With just twelve games to go in the league this season Barça travel to Almeria tomorrow with the hope of at least maintaining the six-point advantage over second place Real Madrid. If Madrid fail to beat Athletic Bilbao tonight Barça will go into tomorrow's match with a chance to make a giant step towards our 19th La Liga title. Pep Guardiola has named a list of 19 players to make the trip and the team will fly to Almeria tomorrow morning arriving at 12.20 with time to prepare for the 9pm kick off. We are still without Carles Puyol, Eric Abidal and Gabi Milito, and this week Albert Jorquera joined them on the...

After some of the blistering displays during the first few months of the season, the alarm bells were ringing recently as Barça hit a five-match streak without a win. The traditionally pessimistic Barça fan was quick to say that our season was over, we had peaked too early and half the team weren't good enough. However, it seems we haven't suddenly forgotten how to play as our attacking displays against Athletic Bilbao and Lyon proved.

As it happens in that five-match run the draws at Lyon and Mallorca were actually both good results, even if the performances were not great, while the draw at Betis was worthy of praise for the way we fought back from 2-0 down. The game at Atletico had too many individual errors but it was a crazy game that we could easily have...

It is early days still to begin to judge Pep Guardiola's Barça; however, the statistics speak for themselves: after 11 league games Barça have made their best start ever to a league campaign - nine wins and a draw = 28 points which is one more than Bobby Robson's team won in the first eleven games of 1996/97 (eight wins and three draws).

The current team have now won nine league games on the trot. The team of 2005/06 hold the record for consecutive league victories having won 14 straight games between October 2005 and January 2006. Many of you may remember some of the fantastic football played at that time including the 0-3 win at the Bernabeu with Ronaldinho at his unbelievable best. That team went on to lift La Liga and the Champions League trophy so until Pep's...

While we are all still basking in Saturday's thrashing of Atletico Madrid and the six-match winning streak in the belief that a new era is here at Camp Nou, it is worth remembering where we were one year ago. On the 7th October 2007 Barça played the last match before an international break at home to an in-form Atletico Madrid. Barça ran out comfortable 3-0 winners with goals from Deco, Messi and Xavi, which was Barça's sixth succesive victory having previously beaten Lyon (3-0), Sevilla (2-1), Zaragoza (4-1), Levante (1-4) and Stuttgart (0-2). We moved into second place in La Liga with 17 points (five wins and two draws) from 7 games, two points behind Real Madrid. After last season's game with Atletico I wrote on this blog...

According to an exclusive in El Sport Barça's president Joan Laporta will present his resignation at Thursday's board meeting. After being punished in Sunday's vote of no confidence a group of directors are believed to be prepared to resign en bloc if Laporta doesn't go. According to the story, vicepresident Albert Vicens will take over as president when Laporta resigns and Ferran Soriano will be his number two. Click here for the El Sport story (in Spanish).

Zenit St Petersburg have announced on their webpage that they have ended negotiations with Barça for the sale of Andrei Arshavin. Barça made an offer of €15 million for the player who thrilled Europe with his performance against Holland in the Euro 2008 quarter final. Zenit are said to be looking for a price in the range of €25-30 million, but they also say that Barça are the only club to have made an offer so far. The fact that the player has publically stated that he wants to play at Camp Nou may play in Barça's favour, hopefully we are just playing hardball in the hope that the Russians drop their asking price. Zenit coach Dick Advocaat has said that Arshavin will not play again for Zenit until his future is cleared up.

Ronaldinho has been named in Brazil's list of 18 for this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing. The Brazilian football federation has expressed its intention of including him in their Olympic squad but unlike the case of Leo Messi, FC Barcelona will have the last word on whether the player goes or not. In Messi's case Barça have few options of stopping him going, whereas with Ronaldinho the situation is different as the player is one of the three over-23 players chosen, and in these cases the final decisions rests in the hands of the player's club. Brazil will now have to wait to hear whether Barça give the player permission or not. So, should Barça let Ronaldinho go? Or will we sell him soon anyway and leave the decision with his new club? 

After being punished in the polls by Barça's members, club president Joan Laporta held on to remain in the job until 2010. Nearly 24,000 voted in favour of the vote of no confidence but this was only 60.60% of the vote and not quite the two thirds needed to oust Laporta from his position. 37.75% voted against the motion (i.e. in favour of Laporta) but the split in the club is evident.

While I am pleased that Laporta can continue, the result is disappointing. Laporta has made mistakes and I am not in favour of all he has done, but as I have said before I think the club is in a better state than when he took over, and looking at the balance of his five years in charge the balance is generally positive. The fact that Oriol Giralt received so many votes in favour of his motion suggests that he had ev...

Tomorrow is a big day for Football Club Barcelona. Tomorrow is when Barça's members have their say on the vote of no confidence against Joan Laporta and his board of directors. If two-thirds vote against Laporta it will bring to an end his time as the club president and new presidential elections will be held. According to polls in El Sport and El Mundo Deportivo it is looking uncomfortably close for Laporta.

Admittedly the people who vote in these polls are not necessarily members of the club, but any result that gives over 50% against Laporta will leave the club in an unstable position. I find it hard to believe how a lot of Barça fans react every time the team goes through a lean period. I'm not a big fan of Laporta myself, I just feel he has done a pretty good...