Just Barcelona News

Barcelona are looking to make quite a few changes this summer in a bid to freshen up the team in the aftermath of the Chempions League exit at the hands of Bayern Munich. The most obvious area that needs strengthening is the defence, but there will probably be players coming and going all over the pitch.

With David Villa probably on his way out of the Nou Camp this summer, Barca definitely need some more attacking threat, because there is too much reliance on Lionel Messi. Nobody really gave a second thought to the Manchester United and England striker Wayne Rooney, but in the wake of Alex Ferguson announcing his retirement, it has emerged that Rooney wants to move on as well.   .....Read more here.......

The Champions League draw for Barcelona against Paris Saint-Germain has one extra special ingredient, Zlatan Ibrahimovich. Since he left Barcelona in 2010, the Swedish striker has had plenty to say about the Catalan club, including disrespectful things about his manager Pep Guardiola and his team mate Lionel Messi. Ibra recently retracted his statements a little and seems to have calmed down, but there is no doubt he would love to get one over his old club.   .....Read more here.......

The players and coaching staff of Barcelona know that this one game against AC Milan could define the whole season for the club. If Barca fail to overturn the 2-0 deficit from the San Siro, most of them will look back on the season with regret, whereas a good performance that sees them through will galvanize the team for the rest of the season and install Barcelona back as favourites to lift the European cup again.   .....Read more here.......

Nobody seems to be able to put their finger on the reasons for the recent slump in form suffered by FC Barcelona, but everyone concerned with the club knows that it needs to be put right quickly. Three poor games have seen Barca crash out of the Spanish cup and leave themselves with a 2-0 deficit to overcome in the Champions League.

The players and coach have arranged an informal meeting in a restaurant outside Barcelona to discuss things in the hope to rekindle the scintillating form that has deserted them at the worst possible time. They will forgo the double training session for this meeting, which I think is a good idea and hopefully it will work.   .....Read more here.......

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has often found fault with various aspects of FC Barcelona since he left under a cloud in 2010. The Swedish striker has blamed Pep Guardiola, Lionel Messi and other things for his failure to make a real success of his time in Catalonia, but he seems to be finally mellowing. Sweden and Argentina meet in a friendly game tonight, and Ibra has been saying very nice things about Messi before they meet on the pitch in Stockholm.

“Leo is a fantastic player. Individually, surely he is the best in the world. It is needless for me to say it. Many people agree, and that is why he has won so many awards in recent seasons.”   .....Read more here.......

Pep Guardiola was the most successful manager of Barcelona ever during his short four year stint at the helm of the greatest club in the world. When he decided to step down in the summer and take a year off, Pep was instrumental in his assistant Tito Vilanova taking over. The two have been friends since coming through the youth system at the club and worked together since the team was in the fouth division.   .....Read more here.......

Zlatan Ibrahimovich has had it in for Barcelona, Lionel Messi and Pep Guardiola since he left the club in 2010. The Swedish striker is always ready to say something disrespectful and he did it again today after Messi broke the incredible 40-year old scoring record of Gerd Muller.

“I too would get 90 goals if I were given penalties as referees give them away to Barcelona.”

Whatever the reason behind the rift between Barca and the Swede, the simple fact is that, during his one full season in La Liga, Ibrahimovich scored 21 goals in 45 appearances. That’s pretty good until you see that Messi got 47 from 53 that season, and he was just 22-years old. His rate of scoring has risen since then.   .....Read more here.......

It has been an emotional time for everyone connected to FC Barcelona recently. Losing the title to their biggest rivals and somehow going out of the Champion’s league paled into insignificance when Pep Guardiola announced his departure. He can leave the team on a high, however, by guiding them to a second Copa del Rey.

Pep rose through the youth system at Barca, before playing 263 league games for the first team. He won six league titles with them and was in the team that won Barca their first European cup, under Johann Cruyff.   .....Read more here.......