The deadly duo strikers are expected to play together once more versus Wigan, in the FA Cup. Lots of fans are relying on this duo with the hope that the ace strikers can finally take City ahead of Barca in the rematch. Manuel Pellegrini, the Manchester City boss seems to have made up his mind regarding making the duo play, to make sure that City is ready to take on Barcelona effectively.

Manuel Pellegrini seems absolutely desperate to make his choice of duo striker partnership play in the Nou Camp to test their luck against the Spanish Champions next Wednesday. Since 21st January, due to series of injuries, this fantastic striker duo of Negredo and Aguero, have not played together. Nevertheless this striking duo has bagged forty nine superb goals this season leaving fans amazed.

After a month long break due a hamstring injury, Sergio has made his super comeback in Capital One Cup final on Sunday, where they bagged the game against Sunderland. Negredo wasn’t an exception either with a badly injured shoulder, and he made quite a late appearance.

City boss is ready to gamble with this duo at the moment for the upcoming quarter final of the FA cup at Wigan this Sunday to maximize the chances of their winning against Barcelona.

The Catalan giants are ahead by 2-0 after the combat at the Etihad Stadium during the 1st Leg. Manchester City needs to put in a lot of trouble if they want to turn the table around by hook or by crook. Manuel Pellegrini’s gamble at the moment seems a good step and for that matter the only for Manchester City, if they want to beat Barcelona hands down in the FA Cup.

There is no doubt whatsoever that the star of this season in the Premier League is Liverpool’s Luis Suarez with his impeccable performances that has been a crucial factor for his side and their journey to grab the league title this time around.

Liverpool currently is topping the Premier League alongside Manchester City and Arsenal as those are the 3 teams that are leading the way. Luis Suarez is leading the goal-scorer list of the Premier League ahead of Sergio Aguero, Sturridge and everyone else in the league which is why Liverpool renewed his contract with an extension of 4 years and the Uruguayan will be paid £200,000-a-week plus bonuses as the club of Brendan Rodgers are trying to keep hold of him and repel offers away from potential clubs that might be interested in signing him.

During the summer Suarez had already threatened to leave Liverpool as he said that he wanted to play for a club that was capable of winning trophies and some months later following the superb string of performances, he was named as the captain of the team.

Kolo Toure said: “I think now he can see that all the players want to fight and want to try to win this title, definitely. We don’t, of course, want to lose him to another team. And you can see that everyone from this team wants to improve the club, to try to win a trophy.

“He is a great player and was amazing at Spurs, playing like he always does. He is so important. The fact that he was captain showed how much the manager respects him and I think he is a leader as well.”

“Luis is usually very shy but on the pitch he is a leader. He was talking to his team-mates at Tottenham and helping them.

There is some bad news for the supporters of Jordi Alba. They will have to wait a bit more to see their favourite player back in action.

The 24 years old left back was supposed to come back soon after recovering from his hamstring problem, but, he will not be able to do so now as he has discovered a new injury. He injured his thigh while participating in the training session yesterday and according to the statement released by Barca earlier today, he will not be able to feature for the club for the next one and half months.

Alba had suffered hamstring injury while playing in the game against Sevilla last month. He was expected to get back to 100% fitness in about three weeks’ time and his recovery was on track. He was just about ready to return, but, this new injury setback has ensured that he will miss more games.

This is not something which would have pleased Barca management. Alba was an integral part of their defense last season and he had looked in good form in the first few matches of this season as well.

However, Barcelona hasn’t done badly despite Alba’s absence in the recent matches. They have carried on their momentum.
Barcelona hasn’t lost a single league game this season and they are right at the top of the table at the moment. They have got the same no. of points as the no. 2 Atletico Madrid, but, their better goal differential has kept them ahead.

Meanwhile, Alba’s new thigh injury also means that he will not be able to represent his national side Spain in their last two World Cup qualifiers. However, that should not affect Spain that much as they have to take on comparatively weaker teams i.e. Georgia and Belarus.

Sevilla midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia has been targeted by several clubs in the last few months. He is regarded as the next big thing in world football. This has led to interest from the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, Real Madrid, and Manchester city.

The defensive midfielder has been hugely impressive for the French national team at the under 20 level as well. He is currently part of the French national team at the under 20 World Cup in Turkey. Despite being involved with the national team, there have been several speculation about him moving to a club away from Sevilla before the end of the transfer window.

Despite being a highly rated midfielder, he has only an £ 8.5 million release clause in his contract. He was signed from French club Lens only last year and he still has four years left on his contract. However, Sevilla will not be able to stop a potential transfer of clubs agree to pay the release clause. They have expressed their interest in keeping the player for a long time. Even the 20-year-old acknowledged the interest from several top clubs like Real Madrid and Chelsea. He said last month that he will not talk about his future until the end of the World Cup.

