Barca Transfers and Rumors

[serghei]

I agree with the above post, but you have to understand Ferran is our big investment. You can't just bench him just like that after some bad games. Let's not forget the guy scored a nice goal and had an assist vs Madrid in his first clasico. It's not all bad, although I can say I'm not pleased with his initial 5 months here.

Yeah, he's a player that needs work, but for the time being, the trust placed in him is the logical and best course of action.

I can just as well give you as an example that Modric was named flop signing of the season by Madrid media after one year. Are we supposed to just ditch Ferran after 4-5 months of so-so games?

Please... we're playing the long game here. Wether we like it or not, Ferran was signed for serious money, and we have to do everything possible to make him work for us.

The guy didn't even have a preseason with us for Christ's sake.

 

[Birdy]

I agree with the above post, but you have to understand Ferran is our big investment. You can't just bench him just like that after some bad games. Let's not forget the guy scored a nice goal and had an assist vs Madrid in his first clasico. It's not all bad, although I can say I'm not pleased with his initial 5 months here.

Yeah, he's a player that needs work, but for the time being, the trust placed in him is the logical and best course of action.

I can just as well give you as an example that Modric was named flop signing of the season by Madrid media after one year. Are we supposed to just ditch Ferran after 4-5 months of so-so games?

Please... we're playing the long game here. Wether we like it or not, Ferran was signed for serious money, and we have to do everything possible to make him work for us.

The guy didn't even have a preseason with us for Christ's sake.

I have more of a problem with signing Azpli, Marcos Alonso, Christensen, Kessie THAN with Ferran

This lot above is rather old and ready to get binned OR subpar quality for a top club

And it's basically what Joan and Khaled said: the clubs needs an SD like Planes and now has unofficially made Xavi an SD on the sporting side apart from coach.

Let's write it one more time:
The problem starts when clubs do not have a clear structure and delegation of duties and people do more than 1 task (the extreme of it would be the obsolette, archaic model of SAF or Wenger taking care of everything)
It's a crime to let Xavi decide on transfer targets. He is delegated with being the 1st team coach, his duties and authority should stop there.
In well-oiled clubs with 21st century structure the coach(and his staff) just identify area of weaknesses in the squad, then the SD department (head and his analytics team) identifies the targets

 

[DonAK]

Modric was absolute class before he signed for Real Madrid. Ferran was still mostly unproven apart from a few good games here and there for City and Spain. With City it was mostly vs. low quality opposition too.

If he keep stinking it up he need to be benched, but he deserves a pre-season and another season for sure, and Xavi need to actually use him in a way that makes sense instead of sticking him out wide. Drop that shit system with wide wingers.

Ferran might come good and be a good player consistently for us, but with Xavi's current setup he has no chance. Pretty ironic considering it's Xavi who requested his signing and seemingly has no clue how to get the best out of him.

 

[xXKonan]

@ferrancorreas
Bar?a PREFER Marcos Alonso over Jose Gaya. The club doesn't want to spend much on a back up left-back as Jordi Alba is certain to continue as a starter next season. #fcblive

Funny that, I'd imagine Gaya could end up being cheaper in terms of wages and probably cost due to having a year left on his deal and Peter Lim actively sabotaging Valencia. Vs a guy who is much older (Only a year younger than Alba) on bigger wages and playing for one of the richest teams in the world.

I'm not a fan of Gaya, but the guy is at least a half decent LB, while Alonso played his best football as a LWB/LM and he struggled a lot as a pure LB due to his lack of of pace and struggles against pacey players.

 

[MTL_Barca]

lack of of pace and struggles against pacey players

Barca DNA

 

[Messi983]

I agree with the above post, but you have to understand Ferran is our big investment. You can't just bench him just like that after some bad games. Let's not forget the guy scored a nice goal and had an assist vs Madrid in his first clasico. It's not all bad, although I can say I'm not pleased with his initial 5 months here.

