SirBalon

Because you don't agree? Maybe Bozziovai has big bollocks and it shoes in his posts... Weight sometimes is hard to drag around between the legs.

Sergi Roberto out for upto 5 weeks The draw in the Piraeus against Olympiakos came at an expensive cost and here starts what many have been whispering during this great start to the new season... What would happen when the sensitive injuries started to happen! The midfield is the most important part of Barcelona's state of mind and where positivity starts and ends. This is, as difficult as many seem to comprehend is more important than Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez or anything that Barça can muster up front. Without a healthy midfield with choices, Barça traditionally suffer and now one of the in-form guys, Sergi Roberto who has been in general a sure starter for Ernesto Valverde, has gone crippled... He has a minuscule tear in his hamstring which will keep him out a minimum of 4 weeks with the club head doctor saying 5 weeks looks more correct in this particular case. Andrés Iniesta is again being wrapped up in cotton wool because of self confessed bad feelings in his calf and also André Gomes seems to have gotten injured against Olympiakos which will also apparently keep him out for a month. André Gomes is lesser of an importance if you ask any Barça fan, but the coaches that have been (Luis Enrique) and are (Ernesto Valverde) seem to think that he provides some important aspects and that's why he gets used and adds numbers to the squad in that area. Lets see what happens from here because the amount of important away days Barça have for a period could be rather sensitive in the coming weeks...

Buying (signing) players is just a part of the situation at Arsenal and not the whole story. The signing of players was more important about 5 or 6 years back now... Now there are other issues coupled or better said, mounted on top of that one that has caused the situation of mediocrity we're in. But in fairness, we are still overachieving in my opinion. Our squad or team isn't really all that great (media pumping names aside) and we continue to be challenging for those top slots even now (not talking about competing for the title). Wenger has designed all this for himself... He has let it happen! If all Arsenal fans are forced to respect and laud Wenger's era for the good, then the bad must also be included in that and questioned. Nobody is divine here.... There are no saints to be respected where you need to genuflect as you enter the stadium in the direction of the man at the altar who commands all... We don't need to cross ourselves or confess our sins at The Emirates.

Far be it from me and God forbid me defending Don Florentino Pérez... But in his defence, Florentino has always maintained the same mantra as president of Real Madrid CF. Even in his first tenure in the 90s he used to say; "Nobody's job is safe at Real Madrid because this is the greatest club in the history of football. The level must always be at the top and if that doesn't occur you lose your job. My own job isn't even safe and I've been sacked by the members in my first time as president" Remember that Florentino Pérez isn't a club owner. Nobody owns Real Madrid as it is owned by the fans who democratically elect their president.

He wasn't meant to get the job. He was convinced by others to give it to him. But let's see what happens... I doubt anything will just yet.

You’ve just gone on to say that the glory days were decades ago and yet go onto laud Wenger as some sort of messiah. Each era has its obstacles. But what do you know about that when all you seem to have done is gone through the numbers with the dates while reading a headline or two. Not defensive at all... Lived it mate! Where are you from and how many games have you been to?

What 'Glory Days'? When did I say let's go back to anything of the sort? I've spoken about local identity, but I've spoken about that particular subject as a general blanket theme for all and not just Arsenal. The fact Arsenal have dominated my words when writing about this is because I support them, I was born in the area and I was brought up amongst that and observed the last remains of something that was different. But you can ignore all of that because that's just melancholy and nostalgia coming from my finger tapping... Doesn't mean I can't do it though and display my sentiments. Arsenal have observed victorious ERAS and Wenger's is one of those and nothing more. His aren't worth more than the others because the other had different battles on their hands to lift the club from yet another dry period. Wenger is extremely important in Arsenal's history and I've never denied that but he's no more important than the past managers and owners the club has had throughout history. If you believe he is the be all and end all of Arsenal then you're stupid... I don't want to think you're stupid. Just that you haven't studied enough of the history of this club maybe. Maybe I'm wrong though.

Was interviewed a couple of weeks back by a journalist for something that doesn’t concern here but I liked the picture they used and I’ll share it with you guys.

