Is It Good-Bye Yaya?

Barcelona based news dailies are full of rumours of a possible mid season transfer of Yaya Toure to Juventus. One Juventus based daily has already claimed that FC Barcelona has set a price on this Ivory Coast holding midfielder. The amount is rumoured to be around 10 million euros. These rumours have been strengthened by Guardiola's attitude towards Toure. Somehow Guardiola has already decided that Toure does not fit into his style and there were strong rumours of his transfer during the summer. Somehow Yaya Toure survived it; but the emergence of Busquests has indeed unsettled the player. The worst matter in all these is that we cannot expect Guardiola to persuade the player to stay in the club.

Yaya was our best player along with Iniesta in last season. He showed tremendous commitment by delaying a much needed syrgey and kept on playing for the club. But it was a huge surprise that Guardiola preferred Keita ahead of Toure. Keita from whatever he looked like cannot play the Holding midfielder role confidently. With Busquests playing well and Iniesta occupying the front left; it is difficult to see Toure joining Busquests in the midfield. If Busquests start, then either of Gudjonsen or Keita is expected to start. So it has become a direct fight between Busquests and Toure; a fight which Toure appears to be losing. He hasn't done much of a mistakes; but it is his bad luck that he is in a team whose manager tends to overlook his effort. It is always good to see such great competition for a postion in the team; but with Manager biased towards Busquests it is difficult to see Toure staying. But the choice of Juventus could be a disaster for him; I personally think Wenger will take note of the availability of this talented midfielder. But for the moment it is becoming clear that Toure might be on his way out of the club.

Internationa Matches

The first leg of the international break is over; altogether it can be said that it was a very satisfactory first leg for many FC Barcelona players. As usual we will start with South American Qualifier. Argentina beat Uruguay with a scoreline of 2 goals to one to end their winless streak. Barca players - Lionel Messi and Martin Caceres both started this match for their respective teams. Lionel Messi put Argentina ahead in the fifth minute through a header from the former Barca player Riquelme's cross. After seven minutes Atletico Madrid striker Sergio Aguero doubled the lead. Diego Lugano reduced the lead for Uruguay in the 39th minute. From South America to Africa now.

All of FC Barcelona players from Africa had a very successful night. Yaya Toure started in the starting eleven in the 3-0 victory over Madagascar. Boubacar Sanogo scored twice for Ivory Coast and team mate Simon Kalou made it 3-0 for the night. Samuel Eto starred in Cameroon's 5-0 thrashing of Mauritius. Eto scored two goals - one from penalty in the 47th minute and the first goal in the 26th minute. Keita also started in Mali's 2-1 victory against Chad. Tenema Ndiaye and Cheick Diabate were the goal scorer for Mali whereas Leger Djime scored for Chad. In Europe Barca players had a mixed night. Eidur Gudjonsen's Iceland was defeated by a much superior Dutch team. The dutch side had Van Der Saar guarding the goal after coming out of international retirement. Huntelaar and Mathijsen scored for the dutch. France were lucky to grab a point from their match against Romania. Romania went two up with in 16 minutes with help of goals from Petre and Goian. Ribery pulled one back for France in the 36th minute and Gourcuff equalised in the 68th minute to the relief of captain Thierry Henry. Meanwhile Spain continued their excellent run with a 3-0 victory over Estonia. Juanito, Villa and Puyol all entered the scoresheet.

A Tough Looking La-Liga

This might be too early to say, but have to admit that this year's La-Liga is looking far more tougher than it looked in many previous seasons. Especially a look into the table after the completion of six matches would give the name of genuine title contenders. Valencia leads the pack with Villareal following them closely. The big power house of Spanish league - Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are lying in fifth and fourth positions respectively. Maybe six matches would be a pretty early to say about how the League table would end up this season; but this time everyone have a feeling of seeing a pretty tough chase to the top. FC Barcelona showed their class in destroying Atletico Madrid at home. But then last year also they destroyed the same opposition but ended up losing the league by a whoping margin; actually ended up third in the league. We will only get a clear picture after the first leg matches of all the big teams are completed.

The best part of this season's results is the resurgence of Valencia. After Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, Valencia has been the most recognisable team in the whole La liga. But last season was sort of nightmarish; but they look genuine title contenders and are deservingly at the top of the table. Real Madrid has been a bit shaky, but then last two seasons they followed a similiar pattern to success. Sevilla looks solid so does Villareal. FC Barcelona is showing signs of a resurgence but the fans have not yet taken it completely as they had similiar experience in last season. The other teams which makes up the top ten are Alemria, Atletico Madrid, Getafe, Espanyol and Deportivo. Out of these Atletico looks a genuine title contender to me even after their 6-1 defeat to FC Barcelona. The others, especially the likes of Espanyol and Getafe will play a crucial part in deciding the title holdes with their impecable Home records. For all the La Liga fans this looks like a greta season ahead.