LE TOUR DE FRANCE 2008:TEAM CSC-SAXO BANK, CHAPEAU! (This article is available in English and Spanish)

The spectacular Tour de France will finish next Sunday and until this moment we are seeing a superb labour of the impressive Team CSC-Saxo Bank.

This Danish team is showing that it is the best team of the French competition and it is exerting a great control of the race in any race´s circumstance, since it has experimental and powerful bicyclers as the Norwegian Kart-Asle Arvense (he won 2 stages of the Giro d´Italia in the past and this year he has won one stage in the Tour de France), or the Danish Nicki Sörensen or the powerful Australian Stuart O'Grady-he was one of the best “sprinters” of the world and besides he was Olympic Champion in Athens in Men´s Madison-and the Ukrainian Volodymir Gustov. These 4 road bicycle racers are the first option, used by the team´s manager, Bjarne Riis, to control the race and when this quartet has already given everything and Riis want to harden the race, he can use 2 super-class road bicycle racers, firstly the elegant and formidable Swiss Fabian Cancellara-he has an incredible level and he is one of the best for a classic races as Milan-San Remo or Paris-Roubaix and of course he is a clear favourite, alongside the Italian Paolo Bettini or the Spanish Oscar Freire, to win the gold medal in the Olympic Games in Beijing-and later to melt down the rivals, the powerful German Jens Voigt, who seems that he has a motorbike during the races-he is synonymous of power and control of the race and he won 2 stages in the Tour de France and one more in the Giro d´Italia-. Once these sensational 6 road bicycle racers have fulfilled their task, it's time to the team´s leaders to show their level and quality, like they have done today in the climb up to the Alpe-d'Huez, where we saw a Team CSC-Saxo Bank´s exhibition and impressive superiority, because on the one hand we saw the excellent attack of the Danish team´s leader, the Spanish Carlos Sastre, who has only a short response from the Russian Denis Menchov of the Team Rabobank and he could climb alone the famous mountain and he arrived the finish line with an important gap of 2 minutes and 15 seconds over the other favourites to final victory. This gap was enough for Sastre, both to win this mythical stage and to get the Yellow jersey (the leader of the Tour) of the Tour de France. But this Carlos Sastre´s win would not have been possible without the great help of the other members of the team and especially of the Luxembourg brothers-Fränk (he won the stage of Alpe-d' Huez in 2006) and Andy-(sons of Johnny Schleck, who was a good professional road bicycler racer in the 60 and 70)Schleck, who are 2 sensational athletes and today they have been brilliant, because they controlled perfectly all the rivals, defending the situation of Carlos Sastre and they did it with an incredible ease, almost insulting, because they climbed up the Alpe-d´Huez with a formidable way. The truth is that I want to see the next edition of the Tour de France because it can be spectacular the duel between Fränk (28 year´s old) and Andy (23 year´s old) Schleck against the Spanish Alberto Contador (it is a pity that we can not see the Spanish professional road bicycler racer of Team Astana in this edition of the Tour de France, because I think that he would have won it with relative ease). Anyway, we have had a great show today in this stage of the Alpe-d' Huez and now we are anxious to see the result of the Satuday´s individual time-trial, which it will be the moment of the truth, because we will see the definite duel between the 3 candidates for the final victory of the Tour de France: Carlos Sastre, the Australian Calde Evans of the Team Silence-Lotto -Sastre has an advantage of 1 minute and 34 seconds over the Australian-and the Russian Denis Menchov of the Team Rabobank-Sastre has an advantage of 2 minutes and 39 seconds over the Russian-.

Lastly, I can not finish this article without referring to the absurd attacks in Alpe-d'Huez of the Spanish Samuel Sanchez of Team Euskaltel Euskadi and Alejandro Valverde of Team Caisse d'Epargne, since honestly I do not understand these late attacks, since these 2 Spanish bicyclers did not have any option to win the stage and the accelerations had a consequence: to reduce the Carlos Sastre´s advantage, benefiting to the Australian Cadel Evans –Ok, Valverde and Sánchez do not belong to the Team CSC-Saxo Bank, but they are Spanish as Sastre and I suppose that if they can not win anything, they prefer the victory of other Spanish, except that they envy the Carlos Sastre´s situation and they prefer the victory of a foreign bicycler, but for me these actions are absurd-.
Cheers,
J&F

