Some scattered thoughts on the season just gone, which like a good adventure movie had its highs and lows before the uplifting, happy ending.
the boardroom and the locker room
For all the talk of a steady transition, the election of Sandro Rosell bought about a revolution in the board room at the beginning of this season.

Former Barcelona president Joan Laporta says that is was Real Madrid executives who were indeed behind the recent doping allegations against Barcelona, despite recent statements from current Barca officials that refute talk of Real Madrid' involvement, AS reports.

Spanish radio station Cadena Cope sparked controversy recently when it reported that Barcelona had links to doctors with questionable reputations and that drug testing should be taken more seriously in La Liga.

By Chris Wright

"I'm getting too old for this sh*t!"

It looks like Arsene Wenger has taken the bait and reacted to the claims made by Joan Laporta yesterday, in which the ex-Barca president told anyone who would listen that his former club would see the signing of Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas as 'justice' after the Gunners 'fished' him from their youth ranks back in 2003.

Following on from yesterday's article looking at Barcelona's hypocrisy, it's worth looking at Arsene Wenger's reply to comments made by Barcelona's ex-president Joan Laporta and current VP Javier Faus about Cesc Fabregas.

While Faus was only talking about how much money they have available for transfers, Laporta went a step further, talking about a sense of 'entitlement' with Fabregas "It's an issue of justice, we now want to recover them," he said.

Arsene Wenger has reacted to yesterday's statement from the ex-Barcelona president Joan Laporta, who said that Fabregas should return to Barcelona in the interests of "justice". He implied that Arsenal had stolen Fabregas as a youngster. Wenger strongly disagreed with his arrogant words, and hit back at Barca's double standards.

By Chris Wright

Ex-Barcelona honcho Joan Laporta has claimed that 'justice' will have been done if and/or when Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas makes his move back to the Camp Nou.

*sigh*

Laporta is quoted in this morning's Daily Mirror as saying:

"The English come here to go 'fishing'.

The world would be a much poorer place without coffee, you know. And football. Thankfully we have plenty of both.

Barcelona arrive in London today. They've turned down the chance to train at the Grove tonight, choosing to have a session (training, not pints) in Barcelona this morning before arriving as late as UEFA rules allow.