The Rijkaard era has finished, with its lights and shadows, and a new season has come with lots of changes in “Can Barça”.

Josep Guardiola, one of the favourite sons of FC Barcelona, has taken control of the first team to manage a hungry group of players, after two years without titles. He spoke clearly on his presentation, “I can’t promise anything but sacrifice, solidarity and ambition”. Guardiola proved that he is a man of his word, he has changed the “auto-managing” philosophy of Rijkaard into serious and hard training, with strict laws in the changing-room, and an almost insane frenzy in preparing matches. Guardiola eats, drinks, breathes football. He has no problem in explaining any decision, always with education and simple words.

This team has been studied for a long time in Guardiola’s brain and you can see the results on the field.This year, almost with the same players (among the new ones, only Dani Alves and Gerard Piqué seem to be untouchable), Barcelona’s game has reached the level of two years ago, maybe with less magic, but with more muscle and character.

Nowadays we’re able to see Messi arguing with Touré when winning 3-0, instead of desperation on their faces, it’s possible to see all of them sweating blood to increase a 1-4 to a 1-6 instead of speculating about results. Messi is, at the same time, the world’s best player and a sacrificed assistant. Eto’o was for sale last summer, now he’s the maximum scorer in the Spanish League, Xavi and Iniesta make and SCORE goals, we’ve gained security in defense, the state of the pitch doesn’t matter, if the ball doesn’t run well, “jogo-bonito” is over and it’s time for direct football.

The old sensation of “We win today, don’t worry”, has come back to Barcelona to stay.

What do I mean with all these arguments? I mean that with this Barça nothing is lost until the final whistle, this Barça is a winning team, in game and results, so, sit back and enjoy FOOTBALL!