LE TOUR DE FRANCE 2008:TEAM CSC-SAXO BANK, CHAPEAU! (This article is available in English and Spanish)

Estamos a 4 jornadas del fin del Tour de Francia y a la espera de la definitiva etapa del sábado (53 km de contrarreloj individual), estamos viendo a un impresionante equipo, el CSC-SAXO BANK.
Este equipo danés está demostrando que es el mejor equipo de la ronda gala, pues ejercen un gran control de la carrera y la dominan como les da la gana, ya sea en la montaña o en el llano con grandes ciclistas especializados para dicha materia como el noruego Kart-Asle Arvensen(ganó una etapa en este Tour de Francia, que añade a las 2 etapas del Giro de Italia que tenía en su palmarés), o el danés Nicki Sörensen o el potentísimo australiano Stuart O´Grady-que cuando tenía menos años era uno de los mejores sprinter del mundo y fue campeón olímpico en Atenas en pista(modalidad madison)-y el ucranio Volodymir Gustov. Estos 4 grandes rodadores son el primer cartucho utilizado por el director del equipo, Bjarne Riis, para el control de la carrera y cuando este cuarteto ya lo ha dado todo y es necesario un punto más para endurecer la carrera, vemos como toman la cabeza del pelotón 2 super clase del ciclismo mundial, en primer lugar el elegante y formidable suizo Fabian Cancellara-tiene un nivel increíble y en carreras de un día es uno de los mejores junto al italiano Paolo Bettini o el español Oscar Freire y es por supuesto un claro favorito para conseguir la medalla de oro en los juegos olímpicos de Beijín, tanto en contrarreloj como en la prueba en ruta-y después para fundir aún más a los rivales el poderosísimo alemán Jens Voigt, que en lugar de ir en bicicleta parece que va en moto-que potencia y control muestra siempre este vencedor de 2 etapas en el Tour de Francia y 1 etapa del Giro de Italia!-.
Una vez que estos sensacionales 6 ciclistas han cumplido con su cometido, es el momento de los líderes del equipo para que muestren su nivel y calidad, cosa que han hecho hoy en la ascensión del Alpe-d´Huez, donde hemos visto una exhibición y superioridad impresionante del equipo CSC-SAXO BANK, pues por un lado a comienzo de puerto, vimos el ataque del jefe de filas del equipo danés, el español Carlos Sastre, que si bien tuvo una pequeña respuesta del ruso Denis Menchov del equipo Rabobank, al final consiguió marcharse solo y empezó a abrir poco a poco hueco hasta llegar a la meta con 2 minutos y 15 segundos de diferencia con relación al resto de favoritos para la victoria final. Esta diferencia le valió a Sastre para ganar esta mítica etapa y para enfundarse además el maillot amarillo de líder del Tour de Francia. Pero esta victoria de etapa de Carlos Sastre no hubiese sido posible sin la gran ayuda de sus compañeros, especialmente de los hermanos luxemburgueses Schleck –Fränk (ganó la etapa de Alpe-d´Huez en 2006) y Andy- (hijos de Johnny Schleck, que fue un buen ciclista profesional en los años 60 y 70) , pues estos 2 sensacionales deportistas han estado brillantes, pues en todo momento han controlado a todos los rivales, saliendo a todos los ataques con una soltura increíble, casi insultante, pues han subido como han querido y si comparamos sus caras con las de los demás miembros del grupo de lideres, parecía que los hermanos, en lugar de subir el puerto de montaña, lo estaban bajando. Qué nivelazo! y la verdad, ya tengo ganas de que llegue el próximo Tour de Francia, porque el duelo de Fränk (28 años) y Andy (23 años) Schleck contra el español Alberto Contador será impresionante (qué lástima que no podamos ver en esta edición al corredor español del Astana, porque creo que lo hubiese ganado con relativa facilidad).
En fin, gran espectáculo en la última subida de esta etapa del Alpe-d´Huez y ahora ver lo que ocurre el próximo sábado, que será la hora de la verdad, pues los ciclistas se enfrentaran a una dura contrarreloj de 53 km, en la que veremos un bonito duelo entre los 3 candidatos a la victoria final del Tour: Carlos Sastre, Calde Evans del equipo Lotto Silence-tiene que remontarle a Sastre 1 minuto y 34 segundos- y el ruso Denis Menchov-que le tiene que remontar a Sastre 2 minutos y 39 segundos-.
Por último, no puedo terminar el articulo sin referirme a los ataques finales en el Alpe-d´Huez de los españoles Samuel Sanchez del equipo Euskaltel Euskadi y Alejandro Valverde del Caisse d´Epargne, pues sinceramente no los entiendo, pues estos acelerones no conducían a ningún lado, ya que Carlos Sastre estaba muy lejos y era imposible pillarlo y lo único que han conseguido es que se redujera la diferencia, beneficiando al australiano Cadel Evans y perjudicando a Sastre-vale que son equipos diferentes y cada uno mira lo suyo, pero si no vas a ganar nada, creo que no es necesario perjudicar a un compatriota, pero en fin son las carreras y por lo que se ve en ellas no hay amigos o quizás les moleste que otro ciclista español pueda ganar el Tour de Francia-.

