What a disasterous end to a disasterous season for football Club Barcelona. They was a lot of talk at the beginning of the season about their ‘fantastic four’, (including Messi, Thierry Henry, Eto’o and Ronaldinho) but it now looks certain that only the Argentinean Messi will be with Barca come the start of the next season in September. The other three have fallen far short of their hype, especially the Frenchman, and Ronaldinho’s soap opera of a season has done little favors to the Catalan giants. They were going to win everything this year, but in the end they were kicked out of the Champions league by Manchester United, and much worse, humiliated by Real Madrid in the league.
It has now been confirmed that Dutchman Frank Rijkaard will not be sitting on the bench next season, which is a shame as you can hardly blame him for what has happened. The players must take the lion’s share of the fan’s outrage, as should Barcelona president Joan Laporta for allowing his players to practically do whatever they want.
This summer could well see a massive rebuilding job being done, with at least five or six top name players being sold off in order to make room for the next set of players. Ex-Barcelona midfielder Pepe Guardiola, who has only experienced one year of management with Barcelona B, has already been confirmed as the new coach and it is a brave step for the Barcelona directors to get someone with so little experience.
Murcia meanwhile are already relegated to the second division, and this game will give their fans one last chance to savor top flight football for at least another year. Looking at how badly Barcelona are playing, the players might even be able to give them a good send off. Barcelona inexplicably gave away a two goal lead last weekend at the Nou Camp, where they lost by three goals to two against Mallorca. The Barca fans were booing even before the kick off and gave Eto’o an especially hard time, as well as the directors, with Joan Laporta in the front line. To say the Catalan giants are in a crisis is a bit of an understatement, and they won’t even be able to automatically qualify for the Champions league as they can only finish third now, and a bad result here could even see Atlético Madrid go above them. This means that the summer is going to be frantic in Barcelona, as they have to reconstruct the team, sell off all the old wood and get the players back from Euro 08 in one piece.
I’m going for a draw here. Murcia don’t have the man power or the desire to win this, but then neither does Barca. In the last two matches against Mallorca and Real Madrid, the Barca players showed an amazing lack of spirit and there were more than one who couldn’t even be bothered to run.
Prediction: Draw (1-1)
What a disasterous end to a disasterous season for football Club Barcelona. They was a lot of talk at the beginning of the season about their ‘fantastic four’, (including Messi, Thierry Henry, Eto’o and Ronaldinho) but it now looks certain that only the Argentinean Messi will be with Barca come the start of the next season in September. The other three have fallen far short of their hype, especially the Frenchman, and Ronaldinho’s soap opera of a season has done little favors to the Catalan giants. They were going to win everything this year, but in the end they were kicked out of the Champions league by Manchester United, and much worse, humiliated by Real Madrid in the league.
It has now been confirmed that Dutchman Frank Rijkaard will not be sitting on the bench next season, which is a shame as you can hardly blame him for what has happened. The players must take the lion’s share of the fan’s outrage, as should Barcelona president Joan Laporta for allowing his players to practically do whatever they want.
This summer could well see a massive rebuilding job being done, with at least five or six top name players being sold off in order to make room for the next set of players. Ex-Barcelona midfielder Pepe Guardiola, who has only experienced one year of management with Barcelona B, has already been confirmed as the new coach and it is a brave step for the Barcelona directors to get someone with so little experience.
Murcia meanwhile are already relegated to the second division, and this game will give their fans one last chance to savor top flight football for at least another year. Looking at how badly Barcelona are playing, the players might even be able to give them a good send off. Barcelona inexplicably gave away a two goal lead last weekend at the Nou Camp, where they lost by three goals to two against Mallorca. The Barca fans were booing even before the kick off and gave Eto’o an especially hard time, as well as the directors, with Joan Laporta in the front line. To say the Catalan giants are in a crisis is a bit of an understatement, and they won’t even be able to automatically qualify for the Champions league as they can only finish third now, and a bad result here could even see Atlético Madrid go above them. This means that the summer is going to be frantic in Barcelona, as they have to reconstruct the team, sell off all the old wood and get the players back from Euro 08 in one piece.
I’m going for a draw here. Murcia don’t have the man power or the desire to win this, but then neither does Barca. In the last two matches against Mallorca and Real Madrid, the Barca players showed an amazing lack of spirit and there were more than one who couldn’t even be bothered to run.
Prediction: Draw (1-1)
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