6 - Carles Alena
- Thread starter raki
- Start date
They would in a heart beat. And more sources would report it like the boards mouthpiece MD. Alena would probably take the move too as if Barcelona accept an offer it means he has no future here. This is why I don't believe it.
I have just seen that Man Utd are going to increase their Ansu bid. Again from Sport and repeated in the British press. Another nonsense.
Imagine Barto actually managed to sign Neymar financed by the sales of Ansu and Alena. Well we would still need to reduce salary cap and get rid of high earners for free/loan. We might break the team. But, but, but we would get back Neymar!
...and then sign back Ansu in 4 years for 300m, if Barto's cronies stay in charge.
I have just seen that Man Utd are going to increase their Ansu bid. Again from Sport and repeated in the British press. Another nonsense.
Imagine Barto actually managed to sign Neymar financed by the sales of Ansu and Alena. Well we would still need to reduce salary cap and get rid of high earners for free/loan. We might break the team. But, but, but we would get back Neymar!
...and then sign back Ansu in 4 years for 300m, if Barto's cronies stay in charge.
khaled_a_d
Senior Member
Yeah, likely bs.
But if it is Arsenal, it will be loan with 25M option to buy. Just my guess
Watching Betis last night it hit me how much him and Bartra are alike.
High energy, directness, quick thinking and a whole lot of passion in them both.
These abilities in combination with an average ability of making decisions equals a player that's highly unreliable and prone to costly mistakes. Bartra's aggressive but clumsy, Alena is quick and can drive the ball forward but can lose it too easily in a dangerous situation in midfield.
Now Bartra is 29 so I don't have high hopes for him. Alena is younger and hasn't had the chance of playing regularly so there is a possibility that he'll mature. Or he'll end up like Bartra who despite a lot of game time looks the same unpolished player he was when he left us.
High energy, directness, quick thinking and a whole lot of passion in them both.
These abilities in combination with an average ability of making decisions equals a player that's highly unreliable and prone to costly mistakes. Bartra's aggressive but clumsy, Alena is quick and can drive the ball forward but can lose it too easily in a dangerous situation in midfield.
Now Bartra is 29 so I don't have high hopes for him. Alena is younger and hasn't had the chance of playing regularly so there is a possibility that he'll mature. Or he'll end up like Bartra who despite a lot of game time looks the same unpolished player he was when he left us.
Messi983
Senior Member
Yeah, and we should reject any loan offers for him. If we can't sell for a good money just keep him for another season as a 5th midfielder.
JamDav1982
Senior Member
He would barely play as a 5th midfielder and any value would drop further.
At his age it would be best for him personally to get minutes on pitch and for club to try and increase value if deemed not quite good enough.
Of course he can earn his place as a rotation in midfield but for that he has to start showing a lot more than has at Betis so far.
Messi983
Senior Member
A problem is if we'll sell Vidal or Raki we'll only have four midfielders next season as I don't see us buying a new midfielder (which is a mistake but we just won't have money for a quality one after buying Lautaro and I'd prefer to avoid Pjanić or Ndombele). If Semedo is sold as it looks like then Roberto will be a starting RB so we can't count on him to play in midfield.
Then it's up to the club to decide if we'll count on Alena, Riqui (who is more unproven and has more (physical) limitations than Alena), Collado (also unproven) or even Pedri as squad/bench players. Personally I think Pedri is by far the most talented out of them but he does need to play regularly every week so keeping him as a rotational midfielder is probably not ideal unless we can guarantee him let's say 2.000+ minutes. But loaning him to Sociedad/Betis it's probably better for his longterm development at this point.
So do we keep Riqui in Barca B (where he won't develop anymore) and call him up when needed or will we finally convince him to go on loan to see if he can perform on La Liga level? Do we keep Collado instead because of his versatility (can also play as a winger though we should have a solid depth there with Griez, Fati, Braithwaite and Trincao basically all competing for one spot because Messi always plays)? Or is it better to just give Alena a full season to see what he can do as a bench player and then sell him next year for whatever we can get (or in an unlikely case he'll prove to be good enough to stay here longterm renew his contract).
If the best offer we'll get for Alena this summer is around 10m I think we can probably sell him for the same fee in 2021 even with just a year left on his contract. If we'll only receive loan (with a relatively low non-obligatory buy option) offers then I also prefer to keep him. But if we can sell him for 20m+ then do that and give a chance to one of the other players mentioned before. The one thing I can't see happening is Alena going on loan back to Betis (or another club) and explode there so we could sell him for 30m or so with an expiring contract. This would be ideal but I just don't see that kind of potential in him.
JamDav1982
Senior Member
If Barca sell Rakitic and Vidal they will sign another midfielder or have Roberto seen as a midfielder only.
Worst thing possible for Alena and club is to keep him and barely play him. Wont happen that he is kept just for numbers.
Messi983
Senior Member
Sure, if we'll sell both Raki and Vidal we'll probably bring a new midfielder although I don't really have a clear idea who our target would be. I was talking if only one of them will leave which is more likely. In that case we'd only have Busi, FDJ, Arthur/Pjanić (the only way we get Pjanić is probably swapping him for Arthur; not going into details about this potential swap but from a pure numbers/midfield depth perspective nothing would change) and Vidal/Raki. We would need at least one if not two more midfielders and Alena could fit that role. I just don't see much sense to loan him for free (a club like Betis won't pay big loan fee if any at all). He most likely doesn't have a longterm future at the club so we would need to give him minutes for development (like we need to do with Pedri for example). So either sell him for a solid money or keep him as a cheap squad player for a season and then sell next year when we'll hopefully get someone better.
Batistuta9
New member
Has anyone been watching betis? Has Alena even been playing? Can't see how he will get into our midfield if he can't get into the betis team
xXKonan
Senior Member
He's a sub-option over there now by the looks of it.
Honestly, I'm really disappointed when it comes to Alena, I know he wasn't anywhere the technical talent the likes of Thiago was but he was considered a good prospect coming through and was excellent in the B team but his time with the main team and his stint at Betis so far haven't shown really anything that suggests he could be more than a rotational option.
It's really early to compare but I've been far more impressed with Puig in the very small sample size he has compared to Alena. Puig when he played helped influence so much more with his presence while with Alena, hasn't shown that much influence either starting or coming off the bench. Sure he scored that goal vs Villarreal which led him to eventually get promoted but he wasn't that influential overall though if you look at the grand scheme of things and he had more chances to prove it as well.
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