By Tim Stannard

1) Search begins for hairless hero at Barcelona  

That whole quiet, comfortable two home wins for Barcelona and Real Madrid concept did not quite come off on Wednesday.

Although Barcelona beat Sporting 6-1 at the Camp Nou, Luis Enrique revealed after the game that he was not renewing his contract at the end of the season at Barca with the desire to get his hair back to the original color, and before it vanishes like Pep Guardiola’s.

That news largely masked Real Madrid handing a two-goal lead to the opposition for the second match in a row only to come back to draw 3-3 against Las Palmas but lose the leadership of La Liga.

The replacement for Enrique is the big talking point of Thursday with Ernesto Valverde of Athletic Bilbao and Sevilla boss Jorge Sampaoli as the front-runners. A figure who was a half-hearted mention for the job, Arsene Wenger, ruled himself out of a future of putting Barcelona into a fourth-placed spot for the next decade. "I am not looking for jobs of other clubs or jobs of other people.”

Tune into the XTRA from 7PM ET / 4PM to hear the latest news from the Catalan capital and find out what it takes to both thrive and survive as Barcelona boss.

2) Sevilla continue stealthy title search against Athletic  

While there has been much hullabaloo about Barcelona and Real Madrid, Sevilla have been quietly going about their business of sort of flirting with a title bid before eventually settling for a solid and well-deserved third spot.

That campaign continues on Thursday with a La Liga clash against Athletic Bilbao in what will be, by wonderful coincidence a face-off between the two fancied managers to be the next Barca boss. A victory for Sevilla could lift the Andalusians to within two points of the Catalan club although Athletic Bilbao are needing a victory in the Sanchez Pizjuan to kick-start a fairly ‘meh’ season so far for the Basque outfit.

Tune in to beIN SPORTS CONNECT or our sister Spanish channel for full coverage from 2:30PM ET / 11:30AM PT

3) Atletico hope to avoid Pepe Mel perkiness at Depor

Another contender for the Champions League places, Atletico Madrid, are also in action on Thursday with a match-up at struggling Deportivo, which might have been an easy night, but could now be complicated by the Galicians enjoying a bounce under a new boss, Pepe Mel. That and the fact the side could not have played any worse.

Atletico are also make the sports pages in England with the news that an unhappy Alexis Sanchez could be moving to the Vicente Calderon or even Sevilla, despite the fact that neither can pay his exorbitant wages at Arsenal.

That game is LIVE on beIN SPORTS from 2:30PM ET / 11:30AM PT with full highlights and reaction on the XTRA from 7PM ET / 4PM PT.

4) Milan go silent over reports of buyout collapse

Thursday was supposed to be a hive of activity in Milan with the club on the brink of a huge Chinese buyout and hundreds of millions being poured in to build a super squad for the next hundred years.

But that might not be the case after all, with everything gone silent on the purchase front and stories that it may not even happen at all. “Thursday is the day of silence,” warned Milan CEO Adriano Galliani ahead of Friday’s supposed buyout deadline. Get the latest on the Milan news from our Tancredi Palmeiri on the XTRA.

5) Ozil reveals crybaby accusations from Mourinho  

Mesut Ozil’s new book looks like it could very readable indeed if some of the sneaky peaks out of it are to be believed.

In one segment, a heated argument with an irate Jose Mourinho was revealed to give an indication of the kind of team talks that Arsene Wenger isn’t doing at another one of the German’s half-hearted performances.

"Mourinho screamed at me 'Do you think two nice passes are enough? You think you are too good to enter a duel. You think you are so good that you can play at 50 per cent,” was one particular half-time talk that did not end well for the misfit midfielder.

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The life philosophy of Sports Burst is that if you are not upsetting someone, then you are not trying hard enough. SB is a daily trawl and troll through the morning's sports news to bring you fact-nuggets to make you both smile and swear. Hopefully at the same time.