Barcelona sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta remains confident coach Pep Guardiola will continue his successful spell at the helm.

However, he has confirmed the club have drawn up contingency plans should Guardiola decide to leave the Nou Camp.

Zubizarreta is optimistic it will not come to that despite the Catalans, who visit Osasuna on Saturday, trailing arch-rivals Real Madrid by seven points in the La Liga title race.

Today, a guest post from Abdul Rahman Al Ze'bi, who thinks Our Beloved Valencia needs a lot of stuff, like a new coach.

Agree? Disagree? Think Emery is over-caffeinated?

Have a read and post your opinions!

Take it away, Abdul ...

What Does Valencia CF need?
This has been the question everyone asks.

Anticipation is building after January served up a nice set of appetizers for the season to come, both for MLS and the US National Team. We begin with Klinsmann's first go-round at Camp Cupcake, the annual January gathering of the "best of the rest" in the USMNT pool...

One-Nil to the USMNT

Results were slow to arrive early in Klinsmann's tenure as USA boss, but a pair of 1-0 wins (home to Venuzuela and on the road in Panama) sees him start 2012 with an unblemished record.

Lucky escape This is absolutely crazy. Thankfully for the players of Turkish side Samsunspor, as train collisions go this is very much at the low speed end of the scale. It must have been pretty terrifying nonetheless. CCTV cameras show the team's coach waiting at traffic lights on a roundabout. When they set off, their [.

Less than a week after bringing American Edson Buddle back to Los Angeles, the team has bolstered the roster further by unveiling two Brazilians.

Earlier this week, the Galaxy officially announced that the club had reached an agreement with Brazilian club São Paulo FC, allowing midfielder Juninho to return on loan for the 2012 season.

The United States will host Brazil on May 30th at FedEx Field in suburban Washington DC, the US Soccer Federation announced on Thursday. The game will be shown on ESPN2 and Univision starting at 8pm ET. Click here for ticket information. "When you talk about Brazil, you are speaking of one of the most gifted football playing nations in the world," USA coach Jurgen Klinsmann said in a press statement.

Some of England's top players have been responding on Twitter to Fabio Capello quitting as manager of the national team. Even in the handful of responses from the squad, it is apparent that Harry Redknapp is the overwhelming favourite to take over. Gutted capello has quit. Good guy and top coach. Got to be english [.

The United States Under-23's will play Mexico's U-23's in a friendly at FC Dallas Stadium on February 29th. The game will cap a 10-day training camp. "This game is very important for our players and comes at a critical time for us before the start of Olympic qualifying," USA U-23 coach Caleb Porter said.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

The United States Under-23 men's national team is going to get a proper tune-up for CONCACAF Olympic qualifying, as it will square off against Mexico's Under-23 side in a friendly at FC Dallas Stadium in Frisco, Texas, on Feb. 29.

The match will be a culmination of a 10-day training camp in Frisco.

It is now emerging that Neymar will not be leaving Santos after all. Premier League club Chelsea have confirmed that they have ended their pursuit for the teen star after he committed his future to Santos until 2014.

Villas-Boas revealed that his side have failed in trying to sign Neymar and that he has already chosen his next destination which will most likely be Barcelona.

Not a surprise to hear that Sevilla have hired Jose Miguel Gonzalez, aka Michel, to become their next coach after the firing of Marcelino Garcia Toral on Monday.

Michel will automatically receive an extension to the contract should he guide the 11th-placed side to UEFA Champions League qualification.

Their Words "Juninho is not going to be utilized at São Paulo per the coach's decision and the club is accepting the loan deal for Juninho's return to Los Angeles to play for the Galaxy," Sao Paulo spokesperson Felipe Espindola. Other Sources Is salary space an issue for Galaxy? Who knows? - from Soccer America's Ridge Mahoney: The great unknown is, of course, allocation money.

Morning all, some interesting quotes from Arsene Wenger appeared in a Belgian newspaper yesterday. For those that wish to cream yourselves on the bits about Eden Hazard, he had this to say:

I like him a lot, and for several reasons. His creativity, his ability to unbalance the opposition, his vision and his consummate art of giving the final ball make him a player coveted by many.

