Barca Transfers and Rumors

[DonAK]

Laporta isn't barto, man actually cares about the club, he isn't going to hand the club over in a worse situation than he got it in.

Nothin in his time at the club for over a decade suggest that will be the case.

In 2026 we'll be in a new stadium and that will solve 80% of our problems.

He might care about the club, but unlike in 2003 when he essentially had the dream team with him with executives that till this day are working for various elite clubs in Europe, this time around he is surrounded by idiots.
Laporta is no genius. He needs experts around him in their own fields to make it work and from what I see right now it's not pretty.

When your closest advisor is your ex-wife's brother and a bigoted handball player then I wouldn't expect any miracles like when he had Txiki and Cruyff to advise him on football matters and Ferran Soriano handling the business-side until they fell out in 2008 lol.

Everyone keep talking about how the new stadium is going to solve our problems. We'll see. The club keep parroting that line, but I wouldn't trust them blindly.

 

[khaled_a_d]

But in sports, it doesn't work like that,it's not a switch that can be flipped on and off.

This is just a generic statement that doesn't mean anything in reality.

You can name any strategy and we can point that it doesn't work like that.
Nothing work in Sports (or real life) unless executed properly. That is the key.

Laporta himself took a step back with the team in 2021 when he didn't sign CVC and allowed Messi to leave while keeping Koeman who was going nowhere with the team.

 

[serghei]

I think what @Porque is trying to say (and correct me if I am wrong), would it change the expected outcome if we took a step back now to sort the financial issues?
Taking a step back in order to move two step forwards.

People need to remember that Liga rules regarding FFP is progressive one, if we don't meet our financial targets we don't get punished like EPL, but we get salary cap shrink even more, with no end to it. People forget that at some point we had a negative 100 million of salary cap. It was why we made the levers.

Liga rules are pretty clear in that, and Liga actually changed it several times to ease thing, but people need to remember that Barca was one of the biggest proponent of this rules.
And sure, that was Bartou, but at the end Bartou was voted as club president fair and square so we should own it.


The 100M question then: Does Barca has a definitive deadline of the current financial issues with FFP?
If the answer is yes, then ok.
Jamrock has a point, don't be seller and keep the team intact till the storm is over.

If the answer is no, then we have to remember that the clock is ticking, well actually the bomb is ticking.
Half of our players who are worth anything has their contracts over in 2026, and all are due a pay raise, if we continue without massive improvement in cap then we are heading into losing those players for free, unless we sell part of the club.
There is simply no way around that,
In such doom day scenario, isn't it better to lose players now and take a step back to sort our issues? Target the 2nd place (not publicly but internally) and build the team with that in mind.

On the finances issues, you are one of the one on this forum that is most well-documented.

Based on what I've read so far, I'd say a few things.

The FFP issue is now mainly down to:

1. Revenue not climbing up high enough after pandemic.
2. Wage bill still being inflated.

But 1) and 2) are expected to get a turn around soon (by 2026) with:

a) Camp Nou being built and new contracts being signed which will up the revenue stream considerably.
b) Back-payments to former players, which are reportedly huge (in Laporta's own words we have, for example, outstanding payments to Messi delayed from the past that are being paid religiously) and are still factored in our wage bill.

Once revenue goes up substantially (and will happen since Camp Nou revenue will be nothing like Montjuic revenue) and back-payments from Bartomeu era will be done with, I think the FFP problem will go away for good.

For good as in until we elect another president that will spiral spending out of control.

 

[jamrock]

This is just a generic statement that doesn't mean anything in reality.

You can name any strategy and we can point that it doesn't work like that.
Nothing work in Sports (or real life) unless executed properly. That is the key.

Laporta himself took a step back with the team in 2021 when he didn't sign CVC and allowed Messi to leave while keeping Koeman who was going nowhere with the team.

It's definitely not,

Arsenal
Milan
Inter
Valencia
And I'm probably forgetting a couple

All tried the take a step back approach and we saw the result.

What laporta did in 2021 is in no way comparable, that was a small adjustment which lasted a couple of months until he could put his plans in place.

The levelers, which isn't what is being debated so I won't get into that.

Point is that was a small adjustment in order for him to reshape the team the literally next summer and won the league.

What is being talked about his more of a medium term taking one step back, as our main competitor strengthens and we seriously think we can just flip the switch and be ready to compete again once we are ready.

Everything in sports history tells us that's not the case.

Teams who are at the top compete to always stay at the top,none of this let's take 2-3 years of business.

The relax for a couple of years and then let's go strategy even when executed perfectly or close to it, does not work,arsenal are the perfect example of that.