Cheers,

J&F

RONALDINHO: ANOTHER JOAN LAPORTA´S MISMANAGEMENT (This article is available in English and Español)

When we spoke about the Joan Laporta´s vote of confidence, we said that this man should resign because his management in FC Barcelona is horrible and the Ronaldinho Gaucho´s issue is another example of Laporta´s mismanagement.

I can not understand the change of Ronaldinho, since he was considered the best player of the world and he was acclaimed by the supporters, who consider now that Ronaldinho is as a mediocre player, ¿who is the responsible? It is clear, the FC Barcelona´s president, who, by the way, has shown that he has not dignity, because he decided to continue as president after the negative result of vote of confidence. Well, this is Laporta, an irresponsible and he is showing his “abilities” as president with the transfer of Ronaldinho to FC Barcelona´s rival AC Milan. Generally the persons, who know perfectly the problems or bad habits of the players- especially in this case- are the presidents, so ¿why did not Laporta sell Ronnie after the FC Barcelona´s Champions League title in Paris or perhaps people began to see “the Gaucho” in many parties from that championship?. A good manager would have done: to earn a lot of money with the transfer of the superstar and to start a new project financed by the sale of the superstar. If Joan Laporta had done this thing, FC Barcelona had had less problems, because since then we have practically been hearing the same song: If Ronaldinho was in the gym; If Ronaldinho was injured: If he was sick and he could not train; if he made a test of fatigue with a pathetic result; if Eto'o was angry with Ronaldinho; If Ronaldinho was injured but he was in a party, etc. So, we have heard a lot of rumours, whose consequence is clear: a devaluation of the player, being the president the ultimately responsible, since he took a very permissive and passive attitude-although some Spanish media, as the journalist of the Spanish Radio Intereconomía Toni Guerrero, said that he had an active attitude with the parties of players-with the players. I think that it was necessary discipline and punishments and besides to explain the real situation to the supporters in order to look for a reaction of the player and a change of his attitude. But FC Barcelona did not chose the correct way and now we have the result: a pathetic sale of 21 million euros (Gremio Porto Alegre and PSG will receive a portion of this sum of money)-FC Barcelona paid 32 million euros for Ronaldinho, so it is another “excellent” Laporta´s business, whose “ideal” is: to sell a player = to loss money, although in this case we have to say that Laporta had the “help” of Pep Guardiola, who devalued Ronnie, Eto'o and Deco, since he did not speak well about them-.
Anyway we do not understand the comments of the some Catalan media, since they say that it is a good deal, since it is very difficult to earn money to a player of 28 year´s old. Of course it is an absurd comment, because if we look at the history of the transfers, we can find some examples as Zidane -he was 29 year´s old when Real Madrid paid to Juventus 73.5 million euros (the Italian club earned 70 million euros), or the Ukrainian Andriy Shevchenko – when he was 30 year´s old, AC Milan sold him for 46 million euros, earning 23 million euros-or Marc Overmars- when he was 27 year´s old, Arsenal sold him to FC Barcelona for 40 million, earning 32 million-.Someone can say that these transfer were in other period, when clubs had a lot of money, but if we analyse the transfer of this season, we can see that the Ronnie´s transfer is a cheap transfer, since clubs are paying a lot of money for good players, but they are not famous football´s stars as Jo-Manchester City paid 24 million euros-or Amauri -Juventus paid 22.8 million for him-or Miralem Sulejmani-Ajax paid 16 million euros to SC Herenveen-or the back Bosingwa –Chelsea paid 20 million euros for him-.

