news and gossip (tit bits really)
Barcelona sack director of football Andoni Zubizarreta
Zubi, far left has been blamed for the failure of recent signings
Barcelona have sacked Andoni Zubizarreta as their director of football, the Spanish club said on Monday, and his assistant Carles Puyol has resigned.
“The FC Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu has decided to terminate as of today the contract of the club’s Director of Football, Andoni Zubizarreta,” Barça said in a statement on their website .
“The President, in the name of the club, thanks Andoni Zubizarreta for his contribution, dedication and professionalism over the last four years in his role at the head of the club’s football area.“
The 53-year-old Zubizarreta, Barcelona’s goalkeeper from 1986 to 1994 who also played 126 times for Spain, rejoined the club as football director in 2010.
Puyol retired as a player last year after 15 seasons at the heart of the Barcelona defence. He was a member of the Spain team who which won the 2010 World Cup and 2008 European Championship.
“I now want to experience other things from another perspective and from elsewhere,” the 36-year-old said on Facebook.
“I want to grow both personally and professionally so that, in the future, hopefully I can return.“ aaaaannnnnd speculation begins now!
Lionel Messi fuels Barcelona exit talk by following Chelsea's official Instagram account and skipping open training session
Will we finally get an answer to the question that haunts us for the ages? Can Messi do it on a cold night in Stoke?
Lionel Messi set tongues wagging about a possible move to Chelsea on Monday.
A day after being left out of Barcelona’s starting team to face Real Sociedad, Messi fuelled rumours that he wants to leave the Nou Camp.
The 27-year-old missed an open training session attended by thousands of children on Monday and later started following Chelsea on Instagram.
The troll in me loves this. Messi moving from working under Guardiola to Mourinho at Chelsea? Wow, if he leaves and Barca falls, imagine Real Madrid winning everything, another one team league. As I live and breathe...
Chatter from the sidelines
- Lionel Messi and Barcelona This subreddit (six posts down, rounds up some rumours to what's going on
- Ben Afra and Newcastle cancels his contract with immediate effect Good player on his day. Those days were too few and far between
- Transfer rumours: Tottenham ready to cash in on £25m Hugo Lloris with PSG and Real Madrid interestedNoooooo. You saw what happened when Bale left!
- Alexis Sanchez 'recovers very quickly' says Arsene Wenger after opting not to rest the Arsenal forward Um.. okay
- Oldham Athletic urged not to sign Ched Evans by police commissioner Evans, just retrain to be groundsman, or something. Like Fetch, this isn't going to happen. That being said, the club has signed Lee Hughes who caused death by dangerous driving, so they might take Evans on.
- Oldham’s choice over Ched Evans: money or morals good article, re: the crime vs rehabilitation and what it means with Evans. It gives details of the case, and um... Evans has a website protesting his own innocence, funded by his girlfriend's dad, with CCTV only blurring the girl's face as they court the public's opinion? I didn't know this?
- How A Transfer Works Informative article. If you can, scroll down to read the stages of the hypothetical transfer
- Louis van Gaal: Wayne Rooney may not play all the time... I want to make a team out of Manchester United youngsters young academy talent LvG?
- Fifa presidential candidate Jérôme Champagne says Premier League should help fund developing leagues I thought this article was interesting. What say you?
- Jérôme Champagne to run for Sepp Blatter's Fifa presidency Well, unlike Blatter and FIFA before, he wants to work with the FA. It's been an arctic chill between the two bodies for decades now
- Prince Ali to challenge Sepp Blatter for Fifa presidency he's 39, backed female players wearing the hijab (FIFA was against it) and seems relatively progressive
Social Media
Messi is following Fabregas and Courtois. As well as Chelsea's account and Mourinho's daughter's Instagram
Oh, Balotelli! I swear, I say your name with exasperation in my voice
FA Cup Matches
Spurs played Burnley last night for the FA cup round
After the high of Chelsea, came the grind against Burnley. Idek what it is about Burnley, but these Northern Teams, they refuse to read the script, refuse to fall to Southern Clubs. Refuse to drop out of the PL, they like it here, damn it. Still this is an FA cup, but the script still stands
Spurs drew first blood. But you know, when you're defending one goal, you know you're going to get a draw. Sods law
I didn't watch the game (away at work) but the quality (lack of) has been slated all over. It was SO BAD, reporters were writing just to amuse themselves. Case in point:'This ranks as one of the worst games I’ve had the misfortune to see in a long long time. We learned from the matchday announcer at half-time that a Burnley fan called Bruno has flown all the way from New Zealand to watch this match. 'I pity the poor man. He deserves to be reimbursed or, alternatively, sectioned.'
Burnley sub Vokes, came off the bench to even the score, so the two teams have to play a second leg, in addition to their other games. Annoying. Vokes is one of the players who brought Burnley up from Championship side to the PL league, so the team is glad to have him back. He's been out most of this season so far with injury
The lack of atmosphere didn't help, either. They played home at Burnley, but most of the supporters just stayed home. Empty seats everywhere. To be fair, it's a Monday night, and it's Burnley but still...
Soldado didn't score. Again. :/ I like the lad, but £26 million for just fifteen goals going on a season and a half? But I can't talk, LFC have Mario Balotelli.
Pochettino looks vexed, vexed, vexed. Well, at least it wasn't Lloris in goal?
Gerrard hugs Haydon the Womble, the Wimbeldon AFC Mascot. John Green- yes THAT John Green- is part owner of the club and a Liverpool supporter. A bit of a Sophie's choice for him
Big hugs all around
LOL, the English attitude towards the MLS is... interesting. The more details that come out re: Gerrard and LFC, the more I smh at the club
Hendo, lad, you're going to be Captain come August, I'll give you until the end of this month, and then you have to pull yourself together
Javier Manquillo (on loan from Atlético, I'm already sitting Shiva when he leaves- with Simeone now confirmed/promised to stay on with Atlético for another year because he got Torres, Manquillo's might be a possibility depending on Juan Fran's form over there) gave his assist to Steven Gerrard for the first goal. Manquillo really impresses me. He's a classic, disciplined player. He needs to get a bit stronger, but you can see him working on that match by match.
Haydon the Womble holds up a Justice for the 96 shirt. Not that Gerrard discusses his personal connection much (there's one paragraph in his autobio about this- his cousin went to Hillsborough to that match, and never returned). Gerrard has given his money to the organisation for Hillsborough over the years for their continued legal costs. As much as I'd like standing in the terraces to come back - it would be cheaper for one, and more atmospheric for two- that might never happen. Health and Safety is too reactionary and draconian here.
Adebayo Akinfenwa plays for Wimbledon AFC, a second League side. He's built like rubgy player, and was advised to go into that sport, or wrestling, or even American football, because he's bigger than the average football player. He said no, so here he is. They call him the beast. My eye flinches because you know, black footballers get called that over here, and it's supposed to be a compliment (especially if they are in the peak of their powers) but erm... Uncomfortable!
In the last five minutes of the game (I came in late), I noticed that the other LFC players were giving Balotelli the ball, and you got the feeling that they wanted him to score, badly. So I'm heartened by that. No matter how the howls of the press are around him, he still seems to have the support of his teammates