You can argue that everything Barca does these days is being scrutinized or subject to unfair criticism. But it's hard to deny the club's latest tribute to a journalist who passed away and spent his life reporting on the club. That's affectionate dedication for you!

Last week prior to the club's normal press conference, first-team players Xavi, Puyol, Valdés and Iniesta along with Pep Guardiola observed a silent tribute to Dani Montesinos, who formerly worked for Spanish TV and Barca TV.

Algunas ediciones regionales de la prestigiosa revista estadounidense Time tendrán en su tapa de febrero a Lionel Messi, protagonista de una entrevista en la que se analiza por qué el mejor jugador del mundo no llega a ser del todo querido en la Argentina.
Titulada "King Leo", esta tapa circulará desde el 6 de febrero en las versiones de la revista en Asia, Europa y el Pacífico Sur.

Liverpool and Queens Park Rangers have been alerted to the availability of former Arsenal midfielder Alexander Hleb, with Barcelona ready to make the out-of-favour Belarusian a free agent, after talks over cancelling his contract.
The move comes two weeks after Hleb returned to Barcelona following a failed loan spell with Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg, who had asked to terminate his season-long agreement six months early, after the 30-year-old struggled with form and fitness, making just four appearances this term.

The rematch of last week's el clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid will be played out tonight and amigas y chicos, the bloody war has already begun! Although both sides are trying to express solidarity among themselves, it's absurd to be all calm and polite when we know the outcome of tonight is going to make either Mourinho or Pep tear up their team sheets at the press conference.

Real Madrid 4 Athletic Bilbao 1

Welcome to La Liga Lunes! As you may know, Mourinho's formidable Los Blancos defeated Bilbao 4-1 last night, despite Llorente's opening goal in the 13th minute. Unfortunately, the Portuguese was also at the receiving end of jeers from the Madridista crowd, who were allegedly annoyed that he wasn't able to pin down Barcelona earlier in the week.

Pep has issued an apology to Lionel Messi for stamping on his hand in last night's Copa del Rey tie.

"I wish to say yesterday's incident with Leo Messi was unintentional, but I neverteheless want to apologise to him if he was offended because all I do is defend my team and this institution.

Pep'll make a Mess of your hand An El Clasico just isn't an El Clasico without Pepe proving that he's a nasty bar steward. During last night's Copa Del Rey clash, the Real Madrid man stayed true to form. The Portugal international stamped on Lionel Messi's hand after the Barcelona star has the temerity to [.

Barcelona came from a goal down to bag a 2-1 win in the first leg of the Copa Del Rey Quarter-Final as once again Pep Guardiola got the better of Jose Mourinho. Perhaps ‘deja-vu' is not quite the best word to describe Real Madrid's third successive defeat to Barcelona in as many matches. There was [.

Two of Spain's oldest rivals square off today in another Clasico in the Spanish Copa del Rey quarterfinals at Bernabeu. FC Barcelona head coach Pep Guardiola recently crowned FIFA 2011... Read more »

COPA DEL RAY
Real Madrid vs Barcelona 22:00

Lo maravilloso!! The Day of Reckoning has arrived. Put away your Vicente Del Bosque Panini stickers right NOW because the first el clasico of the year between Real Madrid and Barcelona will be fought out at the Bernabeu tonight.

Real Madrid and Barcelona face off against each other in the 'El Clasico' Copa Del Rey Quarter-Final first leg as Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola lock horns again. If Barcelona are God, then Real Madrid must be the Devil. Because, for one to exist, the other must co-exist. Whereas, one perceives themselves as the divine [.

I will always remember last night's game for Callejon's Celebration: The Canterano showed the world that a man who wears THAT badge never surrenders. Never. I was reading Guillem Balague's pre-match thoughts on last night's game in Sky sports here and this was what he had to say about Mallorca: .

Troppa Inter per il Parma: la cinquina è servita Di Mauro Giordano Claudio Ranieri ha trovato la strada giusta. Adesso non gli resta che continuare a percorrerla e probabilmente a fine campionato si guadagner la riconferma, sempre in bilico a causa del grande obiettivo di Moratti per la panchina della prossima stagione: Pep Guardiola.

Images via Athletic Bilbao, Valencia CF and FC Barcelona.

