Barca Transfers and Rumors

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El Trencaxarxes

Member
Jombi said:
I think we should try to sign Pepe from Lille in the winter. Munir isnt good enough and we really need an alternative to Suarez. If he can be signed for 35-40m and does well, we can hopefully afford to pay 60m each for De Jong and De Ligt in the summer.
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Pépé is legitimately interesting. He's an extremely creative player with lots of pace, great technique and a good vision. My only fear is that he's just not sharp enough in front of goal. He scored a good amount of goals right now, but a lot of them comes from the penalty spot. I think Pépé would fit better as a winger than a striker for us, and it's not like we're running short on good wingers at the moment.

Right now he's looking like our best option though. However, I definitely think that we should be monitoring André Silva, François Kamana and Luka Jović too. Especially Silva. His skillset is brilliant and extremely wide.
 
Bulgroz

Bulgroz

Senior Member
El Trencaxarxes said:
Pépé is legitimately interesting. He's an extremely creative player with lots of pace, great technique and a good vision. My only fear is that he's just not sharp enough in front of goal. He scored a good amount of goals right now, but a lot of them comes from the penalty spot. I think Pépé would fit better as a winger than a striker for us, and it's not like we're running short on good wingers at the moment.

Right now he's looking like our best option though. However, I definitely think that we should be monitoring André Silva, François Kamana and Luka Jović too. Especially Silva. His skillset is brilliant and extremely wide.
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I really like Nicolas Pepe, but I can only agree: his best games are usually when he's on the right wing. Bielsa (when he coached Lille) tried to play him as a CF, and it wasn't working that well. Pepe himself said that he felt better on the right wing than as a CF.

Although, you could argue that if Bielsa saw Pepe as a CF, maybe there's something to it, and could be that some day he becomes a world class striker in that position. I mean, when Bielsa coached Marseille, everybody laughed at him when he said that a certain LB was going to be one of the best in the world one day. That certain LB, awfuly bad back then, was Benjamin Mendy.
 
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El Trencaxarxes

Member
Bulgroz said:
I really like Nicolas Pepe, but I can only agree: his best games are usually when he's on the right wing. Bielsa (when he coached Lille) tried to play him as a CF, and it wasn't working that well. Pepe himself said that he felt better on the right wing than as a CF.

Although, you could argue that if Bielsa saw Pepe as a CF, maybe there's something to it, and could be that some day he becomes a world class striker in that position. I mean, when Bielsa coached Marseille, everybody laughed at him when he said that a certain LB was going to be one of the best in the world one day. That certain LB, awfuly bad back then, was Benjamin Mendy.
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Exactly and I think the biggest issue would be, that Pépé is neither used to or very good at playing with his back towards the goal. He has the technique to turn quickly and well, but he lacks the composure and the sheer strength of someone like Suárez to really embrace the role as a striker often facing the "wrong" way. It's an interesting tidbit, however, about Bielsa actually playing him as a centre-forward. I was unaware of this. But of course, the thing about Bielsa is, that his line between madness and genius is even more blurred than with most other coaches.

I wouldn't doubt that he saw something in Pépé that made him try it though. To be honest, it's not that big of a leap of faith, to think Pépé would do well as a striker. We'll have to see, maybe as he matures and improves over time he'll be more fit for that position, but at the moment I definitely think he's better suited as a winger.

It looks like you follow Ligue 1 quite closely? What's your take on Kamano? It looks like he's a very interesting prospect, but perhaps he lacks a thing or two in terms of technical abilities and vision?
 
Bulgroz

Bulgroz

Senior Member
El Trencaxarxes said:
Exactly and I think the biggest issue would be, that Pépé is neither used to or very good at playing with his back towards the goal. He has the technique to turn quickly and well, but he lacks the composure and the sheer strength of someone like Suárez to really embrace the role as a striker often facing the "wrong" way. It's an interesting tidbit, however, about Bielsa actually playing him as a centre-forward. I was unaware of this. But of course, the thing about Bielsa is, that his line between madness and genius is even more blurred than with most other coaches.

I wouldn't doubt that he saw something in Pépé that made him try it though. To be honest, it's not that big of a leap of faith, to think Pépé would do well as a striker. We'll have to see, maybe as he matures and improves over time he'll be more fit for that position, but at the moment I definitely think he's better suited as a winger.

