Another week goes by and still no movement in the transfer market. The local press continues to add names to the growing list of possible signings, but it really is very difficult to read between the lines to see which of the names are the most likely to come. It seems we are looking to add five players to the squad: a left back, a centre back, a defensive midfielder, a wide attacker and a centre forward.

One of the players who may sign in the next week or so is Deportivo's Brazilian left back, Filipe Luis. It also seems likely that the other left back option, Zhirkov will finally move to Chelsea. The centre back could be Shakhtar Donetsk's Dmytro Chygrynskiy, while Barça may decide to keep Henrique out on loan for another season.

I'm not...

Good news for Culés in California. The last game of Barça's summer tour of the United States will be at San Francisco's Candlestick Park stadium against Chivas of Guadalajara. The game will take place on August 9 at 0500h Spanish time. I'm not 100% on the time difference but I believe California is nine hours behind Spain so in San Francisco I presume the game will kick off at 8pm on Saturday 8th August. Maybe someone can confirm this. Last year we beat Chivas 5-2 in a preseason game in Chicago.

Our preseason schedule now looks like this. (times are Spanish local time)

July 24 - Tottenham (Wembley 9pm)

July 26 - Al-Ahly (Wembley 2.15pm)

Aug 1 - Los Angeles Galaxy (Rose Bowl, Pasedena 5am)

Aug 5 - Seattle Sounders (Qwest...

Apologies for the lack of posting over the last week or so, I really have been very busy. Besides, to write every day about the latest transfer rumour quite frankly becomes a bit boring. For today you have the chance to vote for the player you think was the best for Barça over the last season. I´ve already voted for Leo Messi, but there is certainly a case for other players. So, who is it for you?

It has been confirmed that Barça will tour the USA again this summer. The team will fly out on July 29th returning to Barcelona on August 9th. The first game will be against Los Angeles Galaxy on August 1st at the Rose Bowl in Pasedena. Then we will travel to Seattle where we will play Seattle Sounders FC in the Qwest Field on August 5th. The opponents and venue for the third game have yet to be confirmed. I hope all you readers from America can give us some more information about these teams and their players. 

We all know that Gerard Piqué's goal against Real Madrid on Saturday was Barça's 100th goal in La Liga this season, but did you know it also meant that it took Barça's overall goal difference in all competions to +100? In the league we have scored 100 and only conceded 28 (+72), in the Champions League we have 33 goals in favour and 13 against (+20), while in the Copa del Rey we have knocked in another 13 and conceded 5 (+8), taking our overall figures to: goals scored 146, goals conceded 46. Can anyone remember another team from one of...

As promised yesterday, here is the second part of the debate set up by Guillem Balague of Sky Sports. guillem is an expert on Spanish football and has his own website at http://www.guillembalague.com/ TheChelseaBlog was chosen as "the opposition", so if you want to keep up with what is happening at Chelsea check it out at http://thechelseablog.org/

Ok, so here is part two with Guillem's final verdict:

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Some of you may know Guillem Balague, he the resident Spanish football expert on Sky Sports and he also has his own personal website at http://www.guillembalague.com/ So I was delighted when he invited me to take part in a debate with a Chelsea Blogger before our semi final with the Blues. TheChelseaBlog was chosen as the opposition and the following is the first half of the debate (the other half will be posted tomorrow morning):

Part One: 

Guillem Balague:   The majority...

As fans with an overload of excitement at the moment we may not be thinking too much about next season, but the club have today announced we will start pre-season training for 2009/2010 in London. The team will travel to London on July 21st and we will play two friendly matches against the English team Tottenham Hotspur on July 24th and the Egyptian team Al-Ahly on July 26th. Both matches will take place at Wembley stadium which will always have a special place in Barça's history as the scene of our first European Cup win in 1992 when Ronald Koeman's extra time free kick was enough to beat Sampdoria 1-0. After the...