Marked for Rodri
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match14 Nov 2026
The derby belongs to Barcelona
1‑0 against Espanyol, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Barcelona supporters have already started telling it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Lamine Yamal and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
International break empties Barcelona
11 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Barcelona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eric García is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Lamine Yamal has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Barcelona will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Oihan Sanz: “That is the standard”
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
9 shut-outs in 14 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Marc-André ter Stegen has been having a lot of them.
In brief
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Market
The Rodri talk will not go away
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Squad
Lamine Yamal is the weekend's best young player
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The dugout
The form table has caught Sergio Díaz
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 50. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Raphinha in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Barcelona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Barcelona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Frenkie de Jong is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The form table has caught Eric García
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Oihan Sanz: “We have to be better”
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Market21 Sep 2026
Joan García linked with a move away
The name of Joan García keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Barcelona say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Samu Aghehowa knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Samu Aghehowa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Match19 Sep 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Getafe defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Barcelona close the window on a squad of their own making
20 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Market7 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Pau Cubarsí to Arsenal has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Barcelona with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad7 Sep 2026
International break empties Barcelona
11 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Market7 Sep 2026
Fermín wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Barcelona hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A month that belonged to Lamine Yamal
The young player of the month award goes to a 19-year-old at Barcelona who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Marked 7.61. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Rodri loses the armband
The captaincy has been taken off Rodri. Barcelona will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Jules Koundé makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Inter have kept their man, and Barcelona go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Rodri signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Rodri commits to Barcelona for another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Pedri in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Barcelona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Zaragoza have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Marc Bernal. The answer from Barcelona has not changed — yet.
Market3 Aug 2026
36 months and counting on Rodri
Still no offer on the table, and Rodri’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Barcelona are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Joan García asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
In brief
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Squad
Joan García has seen what the next man earns
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The dugout
The manager plants his flag on Pedri
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Boardroom
The Barcelona academy earns its keep