"Do YOU see a scar? It's Go Time!"

I can’t even find the words to express the joy that I feel. This brief post is mostly for the permanent record, so that we can all come back here and remember the joy that we felt when it was announced today that:

–Eric Abidal was training normally with the squad
–Eric Abidal convocado. Dude’s in the squad for the Camp Nou leg in the final edition of a nasty, bitter series of El Clasics.

For the cave-dwellers, Abidal had surgery recently, to remove a tumor on his liver. We never heard if it was malignant or not, but we can safely assume by the fact that His Royal Badness is back, that it wasn’t. Guardiola says that he can help some, but that he isn’t fully match fit and is a little overweight.

Who cares? Our French Greyhound is BACK!!!!

Let’s get started, though:

First, I’m going to attack Real Madrid for being afraid of their own players. Sport reported yesterday that RM included a clause in their loan deal of Royston Drenthe stating that it would cost Hercules €2m to play him against RM. Obviously that’s means a no go for Hercules who, like any club, cannot afford a €2m match. What babies. Fraidy cats. You loan out a player and you’re scared to have him play against you? Were we scared of Henrique playing for Racing on opening day? Of course not. Personally, I think Hercules should be able to start whoever they feel like starting against every team and to deny them that means you’re scared of your own players, in which case, why did you loan them out? Clausula de la vergüenza, indeed.

What’s with the need to discuss transfers in the middle of October? Are we giving up on the first half of the season already? Are we trying to fast forward to the point where rampant, unfounded speculation has a chance of being right? Or are we just so bored during international break that making shit up is the only way to get through the day? I don’t want to buy anyone in January. I don’t want to discuss buying anyone in January. Maybe we can do so in late December, but for right now, no. You don’t know, the rags don’t know, and I certainly don’t know what Pep, Zubi, and Rosell are thinking and planning. And if we did know what Pep was thinking, we’d go insane over how brilliant it is, so don’t wish that upon yourself. Just wait for it to happen and be in awe.

I really hate European international competitions. They’re like 2 years long to qualify for tournaments and they happen constantly. Sorry, but figure out a better way to do it that doesn’t require 84 international breaks a year (that’s more than 1 per week!). My first suggestion? Remove San Marino, Andorra, and the Faroe Islands from the competitions. No offense to those guys, which are probably wonderful places visit, but when you have 1 victory to your name ever (stand up, San Marino) and that victory is over Lichtenstein in a friendly, you probably shouldn’t be playing Spain, Germany, etc and causing undue strain on domestic leagues. How about some play-in games like the Champions League? That would reduce the number of matches immensely if you had some knockout qualifiers before a larger league table. So yeah, I hate European internationals despite the fact that the games themselves are quite fun.

The Chilean miners might get out of the mine tomorrow, which is amazing and wonderful and all those other ways to describe freeing miners from a collapsed mine half a mile underground. The Phoenix capsule that’s going to bring them back up is so tiny I can’t think about it for long without shaking a bit. I’m not particularly claustrophobic, but I have a fairly irrational fear that if I’m underground, the earth will collapse on me. I don’t go into caves because of it, so when I see miners trapped half a mile underground, it freaks me out. The guys who are going into the mine to help the miners out are 1) totally insane and 2) braver than I’ll ever be. I hope everyone survives the ordeal and does so with a minimum of health problems. Maybe one of them will wear the David Villa jersey as they come up. That’d be awesome.

Also, we–Barça–should fly them to the Camp Nou for a match at some point this season, when they’re capable of travel, of course, so that they can meet David Villa. That would be the hotness.

Gaby Milito pulled out of training today with a calf injury. That’s no good, but can you say “Thanks Batista for playing him 90 minutes in a friendly in Japan”? I freakin’ can.

Xavi is doubtful for Saturday’s match against Valencia thanks to his Achilles problem. We’ll know more in the coming days, but as Valencia prepares for the match without Joaquin (whose name I inexplicably spell Jaoquin every time before correcting it), we should go forward thinking we’ll be without the maestro.

