All glamour & Galacticos - but Barcelona and Real Madrid's signings could leave them defenceless next season

The biggest names in football have been linked to Barcelona and Real Madrid this summer, and many have arrived.

Chile forward Alexis Sanchez was unveiled at the Catalan club on Monday, while Jose Mourinho's side are currently on tour with a handful of new recruits, including left-back Fabio Coentrao (who is being used in a more advanced role in the United States), winger Jose Callejon, and midfielders Nuri Sahin and Hamit Altintop. On top of all that, Madrid still hope to bring in a striker, with Neymar, Sergio Aguero, Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor all mentioned, while Barca turn their attentions to Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas.


But what about the defenders?

Barca's backline was notoriously difficult to breach last season as the Catalans conceded just 21 goals in their 38 league games. Nevertheless, coach Pep Guardiola was forced to shuffle his squad in the absence of defensive leader and lynchpin Carles Puyol. Barcelona lost five games in total last season and Puyol was absent in all of those. His presence lifts the players around him and brings the best out of central defensive partner Gerard Pique. Puyol's troublesome knee injury saw him restricted to just seven games after Christmas - a total of just 377 minutes.

Argentina sack coach Batista after Copa America

The Argentinian Football Association has terminated the contract of the Albicelestes' coach, Sergio Batista.

AFA spokesman Ernesto Cherquis Bialo announced the move in the wake of the team's disappointing campaign in the Copa America, at which they were hosts. Argentina were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Uruguay, who went on to lift the trophy with a 3-0 win over Paraguay in Buenos Aires on Sunday evening.

Cherquis Bialo told reporters: ''The national team's committee has decided to rescind the contract that attached Mr Batista with the Argentinian Football Association. 'In a very good natured, mature telephone conversation, Mr Batista and Mr Julio Grondona (the AFA president) talked and Batista left his situation in the hands of the AFA.

Pulis wants 'four or five' new signings at Stoke

Stoke manager Tony Pulis is keen to bring in ''four or five'' players this summer in order to keep his squad competitive.

So far only defender Jonathan Woodgate has arrived after being released by Tottenham. But Pulis has been linked with a number of players, not least Woodgate's former team-mates Peter Crouch and Wilson Palacios, Juventus midfielder Mohamed Sissoko and Birmingham's Scott Dann, yet he has not been able to make real headway.

The Potters boss is keen to strengthen his squad to maintain the progress they have made since arriving in the Premier League in 2008, since when they have not finished below 13th. He also has to factor in the possibility of an extended European campaign, although that will become clearer in the next 10 days when they play Hajduk Split in the Europa League third qualifying round.

''If by the end of August we haven't got four or five players in who can come into the side and improve us, I will be very disappointed,'' said Pulis. ''It's massively important not to be caught standing still, so we definitely want to be active if we can.

''I think we need to shake things up a little bit for the sake of the team so I will be trying to do that.''

That means some departures are likely from the Britannia Stadium. ''We have fringe players here who need to be playing football games now because they are footballers,'' he said. ''I have had them here for a while now, and whilst they are a fantastic group, they are obviously chomping at the bit to get out there and play games.''

Source: msn

David de Gea adjusting well to life at Manchester United despite language barrier

The 20-year-old made an impressive debut in United’s 3-1 against Chicago Fire on Saturday and admits he is looking to master the English language to help settle into Premier League football as quickly as possible.

"I'm slowly getting used to life here," told MUTV. 

"I look forward to learning very quickly.

"There's some players I can speak to. Some of them speak a bit of Spanish and I'm learning English little-by-little and communicating better with the team.