Guardiola focuses on La Masia to Reinforce Defense

More La Masia Recruits for Barca

With Chygynskiy's and Toure's departure, Guardiola is looking to La Masia for defensive cover for next season. Atleast four Barca Atletic defenders may find more playing time with the first team next season. Barca is expected to release Marquez and Caceres and also is expected to send Henrique out on loan yet again. Caceres performance against Holland in the World Cup semi-final may force the management to think about a loan deal rather than selling the player. He still may fulfil all the promises he shown at a very early age. Marc Muniesa, Andreu Fontas, Marc Batra and Sergi Gomez all are expected to make the cut for the first team this season. Muniesa is widely regarded as the natural heir to Puyol's throne and he should see more playing time than others. Add to this, Jonathan Dos Santos and Thiago, we have two brilliant midfielders also emerging from the academy.

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Puyol's Header Guides Spain To World Cup Final

Barca Captain Steers Spain To Final

Spain setup a mouth watering World Cup final clash against Netharlands after seeing off a much fancied, but young German side confidently. The Spanish National team dominated the match, depriving their opponents off any meaningful possession. For all their possession it took a second half goal from the most unlikeliest of source, Carles Puyol from a Xavi corner to see off the Germans. This young German side has been on the rampage packing England and Argentina home, scoring eight goals in those two matches. But this Spanish side's midfield is the best in the world, may be one of the best of all time and the Germans had no answer to their tiki-taka style of playing. Barcelona fans would have been extremely happy to see seven of their players starting in the line-up. Pedro came in for Torres and joined his other club mates - Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Villa, Puyol, Pique, who all retained their places. It is a very proud moment for La Masia with five players in the starting line-up.

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Chygrynskiy returns to Shaktar, another failed Purchase

FC Barcelona has confirmed the agreement of a deal (rumoured to be around 15 million) for the return of Dmytro Chygrynskiy to Shaktar. Barca bought the tall defender from Shaktar at around 30 Million, now does that makes sense to sell him just after one miserable year? Chygrynskiy's lack of pace was always going to trouble him and his performance in each of his appearances strengthened that belief. The coach and Management already had lost faith in him and there were rumours ever since the season ended about a move back. Its yet another transfer failure. The jury is still out to decide whether the Ibra transfer was a failure. The new management has to make sure that the recent pathetic transfer failures are not repeated. The haste at which we arrive at decisions has to be sole reason why these transfer fails. Chygrynskiy was brought after having an excellent season with Shaktar. At that point it made sense, but with Milito coming back and performing well, his oppurtunites were pretty limited. The statement on Barcelona’s website notes that, “the money received for the 23-year-old central defender will help ease the Club’s short-term liquidity problems.” But still don't understand the logic in going for Cesc, especially when we have a liquidity problem and the whole of Spain in recession.