Van Persie to Barça?

There have been reports circulating that Arsenal captain Robin Van Persie is a transfer target for Pep Guardiola. This news comes after striker turned left winger David Villa had his season ended early from a broken tibia during Barça's recent clash in The FIFA Club World Cup.

Van Persie would be joining a long list of attackers including their €26 million summer signing Alexis Sánchez, recently returning Pedro, new starlet Isaac Cuenca and of course the irreplaceable Lionel Messi.

From Arsenal's end, Van Persie has 18 months left on his current contract and has yet to enter extension talks. But with a goal to game ratio of 1.03, Arsenal are keen to keep hold of their talisman.

Even though Van Persie is keeping coy about his future, I can't see Barça as one of Van Persie's main targets. No matter how much Cesc sells it to him, for a man to go from a club where you are the star player to just another number would be a bizarre move.

Also those noisy neighbours from Manchester are keen to throw in their hat.

In a changing world when clubs are being warned about staying in the UEFA Finicial Fair Play guidelines, Barcelona would be forgiven for spending £30 million plus on a brazillian wonder kid such as Neymar, instead of a 28 year old. Regardless of goals to game ratio.

FC Barcelona are not the kind of club to spend large amounts of money for a quick fix but instead will display faith in their youth. So it's over to you Isaac Cuenca.

Comments

Brazillian wonder-kid arriving at Barça?

Neymar's future has been uncertain for a long time now. Clubs from every top European league seem to be queuing up for his signature. But the speculation is drawing to a close and the fight for Neymar's signature has turned into a two horse race between the Spanish giants. This will all have to wait until 2014 as Neymar recently snubbed the transfer talk and extended his contract with current club Santos. That doesn't mean Real and Barça can't fight for the first chance to sign the 19 year old. It was recently reported that Barcelona have agreed a fee with Santos for first dibs at Neymar. But any deal that Barça would try to carve out will be met by competition from Real Madrid as well as a hefty price tag. Neymar is currently on £90,000 a week wages in an attempt to see off the European clubs but Barça will try to combat that by offering a deal worth €7 million euros a year. This would put him in the same wage bracket as World Cup winners David Villa and Xavi. Ne...

Madrid's meltdown gives Barça a route to the title

Real Madrid boss, José Mourinho, could be the unlikeliest source of Barcelona's hope in retaining their league title. Spanish newspaper Marca recently obtained access to a Real Madrid training session, more importantly a training session in which Mourinho and Sergio Ramos exchanged insults in a war of words. The newspaper ran the transcript of the argument not only between Mourinho and Ramos but also club captain Casillas. Heavy words were thrown between both parties and it all stemmed from the marking of Carles Puyol. Or the lack of marking in Mourinho's opinion. Ramos explained that he and Pepe made the decision to switch defensive duties because Gerard Piqué was looking the most dangerous so Ramos should mark him instead of Puyol, who Pepe will now pick up. Mourinho reacted angrily at this asking Ramos "So you're the manager as well now then?" This question caused Ramos to also react angrily explaining “Depending on the match situation, sometimes it’s neces...

Rotation, rotation, rotation: How does Valverde keep his squad happy?

For most FIFA career mode players, there will come a point where you simply have too many superstars to fit into the starting XI. Antoine Griezmann playing in the Joan Gamper trophy Due to practical issues such as money and the fact real humans can not be told to go away by the mere tap of an A button, this is rarely a luxury afford to real life managers. But for Ernesto Valverde, going in to what could potentially be his final season at the club, this is his reality. He can boast one of the most star-laden teams in Europe but the problem remains the same. How does 23 fit into 11? Barcelona's summer recruitment involved the arrivals of Antoine Griezmann and Frenkie de Jong to an increasingly busy forward line and midfield three, meaning Valverde must begin the plate-spinning akin task of trying to keep everyone happy. His preference for a 4-4-2 last season could either have been one of choice or one of necessity as Ousmane Dembélé struggled with injuries but it seems u...

A Barça Blog

Search This Blog