Tomas Ujfalusi can go to hell. And I’m saying this from a number of viewpoints: Barca fan and cule, sports fan, person who is against violence, human being who is averse to having to don hip waders to get through waist-high mounds of steaming bovine fecal matter.

Ujfalusi says that he isn’t a bad guy. The president of Atletico says that he isn’t that kind of a guy. Ujfalusi is saying that he tried to apologize in person to Messi, and sent him a text, and that he didn’t mean Messi any harm, blahblahblahblah. Fabio Capello is saying that he isn’t a bad guy, blahblahblahblah.

But you know what? Anybody is a bad guy with the red mist in their eyes. It was the 92nd minute of a 94-minute match that your team wasn’t going to win. Why go in so hard, and why aim at the ankle? If you want to merely send a message of pique, you can go in shoulder-to-shoulder, or just body-block the player. You stop the play, send him to the turf, then you can run over to the ref and have your tantrum.

Instead, you went in and down on the ankle. So all of your protests, Mr. Ujfalusi, are to me worth just about the crap that envelops them.

Pundits and fans are saying that Barca fans are being silly, that any time a player comes at Messi with a “right proper English-style tackle,” we howl to the high heavens. Ask ex-Arsenal man Eduardo about those “right proper English-style tackles.” For my money, it was an attempt to injure, to damage the club and I love and its chances at the Liga. If Messi’s out, it can only benefit Atletico long-term, right?

Just once, I wish that players weren’t hypocrites. I recall, years ago, a tennis match during which Vitas Gerulaitis rushed the net off a weak-ass approach shot. Ivan Lendl lined up his shot, and hit him in the head with it. When asked about it, after the match Lendl said “Nobody asked him to come to the net on that shot,” and offered no apology. The apology from Ujfalusi is a craven attempt to ameliorate public scorn, and possibly diminish his penalty. The truth is in the action. If you didn’t mean it, you go over and check on the player. You don’t hammer him, then run over to the ref to yell about a penalty that you think you should have gotten. He never even looked at Messi, who was clearly injured.

Now people are asking was the tackle really that bad. Anybody who would ask that, hasn’t watched the video, or is just trying to draw clicks by talking out of their ass. Applying that much force directly down, so that you use the pitch to augment your effort to maim, means that intent is clear: You want to make sure that player can’t continue in the match. In that, Ujfalusi succeeded.

Speculation is that his suspension will be from 4-12 matches. It should be the maximum, but it almost certainly won’t be. Michael Jordan got the same protection. So did Wayne Gretzky. Those guys filled the seats. So does Messi, and Thong Boy, and Aguero, and all the other Liga marquee players. They should be protected from violent action. Nobody minds a foul, a good, hard, professional foul. You shoulder the guy off the ball, or grab the shirt to prevent forward progress. It sucks, but it’s part of football.

Yes, there have been worse tackles. That doesn’t diminish the violence of this one. It just means that the roster of thuggish assholes has grown by one. A message needs to be sent to Ujfalusi, and anyone else who believes that the best way to stop a team is to injure its star player. 12 games off for Ujfalusi would be a good start.

"Uh, oh .... this is not gonna end well...."

In the journalism business, we call what is about to happen, “burying the lede.” It’s shifting the thing that everybody cares about to later in the piece. Sometimes it’s crazy, other times it’s to make a point, as it is now.

Finish your chances!

We had about 913 chances to get the third, or even fourth goal that would have put this match to bed, done and dusted, and precipitated the Krkic for Messi swap much earlier than it in fact occurred. A match that is in the balance, in a place at which we haven’t won in three years, calls for your best players. And one of those best players is Lionel Messi.

Early in the match, as here as the ball is going past the Amazing DeGea for our first goal (you can just see the golden boot exiting the frame), Messi was razor-sharp and raring to go. He gave his all for the club, and shouldn’t have even been on the pitch. Look at the 5 straight times in which he ceded possession. It was a tired player out there, a player who should have been subbed.

