With all the stories surrounding both players it was good to hear that they both trained normally with the group this afternoon. Milito and Toure did not train as they are recovering from yesterday's game, while Eto'o who is nursing a calf injury only joined in the warm up. Deco is said to be in with a chance of playing on Sunday, while Ronaldinho will have to wait to see how his thigh bears up. With just a few weeks left of the season, for both players this could turn out to be a last opportunity to show that they still deserve to continue at the club. Let's hope they take it.

After taking part in a training match for 60 minutes this afternoon Ronaldinho has received medical clearance to play again. Ronnie hasn't played since Dec 23 due to a tendon problem in his left knee which has seen him on the sidelines missing eight matches. He will probably appear at some point during Thursday's Copa del Rey match at home to Villarreal.

Jose Manuel Pinto has been officially presented as a Barça player this evening (Friday) at Camp Nou. Pinto passed his medical this morning and signed this afternoon. Frank Rijkaard said that Pinto "is here to play and not just to train." Pinto will train with the first team tomorrow and almost definitely be on the list for Sunday's game at home to Racing. He has been given the number thirteen shirt to wear.

Barça fans may get a first chance to see Pinto in action in next week's Copa Del Rey game at Villarreal. If he can prove to be a good signing, it may turn out that Albert Jorquera's injury was a blessing in disguise. I'm afraid I never rated Jorquera much and I was very worried at how an injury to Valdés would affect the team's fortunes if Jorquera was his substitute.

Meanwhile, Leo Mes...

The new year has not started well for Ronaldinho Gaucho. Struggling with a knee injury and criticised in the press, on Friday night he had to call for help from the firemen when a tree fell down at his house in Castelldefels.

The incident was caused by strong winds and an outside wall was damaged but nobody was hurt. From the picture one can see that Ronnie didn't seem too bothered by the accident.

First team doctor Ricard Pruna has confirmed that Ronaldinho will not be fit in time to make the trip to Mallorca for Saturday's game. The Brazilian who is suffering from an inflamed tendon in the left knee will continue his particular recuperation plan in the hope of being fit next week.

Thierry Henry (migraine) and Gianluca Zambrotta (heavy cold) have both recovered and both trained normally today, they are both in line for a return to the team this Saturday. Leo Messi continues with his recuperation and is aiming to return on the 20th January when Barça play hosts to Racing Santander. Meanwhile, Oleguer Presas is expected to need another week to completely recover from his hamstring injury.   

Albert Jorquera underwent surgery this afternoon and doctors were surprised to find he ha...

Frank Rijkaard has named a list of 16 players for tomorrow's second leg cup game with Alcoyano (kick off 6pm local time), and there is no place for Ronaldinho who has tendonitis is his left leg. Also missing are Thierry Henry who has been suffering with migraine and Gianluca Zambrotta who has flu. Leo Messi and Oleguer Presas are both still recovering from their injuries, while Albert Jorquera will undergo surgery on his knee ligaments on Thursday.

The good news is the return of Jose Edmilson after six months on the sidelines, he will be hoping to gain some match fitness as he stands a chance of being Toure Yaya's replacement when Toure leaves for the African Cup. There should also be a debut for 18-year-old Oier Olazabal in goal. Oier isn't likely to have much to do against Alcoyano b...

With the Christmas break upon us, the press and fans have plenty of time to mull over what went wrong in yesterday's Clasico. Unfortunately, when it comes to analyzing a Barça defeat the press and fans alike are prone to making knee-jerk conclusions. Calls for the heads of Ronaldinho and Frank Rijkaard are par for the course this season, but would sacking Rijkaard and selling Ronaldinho lead to a better future?

Of course we will never know unless it happens and quite honestly I can't see Laporta panicking just yet. Of course it is terribly frustrating to be outplayed by Madrid at Camp Nou but it is important to keep our heads, and with a little reflexion I think we will see that things are not as bad as some would have us believe.

It is easy to say now that Rijkaard made mistakes; for...

The rumours about Ronaldinho's future continue to fill the sports pages. Chelsea magnate Roman Abramovich is once again cited as being keen on signing the Brazilian star. Meanwhile Ronaldinho's brother and agent Roberto de Assis denied any contact with Chelsea.

Abramovich may well want to take Ronaldinho to Stamford Bridge, but dreams and reality are different things. Speculation has obviously increased since Ronnie was dropped for the last two games, but a drop in form is no immediate reason to sell one of your best players.

The idea that Barça would let him go in the winter transfer window are ridiculous, next summer may be a different thing but I still think it is unlikely. Ronnie has a contract until 2010 and he hasn't been playing so badly. We'll have to wait and see if he can recover...

Yes, I know it's yesterday's news but I've been very busy. There were no big surprises in the final results of France Football's Golden Ball Award. Kaka was the obvious winner for being the best player in last season's edition of the Champions League. Cristiano Ronaldo just pipped Messi to second place as he won the Premiership with Manchester United. Barça fans of course know that Messi is the best player but to win these awards it seems to count for a lot what you have won at a team level.

Ninety-six European journalists all vote for their top five players, and 5 points is awarded to the best, 4 to the second best, etc. Kaka was the clear winner with 444 points, Cristiano Ronaldo got 277 points and Messi received 255. Further down the list we find Ronaldinho in 12th place with 18 points and ...

The endless stories and speculation about Ronaldinho in the last few weeks got me thinking of how the press treated Louis Van Gaal in his first term at Barça, and basically how the press is capable of turning the public against someone.

When Barça signed Van Gaal in the summer of 1997 he was most people's choice to take Barça back to the top. He had won the European Cup in 1995 with an exciting young team at Ajax, beating the Milan team that had humilliated Barça the year before, and fresh in the memory was a footballing lesson that Ajax had given Real Madrid in the Bernabeu in the 95/96 season.

In his first season at Barça he won the league and cup double, and followed that up with another league title the next season. Barça played attacking football and Van Gaal got the ...