Wayne Rooney is leaving Man United...now what?



Guessing on where Rooney is going has gripped the English press

 So I've been off the grid for a while but I'm back and a bit perplexed by some of the events of the past few weeks in the world of Football. From the unexpected purchase of Liverpool by NESV (New England Sports Ventures) owners of baseballs Boston Red Sox, and the subsequent legal battle. To Wayne Rooney's demand to leave Manchester United, there is no shortage of taking points, though for now I'll stick to the ongoing Rooney saga.

Someone today asked me the three most burning questions every Man United supporter (which I am one) Why does he want to leave?  where will he go? and how does this effect United going forward?

The second question is the easiest and most straight forward to answer so I'll start there. In my opinion and as far as I've seen most football pundits agree there are only 4 solid  and maybe 5 clubs in the world that would have the money to buy him and pay his salary demands, which most experts are saying is close to the 200,000 pounds a week level. Those clubs are Chelsea, Real Madrid, Manchester City and Barcelona, the 5th club could be Inter Milan but I'll explain why there are a distance 5th in a moment.

An evening at the Camp Nou

Me in front of the Camp Nou

On August 25th 2010, yours truly went to cover a game at one of the most hallowed football grounds on the planet. I was at the Camp Nou in Barcelona to witness for myself what football was like in the capital of Catalunya. Before I go into the details of that wonderful evening, I have to explain how and why this night came to be.

Currently I'm writing for 90:00 Soccer Magazine based in California, over the past few months I've been sharing posts from this blog in their site. I've also written some exclusive content for their site and we have had a good relationship over the past few months. So when it came time for my vacation I knew I had the once and a life time opportunity to see the grandeur of the Camp Nou. So I got a bit greedy and asked the executive editors at 90:00 to see if they could get me a media pass for the game. As someone who is still relatively unknown in this business I never thought I'd be approved for the pass.

Well I'm glad to say I was very wrong!

The day of the match was one of the most hectic I've experienced in sometime. First, the day before the match I decided with some friends I had met in the hostel I was in that I would be going to La Tomatina in the town of Buñol, which is about 40 minutes outside of Valencia. Please note Valencia is about a 5 hour bus ride from Barcelona.

If you don't know what Tomatina is...well the simplest way to explain it is that Tomatina is a massive tomato fight through the center of Buñol. If you want more details click this link. Anyway to get there in time for the 11 am fight time, we had to leave Barcelona by 4 in the morning, so in short I didn't sleep Wednesday morning.

Tomatoey goodness!

I'll also keep the details of my Tomatina experience short, I had an amazing time, and I got covered in stinking tomato from head to toe. I got hosed off by a nice old Spanish women, but I still had the issue of getting back to Barca in time to catch kickoff. We left Buñol at 1:30 ish, which would not leave me much time to get in town and get to the stadium via metro. Also complicating things it was insanely hot in Spain, over 30 degrees, with humidity it felt well over 40 so I was sweating buckets.

By the time I got back to Barcelona I had about 45 minutes before kick off, but I was on the other side of town and I had to rely on the very hot metro. This left me sweaty, stinking and desperate to get to the club office in time to pick up my pass. When I got off the metro I had 15 minutes before kickoff, and began to run...didn't help the stinking or the sweating by the by. When I finally got to the FC Barcelona office to pick up my pass I had 10 minutes before kickoff, and I looked like I had just finished running a marathon.

But nothing was sweeter than opening that envelope and seeing that pass, it let me know I had arrived!


Once I got into the press box I had a beautiful view of the pitch, and I was just in time to see the players come out of the tunnel and the crowd of over 98,000 sing the club song. That moment was unbelievable, I was using a voice recorder to do match notes and listening to it now, the noise almost drowned me out. You could also feel the supporters love for the club and the game on almost every move or good play by both sides. It probably helped that the game was a friendly against AC Milan, and it was Ronaldinho's return to the Camp Nou since he left the club in 2008.

However you felt that this was an important game, that watching Barcelona was more than just watching a football match. As one person told me in the press box, watching the blaugrana at home not matter the size or meaning of the game was "Not just a casual outing for the family, but a way for people to converse about their love of the club and their love of Catalunya".

This historical aspect of the club is not lost in the stadium. If you take the tour you'll see many links to the Catalan struggle during the Franco era in Spain. Many older Barcelona fans talk about the fact that the stadium was the only place in Barcelona that the Catalan language could be openly spoken. The club's motto "Més que un club", meaning 'More than a club' was more than fit when speaking to these supporters.

