5 - Iñigo Martínez

[DonAK]

I believe we will sign at least one of those two players, if not both. But if the opening is there for a good solid CB for an affordable price, pull the trigger.

I believe we've already signed him. He was left out of Sociedad's squad a couple of days ago.

I'm not even counting him among our signings. It's never been a priority. We've been chasing a midfielder since June and are in the last weeks of the transfer window without one right now, with Liverpool shutting down doors to sign Coutinho with Klopp threatening to walk away and Coutinho being okay to stay.

BVB playing hard ball in negotiations for Dembele too. We've been trying to sign a midfielder all summer, and it ended up with us losing a key player and now having to sign a LW as well.

I'm not sure how it's going to end, but I see it ending up bad. Signing shit players for a midfielder and LW won't do it. They have to go for quality players, and at this rate Robert and Bartomeu are facing one defeat after the other, getting literally played with in the transfer market by every single club they're facing. Whether it's Real Madrid with Ceballos, PSG with Verratti and Neymar, Liverpool with Coutinho and now BVB with Dembele.

Heck even that Chinese club with the hack that is Paulinho.

And what about the player sales? Arda is still at the club and so is Munir. We have 27 players in the squad currently.

 

[serghei]

I believe we've already signed him. He was left out of Sociedad's squad a couple of days ago.

I'm not even counting him among our signings. It's never been a priority. We've been chasing a midfielder since June and are in the last weeks of the transfer window without one right now, with Liverpool shutting down doors to sign Coutinho with Klopp threatening to walk away and Coutinho being okay to stay.

BVB playing hard ball in negotiations for Dembele too. We've been trying to sign a midfielder all summer, and it ended up with us losing a key player and now having to sign a LW as well.

I'm not sure how it's going to end, but I see it ending up bad. Signing shit players for a midfielder and LW won't do it. They have to go for quality players, and at this rate Robert and Bartomeu are facing one defeat after the other, getting literally played with in the transfer market by every single club they're facing. Whether it's Real Madrid with Ceballos, PSG with Verratti and Neymar, Liverpool with Coutinho and now BVB with Dembele.

Heck even that Chinese club with the hack that is Paulinho.

Roberto is a midfielder, right? Alena is also a midfielder. If we don't sign a midfielder, at least these players will get more playing time. Both looked great in US. Don't you guys say that La Masia should be trusted more? If we don't sign a new midfielder, young players like Alena, Denis Suarez, even Roberto will play more. It's not all bad.

The market is fucked up. Sooner or later we will have to deal with clubs keeping their players, and find in house solutions. What can we do if Dortmund ask 160m. for Dembele? Pay that? What can we do if Liverpool don't want to sell Coutinho? We can do nothing.

We can only sign players if clubs want to sell or need the money. Money are starting to show up in football, and Barca with Madrid have no leverage anymore in this area. The market is already getting bigger, so Barca and Madrid can't make power plays that easily anymore.

Madrid has been weaker this summer as well. Losing Morata and James, two players that helped them a lot from the bench last season. Ceballos? We have talent of our own we need to bring forward, feck Ceballos. He's an idiot anyway.

 

[DonAK]

Roberto is a midfielder, right? Alena is also a midfielder? If we don't sign a midfielder, at least these players will get more playing time. Don't you guys say that La Masia should be trusted more? If we don't sign a new midfielder, young players like Alena, Denis Suarez, even Roberto will play more. It's not all bad.

The market is fucked up. Sooner or later we will have to deal with clubs keeping their players, and find in house solutions.

Deulofeu and Arda are LWs too, not to forget Denis. If you're going to make up excuses all the time, you might as well do it right away.

Not saying we shouldn't look at in house solutions, but you don't always find them there.

Perhaps we should have promoted Palencia or just used Vidal as our RB instead of signing Semedo too?

 

[serghei]

Deulofeu and Arda are LWs too, not to forget Denis. If you're going to make up excuses all the time, you might as well do it right away.

Not saying we shouldn't look at in house solutions, but you don't always find them there.

Perhaps we should have promoted Palencia or just used Vidal as our RB instead of signing Semedo too?

You never know until you try. It takes guts to do it, I agree. If we can't bring world class talent in, and this is extremely hard to do and could very well be beyond Robert's or the board's possibilities, then we need to make the best use of our in house talent.

As I said, if the clubs don't want to sell, or demand insane money, we can't do anything.

 

[DonAK]

You never know until you try. It takes guts to do it, I agree. If we can't bring world class talent in, and this is extremely hard to do and could very well be beyond Robert's or the board's possibilities, then we need to make the best use of our in house talent.

As I said, if the clubs don't want to sell, or demand insane money, we can't do anything.

We should because we have no option left, but I'm not going to make excuses for Robert and this board, and I advise you to do the same.

They had a lot of time to plan the season and fell in the same trap again. A lot of culers live in their own bubble, but when it bursts which it will if this continues and Messi grows older, they're going to fall flat on their face.

The fact that we still haven't signed a midfielder is gross incompetence. Trying to chase Verratti and Paulinho all summer is gross incompetence.

Don't make up excuses for that. Call a spade a spade.

