Random: Bobby Robson, Training Talk & Barca At The Montalban

- Former Barca manager Sir Bobby Robson unfortunately passed away today at the age of 76, after he's been battling cancer for a long while. He coached the team for the 1996-1997 season, achieving such titles as the European Cup Winners Cup, the Copa Del Rey as well as the Spanish Super Cup. He will be greatly missed by the footballing world, may he rest in peace.

- Even though he won't be able to play for a couple of weeks because of his hand injury, Zlatan Ibrahimovic is due to start training with the team in a few days - great news, finally we'll get to see Ibra in action.

- In related news, Marquez, Maxwell and Henry, who had been training apart from the team due to injury, have rejoined the rest of the squad. Iniesta however is working apart from the group, and didn't come on the pitch at all today. He's suffering from a virus that's also causing him considerable wieght loss - poor guy, we hope it's nothing too serious.

- Some group of engineers are making robot versions of the Barca players to compete in the Korea Robot Game Festival. The robots represent Messi and Puyol, the first becuase he's the best in the world, the second because of his distinctive hairstyle. The robots 'walked' around on the pitch of Camp Nou today, too - okay, we just find this exceedingly weird, you?

- Pep Guardiola refuses to renew his contract with Barca. What gives? His current contract will only keep him with us for the next season, and frankly, if the end of the season comes and he looks to depart, we're going to be hit with a depression attack. How in the world will we find a replacement for the most perfect coach in the world? Somethind better be done about this.

- Barca's stay in the States is about more then playing friendlies. The boys participated today in the unveiling of a small rooftop football pitch at the Montalban Theater in the Hollywood area of LA, with a few of the players participating in a 3x3 match alongside female footballer Mia Hamm and Sex and the City star Gilles Marini. Barca captain Carles Puyol left his bootprint in the cement at the venue with the other players leaving their signatures; read more on the event here.

Barca Buzz: LA Training, Can You Feel The Love?

Barca training in Los Angeles, a.ka. once the squad is complete the romance is unleashed...

Pique leaping onto Puyol and smothering him - our Spanish centerbacks have missed each other! Geri's face is just begging for some love. Has anyone seen Bojan? He must have been watching from his ingenious hiding place behind Yaya, ready to leap out and snatch his boyfriend back from Puyol's clutches... poor Baby Bo. First Geri's affairs with Cesc during the Confed Cup, and now this.

He might always return to his first love, Thierry Henry though... er, or not. Titi's affections appear to be settling on newcomer Ibrahimovic - for two people who have just met, they seem to be getting on a bit too well. We love it though - Ibra and Titi are too cute together. It just saddens us that Bo seems to be left on the sidelines here.

But hang on - he has been pretty cuddly with Lionel Messi lately. Ah, the plot thickens. Of course, of course, with Samu's departure Leo needs a new PlayStation-sleepover buddy... could Bojan be the one? Maybe so, but it's doubtful, seeing as Leo has been getting friendly with various squad memebers in his search for a new pal; Dani, Ibra, even Pique, the list is endless...

But we still can't get over the Bojan-Pique breakup. And we're blaming Cescy. He lured Geri away from Bo over the summer only to ditch Geri himself in the end... really, Cescy, you could have at least followed him to Barca afterwards instead of leaving him looking for love from random players, like Puyol.

Because we all saw Puyol and Xavi holding hands. And even though everyone knows that Xavi is forever with Iniesta, it doesn't look like Puyol's going to be paying much attention to poor Geri.

Transfer Talk: Leo and Loan-Outs

Lionel Messi is flashing his thighs during LA training - we like. But now to the point: Following the team's U.S. tour, Barca plan to offer Messi a new-and-improved contract. The reason for the contract renewal is mainly Ibrahimovic, since he was signed with a higher salary and buy-out cluse than Leo. The club will increase Leo's pay to higher than Ibra's, since they want him to be the highest paid, as well as match Ibra's buy-out clause.

Barca defender Martin Caceras is officially off to Juventus on loan, with an option for the Italian club to sign him if they wish at the end of the season, for a pricetag of eleven million euros. Martin's already in Italy and passed his physical, while his presentation will follow later today.

Alexander Hleb has also left on loan to German club Stuttgart, for a year. Stuttgart was Hleb's club for four years before moving to Arsenal then Barcelona, so he should be quite at home there. He was already presented today.

Gossip on the Guys: Strange & Stranger

The players on Barca generally seem to have strange or out of the ordinary interests - Victor Valdes plays the piano; Bojan is a math genius as well as a movie lover (note: he lists Titanic as one of his favorites); Henry and Pique are both basketball fans, Dani Alves and Ibrahimovic are equally mad about the Formula 1 with Ibra also having a passion for martial arts... not to mention Pep's love for golf (and writing poetry!) or Xavi's for chocolate (ah, that we can relate to).

Andres Iniesta however always struck us as rather boring, after he claimed in an interview that his hobbies are going to the movies, reading, and using the computer. Right.

But woah there! Hang on a second. As it turns out, Andresito actually spent part of his vaycay at a military base flying fighter jets. That must beat out all, even Ibra's Tae Kwon Do... we're just loving it.

.

Barca Buzz: The Team's In LA!

Barca's plane arrived in Los Angeles earlier today! "Australia" was the in-flight movie the lads enjoyed during their twelve hour flight, also biding their time by playing cards or catching up on their sleep.

The team had departed yesterday from El Prat Airport in Barceona, and the people there just wouldn't leave Ibra alone. He ended up posing for no less than 135 photographs - before running away to buy a PSP game to entertain himself during Barca's flight.