At last we hear that AVB has an angry side with his players aswell as the media!. Up till now we have only seen his angered response to some lines of questioning during pre or post match press conferences when speaking to the media or the written press. It seems as though he let the players see the exact same side after defeat to United on Sunday.

The FIFA backed "International Federation of Football History & Statistics" (IFFHS) has released its Top 10 list of World Football Coaches & Managers, with Scotsman & Manchester United Coach/Manager Sir Alex Ferguson as the Top placed (Nº 1) so far this 21st Century. Ferguson leads by just 1 point Arsenal Coach/Manager Arsene Wenger with Real Madrid Coach Jose Mourinho in 3rd place.

The FIFA backed "International Federation of Football History & Statistics" (IFFHS) has released its Top 10 list of World Football Coaches & Managers, with Scotsman & Manchester United Coach/Manager Sir Alex Ferguson as the Top placed (Nº 1) so far this 21st Century. Ferguson leads by just 1 point Arsenal Coach/Manager Arsene Wenger with Real Madrid Coach Jose Mourinho in 3rd place.

Darwin Jones was among the Seattle Sounders' recent cuts from preseason training camp, but that doesn't mean he'll be going very far. The 19-year-old has joined the University of Washington's 2012 recruiting class, giving the Huskies four Sounders Academy products in this class alone. Jones will be accompanied by Michael Gallagher, Ian Lange and Dominique Dismuke.

PSMS have sacked coach Raja Isa. It follows tales of dressing room unrest and unhappiness with the Malaysian coach's training methods. Now far be it for me to go round making assumptions but cast your mind back to Arema's title winning season and also the constant musical chairs in the Persib hot seat last season.

There was a time under the soon to be booted nicest man in football when Sydney won 1-0 - boring but they won.
Then in season 2, they lost 1-0. More boring and more frustrating.
Now in Season 3 they lose, by 3, 4 or 5 and that's at home.
Mr Lavicka might be nice - but he's a pretty ordinary coach.

SPANISH FOOTBALL continued today/tonight with Round 22 with four games scheduled of the SPANISH LEAGUE. Here are the final results & the scorers. Carmelo scores for Sporting REAL SPORTING DE GIJON had a new Coach & managed to draw 1 - 1 against OSASUNA. The locals started well & scored in the 31 st min, but then missed various occasions in the second half that made the team pay later when

The season is just over a month away and the roster is almost completely set. Of course there is still the possibility of adding a few more pieces or dropping a few of the newer players. For the most part the Timbers have the core of their starting line-up signed. With all the changes to the roster will John Spencer go away from the 4-4-2 formation or will he go with a different formation?

Chelsea's manager, Andre Villas-Boas, revealed an interesting statement regarding his current managerial experience at Stamford Bridge, stating that he is actually not really stamping his authority in the dressing room.

Villas-Boas revealed that unlike some manager who can be a sort of dictator with his players, the former Fc Porto tactician admitted that he is having a different path by becoming more of democratic person.

Asked directly what excites him most about his new opportunity to be the Coach of the Seattle Sounders U-23 side Darren Sawatzky gives two answers. The first isn't a surprise. As the Technical Director of the Sounders Academy his passing for player and personal develop is a strong fit in this new intermediary step between Academy and Pro.

One of the perks of being a professional futbolito is obviously getting new cars sent to your doorstep every season (listen up, AC Milan fans!) While the European elite get to drive their shiny new Audis, Atletico Madrid's players received keys to our favourite car of all time instead a Volkswagen Beetle!

I do have a soft sport for Thai Port but as they go into their third final appearance in three years next week against Buriram PEA they don't look to have much of a squad left for next season.
The exodus started during the mid season break when their coach Sasom Pobprasert moved to First Division side Buriram, taking three players with him including Sompong Soleb.

Tottenham's youngsters continued a good week of results at the club with a 1-0 win over Liverpool to take them into to the semi finals of the NextGen series. The winner came in the second half, courtesy of Shaq Coulthirst but Spurs had to withstand heavy pressure from the visitors throughout.

Two goals from Fernando Llorente has given Athletic Bilbao a 2-1 first-leg advantage in their Copa del Rey semi-final against giant-killers Mirandes, and seriously dented the Cinderella dreams of the third division team.

Llorente scored twice in the first half to seemingly put Athletic firmly in control of this tie.