Yeah, he's a player that needs work, but for the time being, the trust placed in him is the logical and best course of action.

I can just as well give you as an example that Modric was named flop signing of the season by Madrid media after one year. Are we supposed to just ditch Ferran after 4-5 months of so-so games?

Please... we're playing the long game here. Wether we like it or not, Ferran was signed for serious money, and we have to do everything possible to make him work for us.

The guy didn't even have a preseason with us for Christ's sake.

Of course, we have to give Ferran time. As said I still believe he'll turn out well. I think what's holding him back is he puts too much pressure to succeed on himself (transfer fee plays significant role here as he's aware it's a bigger investment for the club in current state than what we've paid for Dembouz or Cou when we were still financially strong), he just needs to relax and will start to do much better. Overall he's not doing bad, he just miss way too many chances. Had he scored 4-5 goals more people would have different opinion about him.

As a coach sometimes you have to let your players play through their struggles to show them you still have confidence in them. Especially with youngsters. But OTOH if you're doing this only to prove you were right with your hand picked signings and start to overplay them you can also do the players more harm than good.

 

[ajnotkeith]

Rafael Borre scored for Frankfurt again in the final and scored the winning pen in the shootout.

His stats don't seem great but passable for his first season in a top league, however when I've seen him in these EL knockouts he's been seriously impressive. He reminds me of Aguero.

Maybe we could go for him in the summer, he has a great turn of pace so could maybe play winger too.

 

[Slevinn]

Rafael Borre scored for Frankfurt again in the final and scored the winning pen in the shootout.

His stats don't seem great but passable for his first season in a top league, however when I've seen him in these EL knockouts he's been seriously impressive. He reminds me of Aguero.

Maybe we could go for him in the summer, he has a great turn of pace so could maybe play winger too.

It?s not his first season though. He played for Atletico (or at least they owned him, I don?t think he ever played for them) and Villarreal.

I like him too but I think he is more a Memphis level of player so not good enough all in all.

 

[Zidane82]

It doesnt matter which coach you get if the squad is bad. Defence is horrible. Midfield is mediocre and reliable on Pedri. Attack is horrible.

Pedri and Gavi in midfield alongside FDJ !!

Two of the best players in world football plus Gavi one of the best 5 young players in the world

 

[Porque]

He has had a magical cup run but every few years you get a player like this. I wouldn't trust in him recreating it consistently and not at a high pressure club. He isn't someone that has been incorrectly positioned tier wise.

In Frankfurt maybe Kamada could work as a squad option on a technical level. And only worth looking at because he seems he could go up a level at a higher club, and also because he is a 2023 contract expiree.

 

[Messi983]

Rafael Borre scored for Frankfurt again in the final and scored the winning pen in the shootout.

His stats don't seem great but passable for his first season in a top league, however when I've seen him in these EL knockouts he's been seriously impressive. He reminds me of Aguero.

Maybe we could go for him in the summer, he has a great turn of pace so could maybe play winger too.

I think we should target higher. His price has gone up with European success and with Frankfurt now qualified for CL I don't think he would actually be that cheap either as they don't need/want to sell.

He's a solid player but I think a much better fit for teams that play on fast breaks (like Frankfurt) than possession football. Before our first game against Frankfurt I've read EF fans forum and they said that he was almost invisible in a game before against a team that sat back and defended for 90 minutes (forgot which team it was, not really important though) and that he's often useless in games like this. No need to say that here he would play most of the time against parked buses where he couldn't use his pace. But then again, Auba is a similar player (although of much better quality in his prime years and probably still a better player now too) and he's done well so far, at least when it comes to scoring, he is somewhat missed in the team build up though.

