Sometimes I wonder why we so often proclaim our cantera to be the world’s best and as being one of the main reasons our club is so much better than all the other clubs in the world.  I mean, it is fantastic and it has given us the majority of the squad we currently field, but if it’s so great and wonderful, why don’t we trust it?

I wrote a piece over at Soccernet (shameless self-plug, of course; get used to it) in which I voted in favor of Thiago and JDS over Cesc, Ozil, or Gourcuff. It’s not that the latter trio is bad by any stretch of the imagination, but rather that the former are ours and have remained with the club in an effort to break through. It’s fun to talk about how some of the world’s great players would fit in our system, but when it comes down to it, are we prepared to remove the direct connection between the first team and the  cantera? Do we want to send the message that canteranos must  be fully developed by the age of 17 or we’ll replace them with a superstar brought in for tens of millions of euros?

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Episode 5: In which the dastardly plans of Barcelona come to light…
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So here we are, post-Cup and pre-Liga. For those of us whose teams broke our hearts, said organs are still tender but on the mend. For those of us whose teams broke records, we still smile, but not with all our teeth. And for all of us, the inner ear no longer vibrates quite so violently with echoes of a vuvuzela drone.

The first season I watched the last Barça match with the Hunky Soccer Husband, I sighed at the final whistle. ‘It’s all over,’ I said. ‘What to do until September?’ He blinked at me with surprise and disappointment, the way Sister Mary Holywater always did when a particularly gifted student gave a particularly stupid answer. ‘What ‘over’?’ he demanded. ‘It’s Transfer Time!’ And then he wrung his hands, like an old-timey villain in a silent film.

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The new La Liga schedule was just released after a fake or “early” version was inadvertently uploaded to the internet last night. Rest assured, we here at BFB were not taken in by such tricks or falsities. So here you go, the new schedule, complete with some commentary. These dates are the weekends of these games, meaning that they will either be Saturday or Sunday or that particular weekend (or Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday if listed as during the week), which has not yet been decided.

First Half:
8/28 – @ Racing Santander
9/12 – Hercules
9/19 – @ Atletico Madrid
9/22 – Sporting Gijon
9/26 – @ Athletic Club (Bilbao)
10/3 – Mallorca
10/17 – Valencia
10/24 – @ Zaragoza
10/31 – Sevilla
11/7 – @ Getafe
11/14 – Villareal
11/21 – @ Almeria
11/28 – Real Madrid
12/5 – @ Osasuna
12/12 – Real Sociedad
12/19 – @ Espanyol
Winter Break
01/02 – Levante
01/09 – @ Deportivo La Coruna
01/16 – Malaga

Second Half:
1/23 – Racing Santander
1/30 – @ Hercules
2/6 – Atletico Madrid
2/13 – @ Sporting Gijon
02/20 – Athletic Club (Bilbao)
2/27 – @ Mallorca
3/2 – @ Valencia
3/6 – Zaragoza
3/13 – @ Sevilla
3/20 – Getafe
4/3 – @ Villareal
4/10 – Almeria
4/17 – @ Real Madrid
4/24 – Osasuna
5/1 – @ Real Sociedad
5/8 – Espanyol
5/11 – @ Levante
5/15 – Deportivo La Coruna
5/22 – @ Malaga

As you may have noticed, the schedules second half is a mirror image of the first, with the sides only switching locations. Preliminarily at least, it looks like Barça got a favorable draw without having too many brutal or far away games packed into small frames of time. Even the trip to the Riazor comes after the winter break. This looks like a wonderful schedule for our boys, hopefully we can navigate with only one loss again.

In Other News:

-Apparently we are loaning Henrique out to Santander again, huzzah!

- Big rumors that Marquez is going to become New York Red Bulls third DP in a move that should net us a few million here or there.

- One of our youth players, Thiago, scored during the Spanish U-19 game against Croatia at their World Cup to equalize. Spain would eventually win 2-1.

-Not sure of anything else at this moment in terms of transfer rumors.

What better way to start the season than with a photo of a man who people are probably convinced didn’t even go out during the day, our own Tiny Vampire, Andres Iniesta, hanging out on the beach. Yee-ha!

I’ll be brief with all this, but no less opinionated, because that’s how I roll.
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So, there’s relatively little to talk about right now, but there are a couple of interesting things. First and foremost, I’ve started writing for ESPN Soccernet and my first post can be found here. Don’t worry, though, I’ll be here as always, continuing to eat too much chocolate and blathering about Tin Tin and whatnot during match previews and editorial spins around the block. And the rest of the team will still be here continuing to show me up with their facts and intelligent opinions.

The news today is basically a series of “who is the baby mama?” links and speculation, as well as the fact that Sport thinks that in looking for a backup to Busi we’re considering Marcos Senna. He’s 34! That’s how awesome today’s news is. Marcos Senna has been linked to us (finally), but of course it’s completely absurd. Carlos Marchena and Gilberto Silva round out the “gimme a break” category, in case you were wondering.

There are 9 other names, of course: Mascherano, Wilson Palacios, Nigel de Jong (at least he wouldn’t take guff from Xabi Alonso in a clásico…), Moussa Sissoko, Etienne Capoue, Mario Bolatti, Alberto Zapater, Alou Diarra, Mathieu Flamini, and Tonny Annan. Of those, I haven’t seen Sissoko, Capoue, Zapater, Diarra, or Annan play, so I’ll let you all talk about them in the comments. I’m not in favor of Mascherano (overrated and too expensive), de Jong (see link above), Bolatti (who I’ve only seen play with Argentina, but he made me shrug then), or Flamini (was never very impressed with his overall abilities). So that really leaves Palacios, who I’ve actually always enjoyed watching despite being unsure of his capabilities–that’s sort of how I feel about all of Tottenham though: they’re fun to watch, but are they really actually any good at all? I don’t know!–so, really, I would rather take a gamble on a highly rated Sissoko or Capoue than on an over-priced player like a Masch or Flamini.

More tomorrow as the newspaper continue to spit things out.

As most of your realized sometime around 6 hours ago, FC Barcelona has made it official the signing of Sevilla Multi-Back Adriano Correia for €9.5 million up front, with around €4 million in incentives for later on. He will officially sign and take a physical on Saturday and be presented on Monday afternoon.

No idea?

So, it feels like time has slowed down. Perhaps it’s that I’m in the middle of one of those horrible “gotta look for an apartment” moments where my antipathy towards brokers reaches a tipping point and I just want to scream into the phone that no, I really don’t want a [bleeping] [bleep] [bleep] studio in the middle of [bleep] [bleeping] [bleep] nowhere. And then there have to go and be rumors. Quickly, the daily wrap:

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I’m trying to get back into the swing of things now that the World Cup is over. It’s hard. I don’t know what to do with myself since I have no random international allegiances to wrap myself in. I was so totally for New Zealand! And also like 20 other nations because, really, I’m basically just a World Cup slut. I was for Uruguay against France, against them against South Africa, for the Dutch against Denmark, against the Dutch when they faced Cameroon, for them against Brasil, and then against them again when they ran into Spain. Tough to keep track of all these things. Anyway, it’s back to Barça here and that means News of the Day.

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Barça is “classless.’ Right. This is so, so tiresome. I’m sure that outraged Gunners fans will visit this site with more of the same. Perhaps this post headline should be “We love Catalan puppies” or some such, but that isn’t going to happen. Instead, here’s a little dose of truth and logic for both sides. It might not all be right, and events might make a liar out of me, but take it as you will:
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