1 - Victor Valdes

[footyfan]

Not for Torres sake, no. If they are playing him more than they should, it is for their own sake. Because of the money they paid, to try and restore him, to save face, whatever the reason.

Well obviously, it's the club that's making the investment, not the player. You can spin anything to make it look like the club is favoured.

 

[Galning]

Surely u must think Chelsea is not doing Torres any favors.

!! Do you think they play him just to do him a favour?
Roflmao when I thought I'd seen it all.. Victor Valdés was the #1 goalkeeper for arguably the best team ever from 2002-... but they were just doing him a favour for 10 years. Mother of sweet baby Jezus.

 

[loozy]

You'd think from reading posters in this thread that VV is one of the worst keepers of the world.

 

[Mes que un club]

Football fans really are the worst.. I won't bother with this.

 

[Stric]

He was the #1 goalkeeper because he's just good enough for the team to be able to get away with it with their high pressing and possession style, not because he is a top class keeper. And as long as they are able to get away with it, the club can save themselves a fairly large investment in a world class goalkeeper, because there aren't any coming up through the ranks.

 

[Cule4life]

^This

 

[footyfan]

!! Do you think they play him just to do him a favour?
Roflmao when I thought I'd seen it all.. Victor Valdés was the #1 goalkeeper for arguably the best team ever from 2002-... but they were just doing him a favour for 10 years. Mother of sweet baby Jezus.

Don't get held up by semantics. Barca have always supported Valdes, through both the good times and the bad times. As far as negotiations throughout his career go, I am 100% sure no one on this forum has qualified information regarding what exactly went on.

Valdes is totally free to whatever he wants, although I do agree there is some misplaced hate/frustration towards him from this forum.

Like many have said though, I don't understand the reasoning behind the public announcement. I mean logically, why would the agent go to the press and announce that Valdes will not be signing a contract? And that too 18 months before his contract is up? I am curious to hear opinions.

 

[loozy]

Like many have said though, I don't understand the reasoning behind the public announcement. I mean logically, why would the agent go to the press and announce that Valdes will not be signing a contract? And that too 18 months before his contract is up? I am curious to hear opinions.

Well, the way I see it, the club now has enough time to find a goalie and train him to play Barca- style by the time 2014 rolls around. From what I've been reading it seems as though Barca does not want to let go of Valdes until 2014 and I honestly don't think it's such a bad idea. There is a goalie who knows how to play Barca-style (Pinto does not cut it imo to play LaLiga all the time) while the newbie can play the Copa-matches.

Btw, this argument that Valdes benefitted from a good defense: the same can be said about Manuel Neuer, btw, who plays behind a defense of rock solid players but who starts showing his flaws whenever he is challenged on a regular basis throughout a match (have a look at the 4-4 against Sweden or Munich's loss against Gladbach and Leverkusen last season when he was all over the pitch; also: nearly made a vital mistake against Stuttgart today when he could have had the defense deal with it) and yet he is held in higher regard than Valdes (disregarding the age issue - both of them are the number 1 keepers at contenders for the CL that is why I am comparing them). Of course Valdes benefitted from the defense, every keeper does. Valdes has shown what he can do time and again.

The way it was announced was not that well chosen, but I am not blaming him but rather enjoying the rest of the time we have with him

 

[Cule4life]

I wonder whether the poll conducted in Mundo Deportivo claiming that 70 per cent of Barcelona fans would like to see Iker Casillas as their number one after Iker was benched made Valdes feel unloved and he decide to leave. And due this frustration he publicly announced his departure to vent his frustration?

 

[Deco 20]

Valdes a shit goalkeeper that should've been fired years ago?

I wonder whether the poll conducted in Mundo Deportivo claiming that 70 per cent of Barcelona fans would like to see Iker Casillas as their number one after Iker was benched made Valdes feel unloved and he decide to leave. And due this frustration he publicly announced his departure to vent his frustration?

