

Our injury problems continue with the news that Seydou Keita will be on the sidelines for two weeks with a strained muscle in the left calf. Keita caught his foot in the ground after half an hour of yesterday's match in Bilbao and had to be replaced by Sergio Busquets.

Rafa Marquez and Toure Yaya also finished with minor injuries. Marquez is doubtful for Wednesday's Champions League game at Basle with a slight ankle sprain, while Toure took a painful knock on the shoulder but he should be ok for the game in Switzerland.

There were six Barça players on international duty yesterday and the star of the night was Thierry Henry who scored twice in France's 3-1 win in a friendly against Tunisia. Tunisia took the lead after 30 minutes but France hit back with goals from Henry in minutes 40 and 49. Karim Benzema scored France's third just before the hour. Henry played 83 minutes before being substituted by Malouda. Eric Abidal played the full 90 minutes in central defence.

Gerard Piqué, Sergio Busquets and Bojan Krkic were all in action for Spain's under-21 team who beat Switzerland 3-1 after extra time to qualify for the under-21s European Championship. Piqué and Bojan played the entire...

Up to 17 Barça players are on international duty this weekend and things have started well with big wins for Samuel Eto'o's Cameroon and Toure Yaya's Ivory Coast. Eto'o scored the first two goals in Cameroon's 5-0 win at home to Mauritius, the first goal came in the 26th minute while the second was from a penalty at the start of the second half. Toure played all 90 minutes in Ivory Coast's 3-0 victory over Madagascar. Both Cameroon and Ivory Coast have now qualified for the following stage in the qualifying stage for the 2010 World Cup. Also on international duty was our 17-year-old promise Gai Assulin who played for Israel's under-21 in this afternoon's 0-0 draw away to Italy.

Not a lot to report from the last two days in Barcelona, the beginning of the Olympic Games means the local sports papers have plenty of other news to fill their pages meaning the transfer rumours can be put to one side. However, what can be reported is that Marc Crosas move to Celtic has been confirmed and the player was presented before Celtic's win against St Mirren this weekend.

For €500,000, Celtic have got an absolute bargain. For Crosas too it is an excellent opportunity as competing against the likes of Xavi and Iniesta he was always going to have an uphill struggle to break into Barça's midfield. I've probably only...