“We want him to stay here but there are circumstances that could lead to an exit. We will not make any movement to sell. There is no need to sell and we all know that in the club,” said the Sevilla manager, as it is rumoured that Arsenal are preparing a bid for him. “I am flattered to be linked with Real Madrid. They are a top club, but Sevilla are fantastic for me at the moment. Chelsea are also a great team with a great manager, so let’s wait and see what will happen after the World Cup,” said the player last month.

Barcelona recently brought in Valencia defender Jordi Alba, who has become one of the important members of the team. He is seen as someone who can become one of the best left backs in the world over the next few years.

Spain is already on course to providing a good backup to Alba after Valencia have been using midfielder Juan Bernat in this position recently. Bernat was first used in the left back position by Valencia last season. Spain saw this as a great way to take advantage of the defensive abilities in the player as well.

Bernat was used as the left back for the Spanish national team at the FIFA U-20 World Cup recently. Even though the player has said that he wants to be used in an attacking position, the fact that he is being compared to Alba makes him happy. According to him, Alba is one of the best attacking left backs in the world. He has said that new Valencia manager Miroslav Djukic has said that he could develop extremely well if utilised as a defender. Bernat is of the opinion that he can play as an attacking midfielder and as a defender quite comfortably.

He sees this as a great way to improve his chances of being selected for the senior national team.

“It is a compliment to compare me to the development that Jordi Alba has had, as he is a starter for the national team and for Barcelona. He is my friend and I hope that I can follow in his footsteps, because he is an example for me for all that he has accomplished. Djukic has told me that he sees me as a full-back because I have the qualities. I will be alternating between that and midfield,” said the 20-year-old.

Barcelona defender Jordi Alba has said that Argentine star Lionel Messi still remains the best player in the world ahead of the likes of Brazilian star Neymar, who was recently signed from Barcelona from Santos. Neymar has been one of the much talked about youngsters in the world.

He has chosen Barcelona amongst several other interested parties like Real Madrid and Chelsea. He will be coming into the team, which has been built around Lionel Messi, who has managed to win the last four FIFA Ballon d’Or awards in succession. Alba believes that Neymar is an extremely good player, but he is still not at the level of Messi.

The 21-year-old will be moving to the Spanish club after the end of the Confederations cup in June. He has signed a five-year contract with the Spanish club. Barcelona managed to win the league title recently, but they have been disappointing in the other cup competitions. As a result, the signing of Neymar is expected to make them even stronger. The arrival of the 21-year-old striker could herald the departure of David Villa, who joined from Valencia a few years ago for £ 35 million.

Neymar had just one year left on his contract with Santos.
“I don’t know whether he [Neymar] will come here or not. He’s a brilliant player and in Brazil he’s showing he is a class above, but Messi is number one and maybe even the best in history. The technical team and the board will make reinforcements where they feel they need to be made. Personally, the team looks fine to me. Let’s hope we win more silverware next year. We have three games left and we will try to win all of them. We want to reach 100 points and equal Real Madrid’s record,” said Alba.

Barnsley will be hoping to avoid the distraction of the FA Cup run, but having reached the quarter-final stage of the competition, the club will certainly be interested in going to Wembley.

Barnsley will be playing against the Premier league champions Manchester city in the quarter-final round. Hence, they are the underdogs going into the match. The manager David Flitcroft has been able to bring some success to the club since his appointment a few months ago. He has said that his players should not be paying too much respect to city, as the Premier league champions have the quality to punish them.

He has also asked his players not to become starstruck due to the fact that city have a number of high profile players in their lineup. Yaya Touré, Sergio Aguero, and Joe Hart are some of the high profile names expected to be named in the team sheet by the manager Roberto Mancini. Barnsley had a wonderful cup run only a few years ago when the managed to beat the likes of Liverpool and Chelsea along the way. Flitcroft has said that his players can repeat that feat once again, but they need to work hard. Barnsley are fighting against relegation in the championship.

“You can get starstruck by names and we can’t allow that to happen. We have quality in our group and we have demonstrated real fight. In any fight if you turn up and are prepared to work harder than the next man, then you have a chance. I hope the players don’t freeze, and try to play the occasion and not the football match, because this will be a tactical battle,” said the Barnsley manager. The 39-year-old will be hoping to make use of the home matches against Brighton and Watford in order to pick up points as soon as possible.

Saturday 28th March is the last date for confirmed registrations for our junior and youth teams – that means to ensure your place in a team all junior players must be paid up this weekend.

We now have to confirm our team entries to the RJFMC in advance of the season commencing. Currently there are a few spaces in most grades. An exciting development is that for the first time in a number of years we will have both male and female 14/15th grade teams.

Once all registrations are received the committee can allocate players to respective teams, or where there are large numbers of players, arrange grading to respective teams or divisions.

In addition there are vacancies for coaches in a number of grades. Please contact the club if you are interested in coaching a team

Luis Estevez has been selected for the NZ under 17’s world cup team; Luis played for the federation team last year before being head hunted by Auckland clubs.

Luis is joined in the squad by other local lads Matt Gibbons and Nikolai Molijn, whose sister players for the 12th grade team.