That poll was made after his announcement

 

[Stric]

Don't put words into my mouth. I never said he should have been fired. I said he would have been replaced if he was a foreigner. Or that he would have been replaced if he was at another club. His background is a big part of what kept him around so long. And I don't think there's anything wrong about that. I can see why some people might find that annoying, but I personally have great respect for clubs with such authenticity. Barca has done a great job developing the academy and basing their first team around it. Doing things like supporting Valdes (and others) even though there are obviously other choices in the market plays an important role in that process. Having said that, I don't think Valdes should have been replaced. If it was my decision at the time, though, I probably wouldn't have been so patient or smart to stick with him and build the team and its success that way. But in hindsight I'm glad the club did it the way they did, because they managed to have such success and preserve the importance of La Masia while doing it. But I do think that having him around as #1 has made things more difficult than they would have been if we had a better goalkeeper. That's what I said. In other words, the club did him a favor by sticking with him even though they could have gotten a better keeper, and they did it because he's one of our own and because it preserves the nature of the club. Other big clubs wouldn't have done it that way.

 

[Mes que un club]

Don't put words into my mouth. I never said he should have have been fired. I said he would have been replaced if he was a foreigner. Or that he would have been replaced if he was at another club. His background is a big part of what kept him around so long. And I don't think there's anything wrong about that. I can see why some people might find that annoying, but I personally have great respect for clubs with such authenticity. Barca has done a great job developing the academy and basing their first team around it. Doing things like supporting Valdes (and others) even though there are obviously other choices in the market plays an important role in that process. Having said that, I don't think Valdes should have been replaced. If it was my decision at the time, though, I probably wouldn't have been so patient or smart to stick with him and build the team and its success that way. But in hindsight I'm glad the club did it the way they did, because they managed to have such success and preserve the importance of La Masia while doing it. But I do think that having him around as #1 has made things more difficult than they would have been if we had a better goalkeeper. That's what I said. In other words, the club did him a favor by sticking with him even though they could have gotten a better keeper, and they did it because he's one of our own and because it preserves the nature of the club. Other big clubs wouldn't have done it that way.

 

[Deco 20]

What's all this gibberish? The club was obviously the one doing Valdes a favour all these years, not the other way around. Any other club would have sacked him a long time ago. And those trophy pictures? Seriously? Are we supposed to think that he's the one who's the most responsible for winning them? The club won the trophies despite Valdes' playing, not because of it. There's nothing wrong with his decision (although I can understand why it might look strange from certain perspectives), but going public with it at this point was an asshole move. Nothing more to it.

That's what I responded to

 

[Stric]

Sometimes it's okay to take off those blaugrana-colored glasses and see the non-flattering aspects of our own club. In this case, it's about understanding that Valdes is not a world-class goalkeeper. He's good, but he's not that good.

 

[Deco 20]

Don't put words into my mouth. I never said he should have been fired. I said he would have been replaced if he was a foreigner. Or that he would have been replaced if he was at another club. His background is a big part of what kept him around so long. And I don't think there's anything wrong about that. I can see why some people might find that annoying, but I personally have great respect for clubs with such authenticity. Barca has done a great job developing the academy and basing their first team around it. Doing things like supporting Valdes (and others) even though there are obviously other choices in the market plays an important role in that process. Having said that, I don't think Valdes should have been replaced. If it was my decision at the time, though, I probably wouldn't have been so patient or smart to stick with him and build the team and its success that way. But in hindsight I'm glad the club did it the way they did, because they managed to have such success and preserve the importance of La Masia while doing it. But I do think that having him around as #1 has made things more difficult than they would have been if we had a better goalkeeper. That's what I said. In other words, the club did him a favor by sticking with him even though they could have gotten a better keeper, and they did it because he's one of our own and because it preserves the nature of the club. Other big clubs wouldn't have done it that way.

Fair enough, the way you posted it made it seem as if he was a liability and didn't deserve his spot. I don't necessarily agree with what you wrote here but won't argue either.