By Tim Stannard

1) Barca confirm departure of Dani Alves as Leo Messi pleads ignorance of taxing affairs

Barcelona’s Sporting Director has confirmed what was largely thought to be a done deal anyway. Dani Alves will be off doing late night impersonations of his girlfriend at a whole new club after Robert Fernandez confirmed on Thursday that the fullback would be leaving the Camp Nou after eight hugely successful years and being rather blooming good for most of that time.

“I don’t like that Alves is going, he’s behaved fantastically on and off the pitch, but it is his decision and we have to respect it,” admitted Fernandez who also said that the club had no plans to sign Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin despite strong suggestions in the media rumor mill otherwise.

In other Barcelona news, Leo Messi is in court on Thursday in the Catalan capital to testify in his tax evasion case. Six witnesses from Wednesday said that Messi himself was not responsible for the fraud, claiming that his father, Jorge Messi, was the one in charge of his son’s business affairs. Catch the XTRA at 10PM ET for a full report from the court house, and a heck of a media scrum, on the events of the day and what could happen next.

2) Pep begins Man City project with signing of Ilkay Gundogan

Wow. There has been an actual proper signing on Thursday. Not a rumor, a maybe, a could happen, but a human being that can be squeezed moving from one club to another. That move is Borussia Dortmund midfielder, Ilkay Gundogan, heading to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City – how the EPL side will now be officially known. And that looks like a very good transfer indeed for the English outfit for a fee believed to be around $28 million. The next move for Man City could be Athletic Bilbao defender, Aymeric Laporte, for around $50 million.

Alvaro Morata has been talking about a potential proper signing by announcing that heck yeah, he would like a return to the Bernabeu.

Chelsea and Colombia midfielder, Juan Cuadrado, has also been talking about a potential proper signing by announcing that heck yeah, he would like a move to Barcelona.

3) More Copa America casualties as Brazil lose another big name  

Another Made-up Copa America player has bitten the dust. Chile’s Matias Fernandez – Matigol as his mother calls him – picked up a knee injury in training on Monday and has tapped out of the tournament. Brazil’s Kaka – a replacement for the injured Douglas Costa – has also withdrawn from the squad.

Meanwhile, the USA are finishing their tune-ups for their quarterfinal departure which starts with an opening group game against Colombia on Friday, a team described by Alejandro Bedoya as a bit “nasty.” Stay tuned to the XTRA on Thursday at 10PM ET for all the latest news and standby for the Copa America specials starting from midnight ET on Friday. Things are going to be a little different. Just saying.

4) Championship sides get busy as another Champions League winning coach signs on

A whole gaggle of new Championship managers have been announced on Thursday, leading with Roberto di Matteo taking over at the recently relegated Aston Villa.

Owen Coyle has found a new gig, just a week after stepping away from MLS and Houston Dynamo. The Scottish coach is now going to take over at Championship outfit, Blackburn Rovers. Meanwhile Leeds United have made yet another change of manager with Gary Monk now taking charge, the team’s seventh change on the bench since January 2014

5) Jamaica drugs test fail set to be announced as rain continues at stop-start French Open

A potentially huge story has been broken by the Guardian with the paper reporting that a top Jamaican athlete has tested positive after a repeat analysis of some samples taken at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The name will not be officially revealed until the athlete’s B test has been analyzed. The paper reports that the athlete is not thought to be Usain Bolt.  

The French Open is busy playing catch-up on Thursday but the rain which has blighted the tournament continues to cause problems. The clash between Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych has just been suspended with neither player particularly happy about the conditions.

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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.