SirBalon

Andrés Iniesta Forever

Official: Andrés Iniesta renews for life with FC Barcelona About 10 minutes ago FC Barcelona announced via its Twitter account a wonderful piece of news and one that every Culé was waiting for, Andrés Iniesta finally renews his contract with Barça and he's done it for life. Iniesta will end his professional career at the club he started at, FC Barcelona. The club has also announced that the protocol of his signature will be made at in the President Sunyol box at the Camp Nou at 11:30bst and at 12:00bst the press conference for the world's media will be officially opened with Andrés Iniesta and the club president, Josep Maria Bartomeu. One of the biggest question marks being thrown at this board has finally been resolved and now a few others remain. One thing is for sure and that's that this news will make every Barcelona fan very happy. He is an authentic legend and someone like him HAS to finish his career at the club he's always played for.

I didn't see it initially but I had it open at work and one of my colleagues walked into the office and asked me if the picture was Messi's brother or cousin That's when I saw the resemblance and when I got home I posted that. Obviously better looking than Messi though!

Yeah... My computer auto corrected me mate. I meant Sotil.

Are you related to Messi? Nice pics mate.

What did he say about Cubillas? Did you talk about Sotelo?

Of course... What did he say to you? I love these kind of meetings with past greats... They tell a story modern footballers will never be able to tell.

I at least can't see the PNGs mate! The videos are great though.

It’s the way people feel in Europe.

No mate... They resigned because they thought the game shouldn't have gone ahead and the club should've assumed the possible sanctions. The club have now announced an emergency meeting of the board today. Let's see what happens now...

They didn't step down in defiance of La Liga and Spain! I just noticed what you said there... Where did you get that from? They stepped down because as far as they were concerned they thought the sanctions should've been meaningless and that the club in defiance SHOULDN'T have played the game anyway. They resigned because the rest of the board decided to play the game.

Not just that... In that same post I told you what the sanctions from centralists parts would've been if FCB had not have played the game. The sanctions ranged from playing every domestic home game (La Liga and Copa del Rey) this season behind closed doors to actually being suspended from playing any domestic game for 6 months. That would've meant elimination from the Copa del Rey and relegation to Spain's second division.

The club is 118 years of age, about to be 119 years and two years in 119 of one individual using the entity for his own future political career has NOTHING whatsoever to do with what the club has stood for throughout its history. Plus you seem to have failed to read the reasons as to why the game eventually went ahead... Read again and tell me seriously what FC Barcelona should've done!

I have to edit my previous comment... Under Joan Laporta's tenure, he as an individual used the club as a political voice and he was censured for it by the members amongst other things. I edit this because I said AT NO MOMENT in the club's history, but I forgot Laporta had gone mental in his final two years as president.

FC Barcelona has never in their history positioned themselves politically in any manner whatsoever. They have freedom of expression their and YES FCB are a Catalanista football club but that has nothing to do with being in favour of separatism from the state of Spain.

Two high ranking directors at the board resigned yesterday for letting the game go ahead... The vice president Carles Vilarrubí and the head for education at FCB, Jordi Monés. They were wrong to let the game go ahead only because of the amount of people that were injured but for no other reason! Football has no importance when things like these happened. But the club is not a hypocrite for going ahead with the game because they were threatened from various centralist sectors with all sorts of sanctions ranging from either playing the rest of the season's domestic games behind closed doors which as you can appreciate would destroy the club to actually being suspended from playing in all domestic games (La Liga and Copa del Rey) for six months. The club had no choice but to play the game! The unity sector of Catalan society is extremely silent in situations such as these and including in the annual National Day of Catalunya (La Diada) which is on the 11th of September. You can't blame people calling for unity being silent in Catalunya to be honest and that's the way it's always mostly been. Even when you attend Barça games you are politely told to not make a flag of Spain visible if you take one and the only reason for this is so as to stop trouble from occurring and not because the club is positioning themselves politically in terms of any type of separatism. That part in my opinion is rather hypocritical for me. If you've spent your history telling people that at the Barça arena freedom of expression is paramount, then you have to accept all views and sentiments. But you're right... IN all the serious polls ever held Catalunya would vote to stay as a part of the state of Spain if it were held seriously. But I will say one thing though... The wound opened yesterday in the manner the authorities treated civilians in Catalunya will be a wound very difficult to heal and anyone that was probably swaying where to put an hypothetical 'X' may have swayed to the separatist end now.

