FCBfan22
Senior Member
Great in interviews, great on the market. Great start from him.
Eric Abidal
- Thread starter Barcaman
- Start date
Great in interviews, great on the market. Great start from him.
khaled_a_d
Senior Member
Roberto had same type of start, so I will hold my judge until later
ut yeah, there are reasons for optimism
ut yeah, there are reasons for optimism
BarçaBarça
New member
This is true. It is always easy to get excited about the new signings, but depth looks better on paper.
Lets hope they turn out great for us..
khaled_a_d
Senior Member
His first transfer window as Barca director is over.
There was a lot of optimism from it, but looking back at it with more depth I am a bit skeptical (but I am always skeptical anyway)
For starter I would say we have improved much with how we sell our players or how we get rid of them. Though Abidal was a bit lucky that the Chinese club was desperate to get Paulinho back, and with Mina's perforemance at the world cup (along Marco Silva taking over Evrton) he should still get credit for that. EV continued to be ruthless when it come to players he doesn't want anymore with the time, sending out the likes of Vidal/Gomes/Paco/Mina packing just after Deulofeu and Arda. Lots of hate for EV but he surely make sit uncomofortable place for our own scrubs.
Regarding our signings we have added 4 players:
Arthur & Lenglet whom both a bit overpriced and was Roberto's deals that Abidal completed.
Malcom which was a shrewd business from Abidal, sensing an oppurtunity in the market. Vidal who is a bargain though a bit old.
Squad is cut to 23 players including Samper (unlikely to get minutes) and Alena (will see how it works with his injury)
So this is how our squad changed from 1 year ago
Lenglet replacing Mascherano
Arthur replacing Gomes
Coutinho replacing Iniesta
Vidal replacing Paulinho
Rafinha (started last season injured) replacing Vidal
Malcom replacing Deulofeu
Munir for Paco
Digne wasn't replaced, Samper is added too.
We expect an improvement from Dembele and Coutinho after settling within the team. Possibly with Semedo too.
But a decline from Busquets/Pique/Suarez has already been seen and likely to continue.
We don't really know how good is Arthur yet, will probably take his time, same for Lenglet. Malcom has ton of potential and likely an instant upgrade over Deulofeu was, still think Munir is downgrade from Paco. Vidal is a different player from Paulinho and it remains to be see what he adds to the team.
I don't see a sure starter of all 4 players, Lenglet seem like a good 3rd option CB, Vidal is too old and inferior to what we have already but will add depth. Malcom is great but is he a future starter?
Who will replace Digne
Malcom and Arthur will likely decide how good is this transfer window, there was ton of optimism in 2016 and we added a lot of depth too with potential future starter, but only Umtiti ended as starter for us with 3 already leaving and 2 locked to the bench
Dembele devlopment and the decline of the older pack will also be more critical to the success of the season.
Overall I would wait before putting any exaggeratted expectations on the team. We are probably still favorites for Liga tbf
There was a lot of optimism from it, but looking back at it with more depth I am a bit skeptical (but I am always skeptical anyway)
For starter I would say we have improved much with how we sell our players or how we get rid of them. Though Abidal was a bit lucky that the Chinese club was desperate to get Paulinho back, and with Mina's perforemance at the world cup (along Marco Silva taking over Evrton) he should still get credit for that. EV continued to be ruthless when it come to players he doesn't want anymore with the time, sending out the likes of Vidal/Gomes/Paco/Mina packing just after Deulofeu and Arda. Lots of hate for EV but he surely make sit uncomofortable place for our own scrubs.
Regarding our signings we have added 4 players:
Arthur & Lenglet whom both a bit overpriced and was Roberto's deals that Abidal completed.
Malcom which was a shrewd business from Abidal, sensing an oppurtunity in the market. Vidal who is a bargain though a bit old.
Squad is cut to 23 players including Samper (unlikely to get minutes) and Alena (will see how it works with his injury)
So this is how our squad changed from 1 year ago
Lenglet replacing Mascherano
Arthur replacing Gomes
Coutinho replacing Iniesta
Vidal replacing Paulinho
Rafinha (started last season injured) replacing Vidal
Malcom replacing Deulofeu
Munir for Paco
Digne wasn't replaced, Samper is added too.
