Barcelona's 12 Days of Christmas
Barcelona approach the Christmas period with much to contemplate.
2014 has been a topsy-turvy year in one way or another. It started with the resignation of Sandro Rosell and the roller coaster never really stopped.
A mutual parting of the ways between the club and Tata Martino, the death of Tito Vilanova and the controversial signing of Luis Suarez are just three more incidents from an action-packed 12 months.
What will the New Year bring? Let's take a look at Barcelona's 12 days of Christmas and imagine just what the Catalans might like in their stockings this year...
Day 1: Stop Tinkering, Lucho!
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Luis Enrique risks incurring further wrath form the Camp Nou terraces if he continues with a penchant for rotation.
So far this season, Barcelona have played 24 times and in each game, the manager has started with a different XI.
Whilst rotation is essential in the modern era, doing so for the sake of it smacks of desperation and of a manager still uncertain of his best XI.
That's not good enough at this level.
Day 2: A Trip to Mestalla to Trip Up Real Madrid
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Real Madrid are enjoying a record-breaking winning streak at present and are taking on all before them.
However, they open up 2015 with one of their toughest assignments of the season, as a trip to Valencia's Mestalla awaits.
Los Che will be a tough nut to crack on their home patch, as Barcelona found out recently despite the last-second win.
And it's the Catalans who'll be the chief beneficiaries if Valencia can finally put an end to Real's epic run.
Day 3: 2 Wins from 2 to Go Top
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If Valencia can do Barcelona a favour, then there's every chance that the latter can move into top spot in the league within the first couple of games.
It won't be easy mind.
The Catalans have often struggled at the Anoeta and David Moyes will be looking to take the biggest of scalps as Real Sociedad host Barca in the opening fixture of the year.
That game is followed by a Camp Nou date with Atletico Madrid, themselves looking for an important three points to bring them closer to the top two.
Win those first two games however, and Barca put themselves in a healthy position, and with a reasonable platform to build on for the remainder of the season.
Day 4: Keep the Squad Together as the Vultures Start to Circle
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Barcelona find themselves in quite a precarious position.
As we approach the January transfer window, there won't be anyone coming in because of the FIFA ban, but one or two players could seemingly be on their way out of the club.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Pedro Rodriguez could be one of them.
Knowing that the Catalans are ripe for the picking, the vultures will soon be circling hoping to pick up a transfer-window bargain.
Unable to revitalise the squad for at least another year, Barca can certainly do without losing staff at this juncture.
Day 5: Ensuring the Problems at Right-Back Are Sorted
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A real thorny issue for Barca at the moment are the issues in the right-back area of the team.
Martin Montoya's agent has already noted that the youngster is set to leave Barca in January, per Ben Burrows of the Daily Mirror.
With Dani Alves' contract up in July and no new offer on the table, and Douglas clearly not ready for the rigours of La Liga, the Catalans are in danger of leaving themselves in a precarious position.
The situation must be addressed soonest so as not to upset the equilibrium of the team at a crucial point of the season.
Day 6: Marc Bartra to Make a Permanent Home in Central Defence
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The time has come.
Marc Bartra needs to be given a run of games in the centre of defence from now until the end of the season. And beyond.
The youngster has been in danger for a while now of just being a player who is always on the periphery, but he has shown with some truly masterful displays that he is the man for all occasions, including the big one.
Barca's best performer in the centre of defence by a distance this season, it will be a travesty if Luis Enrique continues to use him so sparingly.
Day 7: Luis Suarez to Hit the Goalscoring Trail
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Luis Suarez hasn't performed poorly at Barca, but he hasn't yet set the world alight in the way we might have expected.
Fortunately a number of assists has masked a failure to find the back of the net in La Liga during his opening few games.
There are reasonable comparisons to be made with Neymar's settling-in period from last season, and in the second half of this season the Uruguayan needs to be looking to make up for lost time.
Day 8: No Hooped Shirts Thank You
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The Blaugrana home shirt of Barcelona is one of the most iconic in world football. For 115 years now the vertical blue and garnet stripes have been synonymous with the Catalan club.
Thin stripes, fat stripes, graded stripes or halves. But always vertical.
So which bright spark decided to throw the cat amongst the pigeons and put forward the idea for hooped shirts?!
Pete Jenson's report for the Daily Mail includes pictures of the proposed new shirts leaked by Catalan paper Sport and notes:
"Touching the home shirt still ranks as blasphemy.
You might expect from an eccentric foreign owner with little sense of a club’s roots. But when the idea has come from, or been accepted by the club’s board, questions will be asked.
Early indications are that fans are 70-30 against the innovation, there is still time for a rethink.