In short, the Ronaldinho Gaucho´s transfer is another example of a poor planning and sincerely I do not like the 2008/09 FC Barcelona´s squad and it needs many new players to be a competitive team, because for the moment, FC Barcelona has signed defenders and players, who are similar to other players of the squad, ¿when will we see wingers? We will be attentive to the news and of course we wish good luck to Ronnie in his new Italian adventure.

Cheers,

J&F

RONALDINHO: LAPORTA, SUMA Y SIGUE (This article is available in English and Español)

En el artículo referente a la moción de censura contra el presidente del FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta, dijimos que este caballero debía dimitir porque gestionar peor una entidad deportiva es difícil hacerlo y otro ejemplo lo tenemos con la estancia de Ronaldinho Gaucho en el FC Barcelona.
Que nos expliquen cómo es posible que un jugador que lo era todo para el aficionado blaugrana, ha pasado a ser una medianía y objeto de mofa y de ataques personales, ¿quién es el responsable de todo esto? Pues está claro, el “impresidente” blaugrana, que por cierto ha demostrado que dignidad tiene poca, porque seguir en el cargo tras el resultado de la moción de censura, es algo realmente increíble. Pero en fin, él suma y sigue, ahora mal vendiendo a un jugador como el Gaucho y encima a un rival directo como es el AC Milan.
Generalmente los máximos conocedores de los jugadores, sobre todo en este caso, son los presidentes, que saben perfectamente de que pie cojea cada jugador, así que por qué Laporta no vendió a Ronnie en su momento álgido, tras la conquista de la Champions en París o acaso la gente empezó a ver al Gaucho de fiesta por Castelldefels a partir de ese triunfo. Un buen gestor lo hubiese hecho, hubiese sacado un dineral y fuera, a por un nuevo proyecto, que por cierto hubiese estado totalmente financiado con la venta de la superestrella.Si esto se hubiese hecho con Ronaldinho, cuántos dolores de cabeza se hubiese evitado, pues desde entonces prácticamente hemos estado oyendo la misma canción, que si Ronaldinho está en el gimnasio, que si Ronaldinho está lesionado, que si se está enfermo, que si no entrena, que si hace una prueba de cansancio y da un resultado patético, que si Eto´o esta enfadado y carga contra Ronaldinho, que si Ronaldinho está lesionado pero está de juerga, en fin, mil rumores, algunos ciertos y otros media verdad, pero que han llevado a la devaluación del jugador, siendo el máximo responsable el presidente, que ha tomado una actitud muy pasiva-aunque según dicen algunos medios, como el periodista de Radio Intereconomía Toni Guerrero, demasiado activa y participativa en lo relacionado a las juergas- y permisiva con los jugadores. Era necesario disciplina y mano dura y si un jugador no jugaba que se dijera la verdadera razón y así intentar que el jugador reaccionase y cambiase de actitud. Pero en Can Barça no se ha hecho y aquí vienen los resultados, una venta patética de 21 millones de euros (hay que descontar una cantidades a las que tienen derecho el Gremio de Porto Alegre y el PSG) cuando el FC Barcelona pagó por él 32 millones de euros, o sea que “negocio redondo”, en la línea de Laporta: venta de jugador= pérdida de dinero, aunque en este caso debemos decir que Laporta no es el único responsable de la mala venta, pues ha tenido la inconmensurable ayuda del bocazas mayor del reino, Pep Guardiola, que en su presentación como nuevo técnico devaluó a Ronnie, Deco y Eto´o. Lo que no entiendo es porque los medios de comunicación catalanes dicen que es un buen negocio económico y que es difícil sacarle más dinero a un jugador de 28 años, en fin sin comentarios y ejemplos tenemos mil, donde se consiguieron cifras muy importantes como con Zidane- tenía 29 años cuando la Juventus lo traspasó al Real Madrid por 73,5 millones de euros ganando 70 millones de euros en esa operación-, o el ucraniano Andriy Shevchenko – el AC Milan lo vendió por 46 millones de euros, ganando 23 millones de euros con un jugador de 30 años-, o Marc Overmars- el Arsenal lo vendió al FC Barcelona por 40 millones, ganando 32 millones en un jugador de 27 años-, y que no me vengan con que eran otros tiempos y había más dinero, porque por ejemplo este año se están pagando cantidades importantes por buenos jugadores pero que aún no son estrellas mundialmente conocidas como Jo –el Manchester City pagó 24 millones de euros- o Amauri- jugará en la Juventus tras los 22,8 millones pagados- o el talentoso serbio Miralem Sulejmani-el Ajax pagó 16 millones de euros al SC Herenveen- o el lateral Bosingwa -20 millones de euros pagó el Chelsea-.
En fin, es lo que hay, mala planificación y sinceramente este proyecto 2008/09 del FC Barcelona no tiene demasiada buena pinta y mucho tienen que fichar para tener un equipo realmente competitivo, porque de momento, mucho defensa y más de lo mismo, ¿cuándo veremos jugadores específicos de banda ofensivos?
Estaremos atentos a las novedades y desde Saqueneutral queremos desearle mucha suerte a Ronnie en su nueva aventura italiana.
Cheers,
J&F