And if we finish our chances, he is, and we’re discussing another very good match from Messi, rather than how long he might be on the sidelines.

The best thing about this match is that we won at the Calderon, that cauldron that has, for the past three seasons, been a place at which we have fallen. And we did it with style. Despite the pressure, and effort, Atletico never had a real chance in this one. Think about the match, free of the pessimism of the LiveBlog, and how many real chances they had at goal. Even the goal that they scored was a fluke, when Valdes came out and fluffed his lines as the defense said “He’s got …. no, he doesn’t.” And that was that.

Guardiola rolled out with our best lineup (minus Abidal, off tending to his grandfather in Martinique) of Valdes, Alves, Pique, Puyol, Maxwell, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Pedro! and Villa. His intention was to go down with his best troops, if going down was in the cards. And we started off brightly, generating chance after chance, and putting Atletico on the back foot. And when they got the ball, we got it right back, with a combo platter of midfield pressure and aggressive defending, as we played our usual defense with offense.

Essentially, we won the war because we won the battle for the midfield. Anyone who has the match available, should find a 7-second sequence that begins at about 50:03. A wayward ball comes to Xavi, who gets it under control with a back flip, steering it toward Villa, who was running away. So Xavi hits the jets to outrun a defender who we all thought had a head start, slides the ball under his foot, controlling and letting him slide past, fakes out a second defender who has the angle on him by just stopping with the ball, then flipping a pass safely to a waiting Iniesta.

It’s about 7 seconds, but it’s a time span that so clearly indicates why we had this match under control. Without the midfield, you aren’t going to beat us, and we have the best midfielder on this planet playing for us. So your options are long balls, which are easily dealt with by our defense, set pieces, which you aren’t going to get too many of, counterattacks, which we aren’t going to cede because of intelligent possession, or attacks up the wing which, when our right and left backs are playing as solidly and conservatively as they were today, you ain’t getting, either.

It’s pretty simple when you think about it.

The inevitable first goal for us came after Villa was set loose by an absolutely flawless ball from Messi, only to have his shot somehow hit the post. Off the rebound, Pedro! slotted in yet another flawless ball for Messi, who did what has become his usual control flip score, all with one touch. That goal was hard. Really, really, hard. And he made it look so simple. It was 1-0, and we were off to the races. Now, I know that we had a 3-0 lead here, and lost 4-3, but this match was different. We were much more solid defensively (except for a couple of Keystone Kops moments), Busquets is a man now, and we had the wings on lockdown, so Reyes (booooo!) and Simao couldn’t hurt us.

They scored, yes, but it was pretty much a fluke of a goal that once we tightened up the zonal marking, wasn’t going to happen again, and they weren’t going to score off us in open play, because our two pit bulls, Pique and Puyol, were on. So after they scored, we regained possession and set about operating in their end a lot more, winning a corner.

We should pause for a moment here, and realize that we’re talking about a center back who stepped back from a defender, took the ball softly on his chest so that it plopped right at his feet, and smoked it past a helpless keeper. Pique scored goal No. 2 for us, and it was a delight.

And who knew that it would be the last goal scored in this hotly contested, but fairly one-sided match. Let’s look at some of the chances:

–Pedro! bollixed one up on the doorstep with a horrid first touch.
–Xavi gets stopped by a great save.
–Pedro! gets stopped by a great save.
–Villa hits the post.
–Villa somehow sends a shot over the goal.
–Xavi passed when he should have shot, P! blows the chance.
–Messi, on the doorstep, gets stonewalled.
–Villa bad touches another one away.

If we deal with any of those, then this doesn’t happen:

He’s clearly thinking “Ball? I don’t give a rat’s ass about that ball. It’s the ankle that I’m after.”

And then this:

We’ve talked about it enough. But if we finish our chances, it doesn’t happen, because the Krkic switch is made 10 minutes earlier, when he was finished warming up, but the match was still in the balance. No, I won’t get into what this says about the confidence factor in Krkic. That’s another post, and another time.