 

[serghei]

We should because we have no option left, but I'm not going to make excuses for Robert and this board, and I advise you to do the same.

They had a lot of time to plan the season and fell in the same trap again. A lot of culers live in their own bubble, but when it bursts which it will if this continues and Messi grows older, they're going to fall flat on their face.

They are bad, but a lot of the things that get pinned on them are down to the inflation in the market. Sooner of later we will have to go back to our academy and our philosophy. We have the greatest football academy in the world. We should use that more.

 

[DonAK]

They are bad, but a lot of the things that get pinned on them are down to the inflation in the market. Sooner of later we will have to go back to our academy and our philosophy. We have the greatest football academy in the world. We should use that more.

Keep making up excuses then.

What's the difference between Coutinho and Bernardo Silva? 100m+/Unwillingness to sell vs 50m?

I rest my case.

 

[serghei]

Keep making up excuses then.

What's the difference between Coutinho and Bernardo Silva? 100m+/Unwillingness to sell vs 50m?

I rest my case.

Coutinho is better. Bernardo Silva was a missed opportunity, true. Said it at the time and blamed the board for not being quick enough. I was talkng about the situation right now. I can praise the board for getting the Semedo transfer right. You win some, lose some.

 

[DonAK]

Coutinho is better. Bernardo Silva was a missed opportunity, true. Said it at the time and blamed the board for not being quick enough. I was talkng about the situation right now.

What forced them into this situation? Perhaps it is chasing Verratti and Paulinho? What if....we had tried to sign Coutinho earlier? Don't you think we would have been in a better negotiating position than two weeks before the season starts?

Again, you can keep making up excuses for them. I'm going to call a spade a spade.

 

[DonAK]

You're buying into their BS and ready to accept mediocrity in Arda or Deulofeu as our LW.

Really catching the Arsenal/Wenger syndrome while every other club in the World is improving their squad.

 

[khaled_a_d]

What forced them into this situation? Perhaps it is chasing Verratti and Paulinho? What if....we had tried to sign Coutinho earlier? Don't you think we would have been in a better negotiating position than two weeks before the season starts?

Again, you can keep making up excuses for them. I'm going to call a spade a spade.

We are using Messi the same way like last season from what I've seen in pre-season, I don't think Silva and Messi would work together as Messi and Coutinho tbh. And Coutinho is the better player currently

 

[serghei]

What forced them into this situation? Perhaps it is chasing Verratti and Paulinho? What if....we had tried to sign Coutinho earlier? Don't you think we would have been in a better negotiating position than two weeks before the season starts?

Again, you can keep making up excuses for them. I'm going to call a spade a spade.

I make excuses for them, because excuses can be made for 75% of the things people say they are responsible for (speaking strictly speaking about transfers, not about the shit they caused in other areas, were we are in total agreement). Nobody expected Neymar to hit us in the head like that. The MSN was fine, nobody thought we will have to look for a LW. That hit us hard. The RB position was the most detrimental last season, and they got the right player in there, the player many had as their no1 option - Semedo.

Roberto, Rakitic, Busquets, Iniesta, Alena these are good players in midfield. You seem to forget that the no1 issue in our midfield was Lucho's fucked up, stiff as shit tactics, not necessarily having poor players. Far from it. With the same players, Valverde got a better passing game in the first game. Tactics are KEY. Movement is key. We were horrible at both. I can tell you right now that this midfield is underrated as hell. Poor tactics have made our players look like poor players. Barca only has good players or great players in midfield. When we got our shit together we dominated some of the best teams in La Liga.

So, let's get together, stop crying like babies, and realize that shit happens, but the team is still going strong. Lost Neymar, shit happens, hopefully, we sign some great players in return. If not possible, we attack with what we have, and with a firm belief in our philosophy, as always.

 

[DonAK]

You don't make excuses for them because excuses can be made. Otherwise you wouldn't be slamming them one day and making them look better the next one.

You make up excuses for them because you go into a zone where you think closing your eyes and burying your head into the sand is better than looking at the shit that is happening right in front of you.

Good for you then. As I said, you can keep doing that. I won't.

 

[serghei]

You don't make excuses for them because excuses can be made. Otherwise you wouldn't be slamming them one day and making them look better the next one.

You make up excuses for them because you go into a zone where you think closing your eyes and burying your head into the sand is better than looking at the shit that is happening right in front of you.

I like to talk about the end of Barca and such apocaliptic bullshit after I give Valverde the chance to put his plan into action. So far, I like what I've seen. Allow me to keep my optimism until further notice.

Hell, a lot of people here got into repeated arguments with me after I refused to agree with the idea that Messi was carrying Barca all these years, and he was the difference, not the overall team that we had and that was beaming with talent left and right. Now most of those users have premonitions with us finishing 3rd, 4th or 5th. Did Messi retire or something?

 

[DonAK]

I like to talk about the end of Barca and such apocaliptic bullshit after I give Valverde the chance to put his plan into action. So far, I like what I've seen. Allow me to keep my optimism until fruther notice.

We can do better and win this season, but I'd rather look at both short- and long-term than only next day or month.