LE TOUR DE FRANCE 2008: THE FIRST IMPORTANT STAGE (This article is available in English and Español)

The first important stage of the Tour de France 2008 will take place this Monday, since the riders will climb 2 difficult and classic mountains, the “col du Tourmalet” and the final climb to Hautacam , where we begin to see the first big differences among the favourites to win the French round. At the moment we are seeing much equality and few surprises in this Tour de France, since the “a priori” favourites (Cadel Evans of the Silence-Lotto Team; Carlos Sastre, Fred and Andy Schleck of the CSC team; Alejandro Valverde and Oscar Pereiro of Caisse d'Epargne; Kim Kirchen of Team Columbia; Christian Vandevelde of Slipstream Chipotle; Damiano Cunego of the Lampre or Denis Menchov of Rabobank) are responding to the expectation and they arrive, after the difficult first week Tour de France-there are a lot of speed and crashes during this week-, with few differences of time.

Of course there are some favourites, who are showing better sensations than others and for example we want to remark the Australian Cadel Evans, because he is transmitting a great strength and a big control of the race and he is possibly the maximum candidate for the final triumph because this rider is very regular and secure both in the individual time-trial and in the mountains, where he defends very well the position and possibly he only will have problem with the explosive attacks of the offensive Italian rider Ricardo "la Cobra "Ricco -Team Saunier Duval- (I do not include Ricco in the favourites´s group, because he finished exhausted the Giro d´Italia- he concluded in the second position of the overall standings- and probably he will have many problems during the last week of the Tour de France. But this rider can be the judge of the race, because his strong attacks can help to other cyclists who follow the footsteps of this great Italian rider).The only Cadel Evans´s question is his performance during this difficult stage since he crashed during the Suday´s stage and he can have some injuries.

On the other hand, we want to emphasize the strength of the CSC team, since this team has 3 excellent riders, the Spanish Carlos Sastre- he is also transmitting good senses- and the 2 brothers Fred and Andy Schleck. So, the team´s director, Bjarne Riis, has 3 winning cards and if he administers well this situation, this team will say many things during this Tour de France and of course any of them can be the final winner. We also want to remark the excellent level of the Spanish Oscar Pereiro-it seems that he has a motorbike in this Tour, because he is very strong and he has a big control of the race and of course it is reasonable to think that he can win again the Tour de France (he won this competition in 2006)- and the Russian Denis Menchov- if he manages to overcome more or less the mountain stages, he will have many chance, because he is an excellent specialist for the individual time trial stages-.

Finally, we want to refer to some favourites, who are showing some doubts about their chances of victory. The Spanish Alejandro Valverde is one of the rider, whose level is not the expected-he is in the wrong position during the important moments of the race and he lost too much time in the individual time trial stage and of course he crashed during a stage (it is a Valverde´s tradition)-and possibly he should no be the leader of the team and he should work for Oscar Pereiro, who shows more security. Along with Valverde, another of the disappointments is the Italian Damiano Cunego, since it seems that he did not start off the Tour de France very well and when the race has important moments, he loses position and time. Anyway, we continue to bet on this Italian rider, because he has focused all his preparation during this year to arrive ok to the Tour de France and specially to the final week of the French-he even did not run the Giro d´Italia- and we think that he will gradually find his best form and it is sure that he will be with the best riders and he will fight to be the winner.

