Joan Laporta

[Andresito]

I wonder if Barca will reach its true potential during this generation with Pedri, Araujo, Gavi etc.

Parts of club are sold which means lesser revenue, new stadium is also being built for at least 2 years. I'm guessing we'll need a 10-15 year period to potentially be a bigger club than we were before Bartomeu's demise started.
It's like a transition period until we can get back everything we sold.

Feels like we're on very thin ice here. Laporta and the gang have gambled heavily, but I guess it was either that or a team with much lower ambitions.
Didn't help that we had to overpay for every single new player. With a bit of luck we could've stayed away from Kounde, gotten Raphinha for 25m, Azpi for free etc.

 

[Mitchell1978]

This is getting ludicrous and embarrassing now:

"More astutely, the current administration of Joan Laporta and co. have found the contract extension handed to Frenkie de Jong by Josep Bartomeu to be illegal.

They want the Dutchman to revert to previous terms ? those before the extension in October 2020, otherwise, they are willing to press charges."

Who will they press charges on. EVEN if it was illegal which it was NOT. SMH this is pathetic desperation. What has happened to this once great club. Are they trying to scare these players the players did nothing illegal (and to be fair neither did Barto). This is pathetic hooliganism.

If you do not have the money DO NOT SIGN ANY MORE NEW PLAYERS. How hard is that to understand: Raphina Lewy Depay Auba Kessie Christenson Kounde --- are they going to ask Lewy to take a pay cut...

this is beyond incompetence now

Laporta is just the continuation of Bartomeu

 

[Zidane82]

I wonder if Barca will reach its true potential during this generation with Pedri, Araujo, Gavi etc.

Parts of club are sold which means lesser revenue, new stadium is also being built for at least 2 years. I'm guessing we'll need a 10-15 year period to potentially be a bigger club than we were before Bartomeu's demise started.
It's like a transition period until we can get back everything we sold.

Feels like we're on very thin ice here. Laporta and the gang have gambled heavily, but I guess it was either that or a team with much lower ambitions.
Didn't help that we had to overpay for every single new player. With a bit of luck we could've stayed away from Kounde, gotten Raphinha for 25m, Azpi for free etc.

I do not mind that we have sold bits of our future away .. it is supposedly a very astute way of raising funds according to a financial advisor on TalkSport.., it is this latest transaction that is bothering me .. the whole world seems to have the opinion that we have done a piece of dirty dealing and it will bring us down before we even get to see this squad playing any competitive games

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

This is getting ludicrous and embarrassing now:

"More astutely, the current administration of Joan Laporta and co. have found the contract extension handed to Frenkie de Jong by Josep Bartomeu to be illegal.

They want the Dutchman to revert to previous terms ? those before the extension in October 2020, otherwise, they are willing to press charges."

Who will they press charges on. EVEN if it was illegal which it was NOT. SMH this is pathetic desperation. What has happened to this once great club. Are they trying to scare these players the players did nothing illegal (and to be fair neither did Barto). This is pathetic hooliganism.

If you do not have the money DO NOT SIGN ANY MORE NEW PLAYERS. How hard is that to understand: Raphina Lewy Depay Auba Kessie Christenson Kounde --- are they going to ask Lewy to take a pay cut...

this is beyond incompetence now

We have money. It's about LaLiga cap, which is ridiculous.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

I wonder if Barca will reach its true potential during this generation with Pedri, Araujo, Gavi etc.

Parts of club are sold which means lesser revenue, new stadium is also being built for at least 2 years. I'm guessing we'll need a 10-15 year period to potentially be a bigger club than we were before Bartomeu's demise started.
It's like a transition period until we can get back everything we sold.

Feels like we're on very thin ice here. Laporta and the gang have gambled heavily, but I guess it was either that or a team with much lower ambitions.
Didn't help that we had to overpay for every single new player. With a bit of luck we could've stayed away from Kounde, gotten Raphinha for 25m, Azpi for free etc.

We overpaid for every player? Every report I heard was Barca paying less than opponents (fee and salary). We had unbelievable summer.

They did great job signing all those players. They made players believe the project.

 

[serghei]

I wonder if Barca will reach its true potential during this generation with Pedri, Araujo, Gavi etc.

Parts of club are sold which means lesser revenue, new stadium is also being built for at least 2 years. I'm guessing we'll need a 10-15 year period to potentially be a bigger club than we were before Bartomeu's demise started.
It's like a transition period until we can get back everything we sold.

