wisconsincule
Senior Member
I don’t get why we would spend money on him now...?
Why not wait until summer when he is free?
Why not wait until summer when he is free?
Had to go take a look at the Man City forum to see what they had to say about him. A lot of love in the beginning but once he decided to leave he is suddenly trash.
Pretty funny some of the comments made about FCB. Talking about how shit our club is. Have they forgotten that their coach and director of football come from Barcelona..? Let alone they would be no where without their UAE owner.
Not if signing Garcia allows Barca to then sell likes of Lenglet.
I would rather go for Garcia and try to develop him than not sign him due to Lenglet/Umtiti.
Pique is getting old, Umtiti is done, Lenglet has been awful this year.
Plenty of reasons to reinforce that position if opportunity arises.
Well, he's 100% coming either now or in July so I'll give him a chance and hope for the best. And I'm also pretty sure he'll be our only CB signing as much as I'd like to get someone like Upamecano or Kounde (we can only hope Sevilla will hold onto him for another season so we can maybe get him in 2022 but that's unlikely).
Araujo should be unquestonable starter next season as he's our only fast CB. Then rotate Pique, Lenglet and Garcia alongside him.
IIRC Pique's contract will be automatically extended if he'll play more than 35% of the games (don't know if he has to start or play certain amount of minutes in those games though) so I'd look out for him not reaching that mark. Although tbh I think if he'll see he's not a starter anymore he'll probably retire/decide to leave for MLS alone after next season even if he'd met requirements for his contract to be extended.
I'd send Mingueza on loan to play regularly unless we get a 40m+ offer for Lenglet or Pique retires (which I think it's both unlikely) then I'd keep Mingueza as a 4th CB. But tbf I'd be quite scared going into the season with Pique/Lenglet and three relatively still unproven youngsters in Araujo, Mingueza and Garcia who have a combined less than 30 starts in La Liga/EPL so far in their careers. Surely they'll get a bit more experience before the season end but it's still risky imo.
OTOH La Liga is almost surely lost already but if we can continue to string together wins over the next two months or so we should guarantee a top 4 relatively easy and I don't expect us to go far in the CL so IF Garcia comes this month we'll have time to evaluate him in a relatively low pressure environment (as much as that's a thing at Barca) for the rest of this season.
But here is the thing: He is coming to be a starter, and that would be terrible.
I am all in favor of kicking out finished Umtiti, and stationing Pique permanently on the bench. Have vehemently requested that lately.
Plus, if Lenglet's form continues to be like that, he should wipe the bench as well (I would not sell him bcz he is young and the last 2 seasons he has good, nothing like this season)
Then, Araujo is the best defender we currently have and should be an indisputable starter.
We need to find a quality pair for him, ideally an atheltic CB that can play also the ball decently from the back.
Garcia is a far cry from what we need. His ball-playing abilities are already there in Lenglet and Pique. Even Tobido can do what he can do plus can dribble players. What about Mingueza as well?
If he is coming to be 4th in the pecking order, behind Araujo, new CB, and Lengel, that's fine (even though Tobido or Migueza can also do that).
But he is not coming for that.
I fail to see what he offers, really...
Well, Umtiti should be gone. Possibly Pique too. Lenglet, I'd keep, he is still young and is solid.
We won't sign another CB in summer. We will have Lenglet, Minguesa, Garcia, Pique and Araujo. That's more than enough. If we sign Wijnaldum (and maybe Depay) for free our entire budged will probably go on Haaland and I am fine with that.
I am totally against spending any money on another CB. We will have 3 youngsters (Araujo, Garcia and Minguesa) with high potential and we should give them a fair chance. In addition to that, Lenglet is also very young.
Tbh I don't expect us to spend money on anyone. Not a lot anyway.
Not even if we somehow manage to sell unwanted players.
I'm guessing if we sell for 80m we'll spend at most half of it.