Joan Laporta gave a press conference this evening to confirm what had been so disgracefully leaked to the press on Monday. Pep Guardiola will take over from Frank Rijkaard as first team coach at the end of the season.

It’s not official yet but all the Spanish sports press are running the story that the decision was taken in a meeting of the Comision Delegada this afternoon for Pep Guardiola to take over from Frank Rijkaard as Barça’s coach at the end of the season. While I will be reasonably happy with the choice […]

FC Barcelona have taken the unusual step of issuing a press release to deny a story from Catalan television station TV3 that said that Joan Laporta had given his blessing to Pep Guardiola taking over from Frank Rijkaard at the end of the season. The story was then run by both El Sport and El […]

 
Only 39% of Fcbnews readers have voted for Frank Rijkaard as the person they want to see as coach next season. The poll began on the 14th March and at the beginning Rijkaard had close to 50% support, but disappointing results against Almeria and Valencia have turned the fans against him with Jose Mourinho being […]

Frank Rijkaard’s decision to leave out Toure Yaya and Leo Messi for Saturday’s game at Atletico Madrid confounded many fans and raised the question of whether players should be rotated. Many quite rightly feel that important players such as Messi and Toure should always play in the big games. In a television interview yesterday Txiki Begiristain claimed […]

I know this is yesterday’s news but I didn’t have time to comment on the board of directors’ decision to stand by Frank Rijkaard at least until the end of this season. Firstly, I am pleased with the decision, I have stated many times that changing the coach mid-season is rarely the solution. Things would […]

With the Christmas break upon us, the press and fans have plenty of time to mull over what went wrong in yesterday’s Clasico. Unfortunately, when it comes to analyzing a Barça defeat the press and fans alike are prone to making knee-jerk conclusions. Calls for the heads of Ronaldinho and Frank Rijkaard are par for the course […]

According to the Uefa webpage Frank Rijkaard has received a two-match ban for his sending off in Lyon - http://www.uefa.com/uefa/keytopics/kind=512/newsid=639265.html?cid=rssfeed&att=uefa/index  Rijkaard already missed one match against Stuttgart so this means he will miss the first leg of the last 16 tie in February. Barça will know their opponents for this on Friday when the draw […]

According to the Catalan TV station TV3, Joan Laporta has given Frank Rijkaard a type of ultimatum to get the team working in line with the quality of the players. The report suggested that Rijkaard has until October 7th to turn things around.

The date and time for next weekend’s game against Sevilla have finally been announced by La Liga. The game will take place on Saturday 22nd September with the kick off at 10pm and will be shown live on Spanish TV (La Sexta and TV3). I know I have said it before, but why can’t those responsible organize […]