The http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Carles-Puyol-c8331.
Last season Barcelona did not only lose the Champions League; in fact, they also managed to lose the Spanish La Liga after Real Madrid showed that they are capable of beating one of the best teams in the history of the world.
Jose Mourinho really improved Real Madrid’s stature last season and helped them win the Spanish La Liga and also took them to the semi-final stage of the Champions League.
The basic reason why Barcelona were not able to impress last season was the fact that they did not have their first-choice defenders available throughout the campaign.
First, they lost Eric Abidal when he suffered from a liver tumour and went out of action for a long time. Later, they also lost http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Gerard-c14664 Pique after he picked up a few knocks during the season.
Currently, Barcelona are without their club captain, Carles Puyol, who is out because of his old knee injury. There is no doubt that Puyol will soon be retiring and Barcelona definitely need a player who can replace him in the centre-back position.
With Josep Guardiola deciding to leave Barcelona after last season’s unsuccessful campaign, his assistant coach, Tito Vilanova, was selected by the management to come up and take charge of the club.
As soon as he took charge of affairs at the Nou Camp, Vilanova made it clear that he will be signing at least two defenders in this summer transfer window.
As promised, the Catalan coach signed the http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jordi-Alba-c19111. The Spanish full-back was the surprise package for the Spanish national team during the Euro 2012 campaign and that is the reason why Barcelona signed their former La Masia player.
However, in pursuit of signing a centre-back, Tito Vilanova is looking for recruits all around the globe and the Belgian star, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Thomas-Vermaelen-c35002, is now under the Catalan radar.
Arsenal have already ‘almost’ lost their captain, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Robin-van-Persie-c31380, and Vermaelen was expected to become their next captain. However, with Barcelona taking interest in signing the star defender, he might be looking for a move to the Nou Camp.
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