Of all our signings that season only Bravo, Rakitic and Suarez proved to be good signings for that season. Mathieu costed us more points than he helped us win, even with his goals against Celta and Madrid (Although we can blame Lucho for that, Mathieu should have never been given a role as LB), Vermaelen is quite possibly the most idiotic transfer we've ever made and I shouldn't have to explain why, although Douglas comes REALLY CLOSE to trumping that, as he was considered trash even by his own team's fans in Brazil. Rakitic wasn't a "Perfect fit", he was good at filling the role needed for covering for Alves, and once Alves left his quality didn't decline rapidly, it fell off a cliff. Signing both Bravo and Mats was a massive redundancy that only served to create conflict as well. And you forget: We also "Signed" Rafinha, who was instantly one of Lucho's favorites. I'd actually like to revise my earlier statement about Lucho's transfer strategy. There was a mix of younger players, older players, and players in their prime signed. Almost as if there... wasn't any plan at all.
Did i say all our signings were good? No, i said our strategy was succesful as we won treble. Douglas signing was surely weird, but signing Verma was risky sure, but not idiotic. As i said, many players have achieved way better health after leaving Arsenal.
Arda wasn't signed because he was willing to sit, he was signed because Barto needed a top signing and fast because he had elections coming up, and Arda's persona as a "warrior" and an apparant huge Barca fan was just what he needed. There was no sporting reasoning behind why a treble winning side needed to add an extra midfielder, and 40m for a 28/29 year old was always a questionable purchase. Vidal was similarly always known to be a god awful defender and it was laughable how Lucho insisted we sign a player like him just to nearly perma-bench him for being a poor defender. Bringing Munir and Sandro up from La Masia also didn't benefit the team much because neither player got much playing time, as MSN heavily dominated any minutes our forward line had available, a situation I've been saying for years is a massive problem and one of the primary deficiencies of our team. Our team didn't just drop in form, we plummeted in quality and very nearly blew a massive lead that we'd built up in the first half of the season. If the season was one or two weeks longer we'd have almost certainly dropped the league to Real Madrid, we were that shockingly poor. A huge part of that was our transfer policy. Buying players that will help *right now*, no matter the cost, is something that everyone could see was harming us in the long term.
If you would know anything about football, then relying on totally same crew after winning everything is perhaps the worst thing you can do. Real Madrid this season are eager to prove it. You need fresh quality to keep motivation high, too bad Arda never had any motivation really. Also once again irrelevant. Logic is there.
Just signing young players doesn't do anything. Take a look at who we actually signed. Paco? A generally useless player who spends the majority of most games completely invisible. Never showed anything to indicate he was good enough for Barca. Gomes? A mediocre at best player who's only justification for being here is "Real Madrid wanted him". Denis? A winger signed to play as a midfielder purely because he'd be cheap. Not given the light of day by Lucho. Digne? Was only ever signed to be a backup in the first place. Of all those young players we signed, the only one who was a result of proper scouting *and* was signed based on potential to become a key player for us is Umtiti.
Completely irrelevant again as all that you have stated is based on what happened after the transfers. I am talking about the situation at the time of transfer. Go back to forum back then and notice how majority of forum was super exicted about the 23-year olds. Once again, made sense at time, just did not work out later.
A conga line of poor signings can generally be chalked up to poor transfer policy. What kind of a statement is this? Our transfer policy is good, it's our signings that are bad? What? Players are more than just their freaking age. Come on. Try to at least be a little logical here. Because what you are saying makes no sense.
It is not shame losing an argument, just give up. You really have nothing against my point that transfers the board have made, have been at that time logical and made sense. If signing ends up bad or worse is something that time will tell.
His price was always questionable, and he was always very clearly a political signing, this much is reflected even in going back 200+ pages, which I just did. Most of the positive attitude about him was in relation to his comments about Barca, Messi, and his dedication to making us a top team
lol
. There was some hope he could be the player for us that he was at Atletico but very many people felt it was Simeone who was pushing him to be better than he was. They were right. Even as people ardently defended him in January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October... I really wonder at what point his defenders finally realized him being lazy, unmotivated, and all around terrible wasn't because of his "6 months" (Really 4 months) of not playing.
