After last season's woes condemned FCB to a 3rd place finish we are forced to run the gauntlet of Champions League qualification and play Polish side Wisla Krakow for a place in the competition proper. One thing that won't help Barça out is a Sepp Blatter-lead ruse which has seen Leo Messi stolen from the Camp Nou and illegally handed to the Argentine Olympic football squad to take part in up to 6 games in 14 days in a bid by the young genius' home nation to ensure that their brightest hope for the future has as short a career as possible. Is it any wonder that Messi seems to become ever more injury prone when the Albiceleste continue to deny him a full pre-season with which to prepare his body for the challenges ahead?
Pre-season has seen a glut of goals for the "new Barça" under the stylish stewardship of Pep Guardiola. The Catalan's reign seems to have heralded a harder working, faster passing, more committed team which promises much ahead of the new campaign. Pre-seasons can often be deceptive especially when the opposition falls some way short of the standard set by the likes of reial madrid, Valencia, Vila-real etc but the sheer diversity which we seem to have found in attack makes this cule and many other Penya members very optimistic that we can reign in Spain once again.
Speaking of the Penya, our fine attendance record looks set to improve even further in 2008/09. Away games seem to be becoming the flavour of the day with the majority of members now very familiar with the seductive streets of Catalonia's capital city. We are all set to be represented at the first five games of the season including both legs of the CL qualifier, the Joan Gamper trophy match and a league away game. Not bad for a bunch of guys who were taunted with songs of "Have you ever been to Spain? Have you f**k!" by a group of ignorant Manchester United fans back in May ahead of the CL semi-final 2nd leg.
Three points need to be made before rounding off this edition of the PUB blog; firstly that Ramon Calderon is a moron with even more egg on his face than usual after a summer of trying to tempt Cristiano Ronaldo to Scum Central failed miserably just as his pursuits of Kaka and Cesc Fabregas have in the past. The man has won two league titles by accident and it is only this fact which saves him from being totally discredited as a viable occupant of the Bernabeu hot seat. Mind you, as the old mantra goes, if you can't be good (and Ramon is really, really bad) be lucky (and he is very, very lucky). Secondly, this season will see myself and Jason blogging on a far more regular basis. Unfortunately unless I win the Euromillions some time soon I have to do things like going to work and doing my own supermarket shopping and typing away on a keyboard after all that is far too much effort sometimes! Finally, I'd like to send out heartfelt congratulations to Andres Iniesta, Carles Puyol and Xavi Hernandez who return to the Camp Nou as European champions. Let's hope they can do likewise for Barça this season.
Visca el Barça, Visca la Penya i Visca Catalunya!
