Barca Transfers and Rumors

[Co0ter]

Fuck, I hate it when people bring up VERRATTI.

It ain't happening folks!!

Remember Thiago Silva?!

He was always flirting with us so he could get a pay rise.

Verratti is PSG s most important player. PSG have alot of money and are a club on the up. LoL at how some people think we can throw big money at players and their clubs will sell.

The Barca brand is big but nowadays $$ signs are even bigger. Besides we have gone Galactico and look at our state. The squad lacks balance, quality and youth.

We have always signed big players, always. We didn't suddenly start buying more big players than we did before. At least the big players we signed recently for a lot of money have been good and paid off. The problem is with all the other garbage we have spent TONS of money on. Vidal, Gomes, Paco, Vermaelen, Douglas. That is like over 100 million right there and that's not even counting variables or Arda. The common denominator has been a bunch of expensive, VERY AVERAGE players that Lucho wanted particularly who not surprisingly didn't work out.

Our team would of been in absolutely fantastic shape if we spent half that money but bought the right CM and RB....and kept Munir or Sandro as backup. We replaced them with a WORSE player. We could of also kept Grimaldo and saved another 20mil spent on Digne (although I like him as a back up).

We spend money on players like Gomes and Paco who were so clearly average before we signed them. No exceptional moments or characteristics that stand out at all. Meanwhile, Real Madrid buys a player like Kovacic for 30mil and he is 3x the player Gomes is and could have been molded into Iniesta's position/role so beautifully. He's exactly what we needed- someone who can take off with speed into space if available. Very fast, great dribbler, decent tackler and an incredibly hard worker. Watching him run around pressing....then watching Gomes lazy, donkey ass lug around is just painful.

 

[9thMode]

Better buy a quality Rb in the summer and let Roberto + someone from Barca B play this season out.
Were not fighting for any titles except copa anyways.

Couldn't have said it any better.

 

[BBZ8800]

He's not guaranteed he's going to stay there either. Only signed a two year contract when he joined and can buy himself out for 1.5m euros.

He's always wanted to coach Messi and if we contact him then I'm confident he will come. He won't get another chance except for perhaps the Argentine NT after the 2018 WC, but then again AFA are so incompetent they might appoint someone else instead.

Imo, our chances to sign someone like Sampaoli are like 10% at max.

Since Van Gaal in 1997 (and that is already 20 years, the best 20 years in our history), we had 10 coaches (Van Gaal twice) and only 1 was a coach with a new philosophy (Tata) and another one who was slightly different (Antic, but he was an interim coach for 3 Months).

Other 8 coaches were "the same" guy over and over.
Van Gaal
Rexach
Serra Ferrer
Van Gaal
Rijkaard
Pep
Tito
Lucho

Serra Ferrer, Rexach, Pep, Tito and Lucho are "our guys" related with our club and philosophy all their life.
Van Gaal and Rijkaard were Dutch, and that is the closest thing outside of Catalonia which you get with Barca's Dna and Barca's philosophy.

We already tried to bring a coach for Messi (Tata) who will try something different and it didn't work.
I mean, everything is possible, but I doubt that we will suddenly have a revolution and bring a coach who has totally different football ideas.
He probably won't play 433, but something else.
And if he will switch to 433, then why having him and not Koeman/Gerard who know that style and all tricks since always?
Basically, if a coach like Sampaoli comes, he will have to play some new formation and new style, unrelated to our classic 433.
If you want to play 433, then Koeman or Gerard are always way better fits, since Sampaoli yet has to learn tricks of our 433.
And since we never change our 433 for years, then...

If that happens, that would really be something new and groundbreaking for our history and tradition.

