As we all know the press struggle to find credible stories during the international break, do you remember the nonsense about the Barça-Madrid game being brought forward to a Friday - /blogs/FCBnews/posts/barca-madrid-on-friday-21st-december/. This week we are back to the old favourite of the offers that are being prepared for Barça's biggest stars.

The Barcelona sports press have to fill a number of pages every day so perhaps it is understandable that they report such rumours. El Sport and El Mundo Deportivo have both run two stories this weekend taken from the English press. The first suggests that Manchester City could be about to make a huge offer for Leo Messi or Ronaldinho. It's the type of headline that makes you ...

With the winter transfer window approaching, the stories of offers for Ronaldinho are appearing regularly in the press. Ronnie's chief suitors are once again AC Milan and Chelsea, and the bids are supposed to be in the region of €60million. The irregular form of the Brazilian has sparked a debate within the club as to whether it might now be the time to thank Ronnie for his time at the club and take the money.

Ronaldinho received a lot of criticism last season for not playing to his usual high standards and Ronnie blamed a lack of rest after the World Cup, combined with pre-season tours and the mid-season trip to Japan for the World Club Championship. However, this summer he did get a proper rest after declining to play for Brazil in the Copa America, yet so far this season there has been l...

Ronaldinho has been left out of the squad for tomorrow night's game against Villarreal. Ronnie did not arrive in time to train with the team this morning after his long journey back from playing for Brazil, and Frank Rijkaard has decided it is better to let him rest in order to be fully fit for Tuesday's game against Glasgow Rangers.

Giovani dos Santos, who also had a long journey after playing for Mexico on Wednesday night, did manage to make the training session and has been included in the squad. It will now most likely be a choice between Giovani and Bojan Krkic for who replaces the Brazilian. So far this season Giovani has generally been given more opportunities than Bojan, but this could change tomorrow as Bojan has been training in Barcelona all week while Giovani has had a lot of travelli...

Ronaldinho scored Brazil's second goal in a 5-0 win over Ecuador in the Maracana stadium last night. This was a much improved performance from Brazil after the disappointing 0-0 draw in Columbia on Sunday. Ronnie will now have the long journey back to Barcelona with the hope of being ready for Saturday's game away to Villarreal.

There has been some speculation that Frank Rijkaard may decide to rest the Brazilian for this game as Barça have an important game in Scotland with Glasgow Rangers on Tuesday. The problem is to find a substitute as Iniesta will be needed in midfield, Giovani dos Santos will also be suffering the effects of jet-lag after playing in Mexico's 2-3 defeat against Guatemala last night. Would Rijkaard give a start to the in-form Bojan Krkic? I'd love to see him get the chance...

FIFPro (Fédération Internationale des Footballeurs Professionels) have named Leo Messi, Ronaldinho and Carles Puyol  in their World XI. The organization who number 57,500 members around the globe chose Milan's Kaka as their Player Of The Year. With three players chosen Barça were the team with most representatives. This is a highly valued award by the players as it is their fellow professionals who vote for them.

The eleven chosen as the world's best team are the following 

Gianluigi Buffon (Italy/Juventus); Alessandro Nesta (Italy/AC Milan), Fabio Cannavaro (Italy/Real Madrid), John Terry (England/Chelsea), Carles Puyol (Spain/Barcelona), Steven Gerrard (England/Liverpool), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal/Manchester United), Kaka (Brazil/AC Milan), Lionel Messi (Argentina/B...

I couldn't resist taking this photo from Manel Montilla for El Mundo Deportivo. Ronaldinho said he would respond on the pitch, and while he didn't have his greatest game he showed touches of his class. From the picture I think we can see he was certainly keen to get back into the fray. 

In an interview in today's El Mundo Deportivo - http://www.elmundodeportivo.es/  Ronaldinho stated he "will respond on the pitch" to all the questions that have been asked in relation to his private life. Ronnie claimed that he behaves no differently to how he has always behaved in his time at the club saying that he knows "when I can go out and when I can't". Ronnie hit back at the critics including Johan Cruyff who in refence to Ronaldinho had said "You don't live on what you have been but on what you are". Ronnie's response was that it was Cruyff who was "still living today on the past".

Ronnie also thanked the fans who chanted his name at the game against Zaragosa at Camp Nou as well as the people who showed him support in the street. He went on ...

Ronaldinho has been included in the squad to travel to Germany where Barça take on Stuttgart on Tuesday in the Champions League. Ronnie has missed the last three matches due to a calf injury. Also included in the squad is Rafa Marquez who missed yesterday's game against Levante through injury.

Toure Yaya is out injured, but it is hoped that Gabi Milito will recover from a muscle strain in time to play. Nineteen players have been included in the squad which will fly to Stuttgart tomorrow.

The nineteen are: Valdés, Jorquera, Oleguer, Thuram, Puyol, Milito, Marquez, Sylvinho, Abidal, Xavi, Crosas, Deco, Iniesta, Messi, Henry, Bojan, Giovani, Gudjohnsen and Ronaldinho.

According to Barça president Joan Laporta, Ronaldinho "won't play against Zaragoza or on Saturday in Valencia against Levante, but he has said that he will be there for the game in Stuttgart on October 2nd".

It seems that Ronnie's injury is genuine, and it has been claimed that the injury was picked up while playing for Brazil two weeks ago and this was aggravated in the games against Osasuna and Lyon. If this is true it would explain why he was substituted in both matches.

Team-mates have defended the Brazilian over rumours that he was out clubbing 48 hours before the Osasuna game. Victor Valdés said that a players private life is his own business, and Zambrotta claimed that it is not a problem to go out two days before a game if it's just to have one drink and not to get drunk.

Ronaldinho has been left out of the squad for tonight's big game with Sevilla. The official reason is that he has problems with his right calf muscle, however with so many rumours surrounding him, who knows if this is the real reason.

There are a lot of people who are not happy with Ronnie and the number seems to be rising. Let's hope he has the strength of character to respond to the criticism. However, if the rumours of his night life are true there may be no way back for him. Personally, I think he is still an extremely important player for the club, and even when he is not at his best he can still be considered in the top ten players in the world. Only time will tell if he really is on a downward spiral.

The positive side to this is it will give more opportunities to youngsters Giovani do...