Barca 2016 summer signings

[khaled_a_d]

I'm curious what makes you say Paco is a flop after 6 months? Do you think he is a bad player incapable of helping the team in the future, or do you think he is a good player, but he will not be able to show it at Barca? I think he is a good player, who hasn't had the chance to show it yet. Very few games, and most in which he featured where games in which a lot of important players were rested. So I would not call him a flop, because being a flop means having many chances and failing. Paco hasn't had many chances to prove himself so far. Not enough to call him a flop anyway for me.

Do you think he has had enough chances to show he is good and didn't show it? I don't think he has. IIRC, he has played only one time as a starter with Messi and Neymar next to him and he scored an important goal.

I consider all players except Digne to be of better quality than what we are seeing so far, and it is almost inevitable for them to perform better if we trust them. I think Digne is as good as we're seeing , while the rest of the players have more ability in them than people realise. Especially Paco and Gomes.

I would not be surprised one bit to see Paco score again today if he plays. If we don't play a B team, in which case it becomes harder for him, because the service is of lower quality.

1-I said "Right now" at the very start of my post,you can't call a player flop after 6 months in general but for doing an assessment in such short time I think he is

2-Paco has struggled,I agree that he is far better player than what he has showed but he really struggled badly no matter how you go around it. No bench player will get full chance with all the starters around him,he struggled a lot to understand where he should be,how to finish,even how to receive the ball in many cases. He has major confidence issue which is alarming when you go to big club like Barca

 

[serghei]

1-I said "Right now" at the very start of my post,you can't call a player flop after 6 months in general but for doing an assessment in such short time I think he is

2-Paco has struggled,I agree that he is far better player than what he has showed but he really struggled badly no matter how you go around it. No bench player will get full chance with all the starters around him,he struggled a lot to understand where he should be,how to finish,even how to receive the ball in many cases. He has major confidence issue which is alarming when you go to big club like Barca

I agree with 1. I don't call him a flop because time is too short and he didn't have enough chances, but you did it for the sake of the question.

With 2, he has struggled, but it is important to see that he only played 1 game in which he was partnered with two starters up front from the start. And he scored. But we have put him a lot of times out there from the start with a lot of new players, and in this case it's no wonder the new players aren't playing very well, let alone a striker who is adapting to a new style.

I've said at the start that the way to integrate new players is not to play them together. because the cohesion just isn't there, but to use them with a working platform, and that means several key players being there. In this way the integration is faster.

 

[AnfieldEd]

You spent 100 million euros on Cillessen, Umtiti, Digne, Gomes and Alcacer.They're all an absolute joke off the pitch, carried by Messi.

 

[Luftstalag14]

You spent 100 million euros on Cillessen, Umtiti, Digne, Gomes and Alcacer.They're all an absolute joke off the pitch, carried by Messi.

What? One defeat and they are all jokes? What does "off the pitch" mean anyway? They are horrible people in real life?

You hit the lottery with Mane but hey, you guys are not in any position to really laugh at us. Start winning games against the EPL minnows first.

 

[raki]

You spent 100 million euros on Cillessen, Umtiti, Digne, Gomes and Alcacer.They're all an absolute joke off the pitch, carried by Messi.

Gomes and Alcacer.

You spent 100 million euros on Cillessen, Umtiti, Digne, Gomes and Alcacer.They're all an absolute joke off the pitch, carried by Messi.

 

[FlaFCB]

You spent 100 million euros on Cillessen, Umtiti, Digne, Gomes and Alcacer.They're all an absolute joke off the pitch, carried by Messi.

Cillessen, Digne and Umtiti are good signings. Replace them with Arda and denis, and it makes a better selection.

 

[Vilarrubi]

You spent 100 million euros on Cillessen, Umtiti, Digne, Gomes and Alcacer.They're all an absolute joke off the pitch, carried by Messi.

Gomes and Alcacer are horrible.

Umtiti... well you must have not watched any Barca games other than last night.

Cillesen is a Copa del Rey keeper and we are in the final.. fine as a backup. Levels above Pinto.

Digne is fine as a replacement LB, better than Adriano was.

