Frenkie de Jong

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behindbrowneyes

Well-known member
Frenkie de Jong is Juventus' 'impossible dream.' They cannot afford a transfer fee for the player, but have proposed a swap deal. However, Bar?a are not interested in any of the offered Juventus players. @sport

I guess it's our turn to get offered shit players on mass after we tried the same in the last few years.

Swap with Vlahovic and deal is on. :coffee: They can get Pjanic for free on top of that.
 

behindbrowneyes

Well-known member
Nah, keep Pjanic. They can get Busi, Pique and/or Alba though.

They should fit in well in Serie A with their pace.

Guess the board's biggest issue with Frenkie is that he is sitting on a Bartomeu-contract, which is bad for the newly introduced salary structure. Guess that's the reason behind the rumours regarding FDJ.
 

Porque

Senior Member
Frenkie for De Ligt is the most logical swap option. Sold for similar values, on similar wages. Raiola gone now (rip) so agent extortion is not a big overhead.

But from reading a quote, seems he is not on the table.
 

khaled_a_d

Senior Member
You keep saying he is a "bad fit", but how is an extremely physical midfield destroyer with great technical ability with the ball a bad fit for Barcelona? He is literally the very thing this team is missing: defensive solidity.

Due to our own team limitations
Tchoumeni main weakness is ability to connect midfield and defense together. He doesn't show to his defense enough and pretty passive. He waits the ball in midfield.
This shows in both eye test/watching him and data too.

This is a characteristic that is usually essential for DM in single pivot system like ours. Without it the team build up from the back us screwed, and it makes the team vulnerable to pressing easily, which exposes teams to counter attack.
There is usually 3 ways to get over this:
1-Play with double pivot, who shares the load of connecting lines, Something that Barca is too arrogant to do. Won't happen sadly (but if we are willing to, he will fit here far better)
2-Build through fullbacks, but not a Dest & Alba level of fullbacks. So we are screwed if we try it with those.
3-Get 2 CM on a really high level on the ball along off the ball movement (i.e Kroos/Modric or Deco/Xavi) to cover him for that
Pedri is great candidates for that, but Gavi is 2 years away from being 2 years away, FDJ & Kessi aren't good for that.

So, while Tchoumeni is undeniably outstanding talent, he isn't a complete player (very few are anyway) and arriving here will be arriving to a team that will do it's best to expose his own weaknesses due to the way they are built.

Then there is the price tag, he is a player that Liverpool and RM are fighting to get with other teams preparing to enter the race, 60M is the rumoured price but he might cost even more.
Now while I still consider him upgrade over 34 years old Busquets, I am not sure blowing our transfer budget on him is smart choice
For example I am a well known advocate of signing Maxence Cauqueret who has same problems and more, but the kid has barely any hype and 1 year left in contract, so while he might be inferior talent at least offensively he won't cost one third of Tchoumeni and rest of the money can be used to upgrade other positions to cover for such limitations (getting fullbacks like Malo Gusto & Sergio Gomez for example, who can link greatly,although didn't watch them enough).

BTW, connecting defense and midfield is one if Neves strong suits, and probably one of the main reasons he is the preferred choice to replace Busquets
 

JamDav1982

Senior Member
Pep will want him is my prediction still and Barca will ask for some of their players in return.

He should push for it for his own career.
 
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