As the game continued the stylish passing and play of Barcelona was winning the fans over, and the place at louder as the pace of the game picked up, especially after Pepo Inzaghi tied the game at 1-1 with a stunning volley goal. The chants of Barca! Barca! Barca! were near deafening.

Overall my experience at the Camp Nou was unbelievable, if you even are in Barcelona and have a chance to go to the stadium of either a tour or a game....especially a game THEN DO IT!!!!!!!

Cheers,
Mike

Barcelona Outclass AC Milan amid transfer rumors for Ibra

In front of a completely sold out Camp Nou, FC Barcelona defeated 3-1 on penalties after the game ended in a 1-1 draw to capture the Gamper Trophy. The crowd of 98,787 were entertained by an overpowering display by the home team as they out passed their Italian counterparts for the majority of the match.

The night was also a chance for the supporters to celebrate and properly send off Ronaldinho, who was with the club from 2003-2008. The crowd were treated to a video montage of some of his classic moments in the Barca shirt, and was given the biggest cheer of the night when he entered the pitch solo. He even took the squad photo with the Barca players at the behest of club captian Puyol.

It took all of 5 minutes for Barca to create their first opportunity. After some sublime passing between Iniesta and Jeffren, Iniesta picked out new boy David Villa who beat his marker but blazed the shot 5 feet over the crossbar. It was an early signal of intent by Barca and proved the set the tone for the rest of the first half.

It was clear that both clubs were still in pre season form as there were some periods of less than fluid play in the first 20 minutes, especially for AC Milan who looked like a squad still trying to figure out how to play with each other. They lacked link up play between the midfield and the front pairing of Klass Jan Huntelaar and Marco Borriello. This would normally be provided in the form of Clerance Seedorf, but he was not in the starting 11.

The best chance of the first half was created the electric play of Pedro who after cleverly beating Bonera played in a cross to the streaking Zlatan Ibrahimović who scored on a stretching flick in. However the goal was disallowed after the linesmen incorrectly flagged the Swedish International offside. Ibra has been the focus of many transfer rumors over the past week. One of the rumored destinations is AC Milan, if this is the case AC Milan brass would have been impressed with what they saw. He easily linked up with strike partner David Villa time and time again. It looks like a potential fruitful partnership, if Ibra stays of course.

The rest of the first half dominated by Barcelona position, and half chances. Milan manager Massimiliano Allegri set the squad up to hit Barca on the counter and almost scored on a half chance for Borriello, but he could not get his shot on target just on half time.

Just a minute into the start of the second half, Barca opened the scoring after Adriano crossed the ball into the box and Villa, having moved into the middle after Ibrahimović was replaced at the half for Bojan, beat the keeper with a finely placed volley. This brought the crowd to it's feet as it was Villa's first goal with the club since joining from Valencia. After the goal it seemed that the flood gates would open and Barca would go on to route the Milan club, however Fillipo Inzaghi had other ideas.

After he was brought on in the 50th minute it did not take the mercurial Milan striker long to find the back of goal. With their only real chance in the game, another half time sub Seedorf sent in a magnificent long ball cross into the direction of Inzaghi, who incredibly let the ball run across his body and lashed the first time left footed volley past Pino in goal to equalize in the 66th minute. In a move that might not be understood in North American sports the pro Barca crowd applauded the goal before rallying their team.

From there the game lacked a bit of cutting edge even with the entrance of Leo Messi in the 67th minute. At the end of 90 minutes the game ended 1-1.

In penalties Messi, Bojan and Thiago scored for Barca while only defender Mario Yepes scored for the visitors.

With both squads starting their domestic season this coming weekend there are still some issues both sides need to iron out, for Milan the counter attacked needs to be a bit faster. The when the full 11 start playing the link up play will need to improve if they wish to stop bitter rivals Inter from winning their 6th title in a row. For Barcelona, the key will be getting the David Villa gelled quickly into the squad. Regardless of whether or not Ibrahimovic stays, a new partnership will need to be formed up front. If they can do this quickly then Real Madrid will have an extremely hard time taking the title from the hands of the blaugrana.


Cheers,
Mike

The Barca adventure

(Written on Aug16th)

As I currently crusing at an altitude of 35,000 feet, on a course to England all I can really think about is Barcelona. Don't get me wrong I'm excited to be back in the U.K, beyond the football possibilities to explore there, I'll be in the good hands of family as we prepare for the wedding of my cousin. I'm hoping to catch a match while I'm here although I'll be pretty busy with family business of course. I'll keep you informed if I can get to any EPL or npower championship matches over the next week.