So, we recommend not to miss Tour de France in general and in particular this stage, where we will see the riders, who will not win this year the Tour de France, since if a rider loses much time during this stage, it will be very difficult that he can soar and make up the time.

Cheers,

J&F

EL TOUR DE FRANCIA 2008:LLEGA LO BUENO

Este Lunes 14 julio tenemos la primera gran etapa del Tour de Francia 2008, pues los ciclistas se enfrentarán a 2 colosos y clásicos puertos de montaña, el col du Tourmalet y la subida final a Hautacam-puertos de máxima dificultad-, en los que comenzaremos a ver las primeras grandes diferencias entre los favoritos para el triunfo final de la ronda gala.
De momento estamos presenciando un Tour de Francia muy igualado, con pocas diferencias entre los favoritos y sin sorpresa, pues están bien clasificados, todos los que a priori debían estar ahí, es decir: Cadel Evans del equipo Lotto; Carlos Sastre, Fred y Andy Schleck del equipo CSC; Alejandro Valverde y Oscar Pereiro del Caisse D´Epargne; Kim Kirchen del Team Columbia; Christian Vandevelde del Slipstream Chipotle; Damiano Cunego del Lampre o Denis Menchov del Rabobank. Todos estos ciclistas han superado bastante bien la primera semana del Tour de Francia, que es una semana siempre complicada, pues en ella se va muy deprisa y suele haber bastantes caídas, en las que suelen verse implicados alguno de los favoritos.
Dentro de este grupo de favoritos tenemos que destacar a una serie de nombres, pues por un lado, Cadel Evans está mostrando una gran solidez, sin hacer mucho ruido ya está segundo en la clasificación y es en principio el máximo candidato al triunfo final, pues es un corredor muy regular en todos los terrenos, que marcha bien en las cronos y que además es un auténtica lapa en las etapas de montaña-muy complicado dejarlo atrás, quizás el único que pueda hacerlo es el explosivo y ofensivo italiano Ricardo “la cobra” Ricco del equipo Saunier Duval ( a Ricco no lo incluimos en el grupo de favoritos, porque viene de disputar a tope el Giro de Italia-lo terminó 2º- y seguramente la última semana del Tour de Francia se le hará muy cuesta arriba. Ahora bien, este ciclista puede ser el juez de la carrera, pues sus fuertes ataques pueden ser aprovechados por algún otro ciclista que sigua la estela del genial escalador italiano); la única incógnita que presenta Cadel Evans es que en la etapa este domingo sufrió una caída, con lo que es un poco una incógnita cual va a ser su estado en la etapa de este lunes.
Por otro lado, queremos destacar la fortaleza del equipo CSC, pues tiene muy bien clasificado al español Carlos Sastre-también está sin hacer ruido, pero se le está viendo muy fino- y a los hermanos luxemburgueses Fred y Andy Schleck.Es decir, que el director del equipo, Bjarne Riis, tiene 3 cartas ganadoras y que si las administra bien, pueden hacer mucho daño, pudiendo poner en cualquier momento la carrera patas arriba.
También queremos resaltar las buenísimas sensaciones del español Oscar Pereiro-va como una moto, muy fuerte, con mucha soltura, dominio de la carrera y no parece descabellado pensar en que pueda volver a ganar el Tour (ya lo consiguió en 2006)- y el ruso Denis Menchov, que si logra superar más o menos bien las etapas de montaña, ojo con él, porque va como un avión en las etapas de crono individual.

Finalmente, queremos referirnos a los favoritos que están mostrando ciertas dudas sobre sus posibilidades de triunfo. Uno de los corredor que no me está gustando es el español Alejandro Valverde, pues no está transmitiendo buenas sensaciones-mal colocado en momentos importantes, en la crono individual perdió un tiempo excesivo y como de costumbre se cayó al suelo en una etapa- y posiblemente debería dejar de ser el jefe de filas del equipo y convertirse en un gregario de Oscar Pereiro, que sí que transmite confianza. Junto a Valverde, otra de las decepciones está siendo el italiano Damiano Cunego, pues parece que no llegó a este inicio de Tour de Francia en buena forma y estamos viendo que cuando la carrera se pone interesante, pierde posiciones y cede tiempo- aunque al menos hoy ya entró con el grupo de favoritos-. De todas formas, seguimos apostando por este italiano, pues este año ha centrado toda su preparación para llegar bien a la ronda gala y especialmente a la última semana de la carrera francesa-incluso renunció a correr el Giro de Italia-, con lo que suponemos que poco a poco irá encontrando su mejor forma y seguro que al final estará con los mejores.

