Even great Barcelona has flaws too

At the peak of their football power, Barcelona humiliated Madrid with a 5-0 drubbing at the Santiago Bernabeu in recent times. They also convincingly beat Manchester United in two Champions League finals, with their magician Lionel Mesi being crowned the king of the world four times in a row.

Friday, March 01, 2013
Ivan R. Mugisha

At the peak of their football power, Barcelona humiliated Madrid with a 5-0 drubbing at the Santiago Bernabeu in recent times. They also convincingly beat Manchester United in two Champions League finals, with their magician Lionel Mesi being crowned the king of the world four times in a row.Times have changed so fast; it is a bizarre thought, let alone a reality, that Barcelona is now virtually out of two important cups in a matter of weeks. They had not experienced being out so early in the Champions League since 2004/5 when Chelsea knocked them out of the last 16.For such a time to come when Pep Gaurdiola has just signed a new deal with Bayern Munich indicates rather a gloomy future for the Catalonian club. His wizardry at Barca is certainly being missed, the more reason why everyone should be worried about Bayern’s next generation of football.Benitez please leaveRemember Nicklas Bendtner the Arsenal striker? That is the player that comes to mind every time Rafael Benitez is mentioned. Their correlation is so strong in the deceit that they are the best at what they do regardless of what happens on ground. Bendtner once claimed that he is the best striker in the world, despite going on to prove that he is probably the worst striker to ever wear the Arsenal jersey.Now Benitez has come out to suggest that Chelsea will be making a big mistake once they let him go. Despite the fact that he has gotten off the rails in the fight for the premiership title, all his predecessors have a better record than him at Chelsea, including being loved by the fans.This Bendtner-like arrogance portrayed by Benitez shows no respect for Chelsea fans and, indeed, most of them can’t wait for him to leave. Despite their strong squad, Benitez has failed to register significant wins this season and, recently, Manchester City walked all over the Chelsea players like they would do to a championship side. What has Benitez done to improve Chelsea? Nothing!…but not before WengerI wonder how I entirely forgot about Arsene Wenger’s demise while talking about Rafael Benitez. These are two men who keep reminding critics about their former glories as if they have to do with what is happening to the nature in which they continue to lose important games.Wenger was knocked out of two domestic cups by lowly clubs, is a million points behind Manchester United in the race for the Premiership title and lost at home to Bayern Munich, whose players were surprised at how easy it was to wallop them. Yet Wenger continues to speak as if he knows what’s going on.It was spilled that he was in the motion of getting a new contract, meaning more money for him, despite the club failing to win anything since 2005. This infuriated a section of fans who feel ripped off; they pay the highest price for tickets to watch their games and, in so doing, fill the pockets of Arsenal shareholders with money, while at the same time not getting the satisfaction they buy.Wenger has tied the club to his actions and he feels like he alone can manage it- the reason why Arsenal should let him go. If they are going to keep a professor only resigned to finishing in the top four, then Arsenal may go a longer time without winning anything.A strong decision to let him go should be made, after all, Wenger can always go to the clubs he claimed to have rejected to stay at Arsenal.Trouble at Old TraffordReal Madrid and Manchester United are the two most supported clubs in the world and now they find themselves as an obstacle in each other’s way to the quarter finals of the Champions League.Real Madrid are in red hot form currently with their talisman Cristiano Ronaldo looking as dangerous as an AK47. They walloped Barcelona and could do so again over the weekend before they meet United again on Wednesday for the championships League second leg clash which is very finely balanced.The Red Devils, on the other hand, have been strong since their last showing against Madrid, albeit not as strong as Madrid. They got a convincing away win against QPR with the only snare being an injury worry to the Devil of the season, Robin Van Persie.If RVP is fine by the time they play, the fixture will be another great tie. United were strangely the underdogs in this tie, until they pulled off a lead in Spain. It is definitely going to be difficult for both clubs at Old Trafford, but with Sir Alex Ferguson’s experience, I expect the Red Devils to emerge the winners.