Ibrahim Afellay. - among other things.

(Left: oh right yeah, they speak english! ...and pique is in new NIKEiD tiempo shoes)


So Ibi is training with the squad.
I think I do like him, but am not sure where his place will be. Hopefully he won't be one of those new signings glued to the bench (Adriano), and adding to the already burdening debt of FC Barcelona, which is now said to be 15M Euros, having reduced from 22M because of the new Qatar Foundation sponsors.

Having said that I think, (and if im wrong then, whoops, egg on my face), ibi will play into the roles of a combination of Andreas Iniesta and Xavi, and permanently benching keita. or not. Guardiola likes Keita, no matter how much he lacks shine when he's compared to Xavi. In that case, Afellay will get a lot less game time, because Iniesta barely needs to be substituted. And that would be a shame because he's such a star back at PSV, being captain and all, and at Barcelona he'll be like Mascherano, who's captain at the Argentina national team, and Sergio Busquets substitute at Barca.

Also intresting was the game between Cataluyna and Honduras. In that game, Bojan Krkic scored two goals and made two assists, and the final score was 4 - 0. which means Bojan contributed to every goal, and that maybe Guardiola should take the hint that he's actually leaving a very talented son of a bitch on the bench every weekend. I understand that Bojan has also just signed a new contract until 2015, hopefully he doesn't spend his youth benched in the shadows of David Villa or Leo Messi.

Speaking of Leo Messi, where is he? apparently Guardiola gave him special permission to stay on holiday until the 1st or 2nd of January. I swear to God if he's getting married and his marriage affects his footballing abilities then I will kill someone. Hopefully he'll be back for the fixture against Levente on January 2nd/3rd, because there is a dispute between the Footballing Federation and the players, who claim that the 2nd of Jan is still a holiday for them.

So we'll see on the 2nd/3rd of Jan how Barcelona will hold up against Levente without Puyol or Messi.