Even in our semi-permanent drunken states, we still get the warm fuzzies when we see 'ballers making rounds at their local children's hospitals to pass out gifts and meet the little ones. In Spain, teams will typically do this anytime between Christmas Eve and Three Kings Day (6th of January).

Ever since Pep said this: "Because of the injury of Villa we're thinking about promoting Soriano. Problem is he then can't go back to the B-team" in his press conference today, I've been getting q lot of questions about Soriano and his possible promotion. I'm going to address hopefully everything here, adapted from the transfer piece I wrote last summer.

It is no real surprise that the Scottish Premier League race already appears to be down to the two usual suspects. How Rangers and Celtic have gotten to their current positions, though, is a story in itself.

Heading into Wednesday's latest edition of the venomous Old Firm Derby (2:45 p.

By Chris Wright

After just pipping the first leg 1-0, Pep Guardiola covered his arse by naming an incredibly strong side in the return leg against Hospitalet at the Camp Nou last night and it payed off, with Barcelona crushing the third-tier outfit thanks to goals from Pedro, Andres Iniesta, Xavi and braces from three players aged just 20: Isaac Cuenca, Thiago Alcantara and substitute Cristian Tello.

By Eric Beard

"Pelé doesn't know sh*t."

That was Sid Lowe's response to James Richardson's teasing statement on The Guardian's Football Weekly Podcast. Richardson, of course, was referencing Pelé's opinion that Neymar is better than Lionel Messi.

O Barcelona acaba de conquistar o Mundial de clubes disputado no Japão ao golear os brasileiros do Santos por quatro golos sem resposta num jogo em que do onze titular que apresentou apenas os dois laterais não foram formados no clube. De facto, apenas Daniel Alves e Abidal não "cresceram" em La Masia, o centro de formação do emblema catalão.

Neymar oh Neymar, você esqueceu o seu ... concealer?!! (did you forget your concealer?) Oh never mind all that make-up, tomorrow is the World Club Cup final between Santos and Barcelona. With all that hype surrounding Neymar in recent days (oh come on, you guys are late to the party!

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola, ahead of its team's Club World Cup semifinal, spoke with FIFA.com, sharing his views on topics such as tactics:
"People talk about tactics, but when you look at it, tactics are just players. You change things so that the team can get the most out of the skills they have to offer, but you don't go any further than that.

Spain and Barcelona striker David Villa's season has come to a premature end after fracturing his Tibia in his side's 4-0 win over Al Saad in the FIFA World Club Championships yesterday.

The striker will now be out for 5 months and fears are starting to emerge in the Spanish national side as to whether the 30 year old will recover in time for the Euro 2012 tournament.

By FRANCO PANIZO

David Villa may not be living up to expectations this season with Barcelona, but that doesn't mean the club is in any rush to get rid of him.

Pep Guardiola spoke to reporters in Japan ahead of Barcelona's FIFA Club World Cup campaign and said he has no intentions of disposing of Villa, who has been linked to several Premiership clubs.

PC or Mac, Jose or Pep, Marozsan or Cramer, Champions League or Scudetto, marmite or not marmite. All these great multiple choice just-tick-either-box-please questions that Western civilization has devised in a futile attempt to keep itself sane pale in comparison to the greatest dilemma of all; Alessandro Matri or Mario Balotelli.

Titi is in London this weekend for the unveiling of his Arsenal commemorative statue. We can only hope the sculptor wasn't obliged to replicate his shoes n'gilet combo. We'd prefer not to have to look at that for the next 100 years. Image: PacificCoastNews.com.

In a week where the whole of Manchester was thrown out of Europe's elite competition, we admirably restrained our 'inner mean girl' while you lot let rip on Shakira's new 'do and Yoann Gourcuff reappeared on our radar, you may well ask what could possibly be left for us to report on?

FC Barcelona closed down the lead between them and Real Madrid to six points with a comfortable 5-0 victory against fourth placed Levante. Cesc Fabregas opened the scoring, then doubled it followed by Cuenca, Messi and Sanchez goals gave Barca a comfortable victory at Camp NOu. Now all the focus will shift to next week's Clasico action at Bernebeu.

Wow, if Pep's moves and Pique's goal celebrations are anything to go by, the Barcelona end-of-season disco dancefloor must truly be a sight to behold. Image: Claudio Villa/Getty Images.

Fascinating game between AC Milan and Barca today. For the first position in the group.

