New Guardiola deal makes Barcelona unstoppable
Published:Josep Guardiola is set to sign a contract extension at Barcelona in the next few days to ensure the club can commit their full focus towards winning the treble this season.
Despite their flying first half to the campaign in all competitions, which includes a record-setting 16 successive La Liga victories and 70 goals in their opening 22 games, the failure to tie Guardiola to a new deal was still hovering overhead.
Rumours were suggesting that a big-money deal to Qatar was on the table, but Guardiola has finally sorted out his immediate future by signing to the Nou Camp for a further season until the end of the 2012 campaign.
Barcelona’s betting odds are 10/3 to win the treble of La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League and this will now be at the forefront of Guardiola’s mind, ahead of talk about his future.
Meanwhile, the decision could also spur Dani Alves to sign a new deal, with the saga over his expiring contract wrangling on for months.
Alves has always expressed a desire to stay beyond his current deal that runs out at the end of next season, but for whatever reason has still avoided putting pen to paper.
Barcelona have already completed the treble once, two seasons ago, and are well on track to do so again.
The La Liga title is looking a formality as they are 1/12 to witness success, while they are 1/6 to make it 17 league victories on the bounce with a triumph over Sporting Gijon next.
It is 8/15 that Barcelona beat Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final and 7/4 that they win the Champions League.
A £25 stake on Barcelona beating Sporting Gijon 4-1 in their next La Liga fixture would return £350. New customers can sign up here for a free £25 bet.
