11 - Raphinha

[ajnotkeith]

Yeah, but transfers such as Pedri and Araujo are very rare exceptions. You get one like that in a team, but the rest? Those usually follow the norm.

Look at Liverpool. They have a great manager and try to rebuild their squad in the current market. Invested hundreds of millions and look miles off City atm. They didn't even make top 4.

Barca need to get back to buying elite players somewhat near their prime (of even elite talents or elite young players ready for the big step). That's the mark of a real tier 1 club. I don't see any of that, we're not even in the mix. That has to get fixed, or our status among the top clubs is gonna be massively affected.

Signing and developing raw talents either Barca-based or from smaller clubs for good prices is nice, obviously much needed, but there's a whole new component over that that for us it's completely missing atm. And that's obviously signing ready-made top class players in the right age bracket. Not oldies like Lewa and Gundogan who already had their best days at other clubs.

That isnt correct.
Transfers of big money between club to club are still very rare in terms of the top players. Chelsea is an exception but not the rule. Other than that, it has still been rare for a team to get their stars merely by buying them for 100m+ from other top clubs. Players like that rarely move.

They actually either come through the youth system or were bought for a small fee a long time ago and developed their way in to the team.

Saka, Araujo, Pedri, Foden, Martinelli, Osimhen, Kvaratskhelia, Rashford, etc.

 

[serghei]

That's true, a few select players have been brought through the club, or for a small initial fee. Extremely few. The mass of the squad is built with hundreds of millions. You give examples of City and Arsenal, but these clubs have spent many hundreds of millions in the last 2-3 years alone. Not even talking about the years prior to that, also full of massive spending.

How many players did Pep brought through the club at City out of that squad? Only Foden. Maybe Palmer sometime into the future, only maybe. The rest? Ruben Diaz, Grealish, Haaland, De Bruyne, Rodri, Stones, now Gvardiol etc. Hundreds of millions of investments. Continuously.

That's how you built a top tier squad. Foden wasn't even a starter for City last season. 100m Grealish was. Arsenal is the same. United the same. Just because you also promote 1-2 gems from your own ranks doesn't mean you can build a whole squad like that. It's mostly garnish on top, or something to complete a squad, not the main building block of a top 4-5 club.

 

[te amo barca]

That isnt correct.
Transfers of big money between club to club are still very rare in terms of the top players. Chelsea is an exception but not the rule. Other than that, it has still been rare for a team to get their stars merely by buying them for 100m+ from other top clubs. Players like that rarely move.

They actually either come through the youth system or were bought for a small fee a long time ago and developed their way in to the team.

Saka, Araujo, Pedri, Foden, Martinelli, Osimhen, Kvaratskhelia, Rashford, etc.

Osimhen was bought for mega money

 

[ajnotkeith]

Osimhen was bought for mega money

Nah. He cost 45m euros. Some 30m were added to it in 'plusvalenza' and player swaps which didnt actually have that value.

 

[ajnotkeith]

That's true, a few select players have been brought through the club, or for a small initial fee. Extremely few. The mass of the squad is built with hundreds of millions. You give examples of City and Arsenal, but these clubs have spent many hundreds of millions in the last 2-3 years alone. Not even talking about the years prior to that, also full of massive spending.

How many players did Pep brought through the club at City out of that squad? Only Foden. Maybe Palmer sometime into the future, only maybe. The rest? Ruben Diaz, Grealish, Haaland, De Bruyne, Rodri, Stones, now Gvardiol etc. Hundreds of millions of investments. Continuously.

That's how you built a top tier squad. Foden wasn't even a starter for City last season. 100m Grealish was. Arsenal is the same. United the same. Just because you also find 1-2 gems through your own ranks doesn't mean you can build a whole squad like that. It's mostly garnish on top, not the main building block of a top 4-5 squad.

Arsenal's best players are the cheapest ones. The ones they paid money for excluding Rice are actually the ones dragging their team down.

Martinelli, Saka, Odegaard, Saliba = the best players in their team, cost under 100m together easily.

 

[JamDav1982]

That's true, a few select players have been brought through the club, or for a small initial fee. Extremely few. The mass of the squad is built with hundreds of millions. You give examples of City and Arsenal, but these clubs have spent many hundreds of millions in the last 2-3 years alone. Not even talking about the years prior to that, also full of massive spending.

How many players did Pep brought through the club at City out of that squad? Only Foden. Maybe Palmer sometime into the future, only maybe. The rest? Ruben Diaz, Grealish, Haaland, De Bruyne, Rodri, Stones, now Gvardiol etc. Hundreds of millions of investments. Continuously.

That's how you built a top tier squad. Foden wasn't even a starter for City last season. 100m Grealish was. Arsenal is the same. United the same. Just because you also find 1-2 gems through your own ranks doesn't mean you can build a whole squad like that. It's mostly garnish on top, not the main building block of a top 4-5 squad.

