Barca Transfers and Rumors

[Paul]

Well, 28 is decent for a central defender, one can have 5 years in his prime, more than enough, problem with Vermaelen was not his age though.

 

[gvt2000]

Well, 28 is decent for a central defender, one can have 5 years in his prime, more than enough, problem with Vermaelen was not his age though.

He was 29 when the season started. You're right though, 29 wouldn't have been bad if Vermaleen had been anywhere near as good as Godin, Bonucci or Thiago Silva instead of being an injury plagued ok-at-best player

 

[Jombi]

Well, 28 is decent for a central defender, one can have 5 years in his prime, more than enough, problem with Vermaelen was not his age though.

Mathieu was almost 31 when his first season with us started and Vermaelen almost 29. Injuries get worse with age. 5 years in prime? Very unlikely.

 

[eaman]

Lads there's been worse defenders than Mathieu at top clubs. He did a good job at times in a team that is very hard to be a good defender in. Barca are not a team who give the defense alot of protection due to their attacking instinct and long may it continue

 

[raskolnikov]

Matthieu was solid as cb back up terrible as lb. But that was on lucho.
We should have bought him a year before that when he was half the price. Classic barto board being late.

 

[El Flaco]

Marlboro Man was a good transfer, and was an integral part of the treble season

At the time when we signed Marlboro, I'd say we definitely overpaid for buying a 31-year-old dude for €20m.

But tbf, he was ok-ish as decent back-up for CB spot and scored crucial headers against Madrid & Celta during treble season. But that's it.

 

[gvt2000]

Lads there's been worse defenders than Mathieu at top clubs. He did a good job at times in a team that is very hard to be a good defender in. Barca are not a team who give the defense alot of protection due to their attacking instinct and long may it continue

The problem isn't Mathieu the player, its the 20 million euro, 30 year old transfer who left 3 years later for free. He would've been more than fine at 7-10 million. But like i said, Mathieu's just the poster man of our disastrous transfers over the years, transfers that keep repeating themselves while Real Madrid hoards every single promising youngster in la liga to the point where their current midfield subs ran circles around our starting ones.Hell, Real could lose both Cristiano and Bale and still be Trebble condenters whereas without Messi, we'd be lucky if we finished 2nd in la liga.

 

[Aryagorn]

The problem isn't Mathieu the player, its the 20 million euro, 30 year old transfer who left 3 years later for free. He would've been more than fine at 7-10 million. But like i said, Mathieu's just the poster man of our disastrous transfers over the years, transfers that keep repeating themselves while Real Madrid hoards every single promising youngster in la liga to the point where their current midfield subs ran circles around our starting ones.Hell, Real could lose both Cristiano and Bale and still be Trebble condenters whereas without Messi, we'd be lucky if we finished 2nd in la liga.

That would be Arda Turan!

Come to think of it: Hleb, Alex Song, Fabregas, Vermaelen, etc have all been similar cases! I know it's sort of funny that the list would stink of Arsenal's version of big fish in a small pond but yeah, a lot of our recent transfer fails have been that: Big fish in a small pond. And of course the trafficking but that sector has their own set of poster boys!

 

[gvt2000]

That would be Arda Turan!

Come to think of it: Hleb, Alex Song, Fabregas, Vermaelen, etc have all been similar cases! I know it's sort of funny that the list would stink of Arsenal's version of big fish in a small pond but yeah, a lot of our recent transfer fails have been that: Big fish in a small pond. And of course the trafficking but that sector has their own set of poster boys!

Fabregas failed because he was played out of position. In our current squad, he'd be our best midfielder by a landslide. Arda Turan is a close second, he'll definitely win the title if he ends up leaving on a free transfer

 

[i_bleed_blaugrana]

You guys are nuts if you'd consider Mathieu a good signing and clearly don't remember how him and Gomes presence alone drastically altered our CL and La Liga campaigns last year. I'd argue that both of these goals killed our season last year and for me at least, encapsulate Mathieu as a caricature for Barça's transfer debacle as of late. And this has been the trend of this board for a while now and people defending these players and using them as a premise to defend the board's transfer record is just a complete joke to me. You call this Barça material defending...?

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[youtube]kVpRsXwnJ5c[/youtube]

 

[JamDav1982]

Nah Mathieu was a decent signing.

Are you just ignoring the mistakes by Pique last season? By Masche? By Ter Stegen? By Umititi?

Everyone makes mistakes and although Mathieu wasnt as goos last season it is not his fault Lucho has a brain wave to suddenly try him in left of back 3 v Juve.

 

[i_bleed_blaugrana]

Nah Mathieu was a decent signing.

Are you just ignoring the mistakes by Pique last season? By Masche? By Ter Stegen? By Umititi?

Everyone makes mistakes and although Mathieu wasnt as goos last season it is not his fault Lucho has a brain wave to suddenly try him in left of back 3 v Juve.

Lucho playing Mascherano at DM and Mathieu at LB was a complete joke. Umtiti didn't make a lot of mistakes last season and Pique, TS and Masch all have exceptional qualities that make up for those mistakes. Not the same as Mathieu; I understand the 4th CB argument but either keeping Bartra or signing a QUALITY CB whose young and promising instead of Marlboro and Vermainjured is the course that we needed to take. Besides, we had passed on quality CBs for a couple windows prior to the one we bought those two and had to panic buy to fill the gap for Lucho's arrival.

I never expect players to never make a mistake but like I said, they have to make those few and far between and more consistently provide quality or genius moments to make up for mistakes. Yes Lucho did him no favors by starting him at LB on occasions but against Malaga, he was a CB and I'd say he'd more consistently make mistakes, big and small, than produce excellent overall games and big moments. His first season was decent but the next two were not; just not good enough for us particularly when that money could have been used on a CB that both A) still plays with us and B) produced consistently and genius. Umtiti to me is the encapsulation of when we get it right in the market; outside of Luis, TS and arguably Raki, only good signings this current board have made (don't credit the board, either TS was mainly Zubi's parting gift and Suarez was Lucho's request)

 

[JamDav1982]

The point of mistake or bad defending is you cant just point to a couple that suit to say they destroyed the season.

You act as if he was the only one that was shit and rest were good enough.

 

[i_bleed_blaugrana]

The point of mistake or bad defending is you cant just point to a couple that suit to say they destroyed the season.

You act as if he was the only one that was shit and rest were good enough.

Against Malaga, that mistake was big. We were the better team up until that point and that drastically altered the game. And in that game in particular if you remember correctly, Madrid had lost I think the day prior and we had a chance to make their make up game a must win for them to stay level with us on points. The Juve 1st leg was definitely a collective failure, between how much we underperformed and Lucho's starting 11.

I very much believe in football being a collective, team oriented game so don't get me wrong there. However sometimes players make mistakes that override the collective aspect of the game, as well as produce moments of genius. With Mathieu, it was more than just his big mistakes. He often turned the ball over, other players didn't trust him with the ball as a result, it was just never a good fit. In my opinion, a better and younger CB should've been signed.

 

[Zincubus]

You guys are nuts if you'd consider Mathieu a good signing and clearly don't remember how him and Gomes presence alone drastically altered our CL and La Liga campaigns last year. I'd argue that both of these goals killed our season last year and for me at least, encapsulate Mathieu as a caricature for Barça's transfer debacle as of late. And this has been the trend of this board for a while now and people defending these players and using them as a premise to defend the board's transfer record is just a complete joke to me. You call this Barça material defending...?

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[youtube]kVpRsXwnJ5c[/youtube]

Pity there's only a few of us that seem to want or even rate Dybala !!