2016 is a new beginning for Barcelona

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In the first season of Luis Enrique as the head coach of Barcelona, he managed to win the Champions League, Kings Cup and Spanish League. This is an amazing accomplishment for any coach and even more for someone who win the treble in only his first season in charge of a club.

 

There are many managers who haven’t been able to secure the treble even after having spent their entire careers in guiding a team and even after having done an impressive job in the hot seat of a club, it still isn’t enough for them to reach this historic achievement and now that the new year has kicked in, it’s the task of Luis Enrique and his players to defend what they reached in 2015.

The year of 2016 represents a new string of challenges for Barcelona as they have the task of defending and protecting all of the pieces of silverware that the Spanish outfit secured in the previous season but this new year also brings forth more opportunities for Barcelona to become an even more dominating force in the world of football.

Barcelona was not able to sign new players in the previous year due to a transfer ban which prevented them from adding performers into their main team but this ban has reached it’s end and it has now been confirmed that Barcelona has added 77 new players.

The Spanish team was not actually able to sign players in the previous year and what they opted to do in this period of time is that they accumulated the players. Aleix Vidal and ArdaTuran are the high profile players that were sealed in this time lapse, they couldnt immediately play for the first team of Barcelona but now that 2016 has kicked in, both of those new players will now be able to play alongside Lionel Messi and the rest of the squad.

The other remaining 75 players which have been accumulated in the transfer ban are expected to join the U-16 team academy as the majority of them are youth players. Some of them will be placed in the Barca B team, while others in a number of different academies of the younger teams. Read more “2016 is a new beginning for Barcelona”

Tony Pullis will not stop Saido Berahino to leave West Bromwich Albion

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Saido Berahino has finished this Premier League season on a high note as he scored twice against Chelsea in the penultimate match of the campaign. The 21 year old has had a spectacular season as the youngster managed to score 14 league goals and he was able to claim the 7th spot of the top goal-scorers, he has the same amount of goals scored as Chelsea’s Eden Hazard.

There is no doubt whatsoever that Saido Berahino has been one of the standout players of the season and he has entered the watch-list of a number of clubs including: Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur.

The manager of West Bromwich Albion announced that if an offer is received by the club and if the player himself is interested in leaving then nobody will stop him.

On some occasions, when a top club wants to sign a promising young talent it can be difficult as the team where the youngster is performing does not want to let him go and this is what occurred for a few years with Cesc Fabregas.

Back when Cesc Fabregas was performing with Arsenal, he was being searched by Barcelona and the Spanish club was willing to spend upwards to €30 million in order to sign him but Arsene Wenger did not want to sell the midfielder and this continued going on for a number of transfer windows until eventually Fabregas was signed by Barcelona in August of 2011.

However in this case, Tony Pullis is actually willing to allow Saido Berahino to leave for a decent offer and nobody in the club will interfere with the transfer. Read more “Tony Pullis will not stop Saido Berahino to leave West Bromwich Albion”

Barcelona is interested in signing Paul Pogba

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Paul Pogba is one of the most sought out talents of the approaching summer transfer window. At the age of 22, Pogba has demonstrated that he has what it takes to join a top club and win major pieces of silverware.

Manchester United, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Barcelona are just a few of the clubs that have shown interest in signing the French player.

Barcelona’s Josep Maria Bartomeu confirmed that the star player of Juventus, Paul Pogba is the leading target of the club and the future of Pogba remains unclear as the Italian club is willing to allow him to leave during the next transfer window but only if the price is right.

Even though Barcelona has a transfer ban which runs up in 2016, this ban has not stopped the club in signing players as they have already signed Aleix Vidal from Sevilla but the player will only be able to play an official competitive match for Barcelona in January of 2016.

“It is true that Pogba is a leading target of ours and obviously we are interested, but I can’t say anything more. We are forbidden to recruit players until January, so I can’t talk about it.” Those were the words which were released by Barcelona’s Josep Maria Bartomeu as he confirmed that the Spanish side is indeed interested in signing Pogba.

There does seem to be difference in opinion between certain figures involving Paul Pogba.

The agent of Paul Pogba is Raiola and he stated that there is a possibility of Pogba leaving Juventus during the summer but this will only happen if a club offers a substantially high amount of money and Real Madrid, Barcelona as well as Manchester United are all capable of doing that.

However, the CEO of Juventus, Giuseppe Marotta believes and wants Pogba to continue performing in the Italian club for another season.

 

Pep Guardiola is seen as one of the best in the club’s history

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Barcelona’s time under Pep Guardiola is seen as one of the best in the club’s history.

The Barcelona team achieved in numerous records in the five years spent under their former captain. One of those records was 11 successive victories in all competitions. The current Barcelona team, under Luis Enrique, have equalise this record after managing to win all their matches since the 1-0 defeat against Real Sociedad at the start of January. The incredible run of results has put Barcelona within touching distance of the table leaders, Real Madrid. They currently trail Carlo Ancelotti’s team by just one point.

Manager Luis Enrique, though, is keen to keep his feet on the ground as he says that these records mean nothing if the club does not win any titles this campaign. It was a forgettable last season after the team failed to win any major honour under the stewardship of Gerardo Martino. This particularly places a lot of pressure on Enrique. A major reason towards this impeccable form has been superstar Lionel Messi, who has been going from strength to strength in this period. This has taken away all the rumours about an impending departure. Messi is now only two league goals behind Cristiano Ronaldo for the season. Read more “Pep Guardiola is seen as one of the best in the club’s history”