They thought they would be able to compete again in a few seasons, it took them like a decade, because no one was standing still for them to eventually catch up.

 

[serghei]

But even if we want to sell a few players... there are is only one really viable candidate for this. Araujo.

He has interest from big clubs and is not on a hugely lucrative contract like De Jong. He might be open for a move to Bayern if they come up with a high enough offer.

And from the very young potential stars... Yamal is the one to draw the most money. Between all of his apparent issues, Pedri is unlikely to be sold for a lot of money.

The rest really aren't that attractive for the big clubs, nor would they demand a very big sum of money.

 

[jamrock]

The let's internally accept losing,is a slippery slope that's should never be taken, history has shown us, it's not something you can just turn on and off.

If we compete and lose that's a different story entirely.

 

[serghei]

The let's internally accept losing,is a slippery slope that's should never be taken, history has shown us, it's not something you can just turn on and off.

If we compete and lose that's a different story entirely.

You can do it imo if the club is mature enough to live with some bad years and sort things out. But the club doesn't have that maturity. They are still in their head competing with Real Madrid.

But you can't have both. Performance without investments is not possible. And in the last years, the club did achieve results and titles. The denying of that is what makes me think fans are generally delusional and clueless.

 

[DonAK]

Another issue with the club is how they seemingly manage to waste a lot of the money they have to spend, which isn't a lot to begin with.

55m for Ferran, 50m for Lewy who has been a non-factor vs. most decent teams after one year, possibly 30m for Vitor Roque if Xavi is disgusted by the sight of him lol.

Especially Ferran Torres. Hate the sight of such a mid player who acts like he's elite.

Made some very good free signings though.

 

[serghei]

Another issue with the club is how they seemingly manage to waste a lot of the money they have to spend, which isn't a lot to begin with.

55m for Ferran, 50m for Lewy who has been a non-factor vs. most decent teams after one year, possibly 30m for Vitor Roque if Xavi is disgusted by the sight of him lol.

Especially Ferran Torres. Hate the sight of such a mid player.

Made some great very good signings though.

Ferran Torres is the only one that seems like a clear flop. The rest contributed a lot in the last seasons.

 

[jamrock]

Torres is a L they have to accept.
Lewa was 50/50

Let's see how it will go with roquem

 

[serghei]

But anyway, once you can't sign the really top players... some bets you take will fail. It's how it is currently.

If Leverkusen make it work on a budget more than one season and become like Klopp's Dortmund, they will be the exception.

 

[DonAK]

Will wait for next season, but would suck if Alonso confirms himself to be an elite manager that likely takes over Madrid within the next few years if I had to bet on it whilst the guy on our sideline everything thought was gonna be *it* is getting sent off every third game for cussing out the referee's dead mother.

 

[serghei]

Will wait for next season, but would suck if Alonso confirms himself to be an elite manager that likely takes over Madrid within the next few years if I had to bet on it whilst the guy on our sideline everything thought was gonna be *it* is getting sent off every third game for cussing out the referee's dead mother.

How is that relevant? Madrid's side is much better than ours. It was better all along by a clear difference since years ago, it got bigger this year, and by next year they will increase the gap even more with the signings they have lined up.

Before comparing ourselves with Madrid we need to regain access to the players they sign. Which is world class stars and premiere level talents from Brazil. We are far far from that level.

 

[jamrock]

You can do it imo if the club is mature enough to live with some bad years and sort things out. But the club doesn't have that maturity. They are still in their head competing with Real Madrid.

But you can't have both. Performance without investments is not possible. And in the last years, the club did achieve results and titles. The denying of that is what makes me think fans are generally delusional and clueless.

The issues isn't accepting the rebuild, that's the easy part, the difficultly comes in us thinking after accepting losing, we will be able to compete again on equal footing with Madrid, as if they will stand still,while we take a step back.

They won't,they will try to put their feet on our necks,which is the right thing to do, to ensure by the time we are out of our rebuild, there is a 5-10 year gap between most both teams


What should be a 2-3 years without winning could easily becomes 5-6/7.

I think that's the kind of rot laporta is trying to avoid settling in, because he knows it won't be as easy as some think to shake off.

If European football was sat up like American sports , with "hard" caps and drafts, settling for a few years of losing would be a lot easier.

 

[jamrock]

In other transfers news, seems we have passed on messinho

El Barça pasa del fichaje de Messinho

El club blaugrana no entra en la puja y el Chelsea comienza a negociar

www.sport.es

Not fussed, that Argentine kid who signed for city,was the real price.