The presentations continue at Can Barça. Today was the turn of central defender Gerard Pique who has signed for four seasons. Pique who played alongside Leo Messi and Cesc Fabregas in Barça's junior teams returns home after four years at Manchester United. Barça paid United €5 million to get Pique back and he will now have a buy-out clause of €50 million. With Gabi Milito out injured the 21-year-old could go straight into the first team. He has experience of La Liga after playing the 2006/7 season on loan at Zaragoza.

In other news today Barça are supposedly closing in on Andrei Arshavin but will still have to persuade Arshavin's current club Zenit to accept their offer which is believed to be around €15 million. Meanwhile Chelsea are reportedly about to make an offer for Samue...

As expected the transfer of Dani Alves was made official and this lunchtime he was presented alongside Joan Laporta, Txiki Begiristain and Pep Guardiola. Barça have paid Sevilla €29 million for the Brazilian right back with a further €6 million to be paid depending on objectives achieved. Alves who is 25 has signed for four years and will have a buy-out clause of €90 million. Next season Barça are going to take some stopping on the right flank when Alves teams up with Leo Messi, I expect you are all as excited as I am at the prospect.

Yesterday was the end of the footballing year so it was a day when contracts reached their end. So apart from saying goodbye to Deco who has signed for Chelsea, it was also the end of their time at Barça for Santi Ezquerro and Lilian Thuram. After his transfer to PSG fell through, Thuram is now a free agent and it remains to be seen if he finds a club or not. Ezquerro brings to an end a remarkably poor three years at Camp Nou in which he only played 11 league games, I have to say I find it difficult to understand why he didn't leave earlier except of course I imagine nobody would match the wages he was earning here. barça have also lost the services of promising young defender Marc Valiente who has signed for Sevilla where he will begin in their B-team with hopes to be promoted to the first team soon. So far f...

As had been expected for some time Deco has signed for Chelsea. The london club confirmed the transfer today and Chelsea will pay Barça €10 million for the Portuguese star who has signed for two seasons. Deco was one of the cornerstones of the team that won La Liga in 2004/5 and 2005/6 and the Champions League in 2005/6. However, his form has been disappointing in the last two seasons as he struggled with various personal problems. He played well in Euro 2008 and could well refind some of his old form for a new club. While we may not cry too much now to lose him we should never forget what a great player he was in those first two seasons. So, thank you Deco for some great memories, I wish you luck at Chelsea (I just hope you don't win anything for the b*st*rds   :p  ) 

Uefa have chosen Barça's Xavi Hernandez best player of Euro 2008. After his superb performances throughout the tournament, especially in the semi-final and final I believe that he thoroughly deserves it. Congratulations Xavi, let's hope you can keep up the form for Barça next season. Uefa also named a list of the best 23 players which also includes Carles Puyol and Andres Iniesta, while there is no place for Cristiano Ronaldo. The 23 are: Casillas, Buffon, Van der Sar, Marchena, Puyol, Bosingwa, Pepe, Lahm, Zhirkov, Senna, Xavi, Zyryanov, Modric, Altintop, Fabregás, Iniesta, Ballack, Podolski, Sneijder, Villa, Torres, Arshavin, Pavlyuchenko.

A goal after 33minutes from Fernando Torres was enough to give Spain a thoroughly deserved victory in tonight's Euro 2008 final. A great through pass from Barça's Xavi Hernandez gave Torres the chance to show his speed as he outpaced Phillip Lahm to nick the ball skillfully over the advancing Jens Lehmann. It was fitting that Xavi and Torres should combine for the goal as they were the two best players on the pitch tonight.

Torres was a constant threat and he nearly put Spain ahead when he headed sergio Ramos's cross onto the base of the post after 22 minutes. Germany only really threatened in the first ten minutes but once Spain settled in their class began to show. In the second half Spain almost equalled the performance against Russia in the semi final and rarely looked threatened. Ramos, Inies...

According to press reports Henrique Adriano Buss has signed for Barça for a fee in the region of €8-10 million. The 21-year-old defender has been a star of Palmeiras and in March 2008 was called up for the first time by the Brazilian national team. It is believed that Henrique, who is 1M85 tall, will travel to Scotland for Barça's preseason but will probably be loaned out to allow him to develop. Sounds like he is one for the future: has anyone seen him play?

After yesterday's presentation of Seydou Keita today was the turn of Uruguayan defender Martin Caceres who declared "I come with all the hope and ambition in the world. I am going to give everything for this shirt. Caceres has signed for four years and I have very high hopes for him.

In 2003 when Joan Laporta was voted in as Barça president his closest collaborators were Ferran Soriano who was financial vicepresident, Marc Ingla who was marketing vicepresident and Sandro Rossell who was sports vicepresident and regarded by many to be Laporta's right-hand man. Rossell was given a lot of credit for being behind the signings of Ronaldinho and Deco, which were helped by Rossell's connections in Brazil, he was also credited with the signings of Marquez and Edmilson. The relationship between Laporta and Rossell seemed to be a firm friendship but halfway through the first season Rossell fell out with Laporta, so what went wrong between them?

According to Rossell he fell out with Laporta due to a lack of democracy and transparency at the club. However, it seems the real reason had ...