City have also sold on a lot of players and have missed out on a lot also.

The team Pep inherited had a lot of holes also there.

Pep would be unreal with these Barca players.

Arsenal and United have spent hundreds of millions on players that are not better than Barca have not paid a penny for really.

The players Barca had already and have come through for very little are better group than what those clubs are spending on.

Rice was 100m but he isnt better than likes of FDJ.

 

[serghei]

Arsenal's best players are the cheapest ones. The ones they paid money for excluding Rice are actually the ones dragging their team down.

Martinelli, Saka, Odegaard, Saliba = the best players in their team, cost under 100m together easily.

Rice just signed for them. Grealish was also thought of as a bad signing and wasted money, but usually, top tier players signed for mega money come good. Grealish went big last year for City, justifying his big price, and chances are so will Rice for Arsenal.

Just because we spent 140m on Coutinho, doesn't mean other big money signings are gonna be shit. You usually get what you pay for if you know what you're doing, inflation considered or not.

 

[ajnotkeith]

Rice just signed for them. Grealish was also thought of as a bad signing and wasted money, but usually, top tier players signed for mega money come good. Grealish came big last year for City, justifying his big price, and chances are so will Rice for Arsenal.

Just because we spent 140m on Coutinho, doesn't mean other big money signings are gonna be shit.

Im not saying money isn't a big advantage, obviously, but you also underestimate just how many of the top players in the world were actually cheap signings.

It's not very rare, it's actually common.

 

[JamDav1982]

Rice just signed for them. Grealish was also thought of as a bad signing and wasted money, but usually, top tier players signed for mega money come good. Grealish went big last year for City, justifying his big price, and chances are so will Rice for Arsenal.

Just because we spent 140m on Coutinho, doesn't mean other big money signings are gonna be shit. You usually get what you pay for if you know what you're doing, inflation considered or not.

But it is comparing to what each have in squad.

City are ahead although not as far as some make out and the furthest they are ahead is with Pep over the others.

Arsenal are good but again they are spending on players who would struggle to get in Barca side by and large.

Rice most likely will be good for Arsenal.. but he isnt adding more for Arteta than FDJ does who was already there etc.

 

[ajnotkeith]

To illustrate the point : Arsenal dropped like 300m on this :

Havertz, Tomiyasu, Vieria, Jesus, Tavares, Ramsdale, Kiwior, Zinchenko, Raya
@serghei Are you desperate for ANY of these guys? Do you really think that 300m spend on those players put them ahead of us a little bit, even at all?
We have better players coming through LaMasia already, and had better players than those already in the squad before we spent a dime with Xavi.

 

[ajnotkeith]

Arsenal may spend but their pull isn't good enough for them to attract top level players. They sign a lot of mid level players who we wouldn't look at due to not being good enough.

 

[serghei]

No, I'd rather spend 300m on other players rather than those. But I'd rather spend that sum, rather than spend 3m on Oriol fecking Romeu to improve my midfield in defense. Arsenal is not an example of great spending, only a few of their players were inspired signings.

They are underachieving compared to their spending, but they are not going to stop until they get it right. You think Arsenal is not gonna spend anything next summer? If some of those players flop, they are gonna spend again and again.

 

[ajnotkeith]

No, I'd rather spend 300m on other players rather than those. But I'd rather spend that sum, rather than spend 3m on Oriol fecking Romeu to improve my midfield in defense. Arsenal is not an example of great spending, only a few of their players were inspired signings.

Because we have this advantage over them :
We are FC Barcelona, and way more good players want to come here than go there.

 

[ajnotkeith]

They are underachieving compared to their spending, but they are not going to stop until they get it right. You think Arsenal is not gonna spend anything next summer? If some of those players flop, they are gonna spend again and again.

If they keep 'getting it wrong' it will be Arteta that gets sacked.
His project is going into the 4th year now with huge money spent. He will be at risk of sacking if this season doesn't go right.

 

[JamDav1982]

No, I'd rather spend 300m on other players rather than those. But I'd rather spend that sum, rather than spend 3m on Oriol fecking Romeu to improve my midfield in defense. Arsenal is not an example of great spending, only a few of their players were inspired signings.

Romeu is bad planning and Xavi being over rating Spanish midfielders.

Xavi has had hundreds of millions to spend while came in to a core of MATS, Araujo, Pedri, Gavi, Dembele etc and Balde/Lamal etc emerging from there.

Then the club have given big wages to free transfers such as Christ, Kessie, Gundo, Inigo.

On top of that hundreds of millions in market for first time in years.

If after all that they are left with Romeu as DM that is down to nothing but bad planning in a position that clearly needed covered.