En fin, recomendamos no perderse el Tour de Francia en general y esta etapa en particular, en la que si bien no se decidirá el vencedor final del Tour, en ella sí que veremos quien no lo va a ganar, pues es el que no esté fino y pierda un tiempo importante en esta etapa, le va a ser muy difícil remontarlo posteriormente.
Cheers,
J&F

FC BARCELONA: THE VOTE OF CONFIDENCE (This article is available in English and Español)

Today the vote of confidence against FC Barcelona´s president Joan Laporta is taking place. Those, who have followed us during the last months, know our critical position to the management of Laporta as president of this club, because we believe that it is very difficult to doing the things worse. However we believe that it is not a good option to hold a vote of confidence at this time, because the only thing that it is causing is more bad managements of the FC Barcelona´s president Joan Laporta during this period and whether the vote of confidence thrives, whether it does not thrive, the consequences are and will be negative for the club because:

1-It is very difficult that the vote of confidence thrives, since it requires an important participation and votes in favour of the Laporta´s dismissal, so I think that everything will continue to be the same on Sunday night and therefore Laporta will continue with his mismanagement. We saw important mismanagements during this period of the vote of confidence, since Laporta wanted to convince the supporters with news acquisition, but he paid a lot of money for these new players. The truth is that to sell and buy players during this period is a big mistake, because the sellers are take advantage of the moment of the weakness of the president and they are demanding a lot of money for just normal player, because they know that Laporta needs new faces and excuses to appear every day in the medias to campaign and to criticize the former FC Barcelona´s vice president Sandro Rosell, who will be a future candidate to be FC Barcelona´s president. If we look at the list of the acquisitions in the recent times is "impressive" because on the one hand FC Barcelona signed the inexperienced and arrogant coach and Pep Guardiola-we should remember that FC Barcelona´supporters did not want Guardiola when he was in the list of the candidate to be FC Barcelona´s president Lluis Bassat (it was incredible the Guardiola´s bet: the inexperienced Juanma Lillo as FC Barcelona´s coach…no more comment!!).

On the other hand, it seems that Joan Laporta is a president of an Italian team, because the club has only signed defensive players for next season, spending 77 million euros in defensives players like Gerard Pique-¿is it "good" to pay 5 million euros for a player, who was in your club 4 years and now he comes to FC Barcelona after an “important” experience with Manchester United, according some Catalans media? ¿is it an important experience to play 581 minutes in the Premier league and 252 in the Champions League? I do not think so, but if they want this player, ok, although I doubt that Piqué have a lot of minutes, since Pep Guardiola said during the presentation of Pique that he had many doubts about the personality of this player, which does not seem a good opinion about the player-or Martin Caceres-the catalan club paid 16 million euros for this central defender, who arrives to FC Barcelona after an “incredible” experience of 60 games in modest teams as professional and so at least one must be cautious and wait to see if Caceres will carry the Camp Nou´s pressure-, or the Brazilian Henrique, who arrives to Barcelona after a transfer of 10 million euros and an "amazing" experience in the Brazilian first division -but the supporters of FC Barcelona can be calm, because this player played with the Brazilian National team (1 game against Venezuela –Brazil lost this game,0-2-this is a typical practice of representatives and clubs to put up the price of the player-), or as the centre midfielder Seydou Keita ( Keita is a good player, but I think it is unnecessary to pay 14 million euros for a player of 28 year´s old, when you have in this position the immeasurable Yaya Toure-he is 25 year´s old and he arrived last season after 12 million euros-and Rafael Marquez, who can play perfectly in this position and he is only 29 year´s old). Besides, if it is not enough to have 3 defensive midfielders in the squad, FC Barcelona is also in talks with another more, the Sao Paulo´s player Hernandes, who possibly will be the new Fabio Rochemback-Hernandes played with the Brazilian National (26 minutes of the game between Brazil-Sweden).I do not understand these acquisitions, because I suppose that we will see only one of these player in the field, except that Pep Guardiola opts for a catenaccio´s tactical.