It looks like you follow Ligue 1 quite closely? What's your take on Kamano? It looks like he's a very interesting prospect, but perhaps he lacks a thing or two in terms of technical abilities and vision?
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Yeah, I follow Ligue 1 pretty closely (I'm french), and I know Kamano quite well since I'm a Bordeaux fan ! I think I've talked about him somewhere else, but the short story is that he's a very interesting player in that he has a linear progression. Every year he gets a bit better at everything. His first season in Bordeaux, he showed brilliance pretty rarely (enough to still think there was something about him, but no more). The next season, his moments of class got more and more common, he got more consistent, even though he had a rough patch in november-february (apparently, the birth of his first child was a bit exhausting for him for several reasons). This year, he shines frequently (one of the top scorers in the league), but most importantly he seems to be doing ok even when he's not "just" scoring a goal on his own. His linkup play is getting better, he defends more and more, he's not offside 15 times a game, stuff like that. He's learning a lot.

He'll probably be too big for Bordeaux by the end of the season, I expect him to leave to an english team next year, but I've also heard that Sevilla is very interested in him. Would be a nice choice (even though Bordeaux would probably get more money from any medium EPL team than from Sevilla, but it's not my money so I don't really care). Not sure he'll be good enough for Barca someday, but then again, after his first season I didn't expect him to become good enough for Sevilla either, so who knows ?
 
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El Trencaxarxes

Member
Bulgroz said:
Yeah, I follow Ligue 1 pretty closely (I'm french), and I know Kamano quite well since I'm a Bordeaux fan ! I think I've talked about him somewhere else, but the short story is that he's a very interesting player in that he has a linear progression. Every year he gets a bit better at everything. His first season in Bordeaux, he showed brilliance pretty rarely (enough to still think there was something about him, but no more). The next season, his moments of class got more and more common, he got more consistent, even though he had a rough patch in november-february (apparently, the birth of his first child was a bit exhausting for him for several reasons). This year, he shines frequently (one of the top scorers in the league), but most importantly he seems to be doing ok even when he's not "just" scoring a goal on his own. His linkup play is getting better, he defends more and more, he's not offside 15 times a game, stuff like that. He's learning a lot.

He'll probably be too big for Bordeaux by the end of the season, I expect him to leave to an english team next year, but I've also heard that Sevilla is very interested in him. Would be a nice choice (even though Bordeaux would probably get more money from any medium EPL team than from Sevilla, but it's not my money so I don't really care). Not sure he'll be good enough for Barca someday, but then again, after his first season I didn't expect him to become good enough for Sevilla either, so who knows ?
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Interesting, thanks a lot for the excellent write-up. Ligue 1 is an interesting case. Every season a new handful of really exciting prospects seem to emerge, and this season it looks like Kamano is one of them. I like the fact that he's doing well besides scoring. That's extremely important if he wants to go to a bigger club - no offence to Bordeaux. Looking at his stats it still looks like he's not quite as involved in the general buildup play as someone like Pépé, but from your account, it seems like Kamano is slowly getting there game by game.

Sevilla would probably be a great fit for someone like him. How about someone like Jonathan Bamba, who is also doing extremely well in Lille? I realise that he's even more of a winger than Pépé, but where do you think his ceiling is in terms of talent? Could he be good enough for a top-five club someday?
 
Bulgroz

Bulgroz

Senior Member
Bamba impressed me a lot during his first appearances with Saint-Etienne, but then he had two disappointing loans (well, one very disappointing, the other one decent but not too impressive either). Came back to Saint Etienne and was a bit inconsistent (still managed to score a few goals though, in a team who lacked offensive talent and creativity in general). Lille managed to get him for free, and it looked like a good signing because he was still regarded as a promising young player but I didn't expect him to perform this well so fast. He's clearly on fire since the beginning of the season (especially these past few weeks), but is it just his form of the moment, or has he really improved a lot by finally getting to be a starter in a good team ? I honestly don't know. He has a more "risky" playstyle than Pepe, which means that his shitty games are really poor, but these days he hardly ever plays shitty.

Oh and obviously no offense taken about Bordeaux. I've defended Ligue 1 quite a few times here (because even if it's obviously not as good as la Liga, I feel most people here don't know what they're talking about when they're calling it a farmer's league), but I won't argue about my team being crap these days.
 
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El Trencaxarxes

Member
Bulgroz said:
Bamba impressed me a lot during his first appearances with Saint-Etienne, but then he had two disappointing loans (well, one very disappointing, the other one decent but not too impressive either). Came back to Saint Etienne and was a bit inconsistent (still managed to score a few goals though, in a team who lacked offensive talent and creativity in general). Lille managed to get him for free, and it looked like a good signing because he was still regarded as a promising young player but I didn't expect him to perform this well so fast. He's clearly on fire since the beginning of the season (especially these past few weeks), but is it just his form of the moment, or has he really improved a lot by finally getting to be a starter in a good team ? I honestly don't know. He has a more "risky" playstyle than Pepe, which means that his shitty games are really poor, but these days he hardly ever plays shitty.

