The New Nine

Time for a news round-up, and we'll kick it off with the most prominent issue of the moment: Bojan transitioning into the number 9 shirt, worn by Ibrahimovic and Eto'o before him (Jeffren is now wearing Bojan's former 11). Bless EMD and the photographer who took the glorious shoot (below) of him pulling his new shirt on bit by bit...

And speaking of transitioning, Barca's newest signing Javier Mascherano is transitioning well into the team, with his Argentine compatriots Lio Messi and Gabi Milito making sure of that. Arriving together from Argentina on Wednesday, the three continued straight to training at the Ciutat Esportiva and Lio and Gabi didn't leave Javier's side all through the session, with Gabi also acting as his spokesman.

Second keeper Jose Manuel Pinto has a new hairstyle: he's done his dark locks up in cornrows. I'm not quite sure where I stand in regard to the look, but the important thing is that he's happy with it: "My new haircut wasn't planned. I just went to the hairdresser and kind of picked it on the spot. I had it before, it's comfortable."

New studies show that Barca is the most popular club in Europe, with a pretty wide margin between them and the holders of second place, Real Madrid. Anyone else not surprised? Details and things here.

Our injured Captain Carles Puyol is pretty doubtful for the club's approaching Liga match against Hercules, but he's working hard on his recovery and was able to train along with the rest of the team yesterday. The only other sidelined player is Jeffren, who is still training apart from the rest.

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A Dull Draw

Quick cover of last night's Champions League draw: oh look, we're going to face Kazan again. With that frosty prospect in mind, Barca's group is genrally boring.

Our sports director Andoni Zubizaretta warns that "we can't take anything for granted," while the assistant coach Tito Vilanova thinks it's "not an easy group," based on the fact all three teams are champions of their respective leagues. Hey, aren't we on that list too?

Undoubtedly Pep will follow suit (once he has room to breathe upon the close of the transfer window) and say that this group presents a tremendous challenge. I say we'll cruise right through all six matches and grab about thirty goals along the way, then we'll have a relatively easy journey up until the semi final. You know, same as every year.

Barca's full group:

Panathinaikos (Greece)

FC Copenhagen (Denmark)

Rubin Kazan (Russia)

Youth Players Trump Back-Up Signings

Pep Guardiola shrugged off all of Sandro Rosell's urges for him to sign back-up players in favor of depending on Barca's youth team, and I'm a trillion percent behind him on that one. We never needed Ozil or any other midfeilder, and seeing how swiftly the German signed for Real Madrid after the deal with Barca failed to go through, I'm glad that it did fail.

Who needs Ozil when you've got the adorable Jonathan Dos Santos on your youth team? I'm totally thrilled that Jonny is one of the four players Pep has decided to promote to the senior squad, along with Thiago Alcantara (attacking midefield), Oriol Romeu (defensive midfield) and Andreu Fontas (centerback). Hopefully this turns out to be a great thing for them all!

Dani's Airport Escape

Things were so wild at the airport in Seoul when Barca arrived, Dani had to sneak off and hide in a corner so he could catch up with his texting. My guess is he was uploading videos he took of Lio snoring on the plane onto facebook. Let's hope he was still able to catch up with the team as security escorted them past the hoards of fans to their waiting bus...

Airline Chit-Chat

Lio: So Adriano, are the accomodations this good with Sevilla?

Dani (laughing): Are you kidding? They travel in hang gliders over there.

Adriano: Actually Dani, since you left we've been flying to our matches in rocket ships.

Dani (gaping): No fair!

Lio: If Sevilla can afford rocket ships, I wonder if they can afford me?

Ibra (on the phone with his agent, overhears them): Well, I might consent to go to Sevilla if they're interested...

That's probably what was happening between the Barca boys in this photo while they were flying to Seoul. At least Marc and Jonathon seem impressed by Barca's nifty aircraft, even if Adriano isn't...

La Liga Fixtures Revealed

By the looks on Pep's and Gaby's faces, they're just as excited about the Liga fixtures as I am! To think that I'd been counting down the days for these fixtures to come out, and when they do my laptop decides to stop working; my luck. I guess everyone's seen them by now, but anyway...

The fixtures for La Liga have been released, and Barca is set to open up in an away game against Racing Santander on August 29. The first Clasico is at home on November 28, the second, away of course, on April 17. I'm digging those dates because it means that if we can secure the title within six matches of the Liga's end, we go to the Bernuebeu as Champions.

Full fixture list for the Barca's Liga as well as preseason matches is up on the official site.

First Preseason Training

Barca's preseason training kicks off tomorrow, with an unpleasant surprise from Nike: the new training shirt has been unveiled, and in my opinion its the worst design yet. Well, not so much the actual design as the color - they call it 'voltage cherry', but that thing is downright fuschia.

We tolerated the neon yellow and orange training shirts before, but really? Fuschia training tops? Say what you will, I think that's just a bit too feminine for this footballing club. I mean, I'm sure Pique will love them, they'd go great with his infamous fuschia hightops, but seriously - what about El Capitan for example? Carles Puyol does not go with all things pink. Anyway, the thing is in stock if you'd care to order one.

Barca's twelve players who particapted in the World Cup are on an extended vacation, which leaves Pinto, Milito, Maxwell, Adriano, Keita, Jeffren, Ibrahimovic, Bojan, Henrique, Víctor Sánchez, Hleb (the last three returning from their respective loans) to show up for the training tomorrow, along with the seventeen youngsters called up from the B-team: Oier, Miño, Masip, Dalmau, Sergi Gómez, Armando, Fontàs, Muniesa, Martí Riverola, Ilie, Víctor Vázquez, Sergi Roberto, Jonathan dos Santos, Edu Oriol, Benja, Jonathan Soriano, Nolito.

First thing everybody gets to take a physical, and then Pep's grueling schedule begins: training every morning and evening to whip the boys back into shape after their lazy summers. Saturday is less intense with a single training session, and Sunday is the players' rest day. They also have to have dinner together as a team every night at the Ciutat Esportiva.

This is the plan until July 26th, before the team play their first friendly against Valerenga in Oslo on July 29th. After that those on international leave will return, and then I expect things will settle into a less crazy routine, with standard training sessions and team breakfasts as Pep has had for the past two seasons.