“This is the start of something good,” said my new friend as he raised his glass to commemorate the final whistle of Real Madrid’s 0-0 draw at Mallorca. I was at Nevada Smith’s, a well-known soccer pub in the East Village where they frown on using the word soccer and host New York’s FC Barcelona penya. Long-time regulars regaled me with stories of the time Joan Laporta came in and the time Carles Puyol came in and the legend (perhaps true) that in 1999, the owners of the pub – Manchester United supporters – promised the penya that if United won the Champions League at Camp Nou, they’d show all Barcelona matches at Nevada’s forever after. (Well, all the ones that aren’t blacked out by Spanish television company catfights.) Of all the good things that may come from my moving to New York, I get the sense that Nevada’s might be the best.

We’d just finished watching a very satisfying opening round, complete with lovely goals from Messi, Iniesta and a very comfortable looking David Villa, a penalty save by Victor Valdes, and the aforementioned 0-0 draw which rang in the start of Jose Mourinho’s reign at Real. But all anyone wanted to talk about was Zlatan Ibrahimovic. “He’s not a great player,” said the same friend when I defended Ibra’s season last year as being quite a lot less than a disaster, “he’s just a prima donna. What’s he ever done anyway?” I thought it was harsh, but it is hard to deny both that Ibra looked increasingly unlikely to ever really fit into a scheme where he wasn’t the center of attention and also that the conflicts between him and Pep Guardiola proved that point. I think, as I’ve mentioned here before, that he had a fine season with the blaugrana last year but I still felt quite a lot of angst when I saw him on another screen at the pub showing the AC Milan match. He’ll surely be a tremendous success at Milan, where he will once again play the role he’s best at and most comfortable with. And I’d prefer to recall his terrific goals against Arsenal and Real Madrid instead of the acrimony of the last couple of months.

Even the world’s biggest Ibra defender (which I am not, although I get the idea I’m toward that end of the spectrum) couldn’t possibly deny that David Villa is a better fit for Pep’s system. One match is obviously entirely too few to make any judgments, but Villa looks like completely understanding his role already. It’s obviously helpful that he played with close to the whole first team all summer in South Africa, but I also think it highlights one of the advantages of signing domestically based players when it’s possible. Villa’s early compatability with the club, particularly when you compare it to Ibra and Thierry Henry’s first seasons, is another example of this. Dani Alves and Seydou Keita also had fairly easy times fitting in with the club, and I really think familiarity with the league, the culture, the language and the grounds helps with making actual on-the-pitch adjustments that much easier. Of course, Keita, Alves and Villa are world class players on their own right and credit where it’s due, but I generally think that given two players of roughly equal value, the one who’s played in Spain is going to be the better signing, certainly in year one.

One player who I hope proves an exception to that is Javier Mascherano. Mascherano is being brought to the club to fill the void left by Yaya Toure, which I think he’ll be absolutely capable of doing. There are obviously some concerns about his discipline and tendency to pick up the odd unnecessary yellow card, but just looking at his talent, he’s one of the top 5 or 10 defensive midfielders in the world. I have a suspicion that I’ll find him frustrating and brilliant, which is in a lot of ways my favorite kind of player. (One of those ways is a tendency towards masochism, it’s worth noting.) One thing I really hope is that this signing doesn’t mean too much less time for Keita, who I think is a terrific player who Pep has somewhat under-utilized over the last couple of years. Of course, having depth is critical when you’re playing in three competitions and injuries are piling up, but I think Keita merits regular inclusion even on a fully fit squad. Either way, I finished yesterday’s matches feeling very optimistic about 2010/11. “To me,” I said to my new friends, “it feels like New Year’s.”

A few words of aside on Johan Cruyff

Sandro Rosell’s point is well-taken that in a club that’s run as a democracy, positions like honorary president should be created by and then voted on by the socios rather than simply appointed by the Club President. So, to that point, let me just advocate for the re-instatement of Johan Cruyff as honorary president of the club via those more democratic means. I would argue that no player or coach has ever meant more to FC Barcelona that Cruyff has, and especially after Barcelona won the first ever Spanish treble playing in a Cruyffian style and Spain won their first World Cup doing the same (and using mainly Barcelona players,) it’s a perfect time to honor him in that way. Cruyff deserves it, and so does the club.