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Given how much revenue is made from shirt sales, this could be another huge own goal from an already under-fire board.
Day 9: Cutting Ties with Qatar
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For Barca fans, if there is one thing more sacrilegious than not having a vertical-striped Blaugrana shirt, it is allowing a commercial sponsor to sit proudly on every shirt sold.
Until the Unicef deal a few years ago, the Catalans shied away from using sponsorship to desecrate their pride and joy.
Over 100 years of untainted club colours, but sadly that counted for nothing when Qatar and Middle Eastern riches came calling.
However, it could all be about to be reversed if reports are accurate.
According to Israeli TV station, Channel 2, and reported in the Jerusalem Post:
"The world's most popular soccer team, will gradually end their business partnership with the Qatari government in light of criticism over Doha's role in financing terrorist organizations, Channel 2 is reporting on Friday.
According to the Israeli television station, Barcelona [...] will opt not to renew its contract with the Gulf emirate once it expires in a little over a year.[...] Management at the La Liga club told Channel 2 that the decision to opt for a sponsorship deal, which was without precedent since the club had a longstanding tradition not to place any corporate logo on its uniforms, was necessary in light of a major debt that had saddled the team.
[...] According to Channel 2, Barcelona officials defended their original deal with Qatar, saying that at the time of its consummation, the emirate was not considered as extreme as it is today.
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The stark reality is that they will probably be replaced with another sponsor, however there was unease with Qatari involvement in the first place so the transition should prove to be an easier one for supporters to bare.
Day 10: Xavi Hernandez to Play on at Camp Nou, Not MLS
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Perhaps more than any other player, Xavi Hernandez embodies the Barca philiosophy.
Although his appearances in the team are more sporadic than previously as he begins to wind down a glorious career, the thought that he could be seeing out his playing days elsewhere is an unpalatable one.
Adam Crafton of the Daily Mail noted back in July that Xavi could delay an exit from the club last summer until January, with a view to moving on to New York City FC.
Barca must do everything in their power to stop that happening.
Xavi still has the power to influence games and that's a rare commodity in today's football marketplace.
Furthermore, it would be a sad and ignominious end to a Blaugrana career that has seen Xavi amass, amongst other accolades, the most Champions League appearances in history.
Barney Ronay speaks for all connected with Barca with his piece for The Guardian:
"No footballer has ever played such a decisive role in victory at three major international tournaments, or defined so clearly the dominant club team of the age. Xavi has won 25 major trophies, made more than 180 assists for more than 50 team-mates at Barcelona, and has over the last six years passed the ball more than anybody else, run more than anybody else, and basically played more football than any other human being anywhere.
And this is really the key to the triumph of Xavi-ism. Never mind the goalscorers, the cossetted glory-boys parcelling out the Ballon d'Or between them season after season. Messi may be brilliant, but he is brilliant in a way footballers have pretty much always been brilliant.
Xavi on the other hand, is something new, a player of preternaturally precise talents whose style – brutal, exhausting, aggressively unrelenting possession-football – has spread by trickle-down to lend a Xavi-coloured hue to pretty much every high-end midfield in every successful team anywhere. For the first time the ability to pass and move has been elevated to the primary skill, that unyielding mid-90s pass‑completion percentage enshrined as Xavi's own statistical badge of greatness, like Don Bradman's 99.4, or Pelé's 1,000 goals.
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Day 11: Lionel Messi, Ballon D'Or Winner
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Lionel Messi will want to be crowned the world's best player again, we can be pretty certain of that.
Quite whether he has done enough to dislodge Cristiano Ronaldo from his perch is a moot point. Even now, there has still been no proper directive from FIFA as to the required criteria to win the award.
Goals scored, matches influenced, trophies won. They will all have a bearing of course, but without knowing what the over riding factors are, despite favourites being in place it's still an award that is too close to call.
Both the Madrid and Catalan media and also the clubs involved are squarely behind their men. Were Messi to upset the odds and claim a record fifth trophy, it's unlikely to ever be surpassed.
Day 12: The Return of Eric Abidal
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The sight of Eric Abidal holding the Champions League trophy aloft at Wembley in 2011 is still a sight to give you goosebumps.
To have the courage to fight back to fitness after undergoing potentially life-changing health issues is a feat in itself. To do so twice is nothing short of miraculous.
It's why Abidal will always hold a special place in the hearts of everyone connected with Barcelona.
The news that the club have offered him a non-playing role at La Masia, according to Sport, will provide a timely boost to an organisation that have been under the microscope recently.
Whether he chooses to accept after the way he was treated previously, when a promised contract was reneged upon, we will have to wait and see.
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