The three cups of Barca's treble - Liga, Copa, Champions - traveled with the team in special cases. They will be put on display during each of the three matches Barca will play in the U.S. - oh, we are flaunting this treble, aren't we? Campeones, campeones, olé, olé, olé!

After landing the team went straight to their hotel in Beverly Hills, before later heading off to training. The session was a short one, only 35 minutes long, mainly just stretching and jogging to loosen up the players' muscles and battle jetlag. Iniesta trained apart from the group, still recovering from his injury, while Ibrahimovic can't train yet because of his arm and looked on from the sidelines, also having a long chat with sports director Txiki Begiristain.

What interests us though is that a cheerleading competition happened to be taking place at the same time on nearby pitches - they couldn't have been any distraction to the boys, could they?

Right, who are we kidding. We all know that though Pique's body was on the team's pitch, his eyes were on the other...

Random: Off To LA... & Geri's Awful Footwear Is Back

- The team's off to L.A. today! The second step of Barca's preseason, after the Wembley Cup, is the United States tour, which will kick off in California (against LA Galaxy - hello there Becks) before the squad continues to San Fransisco and Seattle. Pep's taking the entire squad with him except for Caceres and Hleb, also calling up B-teamers Muniesa, Fontas, Jeffren and Jonathan.

- Speaking of Hleb, after a loan to Inter was supposedly on the cards for him, it looks like he'll actually be headed out to German club Stuttgart instead. The midfielder doesn't want to face language problems again with Italian after he failed to pick up on Spanish after a year with Barcelona.

- New Barca signing Keirrison is officially out on loan to Portugese club Benfica for the next year, best of luck to him!

- We've missed Gerard Pique so much, but we're afraid that as he returns, so does his horrid fashion sense... Geri is wearing the most abominable shoes (photos below) on Barca's trip out to the States - what are they supposed to be, anyway? A cross of sorts between sandals and trainers? We're shuddering here. This boy is in desperate need of guidance.

Gossip on the Guys: Complete Shave For Pep?

Catalan paper Sport are one of the top authorities for Barca news, but we really don't know what to think of thier report that Pep Guardiola has not only gone and completely shaved his head and beard, but his arms and legs as well.

We're not as surprised as we might have been, since we've already been suspecting Pep of waxing his chest hair, but is this taking it too far? Really Pep, we don't much mind hairy legs, this is kind of extreme.

.

The shaved head/beardlessness is killing us though. Doesn't he realize how much of his hotness appeal is killed this way? How can Cristina let him.

According to Sport, Pep's gone completely clean-shaven in preparation for the team's U.S. tour - although we fail to see the relevence.

.

In the end, we guess we just never pictured Pep of all people to be the shaving/waxing type. Then again, this man never stops surprising us.

Barca Buzz: Ibra Meets The Team

The first training of the season with Barca's full squad took place today, with all the first team players attending except Hleb, who is awaiting his loan out to Inter Milan. Most of the youth players have rejoined the B-team, except for Muniesa, Jonathan, Jeffren and Fontas, who continue training with the senior squad (remember that Sanchez and Pedro have aleady recently been confirmed as part of the first team).

The injured Ibrahimovic dropped by for a chat with Pep prior to the training session, before going out onto the pitch to meet the rest of the players. Maxwell, Ibra's teammate from his days at Inter as well as Ajax, and Abidal, who also knows the striker from when he played for Ajax, spent a few minutes with their friend as well.

Injury Report: Ibra Out For Three Weeks

The club's latest signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic arrived in Barcelona yesterday with a hand injury which was later diagnosed at his physical as a fracture, and the player underwent surgery today. The surgery was successful, and medics report that he'll be out for an expected three weeks, most likely making his debut on August 19th during the Gamper Cup (which, incidentally, will also be the first match played on Camp Nou with the new grass). Ibra is still expected to travel with the team to the United States however.

Elsewhere, Andres Iniesta is suffering from a virus in his stomach, as Barca's medics discovered yesterday when he took his physical. It's nothing serious though, and with his thigh injury recovering, Andresito should be back in action soon.

Birthday Boy: Pedro

Barca's Pedro turns twenty-two today, congratulations to him! At such a young age he's a phenomenal player, raised in Barca's youth ranks and getting call-ups to the first team for an entire season now. He's got strength and consistence, the type of player you can always count on.

Pedro got an early birthday present when Pep confirmed, following his goal against Al-Ahly, that he is officially part of the senior squad. The lad was honored by his teammates as well during training earlier today, when they all gave him a round of applause. Pedro was delighted, and we hope the rest of his day's been wonderful too!

Barca Buzz: A Quiet Reunion

While most of the Blaugrana world was caught up in the excitement of Ibrahimovic's presentation, an odd training session took place yesterday with Barca coach Pep Guardiola and ten players in attendance: Pique, Puyol, Iniesta, Xavi, Busquets and Dani Alves returning from thier international leave; as well as Marquez, Maxwell, Henry and Hleb who are recovering from injury.

The beginning of the training was marked with greetings and hugs between the players as well as their coach, all so glad to see one another. Don't they look adorable?

It's like Henrique mentioned in his blog: "Another thing I've noticed at Barca is the fantastic atmosphere among the squad. The group is tightly knit and everybody speaks to each other. I knew it was a very united squad, but I didn't imagine just how much. We joke around, but when the time comes to get down to work, we work hard and seriously, so I'm really happy to be with this team."

He is so right. The level of unity between the players is one of the most beautiful things about the team, and one of the things that makes us to proud to support Barca.

Only: What's with Pep going completely bald all of a sudden? Why Pep, why do that to us?