Team: 9. Excellent performance, marred by that rather clunky goal that we gave up. But the passing and movement, and defense in depth were pretty amazing to witness, from a club that people think can’t defend. Oh yeah? Check out all those spearmint shirts in front of the ball when Atletico has it in our end. Everyone did exactly what they were supposed to do, unlike last time we visited the Cauldron.

Guardiola: 6. Great game plan, the right lineup, but a coach has to read a match better. Everyone could see how heated it was getting, and how the ref had lost control of things. In matches like that, you get your best player off the pitch, particularly when you see that he’s playing like a zombie. No way a fresh Messi gets stopped by DeGea on the doorstep.

Valdes: 6. If you come off the line for the ball, get it. Okay? Strong match after that, controlling his space in a commanding way, and making some very difficult saves look easy. Communication with the defense needs work, though. You could see Maxwell and Puyol confused a few times as to what Valdes’ intentions were. That can’t happen.

Alves: 8. Excellent match, particularly now that he has the range on his passes into the box again. He did get caught up, leading to the play that led to the corner that led to the goal. But beyond that, and a couple of loose touches, his play was hard to fault.

Pique: 9. Piquenbauer had a stunner, from bringing the ball up to timely defensive plays to scoring the winning goal. It’s pretty hard not to award him Man of the Match, except that there was indeed somebody who deseves it more. Is he even better this year? How is it that a center back can be as offense-minded as our marauding right back, yet still be omnipresent on the back line?

Puyol: 9. Another MOTM contender, with a leonine performance on the back line. He ran everything down, took fouls, headed balls away and brought balls up the pitch. It was the typical match from a man who is making a liar out of some dumbass who said that last season would be his last as automatic starter.

Maxwell: 9. What a solid, brilliant match from him, going forward at the right times, but always, always making sure that the wing was on lockdown, frustrating whichever attacker Atletico ran at him, be it Reyes or Simao.

Busquets: 7. Excellent match, marred by some “Bad Busi” moments of loose possession in dangerous spots. He bailed himself out twice, and made up for it with winning ball after ball, and making excellent pass after excellent pass. And anybody wondering why Forlan had such an invisible match should check Busquets’ back pocket.

Xavi: 9. My Man of the Match is so because this match depended upon tempo, control and midfield excellence. Those three characteristics embody the match that Xavi played today. If he doesn’t play as well, we have a much more difficult time. Both coaches realized that the midfield battle winner would be the match winner. Xavi was amazing.

Iniesta: 9. And speaking of amazing, you could argue that his ovation from the Cauldron faithful was as much for his wonder of a match as it was his World Cup-winning goal. He was beautiful today, from making the right run and always being around the ball, to pass after pass after inch-perfect, ball controlling pass.

Messi: 7. He played himself down from a 10 with that tired-out phase in which he lost the ball 5 straight times that he got it. But what a match, one that for me was epitomized not by the goal he scored, but by playing catchup with Reyes on the break, and making a perfect sliding tackle to knock the ball out for a throw. When the best player on the team also works the hardest, stand back.

Pedro!: 6. Played in fits and spurts, but those moments were fine ones. And he really came into his own when we were killing off the match, with his constant motion, always being ready to receive a pass and inevitably playing the right ball to someone. Great assist on the opening goal, too.

Villa: 2. Awful today. From the offside calls and static play, to not moving to passes to missed chance after missed chance, this is match that he will want to forget as soon as possible. We can only hope that his slow start means a fast finish.

Substitutes

Keita (for Xavi): 6. He came in when were trying to kill off the match, and won the day with his athleticism and fresh legs, as he chased balls down and harassed attackers. Having him as an option off the bench is so reassuring.

Mascherano (for Iniesta): incomplete. He didn’t do much, but giving that hard foul with the clear “This one’s for Messi,” was awesome. There was no real malicious intent, just a nice, hard professional foul.

Krkic (for Messi): incomplete. He didn’t have a chance to do anything at all.