And you forgot Denis Suarez.. who has been good as backup and only cost 3.5m.

So slight exaggeration after yesterday's result...

 

[BBZ8800]

And you forgot Denis Suarez.. who has been good as backup and only cost 3.5m.

Denis was around 10-15M in the end, not 3,5.
We will pay 3-4M only in this season for additional fees for Denis (1 Millions Euros for each 10 matches which Denis plays for Barca, even if he plays only 10 minutes in each match), until he reaches 100 matches for Barca.
Plus, we already bought Denis once from Man City (that fee should also be counted, right?), then we sold him, bought him back (and who knows whether we paid some more money in all these loans and terminating contracts, I wouldn't be surprised in anything regarding Barto).
So, we bought him twice and we will pay up to 10M of additional fees on top of 2 transfer fees.

Still, even 10-15M is cheap, but on the other hand, if Toni Kroos was 25M Euros (Isco and Kovacic around 30M), then 10-15M for Denis isn't peanuts or 10/10 transfer either.
Especially since he is currently just a squad player, equally as good or worse than Rafinha and Roberto.

 

[RIZALDINHO]

Umtiti is the only good player barca signed in the summer 2016 the rest are just not good enough to play for barca

 

[El Guaje]

So to draw a conclusion now when the season is over:

Umtiti - Very good and reliable and also came for a great price. Nothing else to say.

Digne: Apart from 1-2 games he has been a pretty good, reliable and consistent backup. Should have gotten more gametime.

Denis: Hasnt showed much, but to his defense he has not been given so many minutes to play, nor did he get to play regularly.

Paco: Very bad in the beginning but picked it up towards the end of the season. Not worth the money paid, maybe will prove his worth next season.

Gomes: Disaster, should be the 1st one to gtfo. Atleast Lucho aint gonna be around to give his mancrush undeserved starts and subs every game.

 

[DonAK]

Nothing is going to happen.

Come back in August and it'll be the same.

 

[Barcaman]

I think we are forgetting Marlon. He was a better signing than Paco and Gomes.

 

[Albo]

The summer 2016 signings aren't that bad when you consider the fact that they weren't signed to be starters(-Umtits). It's the boards fault for not buying starters when it was clear that we needed them.
My opinions about the signings:

Umtits - Good & relatively cheap, hopefully he can get even better with Valverde, 8.5/10 signing.

Digne - Solid, occasionally struggles against quick wingers but is much better at defending than Alba overall. Neymar shouldn't ignore him when he is making runs. 7/10 signing, a bit pricy but the market is crazy so I won't whine about that.

Cillessen - Solid again, he needs way more game time next season and I hope Valverde gives him that. It's good to know that the horrorfest of 2013/2014 with Pinto won't be repeated again, Cillessen can be trusted even in big games. 7.5/10 signing, even if he wants to leave that isn't really a problem because I think we can get a good price.

Paco - Started off as the worst signing but that may be because he missed the pre-season. In the end became our most improved summer 2016 signing, when you watch his games from late 2016 he looks lost and doesn't have any idea what to do. During 2017 he tracked back a lot, played many times out of position as a winger and still did relative well considering the fact that he has been a number 9 all of his career. Hope he gets more game time next season and continue his good form. As of now I rate him a 6.5/10 signing but he could very well became even a 9/10 signing if he continues improving as he did in 2017. To be seen.

Denis - Started really well but became our worst player of the summer signings at the end of the season. He has a lot of talent but I'm not sure if our playstyle fits his playstyle at all. I whine a lot about his performances but you can't criticise the signing because he was so cheap. 6/10 but he can too improve a lot and if he can't we can get a good price out of him too. Needs more game time like the other players.

Gomes - Our worst signing this season because of the price but even now other clubs are offering the whole sum we spent on him. There is clearly something other clubs/scouts see about him. One problem is that he really didn't have a specific role this season with Lucho's madness. I'd give him an another season to prove himself if Valverde really wants him to stay, but if this is some trick played by the board he needs to be sold. 5.5/10 signing but at least his agent is Mendes.

Marlon - Good and cheap, I hope he will have a bright future ahead. 7.5/10 signing.