We expect an improvement from Dembele and Coutinho after settling within the team. Possibly with Semedo too.
But a decline from Busquets/Pique/Suarez has already been seen and likely to continue.
We don't really know how good is Arthur yet, will probably take his time, same for Lenglet. Malcom has ton of potential and likely an instant upgrade over Deulofeu was, still think Munir is downgrade from Paco. Vidal is a different player from Paulinho and it remains to be see what he adds to the team.
I don't see a sure starter of all 4 players, Lenglet seem like a good 3rd option CB, Vidal is too old and inferior to what we have already but will add depth. Malcom is great but is he a future starter?
Who will replace Digne
Malcom and Arthur will likely decide how good is this transfer window, there was ton of optimism in 2016 and we added a lot of depth too with potential future starter, but only Umtiti ended as starter for us with 3 already leaving and 2 locked to the bench
Dembele devlopment and the decline of the older pack will also be more critical to the success of the season.
Overall I would wait before putting any exaggeratted expectations on the team. We are probably still favorites for Liga tbf
I don't know how much of the restocking of the team should be credited to Abidal, but management deserves a lot of credit for putting together such a strong, deep squad. Every starter except Messi and Alba have depth behind them who should be able to perform well if the starters get tired, fade due to age, or get hurt. I don't know exactly how good Arthur, Vidal, Lenglet and Malcolm can be for this team, but it seems quite likely that all of them could rise to the level of regular starters in the future. Countinho and Dembele have become vital to the first 11 by playing like Barca stars. My bet is that the next one will be Arthur.
khaled_a_d
Senior Member
Good news
Messigician
Senior Member
Abidal: "Malcom has many qualities, he can play the two opposite sides, for us he is a key player. We signed him because he has our profile."
"Arthur has Barça profile, elegance in the touch of the ball, vision, aggressiveness in the midfield and calmness in reduced spaces."
"We can talk with hours and hours for Andrés Iniesta for all he did and being a perfect person.
He left for free, but the doors are always open whenever he wants to return."
"Borussia Dortmund loaned Paco for €2m as they were very interested. They have a purchase option of €23.5m plus €5m in variables."
"We got an offer from China, Paulinho also wanted to leave, so we searched for a player of his qualities. It was a very good deal for €50m."
"Mina had a great World Cup, We analyzed his situation and decided to sell him.
There aren't many players of his quality in the market. The Club invested €12m, but we sold him for €30.25m plus €1.5m in variables."
"Douglas won't return in the Club at the end of the season."
"Arda Turan won't return here, doesn't fit the style of FC Barcelona. He's loaned to Turkey for 2 years with the agreement of the administration, until the end of his contract."
"Arthur has Barça profile, elegance in the touch of the ball, vision, aggressiveness in the midfield and calmness in reduced spaces."
"We can talk with hours and hours for Andrés Iniesta for all he did and being a perfect person.
He left for free, but the doors are always open whenever he wants to return."
"Borussia Dortmund loaned Paco for €2m as they were very interested. They have a purchase option of €23.5m plus €5m in variables."
"We got an offer from China, Paulinho also wanted to leave, so we searched for a player of his qualities. It was a very good deal for €50m."
"Mina had a great World Cup, We analyzed his situation and decided to sell him.
There aren't many players of his quality in the market. The Club invested €12m, but we sold him for €30.25m plus €1.5m in variables."
"Douglas won't return in the Club at the end of the season."
"Arda Turan won't return here, doesn't fit the style of FC Barcelona. He's loaned to Turkey for 2 years with the agreement of the administration, until the end of his contract."
BusiTheKing
Senior Member
Playing it safe by getting Rabiot and "challenging" for Frenkie (which we all knew was never going to make us a serious contender). In the end, not going 100% for the real thing is gonna cost us just as it did with Gomes, Song, Digne, Aleix Vidal, Douglas etc. Hope he learns his lessson.
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