And now we get to see if we can solve the problem of Messidependencia. If he’s out on the short end of things, we’re without him for three matches, two Liga and a Champions League. All should still be winnable, provided Villa stops playing like a dork. He gets a nice rest, and hopefully doesn’t come back too rusty. Even a month is still only six matches. I’d be a lot more worried if the club was, but all signs are very positive.

Krkic keeps getting chance after chance thrown at him. First we sell Ibrahimovic, then Messi goes down. Now we get to see, over an extended period, what our No. 9 can do. And boy, do we need him.

“Go get your own water! You’re going to make me cry!”

This play disgusts me for so many reasons. I don’t think that another professional should ever deliberately try to injure a fellow professional. I also find it appalling that people who support other teams are crowing in joy over the fact that the above bit of violence has sidelined our star player. I mean, another human being’s misery will help their club, so why not cheer, right?

At some point, every football fan, at ANY club, should realize that if Ujfalusi did it to Messi, what’s to stop someone else from doing it to their star player? It’s a line that’s been transgressed before, but rarely with such premeditated malice. Anyhow. For those who haven’t seen it, here it is.

Early reports are saying that Messi will be out for two weeks, with the rather nebulous “ligament damage.” But the first step will be to get the swelling down, so that a proper examination can happen. We know more then.

For now, this moment of shame needs to be out there.

A very smart blogger on Twitter, Sonia Gelma, asked if everyone would be this upset had Ujfalusi injured Maxwell? The obvious answer is no. Or is it? To me, savagery such as Ujfalusi’s tarnishes the game, and drags it into a very different level, one that I’m not sure I want to see.

Match review coming later.

So good I have to kiss myself!

We have a few things to discuss, as per some of the very interesting points raised in the aftermath of our rather lackluster victory against Racing, including the qualities of one Sergi Busquets.

But first, some news:

–Aleksandr Hleb says that a resurgent Stuttgart have a “10 percent” shot against us in our upcoming Champions League match. The good thing for us is that we start the tie at their house, which means that if we can steal an away goal or two, we’re sitting pretty for the home leg.

There is, of course, bad news ….

–Though Xavi and Alves traveled to Stuttgart with the team, neither are expected to play, joining Abidal and Keiteeee! on the sidelines. Almost certain to join them is Ibrahmovic, who is still recovering from a possibly infected cut on his ankle that he took in the Atletico loss. Some of the kids such as Dos Santos and Bartra are playing with the first team, but I wouldn’t expect the hyper-conservative Guardiola to risk young’uns on the big stage. Arthur Boka will be out for Stuttgart, which robs us of seeing some of the worst hair in professional football in the person of the Cote d’Ivoirean defender.

–In the “hope Fabregas goes this way,” Benik Afobe has been signed to a long-term deal by Arsenal. We were buzzing around this talented kid like flies around honey, but Arsenal locked him up. Let’s hope that they do us the same favor with Fabregas.

–Robinho says that he rejected us, rather than the other way ’round. The pouty Brazilian, now playing for Santos, says that there was an offer on the table from us, but that it was ultimately for a loan, and he didn’t want to have to move his family, blah, blah, blah, for 6 months only to possibly have to move them again. Whatever, dude. Have fun in Brazil.

–BritPress are speculating that The Yaya’s bags are all but packed for a summer departure from us. Citeh is looking to be the most likely suitor, as they can offer him a pigpile of cash and the locker next to his brother, Kolo. But Chelsea and Aresnal are also said to be watching the situation, which brings me to my first talking point.

Sergi Busquets should chain himself to The Yaya’s leg, like those Greenpeace folks do to giant redwoods, and never, ever let him leave the side. When The Yaya is in the side, Busquets usually has a storming match, because he can focus his attentions fully frontward, without having to worry about what might happen if one of his bits of ambition goes awry.

For my money, Busquets is not an defensive midfielder, but rather an advanced playmaking midfielder. The more that I watch him, the more I am convinced that we don’t have a player like him on the roster. Keita is close, but he isn’t as much a playmaker as a hell-raiser and facilitator, in that he just keeps the ball moving.