However what I'm gearing up for from a football and blogging perspective is happening next Wednesday night. After the wedding, your junior birdman will be back in the air heading towards Barcelona and more specifically the Camp Nou. Now I hope I don't have to go into the serious importance of the home of FC Barcelona, however just in case there are any newbies to the game let me take a few moments to explain.

Barca can possibly be described as art of a soccer pitch, if you have never seen a Barcelona game I highly encourage you to do so (Note: The Spanish season starts on the 28th I believe) When you are watching the game also note the stadium referred to as the Camp Nou or Nou Camp (Pronounced "New" for us who cannot speak Catalan). The crowd at the matches are a lot different than any TFC crowd, most have compared it to something close to a religious experience. Of course this is probably an overstatement but with the opening song that the supporters sing upon the entrance of the players being called the hymn of the people, you can see why people may feel this way.

The moto of the club is in Catalan "Més que un club" or in English "More than a club" is one of the truest statements in world football. Club members are consulted on major decisions made by club management, they also have a presidential election for the club. The supporters have a large influence on how the club runs, both on and off the pitch. During the recent revelations that the club had failed to pay the players May wages due to debt issues, the club released a financial statement to all club members that requested it.

That along with Barca's long standing commitment to building its squad from it academy ranks, has made them not only one of the most popular football clubs in the world but in the eyes of the people of Barcelona the national team of the Catalan people. Through out the years of General Franco's rule Barcelona more than any other club represented the anti-Franco movement. As Franco banned the Catalan language, the Camp Nou was in many cases the only place it could be spoken freely.

This is what is at the heart of the stadium, not only is the place a venue of excellent football, but in a way it is one of the expressions of the Catalan culture.

This is where I come in, I'll be watching the Friendly match between Barca and AC Milan on the 25th. I'll be posting just before and after the match so look out for those.

Cheers,

Mike

P.S: (It's now Aug 18th) I'm hoping to get to either Villa Park or St.Andrews (Home of Aston Villa and Birmingham City respectively) before I leave the U.K on the 23rd. Will let you know as soon as I know.

Will he? or won't he? The Cesc Fabregas Saga

With the transfer market hitting the half way point the one deal that has captivated the football headlines, outside of the Wold Cup this summer, is the potential sale of Arsenal star midfielder Cesc Fabregas to his childhood club Barcelona. Now to understand the consistent talk and rumors regarding the move, you have to understand the nature of football writing in the summer months.

The rumour mill hits over drive in Spain about Fabregas's potential move

During the summer when there are no top level European leagues playing, soccer journalist and bloggers like myself need to have fresh material to present to you the reader. So with the transfer market open and no games we all look at who's going where and it seems more importantly, who's rumoured to go where. Honest soccer writers become tabloid gossip columnists over night, and every player with half decent talent is link with a move some where. For example there have been a total of 89 different players linked to Manchester United this summer, the club can only carry 23 players by opening day. These numbers are similar at Chelsea, Real Madrid and Barcelona.

In the case of Barcelona Fabregas has become the 30 million euro question, will he come home or is he staying in London? Almost daily there's another opinion regarding the move, and another anonymous source that says that he's leaving or staying put. The man himself has been asked countless times, including after the world cup final when teammates forced a Barca shirt over his head during celebrations. Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger has been asked so many times about the move he no longer entertains questions about Fabregas's future.

At Barca the situation is a bit different, as new club president, Sandro Rosell is trying to ring in his term as "The man who brought Cesc home" In addition to adding World Cup star David Villa before the tournament began. Rosell has put out conflicting quotes first by saying the club was on the verge of wrapping up a deal with Arsenal for Fabregas, to then saying the club had no interest in the player. To then saying that a "pre-agreement" is in place for Cesc to join the club next summer.

Which ever side you choose to believe this is becoming a bit of a saga (Along with Mario Balotelli to Man City rumours). Right now as things stand, and again this is only based on the same rumours you've heard, I cannot see Fabregas leaving Arsenal this season. I do believe his heart is in Barcelona, but he has a loyalty to Arsène Wenger for sticking with him and giving him a chance at the age of 17 in Champions League. I think at the end of this up coming season Cesc is going home, the lure of the Nou Camp is too much even for the most loyal of players.

And frankly it's where his skill belongs.

Cheers,
Mike