Temptation
Well-known member
Laporta:
Lewandowski deal? It's not that easy. Let Jordi Cruyff and Alemany work.
Lewandowski deal? It's not that easy. Let Jordi Cruyff and Alemany work.
Barca Transfers and Rumors
- Thread starter LordLichtenstein
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FinBarcelonafan
Well-known member
Paco?
Temptation
Well-known member
Laporta is a walking contradiction. He sounds thick as pigshit ngl.
FinBarcelonafan
Well-known member
I agree. Laporta getting to my nervous. Too much BS talk, more doing.
I know he is in a tough spot, but he needs to deliver something better than Torres....
I know he is in a tough spot, but he needs to deliver something better than Torres....
Temptation
Well-known member
Makes sense that Laporta got Zlatan all those years back.
Both are the same.
Talk a lot of crap. Bottle it in the crucial moments.
Both are the same.
Talk a lot of crap. Bottle it in the crucial moments.
Barcilliant
Senior Member
Yep Paco!
khaled_a_d
Senior Member
Alemany is more on the business side actually, he was club CEO/President, who is lawyer with no football backgrounds.
Our Sporting Director was Ramon Planas, and he suddenly asked to terminate his contract on immediate effect, 10 days after Xavi took over.
We didn't hire a SD since then, which is weird.
Every rumour about a transfer had "Xavi talked to the player personally to ensure he fits his system "
Both Christensen & Kessie had been Xavi request, same with Torre, while Mazraoui was dismissed on bis request.
During Font campaign, he basically put Xavi as in control if the whole project
Right now it seems Xavi got what he wants, he is the one who is in full charge of sporting side of football while Alemany does the business stuff. And Xavi should be judged as such.
wisconsincule
Senior Member
This is all very terrifying. Xavi as coach and sporting director sounds like an awful idea.
Luftstalag14
Culé de Celestial Empire
Xavi out.
He got his treble winning coach his wish. Atleast it wasn't Adebayor.
Wrote about a worst case scenario yesterday with Dembele not renewing and Raphinha being too expensive, and us not affording anyone.
Option then was to keep Trincao. A better option would be to get Di Maria on a short term contract, but seems like he's on his way to Juve.
Juventus are close to signing winger Angel Di Maria on a short-term deal, with his contract at PSG expiring this summer. (Sky Italia)
Option then was to keep Trincao. A better option would be to get Di Maria on a short term contract, but seems like he's on his way to Juve.
Juventus are close to signing winger Angel Di Maria on a short-term deal, with his contract at PSG expiring this summer. (Sky Italia)
serghei
Senior Member
Then we'll fight against Sevilla for 3rd place if on top of losing Dembele we buy no one to replace him with. As flawed as he is, he is still our only winger who can beat a man 1 vs 1.
But I do think we're gonna get some good money from the deals we're working on and we will sign some top players that would allow us to compete for titles.
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serghei
Senior Member
OK, so Xavi will get credit or get blamed for signings too. I read his priority choice is Kounde. Now Laporta and Alemany have to get the finances done and bring him in, do that business side role.
Araujo - Kounde - Christensen is promising, with Garcia as 4th option. Young backline too.
Kounde, Raphinha, Lewandowski, Gaya, Soler, Azpilicueta, Christensen, Kessie. Those are the rumored names.
Those are some solid 8 moves, a mix of a world-class goalscorer, young top players, and some solid free agents that will provide adequate squad options and would make us compete for La Liga until the end.
The list of players we are linked with is good and fits the needs of the team. The only question is affording these players. Some of them aren't going to be cheap.