Busquets, on the other hand, can help our possession game, crash the box, battle for possession in the midfield, break up attacks and pass with the best of them, as long as he remembers to keep it simple, stupid. He’s been in a rich vein of form of late, and it’s no coincidence that such form has come as he has advanced up the pitch. Against Racing he was, in effect, playing the Iniesta role while the latter played the Xavi role. And it was a success, as Busquets attacked, crashed the box and made a series of lovely link-up passes that made us look about as dangerous as we ever did.

But, we already have a Xavi and Iniesta, right, so what is his ideal role, and does his emergence have any implications for Keita and/or The Yaya?

In my opinion, it shouldn’t. All three are very different. Yes, all three and play DM, and The Yaya can play as an advanced playmaker, like Busquets. But if you look at their skill sets, you could almost make a case for all three of them being on the pitch, particularly in the case of an Iniesta absence. The lineup would look something like:

Valdes
Alves–Pique–Puyol–Abidal
The Yaya–Xavi–Keita
Messi–Busquets–Ibrahimovic

Obviously, Messi and Ibrahimovic would drift around as they usually do, leaving Busquets in that Iniestaesque playmaker/hellraiser role. Obviously if Ghostface is fit, he’s the man. But as an experiment, in the woeful event that some defender commits Iniestacide, that might be a fun possibility.

Most importantly, I think that Busquets makes Fabregas irrelevant, allowing us to spend our 50 million on something a lot more fun, like a new team jet and a defender or two. Because what Fabregas does, Iniesta and Busquets can already do. Yes, the beauty of Fabregas is that he embodies some of Xavi and some of Iniesta. But so do Thiago and Dos Santos, who won’t cost us 50m. And if we are to see Fabregas on the pitch with Xavi and Iniesta, his role would most likely very similar to that of Busquets. Now, for my money, I want Busquets, just because I just don’t see Fabregas playing a lot of defense, or covering ground the way that our Colt Unbound does.

Of Bojan Krkic, Pep Guardiola said, “The thing is that he came up too quickly and he is still learning.”

This is a very interesting quote, because it’s one of the first times that Guardiola has directly addressed the CT Complexity. When Rijkaard brought him up, it was to address a great many complexities, not least of which was to stave off the vultures that were hovering around him in the form of other teams. Bringing him up means that he is ours and happy. But it also means that once he’s up, it’s difficult for him to go back.

Now, when you’re a new coach coming in, you have this issue of this Wunderkind who really isn’t ready yet, but he’s in the team. So you have to play him. Whether he’s ready or not. And play him you do, every now and again, in the hope that he will return the investment of time and a roster position. And he does, just often enough to make people say “See, he is ready.” Even though you know that he isn’t.

I think that the above quote was the first real admission from Guardiola that Krkic isn’t ready. And I’m sure that in his heart of hearts, he wishes that he could send him back to the B team, for more seasoning and learning how to play the game.

And so do I.

Finally, there has been a chorus after Saturday’s match of “Boy, we sure did move better without that lazy-ass Zlatan Ibrahimovic out there,” a sentiment that I think is misguided for a number of reasons:

–At times, we were striker-less, as Henry drifted to the left and Krkic to the right, leaving a desultory Messi as our false 9. This is one reason for the dearth of good chances that presented themselves in the match. Ibrahimovic, with his movement in and out of the box, size, control and strength, acts as another advanced playmaker. Sometimes, playing a pass to him and having him pillow it back to Xavi or Iniesta, opens up a lane for another attacker. The effects are beneficial.

–His runs are improving. He was threatening as hell against ATM, making the kinds of diagonal runs that need to happen in our offense. He is still learning to play as a part of our system, and deserves the time to get the hang of it before people start to write him off as a waste of a lot of money. In my estimation, he’s the best striker in the world, and one of the few who can also function as a playmaker from that advanced role. But just as he has to learn to adapt to us, we have to learn to adapt to him. And no, this doesn’t mean bombing a long ball in the hopes that he will run under it, control it and work some magic. It also means understanding the kind of player that he is, and learning to work within those boundaries.