I would put my money on:
90% chances: R. Koeman, Gerard Lopez or Valverde
10% chances: Sampaoli or some other coach not related with Barca (not a former player, a former coach etc)

If you bring Sampaoli, you don't need La Masia players anymore, since they are perfect for our 433 style and they train their movements from the earliest age.
To some extent, forget then about Munir, Busi, Iniesta, Rafinha, Roberto, even Alena etc.
The board probably thinks that our rooster is still awesome and that we only need a better coach. But better Barca's DNA coach who will continue our era and who will only fix issues which Lucho created.

I am reading these posts about Sampaoli here for Months, but imo, he would be a tricky fit for our team, the same as questionable Gomes, Denis and other recent players.
I just don't see it happening.

 

[gatsu]

Under lucho we are not applying our traditional game plan. Yes we are playing in a 433 formation, but there is formation and animation and its 2 completely different things.

Barca style was never about a 433 formation. It was more about a unique playstyle consisting of quick passing, space creation, triangle play and efficient pressing.

In summary you just have to look at sevilla a team coached by sampaoli

 

[Ritchie]

When i look at our main rival midfield and see Modric,Kroos,Isco and Kovacic i get frightened for the future. We have Iniesta,Gomes, Rakitic,Rafinha.
Disturbing....
We could have bought Pjanic last summer and Kovacic a year ago. These kind of choices are terrifying.
I´ll excuse Kroos and Modric because we had Xavi and Iniesta but on even that point Madrid had Modric and Kroos and they add Kovacic and Isco. Even James.

We bought overpaid and/or overage players of the like of Arda, Gomes,Alcacer.

Our squad is so worst than them. Only a miracle orquestrated by MSN, Iniesta,Busi,Alves and Pique in recent years save some dreadfull transfer policies.

At this moment the players we need are either "impossible" to get or cost over 70M. It´s very worrying.
Iniesta is 32. He has 2 years, at most. With this inflated market we dont have the money to rebuild.

The club is fucked. Milan the second.

 

[Ritchie]

We spend money on players like Gomes and Paco who were so clearly average before we signed them. No exceptional moments or characteristics that stand out at all. Meanwhile, Real Madrid buys a player like Kovacic for 30mil and he is 3x the player Gomes is and could have been molded into Iniesta's position/role so beautifully. He's exactly what we needed- someone who can take off with speed into space if available. Very fast, great dribbler, decent tackler and an incredibly hard worker. Watching him run around pressing....then watching Gomes lazy, donkey ass lug around is just painful.

There's a rule that Barcelona can't sign midfielders that aren't slower than a milk tanker.

 

[BBZ8800]

Under lucho we are not applying our traditional game plan. Yes we are playing in a 433 formation, but there is formation and animation and its 2 completely different things.

Barca style was never about a 433 formation. It was more about a unique playstyle consisting of quick passing, space creation, triangle play and efficient pressing.

In summary you just have to look at sevilla a team coached by sampaoli

Triangle passing and similar.
When you say traditional game plan, are you talking about our traditional gameplan in terms of the last 100 years or our gameplan under Pep which made us famous?

Lucho's Barca in the first 2 seasons weren't THAT different from Barca in the last 100 years.
Lucho's Barca is general was quite different to Pep's Barca.
But Pep's Barca is not Barca, or not our whole history, that's just one tiny part of our history.

Lucho's Barca, while it worked, in the first 2 seasons, wasn't that much different from Barca in the late 90s, early 00s or under Rijkaard.

Barca from 2016 and 2017 is an absolute crap, though. Without a coach, without tactics and with horrible midfielders.

At the end of the day, I still think that Koeman/Gerard would fit 10 times more than Sampaoli because they played that style for years, been here for years, cheered for our team for years, and currently their teams are playing that way (at least Gererd's).

