Week 7 Preview.

Week 7 sees the Catalan giants take on Manchester United in the league and River Plate in the SC Cup, both tough games but easily winnable.

New recruit Clare Duffin has been to catch opinions from Steve Marsh at Manchester United . . whilst Siguita Bonse fresh from her grilling with Jurgen talks shop with Stuart the Orange Murray, boss of under achieveing River Plate, we hope to bring their thoughts sometime before the game.

Anyways manager Rich Skeen spoke openly about both fixtures and comments on speculation linking John Barnes with a move away from the club.

"Afternoon all. Yeah tough games, I'm not going to discuss them in great detail, United we know a lot about having matched them all last season only to stumble at the end, credit to Marsh he's created a world beating side their and of course proven that he can actually win games aswell create sides. It will be an interesting game as United's form so far has been patchy similar to our own, they have however picked up in recent weeks so I expect them to be nearing top form, I also expect them to play their usual attacking style which is good for us in a way, both teams prefer to play passing football and like to keep the ball, I guess on the day it depends who does this better. It will also be interesting to see if he sticks Beckenbauer into the limelight it will surely be an interesting debut for the Kaiser back at Barcelona. It's a game we need to win if we have title aspirations but a draw would not be a disaster.

River on the other hand are a substantial unknown quantity and of course it's a cup game so it's pretty much anyone's guess what will happen. We need to keep Batistuta quiet however and that is a fact, if we do that then I have confidence we will win easily, defensively River are weak and we need to impress on that. With both Xavi and Riqeulme in midfield I expect us to overrun them in midfield and if we keep it tight I expect us to win, although we may have to work very hard for the result. There manager is slightly mad and excitable so we need to ensure we keep him sour faced and grim.

Lastly I'm not going to comment on any possible transfer speculation coming out of the club, as usual when a deal is signed we will discuss it openly, all I will say is we have irons in several fires and although I'm looking at a couple of legends it's likely they will not be introduced for a couple more weeks, thank you, have a nice day."