–He’s isn’t lazy. He is a different kind of player than Eto’o, and doesn’t move about as much or with as much alacrity, but he is also possessed of the kind of skill set that makes him not have to move around as much. When was the last time we had a player who can bomb into the box and take root, controlling the pass with a defender or two on his back, and who is still able to make a play. Eto’o created space with movement and pace, while Ibrahimovic creates space sometimes with movement, sometimes with control/passing, other times with strength and power. It’s an important difference.

Yes, he needs to get back onside faster, but we also need to start getting him the ball in situations where he can do something with it with more regularity. Inter got to be very good at that, and might have reached their zenith with that particular quality last season, when Ibrahimovic led the league and scored some remarkable goals. We will never, ever play the kind of offense that Inter played, where he is the lone point man and focal point of our offense. But when he in integrated into the offense in a meaningful way, he will not only score goals, but create them.

Interestingly, he kicked off his tenure with us doing precisely that, not only popping in goals but assisting others. He and Messi were well on the way to learning how to make beautiful music together. Then for whatever reason, they went off the boil, and are playing like strangers again. The possibilities of an attacking trident of Henry/Ibrahimovic/Messi should be sufficient to drive opposing defenses mad, but we have to learn how to utilize it. This doesn’t mean playing the way that we always have, and wondering why in the hell that big Swede won’t get with the program.

But that’s enough from me, what say ye?

I am wearing all black, because I am a jinx.

So. Here’s what we officially have to say on the Cesc Fabregas matter:

“Given the exceptional repercussions created by the stories that have appeared in different media with respect to an agreement with Arsenal FC player Cesc Fabregas, Barca flatly deny that there have been any negotiations or agreements with the player.

“In accordance with FIFA regulations, FC Barcelona’s contract policy has always made it a priority to negotiate with the club of origin before making any particular agreement with the player. FC Barcelona wishes to stress that it has always maintained excellent institutional relations with Arsenal FC.”

But let’s look at something, shall we? Since the bootlicking Barca-centric press started nattering on about this Fabregas thing being a done deal, we have had nothing but bad luck.

–Alves hurt in warmumps ferchrissake!
–The Yaya hurts his groin.
–Marquez and Pique are suspended.
–Abidal gets hurt in what was supposed to be a nice little traveling practice exhibition.
–Txigrinski hurts his thigh.

Note that this latest blow comes right after El Mundo Deportivo swears up and down that we have a 5-year deal with the Arsenal captain, that will pay him slightly less than Xavi and Iniesta.

So the obvious conclusion to be drawn is that Cesc Fabregas is bad luck. Before all this stuff happened, we were fine. Cruising along, undefeated in the league with everybody and their mamas healthy. We were chattering about our glut of defenders, and what a luxury it was.

And now look.

My view is that Arsenal can keep their plague-backed talisman. What’s next? Locusts? First-born sons becoming EE fans? Carles Puyol being dragged away by flying monkeys?

This Fabregas business has to stop, and I mean right now.

That is all.

We got a lot of what it takes to get along!

–We made money last season! 8 million Euros to the good, to be precise. Between all the prize booty, exhibitions, etc, our beloved club finished with a profit. An actual, true-to-life profit.

–In the “ex Barca” file, Harry Redknapp has him some Monument. Our own Eidur Gudjohnsen has a home in Tottenham. Yay! It’s a loan deal, but it’s expected that he will be able to stay. Monument should do quite well in the Premiership, as he shone with Chelsea.

–Our Brazilian hummingbird, Dani Alves, has a muscle pull, and might not play against Gijon. Back line possibilities, anyone? Puyol/Pique/Milito/Abidal, is what I say. After an in-depth examination by our physios, serious injury has been ruled out. But a match-time decision will be made as to whether he will feature. Personally, I say don’t risk him.

–Cuddly Toy Speaks: “I’m very happy to be able to work at a club like Barca. I’m surrounded by a fantastic group, who really believe in me and I’m trying to respond to that by helping as much as I can. I’m keen to continue fighting for a place in the team and I want to make it hard for the boss when he has to pick his starting 11.”