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Messi983
Senior Member
Of course, I'm not against signing a different profile of DM. You all know what I think about Busi (well, his versions since 2017) so signing a different profile would actually be my preference. Problem is Xavi doesn't agree with that though. If we'd sign an unproven Brazilian kid with no clear Barca DNA as a "competition" for Busi he'd only use that as an excuse to play him even more. That's why I'm not against signing someone like Marc Roca for cheap (less than 10m although loan with buy option would be even better). Don't think he's good enough to be a longterm starter but at least he fits a profile that Xavi wants and would trust him enough Busi wouldn't play full 90 minutes every three days. I'm so desperate I'd take just about anyone so I wouldn't need to watch that dinosaur anymore tbh.
Yeah, I gave Xavi a free pass for this season (he did better results wise in La Liga than expected, when he was hired I only wanted a top 4 finish), he made selection of players he likes and those he doesn't count on which is also what I wanted from him. Now I don't fully agree with all his personell decisions but if we did a poll most fans would also write off players he barely used in last few months.
Starting from this summer the team will be build in his image as much as we can afford financially obviously. Xavi will be fully involved in transfers which can be both good and bad imo.
Good:
- all new signings will either be coming on his request or at least he'll agree with signing them so if we'll manage to offload all the dead wood there should be no excuse for Xavi to again have 4-5 or even more players at the back end of the roster who will never play. If we won't manage to improve quality of starters (even in current state of the team bringing quality starters demands much money which we don't have) too much a better overall squad depth should help Xavi to rotate more, keep freshness and prevent injuries.
- while signing oldies like Azpi or Alonso is not ideal they would actually be improvement over what we have. Having a backup to Alba is better than have no backup LB at all. Azpi is younger than Alves, beter than Roberto (who is turning into injury prone player as well) and I'd say also better than Dest (although he could still develop but I doubt he'll ever be good enough). And of course if we somehow really sign Lewa (which I still very much doubt) he's a better player than Auba and don't even need to compare him to LDJ.
Bad:
- Xavi's bias against Spaniards/La Liga players he knows might cause us to miss out on potentially better players. Although at the same time I don't think every signing made inside La Liga would be a bad signing. There are players I wouldn't mind for the right price.
- Xavi might feel the need to play his players even if they'll be in poor form. Like he's already doing with Ferran. But while I can get behind that with a young player who I still believe will turn out good longterm I'd have more problems accepting using more underperforming old legs just to prove signing them was the right move.
Tbh don't know what's better or worse. A coach being "in love" with certain players and overplaying them even if they're struggling for form (or are way past their prime which is even worse) or spending 40m on someone like Malcom who a coach never wanted and will never use him. With Xavi involved heavily in transfers I think we'll at least avoid scenarios like this. In current situation we can't afford to spend any money on players who won't play. So what we can hope for is Xavi will have a defined role for all new signings and that they will prove their worth and trust he has shown when decided to sign them.
This will be a long summer with even more rumours, fake news etc. than we're used to in "normal" years. We've had the whole Messi saga last year but this will be the first summer of full rebuild (even if neither Laporta nor Xavi will ever admit we're rebuilding). Clearly not the last though. Even if everything will turn out great this summer (hopefully but very unlikely) we'll still have needs to address over next year or two. But of course if we'll set good foundation this summer there will be a lot less pressure in coming years. I still think even before we make any new signings we have players we can feel cautiously optimistic for the future but if we'll feck up this summer then our realistic competitive window will be pushed for not only a year or two but possible longer down the road.
Either way, I've decided to just take a wait and see approach for my own mental health sake. I'll try to look at a big picture and evaluate/grade what Laporta, Alemany and Xavi have done in September (hopefully they'll do their business earlier but I prefer making the things right over doing them early) rather than look at their every move in isolation and jump at rumours linking us to tens of players every day.
As a longtime fan of this beatiful but at the same time so tough to support club I'm used to everything so I know when it's time to take a step back. And I think I'll do it this summer. It's not like I can do anything if they decide to sign more oldies or renew Busi (which would be a more terrible decision than signing ten 30+ players imo). I can complain or be upset but they'll do what they want in the end so won't really waste too much time or lose my sleep because of that.
Let's hope for the best and enjoy the summer (if anyone wants to join me).
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