The interview is much longer than that and it goes deeper into Morata's time at Juventus... But the reason that extract is being mentioned a lot in Italy this morning is because it talks about three major issues and says a lot in-between the lines. A lot can be read into that without even being conspiratorial or sensationalist in terms of COACHES, CLUBS and PLAYERS. Very few times at the top end do we get to hear about what goes on and even less, sentiments, true sentiments without the ex-player or ex-coach looking to take a cheap shot at where they were before. You can see here that it's genuine and that truth is one that tells us more than a book written at the end of someone's career. Everyone (I'm talking about the professionals and not fans here) suffers from bias in all sorts of forms whether it be from the colours you support, patriotism or personal issues. That extract is so good that you can even bring other names surrounding all three clubs (mainly two), two coaches into the foray without any issues and not being far wrong... You can make such a global picture of a certain time-span it's incredible. This is the reason I've brought in the Chelsea boys on here to comment and the reason I've put it on the Real Madrid thread is because it affects Real on the whole a lot more than anyone else.

I've corrected that for you mate... There's the reason on that one and the cover for Carvajal (Real Madrid's official best player last season) is another issue Real Madrid are suffering from this season with the cover they have now.

Well he was the overall second top scorer for Real Madrid last season after Cristiano Ronaldo. He continued to be treated like a youth player getting minutes when Zidane thought something needed to be changed. Infact a lot can be read into a spat both Lineker and Zidane have had over the past week.

That's the general consensus from every single Madrid based sports journalist. They say that he is the one who's missed the most and they're placing a big part of the blame on Zidane and some elections he's made.

Morata regrets having been forced to return to Real Madrid from Juventus Álvaro Morata doesn't miss his time at Real Madrid at all. The Spanish striker has opened a new chapter in his footballing career in the English Premier League by becoming a player of reference for his club Chelsea and having scored 7 goals in 12 games already this season. In an interview two days ago for the Italian sports newspaper, La Gazzetta Dello Sport, the Real Madrid academy alumni talks about many things but what sticks out is when wide eyed he relives the treatment he was given on his return to Real Madrid from Juventus two summers ago. "There were contractual agreements that everyone was obliged to respect and that neither Juventus or I thought would be executed. The disappointment was massive: I found myself returning to the start of my footballing career in more ways than one. I walked back in through the door at Real Madrid and right from the word go I was again being treated like a youth player in exactly the same manner as before my two seasons in Series 'A' playing for Juventus. Not only did I feel personally disrespected, but I also felt that a legendary club like Juventus was being looked upon like a Spanish 'B' team somewhere in Spain's lower divisions." "I arrived in Italy as a child and returned to Real Madrid a real footballer. Had I ever been given the choice, had they ever asked me that summer when they forced me to return from Juventus to Real Madrid, I'd have said no! I would never have left Italy and I would never have left Juventus. My wife who is Italian wants to live in Spain, but I who am Spanish, I want to live in Italy." "I chose Chelsea because Antonio Conte was there. I had already been talking to Antonio during the season of my return to Real Madrid... Three or four times a week we would make each other phone calls and there were also three personal meetings during the season between us, one in Spain and two in Italy. He told me he would be telling the Chelsea board that he wanted me for this season and that I should stay strong because not everything a coach wants ends up coming to fruition. There were moments where I thought I was going to end up staying in my personal nightmare at Real Madrid because all the news coming from England was that Antonio Conte was finding it difficult to convince his board to make a serious bid for me. It was only when I read that Chelsea were apparently seriously going for Lukaku that I broke my promise to Conte in that I shouldn't get in contact with him until he called me and I made a FaceTime call which he accepted. He took the call knowing full well what I was going to ask him and why I'd called and he smiled telling me to sit tight and that neither I myself or him were going to be manipulated by anyone. That put me at ease and I finally breathed deep clean air for the first time in my footballing career with the knowledge that I was going to be a real footballer for a big club and a great manager with no contract agreements to be afraid of. Few people can really understand how great a coach is Antonio Conte, but that will be a story for many years to come, not now." @Cicero @True Blue @carefreeluke @Spike @Bluewolf