Feels like we're on very thin ice here. Laporta and the gang have gambled heavily, but I guess it was either that or a team with much lower ambitions.
Didn't help that we had to overpay for every single new player. With a bit of luck we could've stayed away from Kounde, gotten Raphinha for 25m, Azpi for free etc.

Yes, but Barca imo has to take it. We are the definition of high profile football club. EPL fans don't get the type of status Madrid and Barca especially need to have to function at the top.

I would have been fine with a romantic slow recovery with La Masia core and noth much else for some years and all, but I understand Barca as a club are not some sort of Spanish Arsenal to take it slow and on the cheap. This summer shows that the club has big aspirations when run by proper men.

Laporta and Xavi aren't interested to sit around and see how Madrid push ahead and rack up 4-5 La Ligas unbothered. They are winners.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

This is the most exciting summer since... Can't remember, maybe Neymar signing summer? Probably better. Laporta knew he needed to create more buzz around the club. He has certainly delivered.

We should enjoy this now because we don't know how the season will turn out. It could become disaster too, if we start losing.

 

[serghei]

I think what we are doing is what Khaled said on the forum that it will happen. Clubs like Madrid and Barca (when run properly) are low on patience.

 

[khaled_a_d]

I think what we are doing is what Khaled said on the forum that it will happen. Clubs like Madrid and Barca (when run properly) are low on patience.

In addition, Liga rules count losses for up to 5 years.
That mean the 400M+ losses of 2021 will be there in 2026 summer hunting us, and we were doing losses for 2022 too if no leverage.
That mean "at best" we were going to have a normal mercato in 2028.
And heck, Liga made a role to count B players in salary cap.
We were going to have a salary cap allowance of negative value.
We might have continued to make losses for next few years too with all those awful contracts.

Now, Liga clubs has signed CVC, for far lower value than we got.
French league signed it too, selling 13% of TV deal (forever) for CVC. Bundesliga is now eyeing similar deal. Calcio negotiated one but failed to reach agreement.
Sure, non reached 25% but as a club, we simply needed those deals to "function"
The money we put in this summer signing isn't that much for a club of our revenue

Honestly I think Laporta didn't want to sell anything, but there was no other "out" from it.

 

[terryzinc]

How come RM doesn't have financial problems ... problems with La Liga Cap ... their President knows what he is doing

 

[jamrock]

The problem is we had a president that didn't know what he was doing, now we have one and he's trying to fix it.

Simple

 

[serghei]

The problem is we had a president that didn't know what he was doing, now we have one and he's trying to fix it.

Simple

True, but it sucks that the damage of one rat will be felt for 25 years. Sooner or later, the club will have to be sold. I don't know how you can compete financially with oil clubs and sugar daddy clubs like City, PSG, and most of other EPL clubs.

You can't fight them off unless you become like them.

This buys us some time like 5-10 years. But after that...

[MENTION=11668]khaled_a_d[/MENTION], if you listen to a press interview of Laporta, he is not at all extatic or happy about it. You can feel the regret when he speaks about these levers. I sincerely think they were shocked when they had a look into our contracts after they took over the presidency.

Frankly, we have not spent anything absurd. Just smart business and good recruiting with an idea behind it. And using the project and the status of the club as a top 3 most desirable destination to land the players we want. And it connected massively with our targets, being the club, the city, the project, the manager, Laporta and Alemany's skills, whatever. Top players were simply convinced by the whole. And if we have the finances, Bernardo is already convinced and will move too, it's just a matter of us getting the money and wage space + dealing with City, which is hard at this stage with La Liga trying to fuck us over.

This summer proved beyond all doubt how great the Barca brand is. It's up there with Madrid as biggest brands by far.

 

[Horatio]

True, but it sucks that the damage of one rat will be felt for 25 years. Sooner or later, the club will have to be sold. I don't know how you can compete financially with oil clubs and sugar daddy clubs like City, PSG, and most of other EPL clubs.

You can't fight them off unless you become like them.

This buys us some time like 5-10 years. But after that...

relax. Barcelona tourism will keep us afloat.

 

[Horatio]

By the way, I read in an article yesterday that barca is working on projects involving tourism. Are we building hotels or what?

 

[Mitchell1978]

now we have one and he's trying to fix it.

Is that really the case?

Doesn't look like it to the outside world