Joan Laporta

[behindbrowneyes]

His natural position at Bayern Munich was DM and it was Pep, I think, who moved him to the left back. As per demands of his agent, read in the media, he wants to play DM again. The presence of Casemiro at Real Madrid could be obstacle. We are just speculating here, anyway.

No. He has always been a left back at Bayern. Playing DM/CM was just his "dream" or lets say he saw himself there. That's why he played there for Austria for a very long time, but tbh he failed to impress in the center of the pitch, even on a lower level against weak national sides. Somehow a Sergi Roberto on a better level. Pep was the one who tried him as CB IIRC. Of course he played some games for Bayern in midfield due to his versatility, but Bayern never really saw a future for him there, otherwise they'd bought another LB.

I'm Austrian, so I followed his career with more interest.

Edit: just checked it
Games for Bayern:
243 as LB
112 as CB
29 as CM
14 as LM
3 as RM
2 as DM

 

[Porque]

[xavicampos] | Joan Laporta’s intention is to reach an agreement with unimportant players and release them from the club in order to reduce the salary.

History repeats

2002/2003 Free Transfers Out
Frank de Boer
Nano
Philippe Christanval
Geovanni
Dani Garc?a
Patrik Andersson
Alfonso
Roberto Bonano
Transhorras

Big question what Laporta will do with the Cou and Griez, but as of the rest I cannot think which players the report is talking about apart from Umtiti, Firpo, and Pjanic

If we go by Laporta's first season where there was similar circumstance. He will probably look for any option to get them off the books asap if they are not a part of the Sporting direction. Riquelme was loaned out for example, as were Enke and Rochemback as all three stood to have transfer fee potential.

As for current squad, the releases/free transfers look to be:-
Umtiti
Moussa Wague
Matheus Fernandes
Maybe Todibo.

Pjanic but his contract is an issue.

 

[Bobo32]

[xavicampos] | Joan Laporta?s intention is to reach an agreement with unimportant players and release them from the club in order to reduce the salary.

This is good.
Semedo, Rakitic, Vidal, (Suarez) is the biggest difference compared to last year. Pedri is a positive addition, but Koeman, Dest etc is not necessarily so good. Can we get rid of Griezmann, Firpo, Lenglet, Umtiti, Pjanic, Coutinho as well, then there will be fresh air.

 

[Windhook]

No. He has always been a left back at Bayern. Playing DM/CM was just his "dream" or lets say he saw himself there.

Well, not Bayern definitely. I got my sources wrong. As kid in Austria Wien in AM position and Hoffenheim employed him in DM role during his loan spell at the club.

 

[Barcaman]

He should bring Ronaldinho back in some role. People love him and I can't imagine someone turning down a call or saying no to him. Not to mention he deserves it.

 

[Horatio]

He should bring Ronaldinho back in some role. People love him and I can't imagine someone turning down a call or saying no to him. Not to mention he deserves it.

Maybe after he has matured.

 

[Barcaman]

Maybe after he has matured.

Racist.

 

[Joan]

I thought Rijkaard would be perfect for the advisory role. He's a big name, as big as they come, has had successes with Barca. Don't know if he's still 'part of the game'.

Seems to fit better than Jordi Cruyff.

 

[xxxxxx]

[xavicampos] | Joan Laporta?s intention is to reach an agreement with unimportant players and release them from the club in order to reduce the salary.

It's going to be hard to shift Umtiti, Griezmann and Coutinho. I think Coutinho is on 300k plus a week and hasn't played all that well, and he's missed the last months of the season. Then you have Umtiti, who is on 200k a week.... and hasn't played much. I think he'll just see out his contract. He knows he isn't getting that type of money elsewhere.

I'm thinking he doesn't have much or any money to spend and he needs to release players so he can bring in loan/free transfers. Players like Gini, Depay, Garcia and maybe Gaya.

What makes me laugh is he's saying that the salary needs reducing, yet he's going to offer a 34-year-old Messi like 500k to 600k a week. There's no way Messi is going to be on less than what Griezmann is on.

 

[xxxxxx]

History repeats

2002/2003 Free Transfers Out
Frank de Boer
Nano
Philippe Christanval
Geovanni
Dani Garc?a
Patrik Andersson
Alfonso
Roberto Bonano
Transhorras



If we go by Laporta's first season where there was similar circumstance. He will probably look for any option to get them off the books asap if they are not a part of the Sporting direction. Riquelme was loaned out for example, as were Enke and Rochemback as all three stood to have transfer fee potential.

As for current squad, the releases/free transfers look to be:-
Umtiti
Moussa Wague
Matheus Fernandes
Maybe Todibo.

Pjanic but his contract is an issue.

The biggest difference is.... our wage bill is way higher than what it was back then. Our debt is much worse than what it was back then. If anything, we probably need to release players just to balance the books. If we do sign any players, it'll be free transfers.

He also can't really release too many players because our squad depth isn't great and we don't have any/much money to replace those players. Our debt back in 2003 was manageable..... it's not manageable now.

 

[Messi983]

As for current squad, the releases/free transfers look to be:-
Umtiti
Moussa Wague
Matheus Fernandes
Maybe Todibo.

Pjanic but his contract is an issue.

We won't release any veterans on longterm contracts as much as I'd like for us to find a way to offload Busi and Alba, probably Pique as well.

Umtiti would want to have his wages paid off so we wouldn't benefit anything. Better find a club willing to take him on loan and cover at least part of his wages.

It's not really ethical (and probably against the rules) to ask Wague to cancel his contract when he's still recovering from a serious injury so don't expect us to do that.

Matheus can leave on loan (maybe Portuguese league wouldn't be bad for him). I still think he has decent potential and we could eventually get some money for him in a year or two.

And Nice might use their buy option on Todibo. If not we can sell him to another club, it would be stupid to just release him.

 

[khaled_a_d]

We won't release any veterans on longterm contracts as much as I'd like for us to find a way to offload Busi and Alba, probably Pique as well.

Umtiti would want to have his wages paid off so we wouldn't benefit anything. Better find a club willing to take him on loan and cover at least part of his wages.

Loan work close to the "release" thing.
Raki/Suarez/Vidal etc wasn't loaned, but was allowed to go even if we let them take some of their wage like Suarez case.
The catch here is if a club is willing to give those players a longer contract. For example if Lyon is willing to to give Umtiti 4 year deal, he could accept a lower salary than here, while we pay some part of difference but not the whole amount.

 

[khaled_a_d]

I thought Rijkaard would be perfect for the advisory role. He's a big name, as big as they come, has had successes with Barca. Don't know if he's still 'part of the game'.

Seems to fit better than Jordi Cruyff.

Rijkaard seems to have left football as a whole and want to focus on his business.
I agree though, him could have been great as right hand man in football decisions.

 

[Joan]

Rijkaard seems to have left football as a whole and want to focus on his business.
I agree though, him could have been great as right hand man in football decisions.

Oh, thanks for clarifying.

What is he up to?

 

[khaled_a_d]

Oh, thanks for clarifying.

What is he up to?

iirc he owns a fancy restaurant or something like that.