Oh and obviously no offense taken about Bordeaux. I've defended Ligue 1 quite a few times here (because even if it's obviously not as good as la Liga, I feel most people here don't know what they're talking about when they're calling it a farmer's league), but I won't argue about my team being crap these days.
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Yeah, alright. Makes sense that it could very possibly just be a short spur of form from Bamba. I'll wait and see how he does throughout the entire season, before trying to pass judgement on him I suppose. It's really interesting to see him and Pépé working together though. Very entertaining and very explosive duo.

I don't mean to ask too many questions of you, but what about Ferland Mendy? Alba isn't going to last forever - though I wish he did - and right now we don't even have a proper backup on the left back. Mendy looks like he is extremely good already and it seems like a lot of people want to see him in the national team instead of Benjamin Mendy or Digne. Is that an overreaction or is Mendy legitimately that good?

Oh, and one last thing seeing that you're a Bordeaux-fan. Lukas Lerager. How important is he to Bordeaux at the moment? It seems like he's been a guaranteed starter since arriving, already closing in on 50 Ligue 1 games for you guys. With Delaney struggling with injuries a bit too often, it's important for us - Denmark, that is - to have a good backup and I think Lerager could be that guy.
 
Bulgroz

Bulgroz

Senior Member
El Trencaxarxes said:
Yeah, alright. Makes sense that it could very possibly just be a short spur of form from Bamba. I'll wait and see how he does throughout the entire season, before trying to pass judgement on him I suppose. It's really interesting to see him and Pépé working together though. Very entertaining and very explosive duo.

I don't mean to ask too many questions of you, but what about Ferland Mendy? Alba isn't going to last forever - though I wish he did - and right now we don't even have a proper backup on the left back. Mendy looks like he is extremely good already and it seems like a lot of people want to see him in the national team instead of Benjamin Mendy or Digne. Is that an overreaction or is Mendy legitimately that good?

Oh, and one last thing seeing that you're a Bordeaux-fan. Lukas Lerager. How important is he to Bordeaux at the moment? It seems like he's been a guaranteed starter since arriving, already closing in on 50 Ligue 1 games for you guys. With Delaney struggling with injuries a bit too often, it's important for us - Denmark, that is - to have a good backup and I think Lerager could be that guy.
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Ferland Mendy is inconsistent defensively, but he's rather impressive with the ball. I can see him going places. He's not as good as Benjamin Mendy overall (I'd say he's probably a better dribbler, but he's not as powerful), but he's one year younger, and less injury prone. I prefer him to Digne, but I can't really see him getting in the NT any time soon, except when one of the 2 first choices (Hernandez and B. Mendy) is injured. Doesn't mean he's not good enough for a top team though, France just happens to have two very solid choices on that position, playing for 2 of the best teams in Europe.

Lerager didn't impress me much during his first season in Bordeaux (bit one dimensional for my taste, too defensive, which was a pity since we really lacked creativity overall, so he didn't help). He's shown some improvement though since the beginning of this season (the goal he scored with the danish NT last week was something I wouldn't have imagined him doing last season, and I'm not just talking about the shot, more about what came before). He's never going to be a top player, but he's getting better. Very athletic, strong, and relentless, though he still needs at least one midfielder next to him who can cut through defenses by passing or dribbling. When he played in Belgium, he was next to Soualiho Meité and they apparently formed a pretty good midfield. Meite was loaned to Bordeaux last january for 6 months, and I can see why it worked.

Oh, by the way, Soualiho Meité is a player people should pay attention to. Monaco signed him for 8 millions, he didn't play much and got loaned to Bordeaux where he had a few impressive performances (against Lyon, for example) and some lesser games. Torino bought him this summer for 10 millions, and from what I've gathered he's been superb since the beginning of the season. Milan AC and Inter are apparently fighting to sign him for next season (he's been in Italy 3 months !), and he's been mentionned as a potential pick for French NT. Very good box-to-box who tended to rely a bit too much on his power and skills and forgot he had to work too. Apparently he finally decided to do something with his career (he's "already" 24).
 
MTL_Barca

MTL_Barca

Well-known member
Barcaman said:
Would be great if we could fund de Ligt and de Jong transfer with Dembele sale.
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Will be interesting to see how we try to sign a new winger and striker 1-2 years later. Would probably cost us 400M at that point. Can already see us chasing Mbappe all summer 2020 wothout any chance but Sport and MD daily reporting how bad he wants to sign :lol:
 
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