When asked about the possibility of him leaving the club, Krkic added “I’m not even thinking about leaving. My teammates and the boss are all good to me and I’m very happy here – I’m just focussed on Barca.”

Tell you what, the kid’s got class. Think about how many players would be clamoring and howling. Hell, Giovani Dos Santos howled himself right out of town.

–On the “to do” list: Piquenbauer should be signed soon, and will have a man-sized buyout clause. Next on the agenda will be locking up the four young’uns in question: Jeffren, Assulin, Dos Santos and Thiago.

–The Yaya is back in Barcelona, but will not feature against Gijon. And frankly, if we need our Great Destabilizer to dispatch them cats, we’re having bigger issues. Busquets also practiced with the squad today, and apparently kicked out the jams in doing so.

And that’s what I know so far.

Dammit, Leo, you're not Crynaldo, get up! (Denis Doyle/Getty Images Europe)

-First, Messi. You’re all probably interested in whether or not our little Messias will be able to play tomorrow against Inter. At first glance, the answer is no, since he’s still supposedly suffering from a slight tear in his left leg (“a 1st degree injury in the adductor of his left thigh”). Marca has begun their fear campaign, claiming that if Messi plays either the Inter match or el clásico, he’s putting his leg at risk for the whole year, perhaps for his whole career. However, after reading in Sport that he’s not necessarily out, I visited the official site and got the previous quote from this article. It appears that the Marca fear-mongering is merely that: fear-mongering. Guardiola would never risk Messi if he were seriously injured or incapable of playing at the top level. It’s as simple as that. Given that he didn’t play Henry in Russia under similar circumstances, it would be folly to think he would play Messi for two matches if it meant losing Messi for the whole year. So, basically, Marca, you’re pure trash and you’ve proven yourself to be so once again. Congratulations.

-Joan Laporta, our very own mostly insane dictator-for-life-or-at-least-until-2010, has come out saying that the Inter match is far and away more important than the RM match. There are two ways of thinking about this and I’ve mentioned them before: 1) you think that qualifying to the CL knockout stage now and garnering at least 2 additional matches and the prize money involved is more important than the three points potentially earned from beating our arch-rivals or 2) you think there’s nothing except el clásico in the entire world and nothing–but nothing–is more important.

If you’re a proponent of the first idea, you can point out to proponents of the second idea that in a catastrophe, we’d be at most 4 points behind Madrid with 26 matches (78 points) remaining. However, if we lose to Inter, we’re down to hoping Rubin Kazan loses both of their final matches, meaning we don’t control our own destiny. Believers of the second idea really just throw this out there: It’s Real Madrid, it’s el clásico, don’t tell me it’s not important. Because it is important and it is el clásico. I’m more in the second camp than I am in the first, but that’s because I’d willingly trade any chances of European success for assured trouncings of RM every time we met them. Meaning, yeah, we’d never win another Big Ears trophy, but at least every year we could snicker about how RM would never be kings of Spain again.

Of course, under Guardiola, we can have our cake and eat it too. So ha.

-Did anyone else watch the MLS Cup final last night? All I want to say is: shove it, Beckham; good on you, Real Salt Lake. Next time, though, could you put away your chances in regulation so I don’t have to stay up for PKs?

-It looks like Ibrahimovic will be fit for Inter, which is a welcome addition to the squad. Abidal and The Yaya appear to be recovering from The Swine, but it’s unclear whether the Ivorian be fit for tomorrow or not. Abidal is KO’d through the weekend, I’m pretty sure and certainly for tomorrow. Márquez apparently didn’t have The Swine, despite earlier reports and he should be ready to go for Inter, though the likelihood of him starting over Pique and Puyol is pretty low. Like, if they’re healthy, they’re starting and not Rafa low. That kind of low.

-Speaking of Inter, they’re supposedly in town or something. I dunno. Sammy Who’o?

Much more in the preview, folks, which should be up in a few hours.