Pep had mixed up the starting eleven a bit with midfielders Mascherano and Busquets as central defenders ( Bert? Are you paying attention?) but when you have Messi, Xavi and Fabregas in your squad you [read more]

Image: Inter Leaning Tumblr.

This photo of England NT manager, Fabio Capello, in his prime has reinvigorated our playful sides.

That's right, it's MTC time!

First, please read the rules. Then review your options:

A) Barcelona's Pep Quardiola then + Chelsea's Andre Villas-Boas now

OR

B) England's Fabio Capello then + Real Madrid's Jose Mourinho now

OR

C) Liverpool's Kenny Dalglish then + Manchester City's Roberto Mancini now

-

Remember: you only get your way with one of our three offerings.

Listen up everyone, it's story time with Zlatan! Image via Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko.

Zlatan and Pepe are about to unleash their inner Shakespeares, Kickettes.

It seems like Zlatan has all sort of secrets & gossip hidden under that hideous ponytail. His autobiography, which will be released in Sweden and Italy in two week's time, already has people talking after a few choice outlets were given an advance copy.

... and whinier than ever.
So, Ibrahimovic wrote a book in which he cries about how mean Mr. Pep bullied his existence and shattered his dreams. Because, you know, we can't expect him to be over it over a year later. Well I'm here to pick his whining apart quote by quote... starting from where he begins by pointing fingers at Messi (oh, this is going to be fun):
"Playing at Barca was a childhood dream and I was walking on air.

THE FRIDAY CRACKOVIA CLUB

It's the first weekend of November, and Friday has come rollin'! Time for you to get a dose of the best sketch comedy show in Barcelona...Crackovia! Pau Escribano and his team of producers and actors have done it again this week, with Pep Guardiola (seen above) getting annoyed at the trio of Puyol, Pique and Fabregas (the 'moc moc' clan) for their Twitter addiction in the dressing room.

Al Nuevo Los Carmenes si affrontavano, nella decima giornata della Liga, il Granada e il Barcelona di Pep Guardiola e, come da previsione, è stata la corazzata blaugrana a spuntarla, anche se con il minimo scarto. Partita non particolarmente esaltante, con il Granada intento a fare muro davanti al proprio portiere mentre il Barcellona stringeva [.

Xavi created a new club record of 392 La Liga appearances and decided the game with a terrific free kick against Granada.
Pep said they were "lucky" to win

Granada 0 Barça 1 by jordixana

It Was Yet Another Explosion of Goals from Pipita Finally Club Football is Back! Is it because I'm not European or South American that I just don't enjoy these qualifiers or friendlies? I sensed that the Bernabeu crowd last Saturday felt the same way too - because it was a packed Bernabeu last Saturday!

Liverpool lifted by Steven Gerrard's display against Manchester United

• Steven Gerrard fit and firing again for Liverpool • Kenny Dalglish: ground is being made on Manchester United Steven Gerrard longs for normality at Liverpool and, though experience may have taught him to appeal in hope not expectation, 13 years inside the Anfield soap opera have not diminished his influence over its return.

During the international break, some people have too much time on their hands. Mostly it involves journalists focusing on the insane, but occasionally...no, it's mostly just the insane.

Like today's revelation that connected by more links than the average tiki-taka sequence of possession, Lionel Messi and Bojan are cousins.

In 2006, Theo Walcott signed for Arsenal Football Club. The English youngster, who spent the majority of his youth career at Southampton, used his blistering pace to overcome defenders with ease allowing him to gain an impressive reputation in the process.

He first properly introduced himself onto the football scene, when he became the youngest ever Southampton first team player, when he made his Saints debut at just 16 years and 143 days a record that has not been broken, even with the recent rise of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Barcelona's most successful manager of all time Pep Guardiola has Arsenal in his sights after admitting that there is very little more that he can do for the Catalan club. He would of course enjoy a new challenge, but would he really be a suitable replacement for Arsene Wenger if he does leave the Emirates [.

Messi and Pique take on Sporting Gijon (Photo: Viktor Drachev/Getty Images)

This Sunday, the "Pep Team" returns to the stadium where they recorded their first La Liga victory in the 2008-2009 season. Some would say that " El Molinón" was where it all started for Guardiola and his players, having thrashed Sporting Gijon 6-1 after a festival of football.