Onuphrius
New member
Buy him NOW ffs....
Defender for next season?
- Thread starter Theconomist
- Start date
Buy him NOW ffs....
Der Kaiser
New member
Just because he's cheap doesnt mean we have to buy him. Neither Pep nor Tito have shown interest in his return, so I guess they are pretty sure he's not Barca quality. Just keep Bartra as 4th choice CB and buy a DM.
Bartra is still unproven. The problem is you can get away with testing youngsters in midfield and attack. If they mess up it doesn't matter too much. But with defenders if they mess up it really costs you. It's a big risk to take.
Onuphrius
New member
Yes yes I know we shouldn't buy just because he is cheap. But compared to Martinez, Sakho, Hummels and whoever we are rumoured to be interested with, Botia is anyway my favourite choice for 4th/5th choice CB. We still have Puyi, Pique and Masch before him. Bartra will be a tremendous player for us, but we shouldn't rush him. Everyone knows that Puyol has had few bad injuries in recent years and how much can we really count on him? Please don't kill for saying that because I really hope and believe that he still has 1-3 solid seasons in him. And after that we should "advise" him to mate with at least 20 catalan virgins or something, so that his holiness would have a proper heir to his crown.
One thing that troubles me is that everyone seems to have forgotten Fontas. Only a year ago everyone hailed him and thought he was going to be the next cantera-born-partner for Pique. OK, he had a couple of bad games and then got injured. Screw all of you who think he is a has-been because of last seasons expectations.
It's self-evedent that Pep didn't believe in Botia. If Tito still doesn't think he isn't Barca-material, then he isn't. At least for the time Tito is in charge. But I still believe that he would perform better than Bartra. And if he wouldn't, perhaps we could pull "a Madrid" and maybe sell him for 10€m of something so that we would still get a little bit of profit from him.
Cruijffista
SOY ANTIMADRIDISTA
I very much agree with this.
Work out a deal for either Alex Song or Javi Martinez.
Arachnid
New member
Well, he had been already a season at United, while Bartra has never been in the first division of any league, and Piqué had plenty of backup, including Marquez, in case he wasn't up to snuff.
If you need to compare, you could compare him to Fontàs. He was unproven at 21, he was part of the first team, he barely played.
So when Piqué(21) joined the club in summer of 2008, he was coming off United's bench and a lone Zara stint, but was somehow more prepared to be our 3rd choice (considering milito was out with ACL that entire season), whilst having regular played div 2, Bartra isn't fit to be our 4th choice? The latter having captained the U20s, having recognized by both LFP, and Futbol draft perhaps counts for nothing. I mean people here even rate I.martinez, who's not even as good as Bartra, but is more in the news because of his 2 wonder goals, and gets to play regularly for his club. If you don't show faith in the youngsters, they'll never fullfill their potential. I bet if Bartra was at a diff club, he'd be one of the fav choices of most transfer muppets on here.
Arachnid
New member
Yeah, he was in the bench, of a big Premier team. He wasn't coming from B. He came as a fifth choice after the back then rising star, brand new expensive signing Cáceres. That's the point. We had backup in case Piqué failed.
Now, if Bartra pulls another Fontàs and Tito doesn't dare to play him even in the CdR, and keeping in mind Puyol's age... Who do we have in the back to rotate with? You can't risk it all in Bartra. We don't even have players who can move to CB from other spots, like Touré and Abidal. That's a lot of pressure for such a youngster. You can't compare that to Piqué.
Sorry, but Piqué was brought as a third choice (as milito was out the entire season 2008-09), and Cáceres was our fourth choice, who just never got going. Piqué that season went on to 've 44 starts (most for a CB), more than Puyol and marquez. I don't remember Abi playing as a CB that season, and no one knew Toure could play CB till Pep was forced to play him there in the CL&CDR semi/finals due to Marquez's injury. We essentially had 3 functioning CBs in 08/09, as the Uruguayan didn't click. We are actually better off now than we were then, in the CB dept. Piqué, Puyol, masch, Bartra, and sergi Gomez in case of emergency. We could still keep Fontàs who can act as our 5th choice.
There isn't a need for a CB. The transfer muppets, just acting panicky as usual.
There isn't a need for a CB. The transfer muppets, just acting panicky as usual.
He had a season with Zaragoza where he did really well alongside Gabi Milito.
Back then we had Puyol and Marquez as first choice, Gabi Milito was injured and we'd bought in Caceres and Pique as backup with Abidal also able to play in defense.
Now we only have Masch and Pique, and then Puyol who is aging and coming back from a long injury. Definitely much less options and much more risk factor involved.
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Yet he went on to start more games than either of them that season. And it wouldn't 've been possible if Pep hadn't placed enough faith in him. Exactly the thing players like Bartra needs.
So Marquez and Puyol were first choice in 08/09, with Pique and the inadequate caceres as back-ups. For 12/13, we 've Pique and Masch as first choice, with Puyol and Bartra as backups. I don't see the depth issue. And Abi could play CB, but he never played there in 08/09, or atleast i don't remember he did.
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