My two favourite centre-backs that I've lived through are Baresi and Puyol by a long margin... For anyone that lived through Baresi's era will see a connection there because they were extremely similar in the way they defended and their technique. Obviously there are other defenders from past and present that I rate extremely highly but those two impacted me tremendously. Both gave 100% in every single game and they were also gentlemen of the game which is hard while playing in a position where your job is to annul attacking talent from flourishing. Indeed Puyol's end of his career was stunted by a series of crunching injuries which took their toll, but his career was of legendary status and also one of the most successful in the history of the game. Just read back the interview which I had to translate myself due to it only being available in Spanish... I've made various grammatical mistakes because sometimes it's hard to stop thinking in Spanish and you get all twisted up. But I hope everyone gets the gist and understands it.

Puyol returns home to attend Messi's 594th official Barça game Why has Carles Puyol returned to Barcelona today to watch Lionel Messi play against UD Las Palmas on an odd number like his 594th official game for the club? The reason is that 593 were was the official amount of games Puyol played of Barcelona and Messi is about to surpass "El Gran Capitán" to move into third position as the player that's played the most times for the club. He still has Andrés Iniesta in 2nd with 638 and Xavi in 1st position with a whopping 767 official games for FC Barcelona. Carles Puyol held an interview with Barcelona based daily sports newspaper Mundo Deportivo where he had these anecdotes to tell about what he lived through as Messi's colleague and his personal thoughts on the genius. Messi is level with you on 593 games for the club, but he's managed it earlier than you at 30 years of age? Leo is going fast in everything he does and he's always been that way. I hope he ends up playing 500 more games for the club. The ranking says that Messi is in third position right now, behind Iniesta on 638 games and in first position Xavi on 767 official games. Do you think he's capable of going past them and becoming the player with the most games for Barça? It's not going to be easy to be honest, but if his body respects him where injuries are concerned as he gets older and he continues to evolve in the areas of the field where he can watch his physical exertion , then it is possible. You were playing for quite some time when Messi first broke into the team. What was the detail that most impacted you about him when he first played with you? The ease with which would not only read the game so as to decide beforehand on what to do off the ball, but then this incredible intuition on what the rival in front of him would do with his body movement depending on what choice he decided to make on the ball. That for me is the genius of Messi because he like Iniesta, know and read the possibilities that can be achieved before their opponent does. He wasn't up for fun and games even in training because he would want to be on the winning side even there. Seeing as you were more of a veteran than Messi when he first started playing in the first team... Did you give him any advice at the start so that his integration would be easier? He was and is very timid... He's an introvert and was more so then as what can only be described as a child breaking into such a team. But the Barcelona dressing room in general has always been a very close knit group and in that sense life in the squad is made very easy for players. Nobody is above anyone else and in that factor is where some others haven't lasted long or as long at Barcelona because to suppress how you are can only be done for so long. Did he ever try his tricks on you in training games like a nutmeg or something to overplay on? When he's on the filed of play be it an official game or even just training he's very competitive. Messi doesn't know how to differentiate between what's theoretical or competition. Most players use training to enhance their fitness or to progress in tactical or personal football areas. Messi uses everything and did so as a kid to win! He had all the tools, you knew there was very little to teach him even coaches in the tactical areas of football theory never said anything to him because off the ball he knows where to position himself for the good of the team. I remember a training game once where Pep put me as a man to man marker on Messi... Guardiola told me to use my usual method of playing as if I was in a much because otherwise we all knew Messi wouldn't play. I have to admit I tried everything and actually got upset at the way he was treating me in what I thought was disrespectfully... I even tried to kick him with Guardiola trying to stop the training game and everyone around us stopping and me running after him aiming air kicks at his arse. In the end we fell down and laughed. Obviously there was no malice from him or from me, but imagine how players on opposing sides feel when they're playing against him? What is the thing that has impacted you the most about Messi? Everything about him is incredible but for me his biggest asset and the detail that keeps him at the top is his ambition. The