Soccernet's Jon Carter takes Barca's uncertain future and the likely makeover in the offseason.  I agree with many of his points, especially the bit about even if Barca were to beat Man Utd in the Champions League there will still be a mass exodus.  Here are a couple of excerpts:

Full article:http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=526295&root=europe&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1 pos1&cc=5901

One of the greats of futbol has hung up his cleats.  Mesmerizing us all for 2 decades with magnificent futbol and the record for most goals,  quite a few that came for Barcelona.  Here are a few:

A ten man Real Madrid beat Murcia 1-0 and have now pushed the gap to 9 points with only 6 matches to go.  Madrid needs 10 points out of a possible 18 to clinch the crown.  It will be quite the shock if that doesn't occur.

For some good news, Villareal lost the chance to vault past Barca into second falling to Almeria on the road.  Barca now hold a 1 point lead over Villareal for the 2nd automatic Champions League qualifying spot.

Geez, I'm really scrapping at the bottom of the barrel for some good news, huh?!

Ronaldinho's agent, and brother, Roberto de Assis and AC Milan have announced that they have come to terms on Ronaldinho's player contract.  Now it comes down to Barca and Milan negotiating the transfer fee.  I cannot imagine Laporta not wanting to pull the trigger, however, he is not as likely to get the big transfer fee that he may have gotten at the end of last season.  Speculation has had the transfer fee at 20 to 30 million euros and Ronnie's contract with AC to be in the neighborhood of $12 million per year.

Ronnie definitely has the appearance of damaged goods, even though I think he may thrive in AC Milan with the likes of Kaka.  It will definitely be interesting to see him work in the more defensive oriented Serie A.  And AC Milan definitely needed to make a big splash considering they are going to finish this season with no silverware.

From a Barca fans perspective this is not all too shocking, except for the fact that we will be losing one of best players on the planet!  I really had hoped that we could give it one more chance, but alas it seems like it may be best for all parties involved that a clean break will give everyone a chance for a new start.  And its clear both parties are at fault, with Ronaldinho not committing to a strong work ethic and Barca management seemingly not being in honest with all their dealings.

There is no doubt that Barcelona have suffered greatly in the past few months with Ronaldinho's absence.  There has been a lack of creativity and ability to put teams away and there is no doubt in my mind that Ronnie's absence has a lot to do with this.  

One quick note on all this: Ronnie agreeing to terms with AC Milan does not guarantee his departure.  I don't think we can view that as a formality.  Barcelona will not want to sell Ronnie if they think they can get better value elsewhere or if they believe they can reconcile with Ronnie.

Let's just hope that this will not be dragged out all summer and that a satisfactory resolution can come quickly.

Story Link: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=525085&cc=5901

Once again Barcelona takes an early lead on the road and squanders it.  This time they did it twice.  Sure Recreativo's 1st goal was not in fact a goal,but we have had our fair share of good luck so we really can't complain.  This really has become my expectation of every match.  Barcelona take the lead, can't put the opposition away, and then of course sacrifice more points.

Another match and further dropped points.  We can no longer take for granted a guaranteed spot into the Champions League next season.  Villareal can leap frog us and take a 2 point advantage for the 2nd guaranteed spot, which means we would have to start camp early in order to go through the 3rd round of Champions League qualifying.

However we do have a couple of positives.  Eto'o had two excellent finishes and its great to see him get back on track, but more importantly Messi is back after a long lay off.  Having those 2 running on full cylinder would be the only way we can contend with Man U in a couple of weeks.

Barcelona did just enough to advance to the semifinals to face Man U in 2 weeks time.  Barca were definitely lucky to survive the 1st half onslaught of Schalke.  In both legs, Schalke were arguably the better squad but just did not have the quality to finish inside the box.  That is surely not going to be a problem for Manchester United with the likes of Tevez, Rooney, and the world's best player at this very moment Cristiano Ronaldo.  

The way I see it, we might be looking at an embarrassing showing for Barcelona and I fear the worst.  I normally am optimistic about Barca's chances, but not this time.  Manchester are just too good right now and Barca is to lethargic and unimpressive right now.  And I emphasize right now because in 2 weeks time a lot can change.  Futbol is all about momentum and there are 2 weeks to get Barca on the right track.  With the impending return of Messi and possibly Deco, we could be looking at a reinvigorated squad that can look similar to the team that made the magical 2005 Champions League run.  And Manchester is playing at such a high level right now that we may hope that they have peaked (or have some injuries!).  The great thing about Cup Competitions is that it takes 180 of full bore concentration.  Something that Barca hasn't shown capable to do in the past few weeks, but just before this most recent falter Barca was clicking on all cylinders and we can hope that it will happen again.  

Like I said, 2 weeks is a long time and lets hope our little Messi can provide a nice kick in the pants for the blaugrana.

Barcelona Starting XI
Valdes
Zambrotta
Puyol
Thuram
Abidal
Toure Yaya
Xavi
Iniesta
Eto'o
Henry
Bojan

Bench
Pinto
Milito
Marquez
Gudjohnsen
Edmilson
Sylvinho
Giovani

Barcelona will be looking to quiet the Nou Camp boo birds and finish off Schalke in advancing to the Champions League semifinals.  The Nou Camp crowd after the weekend's  Getafe match were none to pleased with the lifeless Barca performance that resulted in further dropped points and another wasted opportunity in catching up to Real Madrid.  Rijkaard, Laporta, and the players were not spared the boos.  The best way to silence all of this is to win and keep the opportunity for hardware alive.  La Liga seems to be Madrid's by default, but Champions League is definitely still up for grabs.

Schalke will definitely play with nothing to lose and will look to score a quick goal and then probably play 10 men in the box.  Barca can ruin this game plan with a quick goal and force Schalke to attack therefore creating plenty of holes in the Schalke defense.

Hopefully Barca advance and then we can talk about their next opponent.  Let's cheer our team on because, well, they are our team!

Barcelona was unlucky to beat Getafe, but then again they didn't look like they deserved to win regardless.  They should have put away a team that is clearly focused on Cup competitions.  A single point today matches Real Madrid's point.  We sit tied for 2nd (but in actuality 3rd because we lost both matches to Villareal).

Another disappointing result. Let's hope midweek is a little different.

Valdes
Zambrotta
Puyol
Milito
Sylvinho
Xavi
Touré
Iniesta
Eto'o
Bojan
Henry