Yes, Ronaldinho was also political signing, its not like there havent been plenty who failed and plenty who succeeded over the time. Irrelevant.
I like how you try to complain about being "smart afterwards" but then do the exact same thing in your very next thought. Just because Grimaldo is having a lot of issues with injuries at Benfica doesn't mean Lucho was right to ignore him and use other players proven to fail as LB instead. Unless you were actively cheering when Mathieu fucked up for the hundredth time or when Adriano jogged back while attackers tore our defense apart through his flank I really don't see how you could argue against using Grimaldo when he was healthy would not have been preferable. This is an incredibly weak argument. And you're also wrong, on your last part. Bartra went to Dortmund to replace Hummels and is now a fan favorite. Last I checked he left in the last 4 years, and he was La Masia. I'm also willing to bet he knows players can't be offside in their own half, and we possibly could have won the league if the same could have been said for Mathieu.
True, i apologize for that. Then again Grimaldo was totally not impressive for me at the time he left as well, so...
Why the hell do you think that? What I think is bullshit is spending nearly 200m on players who provide us absolutely nothing. It's beyond my comprehension how anyone can prefer we sign players like Paco, Gomes, Digne, Arda, etc. for astronomical fees instead of giving a chance to a player who is free and can be easily sent back if they prove not to be a success.
Young players need regular time to fullfill their potential. There is noone in La Masia who would benefit from being in first time. Alena perhaps next season. At the age of 23, you are already experienced enough to be in first team. 16-20, not really.
Just as there are people who overhype the academy, there are just as many who underrate it to a sickening level. Samper is not a "good example" of anything, he has exactly one year of top flight experience and he was playing on a team that had 3 managers in one season and was flying rapidly towards relegation, and he even had a clause in his loan contract that would make his loan team pay us more if he played too often. Wow, what a flop. I suppose you'd rather spend 40m on players who are mid-table level like Paco or Paulinho than bring some up from the academy, because that's all we've done. And then we struggle to come up with the funds to bring top players to the squad. But forward thinking has never been a strong point for you people. Your hate-boner for La Masia transcends all logic. Why use a mid-tier academy player like Sandro (Who is actually proving that if given more than 300 minutes a season he's actually pretty good) when you can just buy one for 30 or 40m? We're not signing incredible young talents who can work their way up to being stars for the club in a few years. That's Real Madrid's calling. We're too busy bringing in aging players with no resume and younger players with no potential or quality who's main positive attribute seems to be they're not from La Masia. It's so interesting how you seem so calm and level headed until it comes time to discuss the ignorance of the academy. Fuck logic, and fuck La Masia. They're all average. It's like you're completely disconnected from reality, in case you haven't noticed the majority of our bench is average or worse and most of them aren't La Masia players. Oops.
Real Madrid buy young, but they also send them out on loans, like all top squads. I fail to really remember anyone young going straight their first team. Same as I have lost count on how many "prospects" and "talents" have been loaned from Barcelona aswell. We are not different in any way apart from being ruined by the golden generation and expecting it to happen all the time.
This can generally be chalked up to poor transfer policy but for some reason you seem to think that's perfect.
Oh really, where did i say it was perfect rofl. Stick to facts, i said the transfer policy has made sense, what has been wrong is actual targets, so i would blame either scouting department or those making calls who to sign up (can be either coach or board)
No, the majority DO NOT make sense. From a pure sporting perspective Paulinho, Douglas, Arda, Mathieu and Vermaelen made no sense at all. And it's not as if Paco and Gomes were logical signings, either. But yes, yes, I'm sure it made perfect sense to sign a 30 year old who smokes and ignore our doctors and sign a paraplegic defender. What a great way to ensure our long term future.
But they do, only argument you keep pushing is the actual quality of those signings, which is not important at all while arguing about transfer policy and type of players we have recruited. Only one i do not get is really Douglas.
Should make him think twice before cancelling a move when the manager tells him he doesn't count on him anymore.
