Barca Transfers and Rumors

[khaled_a_d]

Can Takefusa Kubo be good addon in the summer? Take Ferrans spot? (when sold)

A lot of folks who watch Sociedad feels that he is fools gold, he is good for where he is but doesn't belong to the elite crop.

Can someone who has actually watched this Onana guy Deco is reportedly twerking for describe the type of player he is?

I second this.

There was an article about the guy running recruitment for the B team. Him and his network are doing an excellent job.

Araujo guy? or someone else?

 

[Messi983]

I doubt Laport or anyone cares if talent is from Brazil, Argentina or Peru.

I don't care about player's nationalities. If the player is good enough he can be from Rwanda or Uzbekistan for all I care.

What we should think about is the cost of talents coming from certain countries/leagues (like Brazil) with a higher pedigree compared to lower rated leagues where you can still get players of similar qualities. Not always or often but at times they emerge and smart clubs with good scouting are waiting for them.

And Barca generally has good scouting network in SA, but the question is about what type of talent you are targeting?

In our situation I'm mostly targeting talents in the 5-10m range at most. Closer to 5m nowadays.

Could also use "the Pedri script" with initial lower fee and then add-ons (I think we were paying 1m for every 10 games Pedri has played until he reached 100 games - also bonuses for international appearances and Barca winning trophies etc) if player establish himself. At that point even if he's just a useful squad player he's worth 15-20m rather than initial 5-10m.

I don't see why we would always be outbid for players from Uruguay or Scandinavia. If our scouts find them soon enough and we are serious about getting them then at least some of them could be signed but ofc we'll miss out on the others. No club will ever sign all players they are targeting.

As for Brazilians, for every Vini you have 3 or 5 Reiniers. And when you pay 40m for these talents you don't know which version you'll get. Ofc in hindsight everyone can say they always believed Vini will turn into a world class player but there is no guarantee for that at time you decide to invest big money.

As said I don't mind signing Brazilians but you really have to be convinced it's the right guy for the price you pay. Roque is Deco's personal bet. Now it's also on whoever next coach will be to get the most out of him but if he won't make it then it will be mostly Deco's fault. OTOH if Vitor will do well this will be a good sign for Deco's eye for talent in future. Especially if some of other "punts" will also prove successful.


I don't disagree that we have a good enough scouting network although obviously you can always improve. We have surely also reduce costs of scouting. IIRC there were reports we have only send one of our scouts (that Paulo Araujo guy you were mentioning who is our Chief Scout since 2022 https://www.transfermarkt.com/paulo-araujo/profil/trainer/104291) to South American U20 championship last year while OTOH City had 5 or 6 of their scouts there. So that's where we are in clear disadvantage for obvious reasons.

What really let us down in the past was not as much scouting than decision making process of people in Sporting department who are in the end ultimately responsible for signing players based on scouting reports they receive. And under Bartomeu we had 1.) little to no consistency at the position changing Sporting Directors almost every year and 2.) at times too many cooks in one kitchen who all used different ingredients. So it's actually a bit surprising we managed to sign players like Pedri and Araujo during that period. I think Ramon Planes was responsible for signing them both. I liked him and it's a shame he left (now I think he also took two or three Barca's staff members with him to Al-Ittihad).

We usually also had more success with cheap (ofc the definition of cheap is also different now than it was 5 years ago) signings than expensive ones. Maybe because expectations for them are generally lower. And that's why I think we should stay on this path (but ofc not exclusively) and looking for potential cheap gems which Deco is currently doing. 8 or 9 out of 10 won't work out but if you strike a gold with one or two of them this approach is worth it longterm. Sell those who won't make it and then re-invest the money into new talents.

We'll see how they will turn out longterm but at least on first sight Faye, Darvich and Ibrahim Diarra who is joining in December are a level or two above likes of Pocho, Emre Demir or Fabio Blanco who we were signing in previous years. And as @Porque said Deco also made some shrewd signings (like Pau Victor and Mbacke on loans and Gerard Martin for example) who probably don't have first team future but are playing well in BA.

BTW, really enjoy this conversation with you.

Can Takefusa Kubo be good addon in the summer? Take Ferrans spot? (when sold)

I like Take but he's primarily a RW where we already have Yamal.

 

[Porque]

Good post.