Photo by John Todd/ISIphotos.com

European transfer deadline day has proved to be fruitful for one American abroad.

Mikkel Diskerud has been loaned from Stabaek in his native Norway to Belgian top flight club KAA Gent, the club announced on Tuesday. The loan comes with an option to buy at the end of the season and gives Diskerud a chance to prove his worth for a different club for the first time in his brief career.

Benfica have loaned out midfielder/right back Ruben Amorim to Braga for the next year and a half. Amorim who had a falling out with Benfica coach Jorge Jesus, recently signed a contract extension with the club until 2013 but the club felt it was in their best interest to loan Amorim to Braga never the less.

Atletico Madrid's revival under new coach Diego Simeone continued on Monday as Diego Godin fired the winner in a battling 1-0 victory at Osasuna that lifted Atletico up to seventh in La Liga.

The Uruguay defender bundled in from close range at a corner just before the break and forwards Adrian and Radamel Falcao missed gilt-edged chances to extend the lead.

Real Madrid midfielder Kaka has revealed that his future with the club has been assured by club president Florento Perez and coach Jose Mourinho.

Kaka has struggled with injuries since joining Real Madrid in 2009, but has periodically displayed his old skill in recent matches and had one of his best games games in a Real Madrid shirt in Saturday's 3-1 win over Zaragoza.

Ron Clark has a fantastic article up at CNN highlighting the flight of teachers from the profession, in part because of trouble dealing with parents. Reading it, I saw a lot of parallels with coaching youth sports and dealing with soccer parents, which can have a huge impact on a team and player development.

SPANISH FOOTBALL continued today with five top games in Round 21 of the SPANISH LEAGUE. Here is a brief summary of the matches, with all the scorers & with the final results. Martins for Granada REAL BETIS lost 1 - 2 to GRANADA with the latter having their new Coach Abel debut with victory. The fact was that it was a competitive match fought out between two Clubs from Southern Spain with

Jose Mourinho To Manchester City? The rumours linking the Real Madrid boss to Eastlands grow and In The Stands' Rolly Pelovangu warns that if Mourinho does become City coach then they will dominate the Premier League Sporting comebacks are usually special things. Who can forget the return of Thierry Henry to Arsenal after five years [.

A common belief is that US youth soccer players suffer from over coaching, and in many cases that is true. But in our helicopter parent society where kids rarely can just go 'play in the park', coaches are in a situation where they have to provide SOME instruction and opportunity to develop. How do you create a fun practice where the kids push themselves vs go through the motions while also correcting mistakes and allowing for self discovery of soccer skill?

szólj hozzá: BRIGHTON v NEWCASTLE 1:0 GOAL

Gareth Bale, sorry, Will Buckley hares down the left showing gut busting pace and plenty of footy skills to elude Danny Simpson and Yoann Cabaye. He then unleashes a left footed shot which deflects of Mark Williamson and past Tim Krul for a famous Brighton and Hove Albion victory.

No sooner had Real Madrid been eliminated by Barcelona in the Copa Del Rey quarter-final had a new war of words emerged from the Real camp who ITS' Rolly Pelovangu argues are suffering from Battered Wife Syndrome After Barcelona's Copa Del Rey success over Real Madrid at the Camp Nou, the overriding image which stuck [.

Eder Delgado Signing with the Dynamo?

It's in Spanish, but buried in the last paragraph is an interesting statement.

"Likewise, the manager reported that Eder Delgado is very close to signing with the Houston Dynamo set, that through his coach, Dominic Kinnear, his trail for some time, to the point that last week traveled to San Pedro Sula to watch closely during the game that drew 1-1 with Motagua.

Slow day relativelty speaking for SPANISH FOOTBALL , although tomorrow things will certainly pick up as La Liga gets into action with both Barça & Real Madrid playing their respective games. However, thought I let all the readers know what REAL MADRID Coach MOURINHO told - straight at his face - the Spanish Cup 2º leg quarter-final referee TEIXEIRA after the 2 - 2 result which knocked out Real

In all the hoopla surrounding the Seattle Sounders offseason moves, there has been one player that seems to have flown under the radar more than any other: Servando Carrasco. During the midfielder's rookie season, he became better known for the person he was dating than anything he did on the field.