The other acquisitions are the Brazilian right back Dani Alves( this is a good player, specially in his offensive labour, although he had the estimable help from Jesus Navas during his period in Sevilla, which will not have in FC Barcelona, because the incompetent Txiqui Beguiristain -the sport director- does not sign a specific player for this position, so it is uncertain the performance of the Brazilian right back, who arrived to Barcelona after a transfer of 32 million euro-of course Sevilla FC ´s president, Mr Del Nido, took advantage of weakness and needs of Laporta-) and the goalkeeper Pinto, who is not a bad goalkeeper, but he is not having good luck in Barcelona, since he played 3 games last season and he received 8 goals!!(the truth is that if the incompetent Beguiristain wanted to sign a goalkeeper this summer, he should moved six months ago in order to sign a goalkeeper, whose contract ended last 30 of June as Edwin Var Der Sar or Tim Wiese or Igor Akinfeev-now all the teams want him after his good Euro-. I suppose that Beguiristain did not read our article of the 29 of October, where we talked about the best players, whose contract finished last June, where he can read players like the defenders Ujfalusi and Mellberg, or midfielders like Tim Borowski and Dani Carvalho, or forwards as Govou and Roman Pavlyuchenko-another famous player after the Euro-.Well, this is Beguiristain and Laporta, a synonym of mismanagement and poor planning.

But if we criticize the arrivals, what can we say of the sales. Clearly, we were in period of rebates, discounts and presents, because Laporta is giving away the assets of the club until this Sunday, since for example Edmilson, who cost 8 million Euros, leaves the club free; or Lilian Thuram cost 5 million and he leaves the club free; or Gianluca Zambrotta cost 14 million euros and now FC Barcelona sells this player for 8.5; or the promising Giovani dos Santos, who arrived to Tottenham Hotspurs after a transfer of 6 million euros- although this player was overvalued, I think it is questionable this FC Barcelona´s management, since Tottenham Hotspurs is paying a lot of money for normal players and for example it paid 12 million euros for the Brazilian goalkeeper Gomes and 12 million euros for the central defender Kabuol-; or Deco, who arrived to Chelsea after a transfer of 10 million euros (FC Barcelona paid 21 million euros for Deco) (it is clear that we must give a medal to Beguiristain, since it has “merit” to lose money when he transfers player to Chelsea- this situation also occurred when FC Barcelona sold Belletti to Chelsea last season, bravo!). Anyway, I must say that Beguiristain has not had much help in this transfer, since when Guardiola was presented as the new coach, he said that he did not want in the squad neither Deco, neither Ronaldinho nor Eto'o because they are not at their best level (I can not understand this comment, since now it will be very difficult to find an interested club for these players). Anyway, please do not say stupid arguments, as for example that Deco is a repaid player, because I suppose that Arsenal had more than repaid Henry, but he pulled out to FC Barcelona for 24 million euros-Arsenal paid 16 million to Juventus-. Besides Barça paid this astronomical amount for a player with a chronic back injury, so….. I suppose that the only reason of this sold was that the club needed money, since last Friday “the genius of finance and the Power Point”, the FC Barcelona´s vicepresident, Ferran Soriano, showed the club's accounts and the club wanted a surplus- coincidentally the surplus was of 10 million-.

In short, we should praise the work of the promoters of the vote of confidence-Oriol Giralt and Christian Castellví-, but as we see this vote of censure is producing negative consequences for the institution, because the president is wasting the assets of the club. 2-If the vote of confidence succeeds this Sunday, neither we sees a good future for FC Barcelona, because the club will be without president and directors during an important and long period of time and it will be impossible to buy or to sell a player during this period and therefore FC Barcelona will be another season without a championship, since the current squad is not very competitive.
So we believe that the vote of no confidence is and will be more negative than positive for FC Barcelona, whose supporters had to show more protest during the season to try to see a Joan Laporta´s resign and the arrival as president of Marc Ingla ( he is a vicepresident), who is a solvent and experienced businessman. We will see what is the situation in the next hours (we will know the result of the vote of confidence at 11 o´clock cet).

Cheers,

J&F