The advantage that we have in African talents over for example Premier League is that they a) don't count as non-EU players and b) visa application process is generally easier into Spain as they have to qualify as special talents (usually easier when player internationally at youth level) to get approved in the UK. So it is strategic and a good idea to look there.

Back to Brazil. We have been nested there over the last decade but not in the right pots. We talk of the cream like Endrick, Roque?, Neymar, Gabriel Jesus, Vini and it is clearly that those talents will be expensive and highly competitive.

While we have seen that second tier priced talents who are not ready for our A team and offered B team first, will usually prefer going to play first team in Ligue1, Portugal, Holland or even Belgium for more initial money. So our task is not easy.

My only question is maybe we could attract guys like Igor Gomes (https://www.transfermarkt.com/igor-thiago/profil/spieler/739443) at the point that he moves to Bulgaria for just over 1m for the B team. Not easy, but these are the type of moves we should be able to interest coming through our system rather than taking a punt in moving to Bulgaria or something like that.

Over the years we have tried this route with Gustavo Maia, Gabriel Novoes, Vitinho, Marlon, Robert Goncalves so it is just a case of better scouting I guess.

BTW, Igor was starting at Cruzeiro at the time with Roque at the bench, though old.

Also @Slevinn , how do you rate him?

 

[Messi983]

In other news, we missed out on 16 yo Mallorca CB Ruben Torres who has signed for Valencia.

 

[jamrock]

We are over stacked at CB,he made a wise decision.

 

[Deco]

I like Take but he's primarily a RW where we already have Yamal.

Yes, he does not need to play that much at his age, looking back to Bojan and Giovani.
When the comes to Brazil, Barcelona i trying to sign Estevao Willian

 

[Messi983]

We are over stacked at CB,he made a wise decision.

Probably a smart decision from his side but from Barça perspective we should never think we are "stacked" at any position. Injuries can happen and there are other reasons why players's development could stall as well. If we can get a good cheap talent we should sign him regardless of who we already have in his position and see how he'll develop. Who knows what our CB situation will look like in 3-4 years. It's always better to sell from a position of strength than buy for need.

We (fans) have also become spoiled and unrealistic and think kids should play regularly in the first team at 16/17 or otherwise they'll never make it here. We kind of forgot how a normal projection for youngsters should look like. What we've been doing over the last few years should not become a new norm if we ever want to return back to top. Not saying we shouldn't give a chance to our best youngsters but we should never depend so much on them.

Yes, he does not need to play that much at his age, looking back to Bojan and Giovani.
When the comes to Brazil, Barcelona i trying to sign Estevao Willian

I agree we should manage Yamal's minutes but not doing that by signing a 60m player to compete with him. Not in our situation. We're not City or Chelsea who could have 60m bench warmers. Although we kind of do have them in Raphinha and Ferran already.

I doubt we will be able to spend anywhere near that money in summer but if we somehow could it should be used for a DM and then a LW.

We should either sign a veteran cheap RW who will take some pressure off Yamal (or just keep Raphinha/Ferran for that role if no good offers for them and no better affordable alternatives on the market) or preferably a younger versatile winger who will primarily play LW but can also play on the right.

I really rate versatility in players (unless they are very good in the only position they can play) and lack of that was one of my main complaints about Raphinha even before we've signed him. Although he actually did well on the left against both Napoli and Atletico. So maybe he was a LW all this time and we just didn't knew it, lol.

 

[khaled_a_d]

It seems that we hope to get B. Zaragoza on loan from Bayern, as LW option.

 

[Kul_z]

It seems that we hope to get B. Zaragoza on loan from Bayern, as LW option.

That might be good. Guy was toying with us earlier in the season, great 1vs1, and plays on the left.

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

Forget all RWs you have mentioned, i have the real deal for you:

Francisco Conceição

 

[jamrock]

We good on the right, need a LW

 

[Deco]

He did not settle in Ajax, must be easier here.

 

[Porque]

Forget all RWs you have mentioned, i have the real deal for you:

Francisco Conceição

How about Rodrigo Mora

 

[Messi983]

Roger Fernandes FTW

 

[Messi983]

It seems that we hope to get B. Zaragoza on loan from Bayern, as LW option.

Wouldn't mind him but don't know why Bayern would loan him. I know Tuchel talked he has struggled to adapt and doesn't understand German or English but he's been there for only two months.

And if Xabi will really take the Bayern job I think he'll keep Bryan.