Isaac Cuenca Joins Deportivo on Free Transfer

You all may have forgot that we had a player named "Isaac Cuenca". It's easy to forget isn't it? Especially when the player missed the majority of season through injury. Now at least he gets to put his career back in shape at a different team where importantly he would get playing time. Isaac Cuenca has joined Deportivo La Coruna on a free transfer after FC Barcelona decided to cancel his current contract. He has been not in our club's plan for a long time and should have been released last season itself. Even though it was late, the club did the right thing by releasing him for free. All About FC Barcelona wishes Isaac Cuenca all the best for his budding career and let he take the La Liga by Storm once again.

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Arsenal Signs Alexis Sanchez from Barca for €42 Million

Arsenal has officially announced the reaching of an agreement between FC Barcelona and themselves for the signing of Star Chilean forward Alexis Sanchez. The deal will fetch FC Barcelona €42 Million Euros, a substantial part of it would be as incentives. We are not yet clear about the fine print, but the initial rumours are we will be paid €30 Million in cash and the rest as incentives which are rumoured to be easy to achieve. Alexis Sanchez was signed by Barca from Udinese in 2011 for a deal with total to €38 Million. Now, selling him for €42 Million sounds like a brilliant deal; especially considering that the player never had the desired impact at Barca. His stocks rose after a brilliant World Cup and Barca may not find a better time to cash on him.

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Jonathan Dos Santos joins Brother Giovani at Villareal

Finally it will happen - Jonathan Dos Santos will get a chance to do other things than twitter updates. Yes, you heard it right - he decided that he has time left to play football and decided to join Villareal. I was one of the few who was delighted to see him stay last season. But an injury and general reluctance by Tata Martino to use youngsters saw him doing nothing other than social media updates. In one of my previous post 5 Player's who could leave Barca, I have mentioned why he needs to leave this summer itself. Al least he heeded the advice and acted quickly. From what I have heard, Villareal will pay 1.5 Million for the player. There is a bonus of 0.5 Million in the deal which will be paid if Villareal make it into the Champions League next season. It is not clear whether the 0.5 Million is included in the 1.5 Million or additional to it. At Villareal he will be joining Giovani Do Santos, his elder brother - who actually got his career back in shape with a spectacular season with Villareal. These two players are so crucial for the Mexico national team future and hope they fulfill the promise and become a strike force in itself.

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Messi may have to do it all alone against the Dutch

A leader is a dealer in hope. Napoleon Bonaparte

With a confident 1-0 victory against the Belgians in the Quarter Finals, Argentina has surpassed a huge mental barrier on its own - The Quarter Finals. A look at the rich Argentinian history at the World cup shows that the two time World Champions have stumbled at the last eight more often than any other country. From 1986, when the knock-out stages were officially introduced as we have now, Argentina have exited three times at the Quarter Finals. The two times they managed to get past their Quarter-Final opponents, they have managed to reach the tournament finals. Now that's a nice statistics to focus as Argentina needs a lot of history to back them up when they meet the Dutch on Wednesday. Since the 1990 World Cup, Argentina has never managed to go beyond Quarter Finals. In that sense this team has already succeeded where many of its illustrious predecessors failed. But then for this team led by the Mercurial Lionel Messi anything short of the ultimate triumph is a disaster.

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Messi May Have to emulate Idol Maradona to take Argentina Past Belgium

It's not what you achieve, it's what you overcome. That's what defines your career. Carlton Fisk

Quarter-Finals, that has been quite a dreaded word in every Argentinian football fans dictionary for some time! There is rather good reason for it too. In three of the last four tournaments they featured, they made unceremonious exit at this stage. And funny Messi was an integral part of all the three. In 2006, José Pekerman's decision not to bring a young Messi drew huge criticism and it's safe to say that it resulted in their exit. In 2010 World Cup it was Messi's inability to inspire his team which resulted in an absolute thumping at the hands of Germany, which also took the only entertainer in the competition, Diego Maradona out of sight. The case was no different in 2011, even though Tevez was one who missed the penalty; Messi's lack of effectiveness was questioned as Argentina failed to make a fist of the challenge thrown by eventual champions Uruguay. So yet another Quarter Final beckons; a chance for Lionel Messi to correct a lot of wrong!

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