Alejandro Grimaldo

[gasgas]

We should have signed both tbh. One thing is for sure, when a player like Kroos is available, you try to buy him. Madrid had some world class players in midfield, and added a new young world class midfielder while we did nothing.

But Rakitic would have seen the bench

 

[JamDav1982]

I think if we signed Kroos

We would have won the treble still and maintained a world class team to carry us through the next 5 seasons or so
Instead of one season wonder Rakitic

Can never know that really but for the future of Barca there is no doubt Kroos was the better signing for me.

Kroos is a ball dominant Barca type midfielder that looked great under Peps system.

 

[serghei]

But Rakitic would have seen the bench

You use them both and you then decide based on performances. It's not like Kroos would have pushed out of the club after 1 single season where he didn't play a lot.

It's just my opinion that players like Kroos aren't on the market often. Maybe once in 5 transfer windows a team has the chance to get a top top player from a direct european rival. When that happens you should be fighting for that player.

 

[khaled_a_d]

We should have signed both tbh. One thing is for sure, when a player like Kroos is available, you try to buy him.

With Di Maria and Alonso almost gone and RM trying to go for both players,we were never gonna be able to get both. Again I think we were in leading position to get the one we wanted from the 2,but once signed the other will go to RM.

Messi at RW has never tracked back all that much either so it is nothing new.

The fact that Alves had to be the player to get close to Messi and get involved in build up play is why Raki had to drop deeper.

That was in Pep 1st year,totally different team,and Pedro and Sanchez tracked back before Lucho came. And everyone wanted an upgrade over them in Suarez. No matter how you go through it our attack line became more liability defensively with MSN. That is 3 players who don't defend. And yeah our fullbacks going forward was also one of our strongest weapons with Alves and Alba. again one more reason Rakitic was better fit

 

[serghei]

I would have done anything to sign both, but if I were to choose between Kroos and Rakitic, I still would've taken Kroos every single time.

 

[JamDav1982]

With Di Maria and Alonso almost gone and RM trying to go for both players,we were never gonna be able to get both. Again I think we were in leading position to get the one we wanted from the 2,but once signed the other will go to RM.



That was in Pep 1st year,totally different team,and Pedro and Sanchez tracked back before Lucho came. And everyone wanted an upgrade over them in Suarez. No matter how you go through it our attack line became more liability defensively with MSN. That is 3 players who don't defend. And yeah our fullbacks going forward was also one of our strongest weapons with Alves and Alba. again one more reason Rakitic was better fit

Attacking line were not worse defensively with MSN. Neymar is as hard working as anyone in team and Messi was replaced in middle by Suarez who is hard working so work rate of front three never really dropped all that much.

Raki is only needed to be cover for Alves and Messi as he didnt have the ability on the ball to support Messi enough and Alves had to take the slack. Even then Raki as this great defender is hugely over rated, teams breeze by him all the time on the break.

 

[FlaFCB]

Signing Rakitic over Kroos was a mistake. And rm got a great player too, who's been huge for them.

 

[jamrock]

I don't often times agree with jamdav but I agree with every thing he as said so far.

Kroos would have be our xavi "replacement" since we sent ours to Bayern for 25m.

He would have been at the club and performing for 6-8 seasons at the highest level.

Rakitic is nowhere near Kroos, you always always finish on the Kroos,never ever finish on the rakitic.

 

[hulinat]

Came back from injury and is already owning the league again. Beautiful link up play and an assist tonight. He should be a #1 priority target this summer for us

 

[El Flaco]

Alex Grimaldo: "It's always hard to get into Barça's first team but now they don't look as much to the Academy. The players that left had the level needed to be there "

 

[hulinat]

and were not even showing any interest in him at this point. Fuck Lucho and fuck the board.

 

[DonAK]

These guy are not going to sign him back for 35m after selling him for like 500k and never even giving him a chance despite everyone in La Masia saying he was ready to take the next step.

They would look stupid, which they are, but they don't ever want to admit it.

 

[God Serena]

It was clear as day Grimaldo was ready to be promoted. The board would rather wait until he's 24-26 and a certifiably world class player and try to bring him back in a big money deal, than bring him back the moment *their* coach who arbitrarily didn't rate him. It'd basically be like admitting they were wrong.

We're so close to Cucurella being called the "patient fullback" that my palms are getting sweaty.

 

[Truthist]

I hate it when people say we have no talent in 'La Masia', Xavi, Iniesta Busquets etc were once in a generation type of players.

I disagree, they had coaches who were patient with them, worked on their flaws, gave them chances rather than leaving them out in the cold for some old past it player.

Since Pep, our coaches have literally ignored any youngster and given chance after chance to crappy expensive flops. It feels like we have lost a generation of one or 2 diamonds who simply needed polishing.

 

[God Serena]

I hate it when people say we have no talent in 'La Masia', Xavi, Iniesta Busquets etc were once in a generation type of players.

I disagree, they had coaches who were patient with them, worked on their flaws, gave them chances rather than leaving them out in the cold for some old past it player.

Since Pep, our coaches have literally ignored any youngster and given chance after chance to crappy expensive flops. It feels like we have lost a generation of one or 2 diamonds who simply needed polishing.

This as well. So many negative comments are made about the likes of Samper, Palencia, Deulofeu, Grimaldo, etc. to justify never giving them a chance with the first team while the likes of Mathieu, Gomes, Arda, Denis, Adriano, etc. are allowed free reign to be as awful as you can imagine a professional footballer being nearly every week.

If we allowed Samper to stay and let him be as bad as Gomes, let Deulofeu stay and be as bad as Arda, or let Grimaldo stay and be as bad as Mathieu, we'd easily be able to afford Verratti.