Anyway, I still think that you have been probably referring to Pep's Barca as "our traditional game plan".
Once again, Van Gaal's Barca, Rijkaard's Barca and Lucho's early Barca were quite similar (until Lucho ruined it, or as some say until Xavi left and didn't influence the tactics anymore).
About our Pep's gameplan and Barca's gameplan over 100 years, look at this for example (even though you can only see goals here):
1998/1999:

Van Gaal's Barca, who won La ligas twice in his 3 seasons here. You can see tons of crosses, counterattacks, longballs, goals after corners, individual genius actions leading to solo goals etc. Quite different to Pep's Barca and once again, quite similar to Rijkaard's Barca and our 2014/15 while it worked well.

When someone says Barca's traditional gameplan, my first thought after following Barca for 20+ years is:
1. always extremely attacking football (too attacking at times)
2. always high possession
3. always tons of goals
4. always having world class superstar winger/forwards (Romario, R9, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Etoo, Henry, Messi, Neymar)
5. world class midfielders most of the time
6. beautiful football to watch

Pressing and triangles were brought to another level under Pep. Imo, we were just a normal top team in those elements before him. Not better and not worse than other top teams in that aspect.

 

[BBZ8800]

gomez=30m€(he is good player but not Barcelona level he can play in Arsenal, Rome, Monaco, inter, milan, liverpool, dortmund)
d.suarez=20m€(as gomez)
arda=40m€(china)(if china wants we don't need to think even 1min)
methieu=5m€(all european club can buy him to this value)

Imo, nobody will pay more than 5-8M max for Denis.
Halilovic with insane potential went for 5M. Why on Earth would anyone pay more than 8M for Denis? I am not sure that we would get even that.
Arda, unless if he goes to China, In Europe currently nobody is gonna pay more than 8M for him also. He is an old player who lost physical abilities.
It is more likely that he will go for free or on a loan till his transfer expires.
Mathieu, players like him are sold for 0-2M in his age.

So, for these 4 you wouldn't get 95 Millions, but more like 48 Millions.
That is one Coutniho's foot and a shoe from the other foot.
You still need 20-30M for only Coutinho alone.

 

[khaled_a_d]

Imo, nobody will pay more than 5-8M max for Denis.
Halilovic with insane potential went for 5M. Why on Earth would anyone pay more than 8M for Denis? I am not sure that we would get even that.
Arda, unless if he goes to China, In Europe currently nobody is gonna pay more than 8M for him also. He is an old player who lost physical abilities.
It is more likely that he will go for free or on a loan till his transfer expires.
Mathieu, players like him are sold for 0-2M in his age.

So, for these 4 you wouldn't get 95 Millions, but more like 48 Millions.
That is one Coutniho's foot and a shoe from the other foot.
You still need 20-30M for only Coutinho alone.

Denis is proven La Liga and Europa League player,what he has done with Villarreal & Sevilla before make him worth at least 20M. Would consider the board doing a bad job getting anything less.
There is big market for him also,many teams were interested in him in England & Italy

 

[FlaFCB]

Denis is proven La Liga and Europa League player,what he has done with Villarreal & Sevilla before make him worth at least 20M. Would consider the board doing a bad job getting anything less.
There is big market for him also,many teams were interested in him in England & Italy

You're overrating Denis. No one would pay 20m for him. And he's not proven yet. Still seen as a good prospect.

 

[Guaporta]

The thing I don't understand is this; why on earth would we offload some of the players that clearly need time to adapt to the Barcelona-way of playing the game? They suffer under a coach that doesn't provide them with a clear tactical plan. You can't expect Denis Suárez or André Gomes to be on a level that they will find their own way within the system like Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets or Messi would. We saw Denis Suárez playing good football at Villarreal and thought that €3M for him would be a steal. In some games (like Celtic and Sevilla) he was the best player on the pitch, why wouldn't we give him the time that players like Arda Turan, Aleix Vidal and Rafinha got? Don't expect him to be on the level of Xavi, Iniesta or Busquets, but he will be a good squad player for us. Same goes for André Gomes; I wasn't a fan of his transfer, but it would be ridiculous to sell him after twelve months. I don't think he will ever be one of the best midfielders in the world, but he is and will be a decent squad player. If there's someone we need to criticize, it would be Ivan Rakitic. He was the one we'd expect to be a starting midfielder, but he let us down this season. Denis Suárez, Rafinha and André Gomes are squad players, not starting midfielders (or they shouldn't be at least). If we had a player like Thiago instead of Rakitic, we wouldn't complain about Gomes, Denis of Rafinha right now.