15 years ago today Andrés Iniesta made his official debut It was a Champions League match away to Club Brugge which Barça won 0-1 with a Juan Román Riquelme goal on the 29th October 2002. Louis van Gaal who was the head coach at that the time decided to bring in a few of the youth players to complete the squad for that final group game due to the fact the team had already qualified for the next phase. Andrés Iniesta completed the whole 90 minutes that night in a team which consisted of; Enke, Gabri, Puyol, Tortero, Fernando Navarro, Gerard López, Rochemback, Geovanni, Iniesta, Riquelme and Dani. The two stars of the game were two big friends who continue to maintain their friendship to this day, Iniesta and Riquelme. They looked for each other whenever one of the two were on the ball and you could tell they both spoke the same footballing language when on the field of play. Iniesta debuted with the number 34 on his back and played a wonderful game by participating in every dangerous move and subsequently assisting Riquelme's goal in the second half... Iniesta almost scored himself near the end of the game, but his shot hit the top side of the crossbar. Three days later Iniesta returned to what was his reality in those days in the Barcelona 'B' side for a game against Palamós. The head coach of the Barça 'B' side at that time was none other than the master of La Masia, Quíque Costas who loved (and continues to do so) Iniesta like a son. Three months later Van Gaal called Quíque Costas once again to bring Andrés Iniesta into the first team for a game against Real Mallorca away and subsequently 3 weeks later called up once again for his La Liga debut at the Camp Nou against Recreativo de Huelva. That was Iniesta's final game in the first team that season because Van Gaal was sacked and Radomir Antić took over who didn't exactly use any of the youth players until the season was finished. It was left for the arrival of Frank Rijkaard to make the revolution with the youth players (Messi included) and make them firm starters ever since.

I have an inkling Arnáiz is going to get his first big chance (excepting the Copa del Rey debut midweek) on Tuesday against Olympiakos away. Something tells me he may be selected! He can bring goals and what he also does is give the opponent a headache in terms of having to concentrate on him. As for Suárez... I've heard he doesn't want to get the operation because he's cared of something going wrong and missing a large part of the season and even the World Cup. There's the other factor if everything goes well on the operation which would apparently keep him out for a month or so in that if someone comes in and starts scoring goals he could find it difficult to get back into the team. Whatever it is he needs to start scoring goals! Right now the team isn't missing his goals because they keep on winning and nobody is looking towards him which has taken a lot of pressure of Suárez as the media aren't hounding him. But the moment there are two or three negative results in a row and then they will be headlining him!

Maradona was different to Messi in the manner they both attack the opponent's goal... The only thing in that sense that they had in common was the dribbling capacity but that's not enough because Maradona was never an attacker and was always a midfielder, many times starting from deep. Messi has turned into that now in his latter years but as we all know, he started life as a winger, then a false-9 and now is... Well... Now he's everything plus a midfielder. What both Maradona and Messi do have in common and is almost identical, is their vision and their passing capabilities whether it be short, middle or long range passing. Messi's understanding of the game, reading the situation is almost mathematical, but as we all know it's just blatantly born talent. Like Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique said (the same thing)... Messi can be the best in the world at whatever he decides to do on the pitch. There is no competition in that sense.

It’s been like that for 10 years now and it’s something that’s failed to be addressed by this board. They back themselves up by saying that every year the club is making more and more gross and net profit with the new official numbers to be released that will apparently show that for the fiscal year of 2017 FC Barcelona have returned to be the number one profit making club in the world. Tht doesn’t address the issue of the wages though and it’s something that HAS to be done.

Grifols which is a Spanish pharmaceutical company has denies that they're about to add their name to the Camp Nou via sponsorship. There will inevitably be a name put on it for the restructuring and remodelling of the stadium which begins at the end of this season, but as of yet it's constant speculation as to what who will be sponsoring the stadium's name.

I hope he's not a flash in the pan... You can never be sure with young players. There have been many that have debuted and faded away but they have to be given the chance. He looks like he can do an important job in the squad right now for me and should be added. He couldn't have done more on his debut.

You can actually see the move now as one of the national sports pages has published it mate. Maybe you've already seen it...? https://www.sport.es/es/noticias/barca/arnaiz-estuvo-punto-lograr-gol-antologico-ruleta-espectacular-6377240

I want to see Arnáiz get minutes after what was seen on his debut. He gave more than what was expected and there’s one move between 4 Murcia midfielders which also showed excellent technical skills and awareness.

I’ve got a kid mate and need warning time for my missus who is very volatile and can be life threatening. I would’ve loved it and that’s why I mentioned the warning hahaha.

You're not that far from the Soho and you could go to Yuatcha which I'm sure you'd enjoy with your fiancee. Anyway... Bon Appetit mate.

Where are you going to eat?