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following our explosive beginning to our offseason, which sees us on the cusp of capturing the signings of Yaya Toure and Thierry Henry, it became clear that an official thread is in order.
our squad will be made over in the coming weeks - Cristian Chivu is but one of the many players tipped to join the blaugrana.
the additions of wunderkinds Bojan Krkic and Giovanni dos Santos casts doubt on the future of Ludovic Giuly, who will most probably be joining Javier Saviola as attackers on their way out of Camp Nou. the futures of Samuel Eto'o and Ronaldinho are up in the air as well - though protestations from both parties, as well as from Joan Laporta and Frank Rijkaard, have been heard, it appears quite likely that one will leave. possible destinations include AC Milan, AC Milan, AC Milan, and Liverpool. ha, Eto'o at Liverpool. oh yeah, I forgot about Eidur Gudjohnsen. he's probably gone too. and Maxi Lopez is still our player, but he's never been any good, so who care.
in the midfield, all indications point to Deco's time mercifully being up. the addition of Toure points to more steel being required in the middle of the park, so I don't expect to see Xavi and Iniesta deployed at the same time. Motta, whose playing time has only diminished since he was 18, is sort of useful on the bench, but to be blunt, he also sucks. Marc Valiente, of Barcelona B, could be ready to make the step up and cover across the back and in the center of midfield, but that is yet to be seen.
the backline appears to be similarly in jeopardy. only club stalwart, captain, and all-around hero Carles Puyol is guaranteed a starting spot for next season, but he faces a lengthy recovery from a knee ligament injury suffered in a meaningless post-season friendly v. Sundowns or some other South African club. to be blunt, I've got no clue what will transpire - Gianluca Zambrotta, the best fullback at the club, has been tipped with a move back to Italy, while I hope that both Gio and Belletti are sent packing. Rafa Marquez, in addition to being Mexican, was also poor on the pitch last campaign, and the ageless wonder Lilian Thuram can't have more than a few dozen games left in those knobby legs of his.
oh yeah, Victor Valdes is garbage and I hope we sign Ustari from Independiente or coax Ruud Hesp out of retirement as a replacement.
here is my predicted starting lineup as of now (4-2-2-2, magic box style): Victor Valdes, Zambrotta, Gio, Puyol, Chivu, Yaya Toure, Xavi, Messi, Ronaldinho, Eto'o, Henry
with that, I'll hand off true ownership of this thread to yovan, a Barcelona fan who actually lives in Spain and, as such, is in a much better position than myself to relay news about the club.
I hope Real Madrid enjoy their La Liga trophy for this upcoming year. it's coming back home soon enough.
the FC Barcelona thread - 2007/2008 
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