StevieG

Eidur Gudjohnsen is keen to get 2007 off to a strong start. The Icelander is not worried about the fixture pile-up and thinks this is the ideal moment to get back to the top of the league.

"First of all, happy new year and I hope all your hopes and dreams come true" said Eidur Gudjohnsen before his first press conference of the year. And his own personal hope is, of course, to see his team back on top the Spanish league table. There is an intense January schedule ahead of them, and "it is very important to be leaders. We have a game in hand on Sevilla but there are a lot of games this month, which will use up a lot of our energy. But if we win those games, we will be leaders again."

The marathon of matches starts at Getafe on Sunday and Guddy knows how important the trip to Madrid will be. "I have often said that it is in games like these that the league is decided" he said. "Always, whether I am on the pitch or on the bench, I feel responsible simply because I am wearing the Barça shirt. We will have a lot of players missing against Getafe so this will be about the groups strength and character for winning games like these. We have enough quality players to make up for those that are missing."

Deco, Ronaldinho and Márquez all missed the first training session of the year but Gudjohnsen does not think that is any major cause for alarm. "I don't know what their situations are" he said, "but I am sure they will have spoken to the boss and I think they are arriving later because they aren't playing this weekend and that way they can have a bit more holiday. Truth is, I hadnt given any thought to the matter."

He then made an appeal for "us to stick together as a team, but I am sure that their reasons for returning late are good ones. We are professionals and they will be coming back in better condition to serve the team. A lot of us have had 10 days holiday but we were already speaking to each other after just four or four days away, so we are all ready and prepared."

While Barça have had a break, their next Champions League opponents, Liverpool, have had a huge number of games to play. But Gudjohnsen has not been paying too much attention to them. "I only follow my old team, Chelsea" he said. "So I haven't been watching much of Liverpool, and I don't think it is too important to focus on just them. We have to be totally concentrated for that game and to be fully fit. We have to think mainly of ourselves and not only of our opponents."

The Italian press has come up with a story recently that has linked Leo Messi and José Mourinho to Inter Milan. Gudjohnsen understands why the Argentinian player is getting so much media attention, saying "there are always speculations, especially with young players like Messi that have so much talent. But there is no need to worry too much because Messi knows he is at the best club in the world. Meanwhile, what they are saying about Mourinho doesn't particularly interest me." He ended by answering a question about what he wanted to get from the Three Kings, saying "to win all the titles at stake, which is an easy way to make everybody happy."

This was the first time for several years that Eidur Gudjohnsen was able to enjoy a proper family Christmas, because until now he had been playing in the Premiership, where teams have a huge stack of games to get through over the festive period. So, Gudjohnsen appreciated the holiday more than anybody. "The break was a breath of fresh air for me" he said. "Because in England we had to play every day. Meanwhile, here I was able to enjoy lots of time with my family, and they were very happy for it. I saw my grandparents and all the other members of my family, which was very special."


How Chelsea and Jose would be ruining the fact that they sold him,he was a fantastic player whenever he turned up for chelsea,i always say bank on your old players,unfortunately chelsea have none at the moment.