So were would we find the funds to finance a world class player next summer? First of all, we still have La Masia. So when Lucho finally leaves, there's no reason not to promote José Suárez, Sergi Palencia and Marlon Santos, give chances to Sergi Samper and Munir. That would leave us with the need for a right back (Sergi Roberto could cover midfield), a back-up winger and possibly a world class midfielder. So let's assume that Jorge Sampaoli would be coach next season (who's the most realistic candidate so far, even though I fear that the board will choose Koeman, Valverde or Unzué). With the high-pace game he's playing with his teams, players like Jordi Masip (free), Douglas (€2M at most), Jeremy Mathieu (€5M), Thomas Vermaelen (€8M), Cristian Tello (€5M) and Arda Turan (€40M from China) will be redundant. That gives us (€65M minus the €35M we paid last summer for André Gomes, which is financed from the transfer budget for next summer) €90M for next summer to strengthen the team.

The question remains; who to sign with a €90M budget? And who should we sell to stretch that budget? My dream choices would be Hector Bellerín, Thiago Alcantara and Ousmane Dembele, too bad that isn’t realistic given our financial situation. So who would you sign/sell with this budget?

 

[wisconsincule]

Pretty sure if we wanna spend a large sum of money on a player that we will. This is Barcelona. There is money to blow. It bothers me when people talk about how we are strapped for cash. Has been the same story every summer and yet we go out and spend money.

 

[Guaporta]

Surely the club won't be restricted to the same €65M transfer budget, especially with the new sponsordeals. However, we don't really have guidelines right now to make an estimate for how much the club can spend next summer. That's why I made my calculations based on the 'old' budget. And yes, the club is restricted in how much they can spend on transfers (based on the Financial Fair Play-ruling). However, it's not the transfer sum that's causing problems (the revenues of the club are that high that they could spend a lot more than the transfer budget right now). It's the salary that's causing problems with the FFP; a club can't spend more than a certain percentage of the revenues on salary (and that is why the club couldn't afford Nolito last winter). So that's why some players have to leave in order to attract a superstar. So yes, if high-earning players are willing to leave the club Barcelona is able to sign world class players (if they're willing to come to the club).

 

[DonAK]

Imo, our chances to sign someone like Sampaoli are like 10% at max.

Cruyff's Dream Team played 3-4-3. Sampaoli plays variants of 3-4-3 and 4-3-3, besides, formations itself is just something to put on paper, everything else is about positional play. Been countless of occasions where Pep played 4-4-1-1, 4-3-1-2 and more in a game, but what did you see on the lineup sheet? 4-3-3.

Lucho doesn't play a 4-3-3 formation. Look at the shape of the team, it's different. It looks more like a 4-5-1 with wide midfielders.

Rest is conjecture which I'll address soon.

Pep has been inspired by two people the most in his coaching career according to Pep Guardiola himself. Johan Cruyff and Jorge Sampaoli's right hand man, Juan Manuel Lillo.

Sorry, three actually. Forgot Marcelo Bielsa.

I know that in recent history we've almost just appointed former players or Dutch coaches like Rijkaard and Van Gaal, but that's doesn't mean appointing an 'outsider' in Barca is unprecedented. If you jump back farther in history, you'll see.

 

[slvtn]

Pretty sure if we wanna spend a large sum of money on a player that we will. This is Barcelona. There is money to blow. It bothers me when people talk about how we are strapped for cash. Has been the same story every summer and yet we go out and spend money.

Haha, yes. Let's buy Cesc back from Chelsea for 60+ million.