thing is that at the beginning he was spectacular in itself. He would take the ball and run with it dribbling past anyone that got in his way. The only way to stop him is to foul him because not only is he technically perfect, but for such a small player he has such body strength. Infact this is one of the features and the proof on what Cruyff said to change everything. Size and strength has absolutely nothing to do with talent and technique. Infact putting both features together, talent and technique will always win even in defence, but that's for a different interview (laughs). After his spectacular years he's evolved into a complete footballer, someone that can play anywhere from the back of midfield to the front and be the best by a long margin in the world. When I started off in football I was of the belief that work ethic and sacrifice would get you to the top... It does! I never really believed that talent was something you could be born with, but it is possible! So putting both factors together you have two ways to get to the top but only one of them makes you genuinely special and that is born talent. Messi is a genius and that's what's impacted me and everyone that knows him, has played with him or against him. They know it! They may say other things some of them, but they know that we know that they know it. (laughs) Lately some coaches have started to man mark him again like they used to do at the start of his career. You was one of the greatest defenders ever, what do you think about a coach telling you to man mark someone like Messi for 90 minutes? It's difficult to man mark any player for 90 minutes without making any errors. A modern defender works better with the freedom to read the game and the rivals he has in front of him. Within 10 minutes you have a pretty good picture of how they've set themselves up and also how each individual up front moves. Just as players playing in other areas of the field, we use what we're learning in any given game to predict and read our rival so as to be one step ahead. In the case of Messi you have another job on top of all that which is to not only read how he runs, but also to second guess him and be one step ahead. Now, Messi has been playing for over a decade at the highest end of football and I've seen defenders know what he wants to do and still not be able to stop him. So if there are times where you know what he's going to do and you find it extremely difficult to stop him executing his thoughts, the ones you're seeing. Imagine those ones that come from his improvisation! Man marking Messi efficiently can stop him from scoring, but you won't stop him from creating because he's not just a goal scorer. Football is best played with freedom but with a tactical plan set out too. Out of the goals Messi has scored, which one have you felt was the most memorable? Everyone will say the Getafe goal because of how it was so similar to Maradona's. That was a goal which had not only his teammates in awe but also the Getafe players because they tried to bring him down and couldn't. But for me personally there was a game against Real Zaragoza where he scored two absolutely incredible goals... In that game he manipulated 10 rival outfield players and wasn't just a moment to remember. I remember a game Bergkamp played for Arsenal once I saw on tv where he done something similar, but this was different for me because I was on the field. I remember shouting out after the second goal "you son of a bitch" (laughs). But then again everyone will have their favourite and it's a very personal choice. That's the thing with Messi, you get options. I remember once Guardiola put him in the defenders team in a training game and we won for the first time against the attackers. That's how good he is. Messi is 30 now, can he still keep on growing as a player? Football has gone down a strange route where the media feed the fans that after 27 starts a road that leans downwards and with every year it becomes steeper towards the bottom. Us players know that this is not the case... The only thing you lose with age is initial burst of pace but never your top speed and then the second thing is recovery time after games or from injuries... All that takes longer. But the optimum age for a footballer at the hight of his physical powers and knowledge through experience is anywhere from 28 to 30 years of age. Messi is now at his optimum level physically and from there he's translating his game into various avenues he never used to. Messi will always keep on growing as a player because there's nothing like him playing football today. Apart from Messi being in such great condition at the start of this new season. How do you see the team in general? Well they're winning every game they play so I can't really say much. Infact they're winning even in a couple where they haven't played so well which is normal at the start of the season. You have various highs and lows at the beginning but you want to get past that inconsistency by winning as many as possible. So in that sense I see the team very well indeed. Apart from that, it's a long season and many factors can change the course of how you go for the targets you set. You can have a great side and two stupid games end up making your season seem a failure because the level is so high these days.

