According to Catalan press, FC Barcelona has set out to make Cesc Fabregas as their prime target this summer.

Despite the high priority of maintaining the current excellent team, Barca coach Pep Guardiola and Txiki Begiristain are working on potential new transfers for the next season on the assumption that the club only requires three players and one of which is a central midfielder.

With FC Barcelona facing Copa del Rey finalists Atletico Madrid this Sunday in La Liga, Barca midfielder Andres Iniesta spoke about recent injury problems.

“It’s a difficult situation because so many players (Piqué, Chygrynskiy, Marquez, Alves and Abidal) are all unavailable but this is part of football.  So we will throw what we have and look to our Barca Athletic, and not seek any excuses, “said Iniesta.

Young Barca B defenders:  Bartra, Dalmau and Muniesa have been working out these days with the first team. One of them could find himself in starting eleven alongside Puyol, Milito and Maxwell, only three first team defenders that are neither injured nor suspended.

FC Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola was critical after his team trounced Tenerife 0-5.

Leo Messi produced another of his world class performances by scoring a hat-trick assisted by Barca prodigy Bojan Krkic. Captain Carles Puyol netted a header and late sub Pedro cooked the 5th to close the scoresheet.

However, Guardiola wasn’t happy with Barca performance and the way his team struggled with the hosts in the 1st half when FC Barcelona goalkeeper, Victor Valdes, had to be called to rescue.

“Until we scored our first goal there was only one team on the pitch: Tenerife”, said Guardiola after the match.

“Tenerife could have been up by 2 or 3, but luckily for us, that didn’t happen. They pressured us high and man marked our key players and that forced us to use some longer passing. By starting games the way we did at Tenerife, we are not going to win anything this season and we have to be more careful. In the end we were more effective in front of goal and that decided the game,” concluded Guardiola, and also praised Tenerife coach Jose Luis Oltra, by saying: “his work was magnificent”.

Former FC Barcelona coach, Johan Cruyff, defended the Ukrainian central defender Chygrynskiy following recent criticism during and after the Cup match against Sevilla.

In his weekly article Cruyff said: “If people criticize Chygrynskiy, they are also criticizing the coach” and claimed that it’s a no win situation for the club.

The Dutchman further underlined his claims by saying that “the whistles directed at Chygrynskiy were more painful for Guardiola than for the player himself”.

Cruyff also compared the Ukrainian central defender with Barca legend, Ronald Koeman, who also lived through some rough moments in his first season in Barcelona by saying: “Ronald was crucified in his first few games in Barca shirt” and added: “whistles only make things worse”.

Catalan sports newspapers report that FC Barcelona forward, Lionel Messi, is close to recovering for upcoming clash with Real Madrid.

Ivorian international Yaya Toure, recovered from swine flu and attended the latest training session. Lionel Messi was also present but he was practicing alone as he is still undergoing his special recovery treatment.
Messi, Ibrahimovic and Dani Alves missed the training and Barca coach, Pep Guardiola, decided to replace them with Fontas and Jonathan in today’s training.

In a move that will no doubt gain the approval of FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta, a keen Catalan nationalist, Cruyff has decided to return to management to take on the somewhat undemanding role of coaching a side that is not permitted to take part in official matches. The Catalan team traditionally plays a Boxing Day (26th December) match against high profile opposition as its highest profile fixture as well as one or two more friendlies when the calendar permits. There are however problems in matches apart from the December fixture in terms of calling up the best Catalan players who are usually obligated to play for Spain at the same time, meaning Catalunya has to fall back on reserve players such as Deportivo’s Verdú, Espanyol’s Luis Garcia and the likes of Victor Valdes, Oleguer Presas and Gabri all of whom have roots at FC Barcelona.

With Catalunya’s political status within Spain legally defined as a “nationality” there has been pressure on various sporting bodies including FIFA and UEFA to allow Catalunya to compete in an official status. Sports such as rugby league and ten pin bowling do recognise Catalunya’s right to compete but more high profile sports are yet to acquiesce to the demands of Catalan sporting authorities, often due to threats of withdrawl by Spain and the confused legal status of Catalunya compared to other stateless nations such as those which make up the UK.

Cruyff’s first game in charge of Catalunya will be in December with the opposition yet to be confirmed

The average attendance at the Nou Camp so far this season has been 12,000 higher than last year, with an average of 75,000 at each game.

The average attendance at the stadium so far this season after six games is 74.254, 12.256 more than for the first six games of last season, when the average was 61.998.

This year’s figures are pretty much in line with those of 2004-05 (74.273 , 2005-06 (73.025 ) and 2006-07 (72.550 ), though still short of the numbers for2007-08 (82.002).

In an interview after Barca B in over Sabadell (3-0), Barca Atlètic midfielder and Mexican Jonathan Dos Santos (19) repeated his willingness to continue growing, either in Barca B or the first team: “My goal is to do my best at Barça Atlètic, gaining valuable playing time and helping the team win the points. If God wills it, within a short or long term I hope to be with the first team.”

Dos Santos recent good performances even earned him a call up for the Mexican national team last month but the youngster is still focused and prepared to play in both first and second team: “I am so lucky to have all my coaches. For me there is no radical change, although very different football is played by both sides, I think I’m adjusting well. Little by little I will improve.”

According to Catalan press, FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta threatened the president of Extremadura and called him an “imbecile” during a phone call after being accused of using FC Barcelona as a stepping stone towards his political ambitions.

In his column in Spanish newspaper “Marca”, Guillermo Fernandez Vara asked Laporta to stop talking about Catalan independence. Vara explained that he was unhappy with Laporta making it all about Catalunya while there are millions of Barca fans living in other parts of Spain.

Reportedly, Laporta’s responded by phoning Fernandez Vara, and calling him an “imbecile” and “a terrible Barca fan”.
“Write about Barca, but don’t ever write about me again or I’ll show you”, were the alleged Laporta’s words.

FC Barcelona defender, Gerard Pique, thinks that it will be impossible for his team to repeat last year’s success and thinks that Barca needs to remain humble.

“We have to try win it all again, but the coach (Guardiola) is right when he said that it’s hard to improve and that we’ll have to forget about comparisons with last year. We have to keep our feet on the ground in order to touch the sky”, said Pique.

Barca faced some destructive sides last season, but few sank so low as Almeria in the last round. Pique commented: ”I don’t think that many teams will try to copy what Almeria did but it’s obvious that our opponents fear us and are ready to try anything”.

“It’s safe to say that this season it’s going to be much harder to brake down our opponents and win titles”, concluded Pique.