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Barcelona - a new generation.

Thursday, 01 May 08, 03:24 PM


BARCELONA

The fabulous goal scored by Scholes which was born from Zambrotta's mistake could mean the transition from the past to the future. The Italian defender will be left with this, and not the neutralization of Cristiano Ronaldo in the two games against Manchester United. Even though Barcelona had their two best games of the season against United, means the final point in a a 5 year cycle, in which the Catalans won two league titles and one champions league, but also threee seasons of underperformance in the League. 

It's time for Barcelona to repopulate the team with new faces, new aspirations, and new motivations. However, the changes likely won't stop at the team level, and will include the staff.

Manager:

When Laporta went on the Rijkaard route, there was a bit problem: nobody wanted to manage that Barcelona, a loosing team with a weak budget and a depressed fanbase. Now the problem is the opposite: everyone wants to manage Barcelona who reinvigorated its finances and will have a reported 350 million euro budget for next season, with 100 million euros for transfers. A lot of names have been thrown out to replace Rijkaard. Guardiola, Ludrup, Mourinho, Ancelotti, Lippi, and Scolari are the most prominent of these names. The Catalan press is almost certain that Guardiola, 37 years old, the current manager of Barcelona B will be named the first team manager.

Players: 

At the team level, the biggest change in Barcelona history is highly anticipated. There are 13 players that could leave the team, and others to replace them. 

Like Rijkaard, Ronaldinho has closed his catalan cycle as well, and will leave. The two came together, and they will leave together. Other than Ronaldinho, the other certainties are: Thuram, Edmilson, Zabmrotta, Ezquerro, and Pinto. Deco, Marquez, Gudjohnsen, Henry, Giovani, Oleguer, Silvinho, are highly likely to be sold, and for the first time Barclelona will listen to offers for Eto'o and Xavi.

The list of possible purchases is even longer than the list of players leaving. There have been over 50 names that are speculated by the media. There also is a riddle going around Catalonia recently after Laporta's laptop was stolen and the names of 10 players were found out. There will be 2 french players, 2 brazilians, 2 spaniards, 1 dutch, 1 mexican, 1 german, and one argentinian. 

Here are the possible answers to the Barcelona riddle:

French players: Benzema, Ribery
Brazilians: Lucio, Daniel Alves
Spaniards: Cesc Fabregas, David Silva
Dutch: Huntelaar
German: Lahm
Argentinian: Garay
Mexican: Guardado

The other possible names rumoured are: Coloccini, Poulsen, Seydou Keita, Klose, Capel, Drogba.

Out of that list, Cesc will not come, Klose is almost past it, Drogba does not fit the Barcelona style, Coloccini is not always on his game, Capel would be another experiment, and Keita has promise, but I don't think it's worth the money OL will ask for him. 

The spine of the team will be Valdes, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, and Bojan, all products of Barcelona. 

The team next season could look something like this:

GK: Valdes
DF: Alves/Guarado, Garay, Puyol, Lahm
MF: Ribery, Iniesta/Xavi, Silva
AM: Messi
FW: Benzema/Bojan, Huntelaar/Bojan

That would be a pretty scary team, one that has hard working players and less superstars, but just as much flair. I personally can't wait to see how much of this happens, and I hope to see at least some of those players play for Barcelona starting this summer. 



 

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Filter by Tag: Ronaldinho, Cesc Fabregas, Barcelona, Lionel Messi, David Jiménez Silva, Philipp Lahm, Franck Ribery, Karim Benzema, Klaas Jan Huntelaar, Thierry Henry Go To Topic: Ronaldinho, Cesc Fabregas, Barcelona, Lionel Messi, David Jiménez Silva, Philipp Lahm, Franck Ribery, Karim Benzema, Klaas Jan Huntelaar, Thierry Henry
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Posted by nico21horia | Comments (6)

6 Comments

Niran
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Niran Wrote: | 10.10CDT | May 1, 2008

dayum, that would be a team to fear. Huntelaar + Messi :S

shivka
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shivka Wrote: | 14.53CDT | May 6, 2008

without ronaldinho...........

BarcaGirl
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BarcaGirl Wrote: | 16.20CDT | May 6, 2008

hoping Barcelona are more solid than ever next year. Love to see some of these rumors be reality

SoccerCell
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SoccerCell Wrote: | 17.42CDT | May 6, 2008

Even if the rumors are true that does not mean that Real Madrid are going to be stagnant and not make changes of their own. Barca had all the stars but Real has the better TEAM and unless Barca is able to get a better team on the field none of the changes will matter.

nico21horia
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nico21horia Wrote: | 19.11CDT | May 6, 2008

I think people exaggerate the "star" effect of Barcelona. Rijkaard didn't know how to handle all of them, that's one of the main problems. I don't know why eto'o was playing when you have Henry. And Barcelona lacked depth compared to Real Madrid. That's the main problem. Especially in the defensive department. But we'll see, Madrid are rumoured to go for a lot of players too, Ibrahimovic, Drogba, Vaart, and others.

JohanRagnarsson
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JohanRagnarsson Wrote: | 04.32CDT | May 7, 2008

Very much a dream team you are describing with Xavi, Silva, Ribery and Messi in midfield. I think you should replace one if those with a more defensive minded player such as Yaya Toure who I think is a good passer as well, not in the same league as Xavi ofourse but certinly not a bad one

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