Official: Marco Asensio renews with Real Madrid until 2023 It was meant to be announced last week but negotiations on the contract nobody ever doubted Marco Asensio would be signing was ongoing with only one sticking point, the buy-out clause. Real Madrid wanted €1b and the player and agent wanted €500m. In the end a consensus was achieved and the buy-out clause has been set at €700m which is a sure guard against any Arabic intervention one would say. €500m would've been enough to be honest as we then have to add the almost 50% tax on top of that which comes to ridiculous sums of money. Anyway... The important thing is that Real Madrid CF have insured that their most treasured asset will be playing in their all white strip until at least 2023 which is one year more than all the recent contract renewals which have been made until 2022. Asensio's immediate future is set and now has a major superstar contract that's presently only superseded by Cristiano Ronaldo at the club.

I don't think he ever coached Liverpool but he was Rafa Benítez' first assistant coach for years at Valencia and at Liverpool. He was a SKY UK La Liga pundit for a long while.

Pako Ayestarán new UD Las Palmas head coach UD Las Palmas has a new coach after Manolo Márquez was sacked during the week due to Las Palmas' terrible start to the season. The new man is one that will be instantly recognisable to those that watch La Liga on SKY UK, Pako Ayestarán. Ayestarán in 2016 was named Valencia CF head coach after Gary Neville was sacked. He lost his opening game in charge of Los Che but then went on to grab 3 consecutive victories which saw Valencia secure survival in La Liga. On the 24th of May he renewed with Valencia until 2018, but was sacked in the new season after losing his four first games.

Yeah, read about this some years back in a book by a Catalan journalist called Frederic Porta. Infact he’s the only source on this but swears he’s seen both Real Madrid’s doucments and Barça’s. It’s a very different situation to the Di Stefano case though. In the Kubala case Real had an apparent agreement with the Hungarian and only needed his signature on the contract. Barcelona came along and offered him more money and more important, political asylum. He signed for Barça. In the Di Stefano case we have a whole different scenario. That was political intervention and when that wasn’t working, FIFA got involved to try and strike a deal where they would share the player two years for each and so on. Remember that Barcelona had already legally signed Alfredo di Stefano when all of this political stuff snatched him from them.

hahaha... I thought about that and I was very vocal on what happened at Leicester City with the sacking of Claudio Ranieri. He knows my thoughts on that but at the end of the day it's the club's fans that matter and if they're happy with what could possibly have happened then that's it. As for the Villarreal situation... The club president is saying it's purely based on the results and that a possible relegation fight with the an outcome of going down would destroy everything they've built in recent years. He's also said that the players had nothing to do with the situation but then again he would never say anything differently to the public media would he. All I know from past history with Villarreal and the president Fernando Roig is that he's always conducted himself admirably and the club's growth from absolutely nothing 20 years ago is all down to doing things the right way. All anyone can do is take his word for what has occurred.

Obviously as always, these rumours about players helping to open the exit door for a coach are always difficult to prove unless someone tells all which rarely happens. But I find it strange that Escribá would have issues with players because he doesn't have a history of this and is usually known to be quite a mild character in that sense. But then again anything is possible and it depends on many factors where relationships either go well or down the drain quickly. Another factor is the president Fernando Roig who is very patient indeed... Something strange has happened here. It's not the first time Villarreal start the campaign a bit funny and then recover very well indeed.

Villarreal CF announce that Fran Escribá ceases to be head coach This morning Villarreal CF announced via social media that first team coach Fran Escribá will no longer be taking charge of the first team. Also his two asistants Josep Alcácer and José Mascarós have been released of their duties. Due to the less than good start to this new campaign and certain player power within the dressing room, Villrreal will now be searching for a new coach. It's not usual for Fernando Roig (club owner and president) to sack a coach in this manner.