Another reason against signing Borre is he has only scored 8 goals in Bundesliga that is known for inflated stats for their offensive "stars". Even Jović has scored 17 goals for Frankfurt before Madrid bought him and we all know how that turned out. Although tbh I don't think Jović is that bad player, he just has Benz in top form still playing ahead of him; similar to how I think Paco wasn't really as bad as people made him out when he was here but he just never got enough regular playing time with Suarez who had to play almost all minutes - not because he would really deserve that as much as Benz does these days but mostly because of his amigo status.

 

[Porque]

Enzo Fern?ndez, 21 year old midfielder from River Plate has serious interest from City and Real Madrid. He has a 20m release clause.

Doesn't seem the perfect match for a Busi replacement, but if it is true that Xavi is looking for someone with similarities, then he has to go with a high potential project signing and then mold them. Rather than an medium-high money backup who is average. Because for the second option, and with the mentions Busi will play, we are fine with Roberto, Frenkie, Kessie slotted in when needed.

You can see how much more proactive Madrid are with their signings and targets compared to us. Though there is probably alot of interest in South American market (I mentioned the Andrey offer a few pages back) but we simply don't have the finances to blow on bets right now- unless they are free and over 33.

 

[Messi983]

Monchi apparently wants this guy from Metz who were just relegated from Ligue 1. Looks a younger version of Koulibaly. Of course we'll never sign a defender who is good at defending though.

Here is a scouting report on him (in spanish)

https://twitter.com/CanalesFDS/status/1527528880172564485

google translate

Let's go Today with the second option of Low Cost central, as I had told you yesterday that I was going to present you to debate. This time it comes from the French League, which could not be missing. As I said yesterday, the condition I set is that I had seen at least 10-15 of his games

Today we present a true brown beast both physically and defensively hidden in the lowest part of Ligue 1, in Metz that is looking for discount salvation.
We are talking today about Boubakar Kouyat?.

International for Mali, 25 years old and growth in performance season after season. Kiki is the defender in all of Ligue 1 who has made the most successful defensive actions in the entire French league. In a team that plays with 3 centre-backs, he has received 64 goals and the 18th.

This already speaks of what is impressive in a team with a low defensive performance and that they try to protect defensively with 3 central defenders.
To see Kouyat? is to see practically continuous defensive displays from him. Fits perfectly in the description that defense he defends

As Monchi said of Emir Spahic "I like defenders who defend", Kiki is the maximum expression of this phrase. He is a true defensive titan. Aggressive in anticipation, hard on the mark, powerful in the air and a wall in defense in his own area rejecting everything

At the level of defensive performance that he has been showing in the last two seasons, he should be on the agenda of many Premier teams because he fits wonderfully into that defense profile of enormous physical capacity, defense in the area and aggressiveness outside of it that is getting more and more there

He can act in the 3 defensive positions of the center of the defense, the two central defenders or the free one. And where his performance is lower is with the ball at his feet. It is not exquisite in this facet of the game but it complies with a more than interesting long displacement.

A center back who, due to his defensive level, would not only be a Karim Reiki rotation option. He could squeeze the starters and nothing would be out of place as a replacement for either of them.
Kiki is a real beast. A top option for the center of the defense, even a starter

Here is an example of his defensive performance against Memphis Depay, whom he wiped out.

 

[Messi983]

BTW, the same guy also mentioned our own Jorge Cuenca as a possible low-cost option for Sevilla. Not sure about that, I think Villarreal will give him a chance next season, especially if they sell Pau Torres.

Has struggled early in the season to adapt to La Liga but become better for Getafe after QSF took over. AFAIK we also still have a buy-back option. Don't think we'll use it this year but if he establish himself at Villarreal then who knows. Could at least bring him back to re-sell.

 

[Porque]

Monchi has his punts too. Amadou, Gnagnon, W?ber, Kjaer, Arana, Mercado are all defensive signings in recent years who didn't work out. That's not mentioning the offensive guys. Different model I know.

Still, I would like to see us take a few more low(ish - 10/15m mark) risks in the market over the years. Those who are proven and not commissions deals in Brazil that tempted both our previous boards that is.