Joan Laporta

[ajnotkeith]

Also Gundogan with Pedri or Gavi would probably be even worse against any good teams. Will get overrun, way too slow and weak as a pairing and unless the team has total control over the game they will be demolished on transitions.

I can still see them trying to sign a DM even if its a short term deal or someone like Phillips as I already mentioned here. The lack of a real DM is going to be a big problem as it was previously and if FDJ would be injured we'd be in serious trouble against good teams.

They should have been planning for Busquets's exit years before it happened... everyone knew he was declining. It's been years since he left and we still don't have an actual DM. Should have signed one whilst he was still here, instead we replaced with Romeu.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

If Olmo is the only signing and they have to go through a struggle to register even him then only a successful season can save Laporta.

He won’t survive until 2026 otherwise IMO.

Fair or not, this is what he signed up for and his constant lies and big statements doesn’t help either.

But guys like Font and other clowns won’t do much either.

I agree on both.

Laporta will be gone if this season fails completely, which looks very possible if he can't even register players.

 

[JamDav1982]

Also Gundogan with Pedri or Gavi would probably be even worse against any good teams. Will get overrun, way too slow and weak as a pairing and unless the team has total control over the game they will be demolished on transitions.

I can still see them trying to sign a DM even if its a short term deal or someone like Phillips as I already mentioned here. The lack of a real DM is going to be a big problem as it was previously and if FDJ would be injured we'd be in serious trouble against good teams.

They should have been planning for Busquets's exit years before it happened... everyone knew he was declining. It's been years since he left and we still don't have an actual DM. Should have signed one whilst he was still here, instead we replaced with Romeu.

Yes that lever window needed to address DM, RB and more pace up top 1v1.. while avoiding ludicrous deals like Lewa an throwing so much money on him at that age.

Three years later still not addressed and their poor signings are hampering the FFP room have to correct it now.

That added to wasting 150m odd in horrendous European campaigns... what levers were argued needed to avoid... reasons why the thought Lewa money made sense.

 

[jamrock]

The fans who constantly complain about the squad building or the same ones who constantly complained that Xavi is a shit coach and under under utilizing our players, that we should be winning the league, that our teams isn't much worse than 15 times CL winner Real Madrid.

Over the two years since they been signed, Kounde has arguably been our best defender.

Raphinha our most impactful forward(not best)

Gundogan player of the season

Christensen excellent piece of business, probably our most consistently excellent player the year we won the league.

Their has been some failures & some on the brink of failing, Torres, Lewa, but also some successes, we don't win our first league title in 4 years without some of those signings.

So it that their is zero sporting direction that some have claimed, that the squad is super poor, then contradict themselves constantly,one only needs to look at the Xavi trend.

Or is it that he's done a solid job, a good job even understand the circumstances, speaking only sporting now, but their is still room for improvement, and what improvement for 90% is signing DM?.

Can their be an adult conversation or is their too much emotions involve.

economically is a solid B to B+, but that conversion most here don't have the capacity to fully understand, so I'll leave that alone.

 

[JamDav1982]

The money spent on squad has been poor.. over paying and too much on FFP now and wrong profile/positions.

It is clear as day.

Neglected positions and profiles for too long.

By far the best aspect of the squad is players there before they arrived. Both in first team and La Masia.

Gundo on 18m is far too much and can be better spend for future of club for example.

Him, Lewa an Inigo being on 70m odd on the books is a disgrace.

 

[jamrock]

Very good chance we win another league title in the next two seasons and the stadium will be done by then, if he runs in 2026, with 2 league titles and a new stadium he will win easily.

If no league title and the new stadium, he's still likely to win.

BOOKMARK this.

 

[ajnotkeith]

The fans who constantly complain about the squad building or the same ones who constantly complained that Xavi is a shit coach and under under utilizing our players, that we should be winning the league, that our teams isn't much worse than 15 times CL winner Real Madrid.

Over the two years since they been signed, Kounde has arguably been our best defender.

Raphinha our most impactful forward(not best)

Gundogan player of the season

Christensen excellent piece of business, probably our most consistently excellent player the year we won the league.

Their has been some failures & some on the brink of failing, Torres, Lewa, but also some successes, we don't win our first league title in 4 years without some of those signings.

So it that their is zero sporting direction that some have claimed, that the squad is super poor, then contradict themselves constantly,one only needs to look at the Xavi trend.

Or is it that he's done a solid job, a good job even understand the circumstances, speaking only sporting now, but their is still room for improvement, and what improvement for 90% is signing DM?.

Can their be an adult conversation or is their too much emotions involve.

economically is a solid B to B+, but that conversion most here don't have the capacity to fully understand, so I'll leave that alone.

We have a good squad but it's unbalanced in terms of profiles and positions. A lot of players who are similar to each other and some big holes whereas some positions are overfilled.


So the overall squad value if we were to sell all of them is probably pretty good, the main problem is it's unbalanced and not suitable to compete with in some aspects.

And with that said it certainly isn't too late to fix the problems, he hasn't made any catastrophic errors, but I think the resources can be spread out better in terms of profiles and positions.

Too many attackers who are similar to each other and no pace or 1v1 qualities is a big issue. Then we have so many center mids that lack physicality but no real defensive mid.

Certainly, the situation is not bad, but the squad needs to be structured more with tactics in mind.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

Very good chance we win another league title in the next two seasons and the stadium will be done by then, if he runs in 2026, with 2 league titles and a new stadium he will win easily.

If no league title and the new stadium, he's still likely to win.

BOOKMARK this.

Atletico and Real actually improved this off-season. Barca got older and Stegen lost rest of his abilities. Tough to see Barca win!

 

[JamDav1982]

The new stadium as if it is some huge Laporta achievement...

 

[JamDav1982]

Real would love him to win another term as it stands.

 

[jamrock]

We have a good squad but it's unbalanced in terms of profiles and positions. A lot of players who are similar to each other and some big holes whereas some positions are overfilled.


So the overall squad value if we were to sell all of them is probably pretty good, the main problem is it's unbalanced and not suitable to compete with in some aspects.

And with that said it certainly isn't too late to fix the problems, he hasn't made any catastrophic errors, but I think the resources can be spread out better in terms of profiles and positions.

Too many attackers who are similar to each other and no pace or 1v1 qualities is a big issue. Then we have so many center mids that lack physicality but no real defensive mid.

Certainly, the situation is not bad, but the squad needs to be structured more with tactics in mind.

Okay fair enough I can get these type of arguments.

The question is, who else could we have signed, for me the only big wasted money was Torres for 65m and potentially lewa, by the end of this season and will say if he's a total failure or a solid stop gap.

But as of now, we could definitely have used those 110m more efficiently, no arguments there, but context is needed when speaking of these transfers, especially the Torres one, where the club clearly wanted to give Xavi is man.

 

[jamrock]

Atletico and Real actually improved this off-season. Barca got older and Stegen lost rest of his abilities. Tough to see Barca win!

It's tough for sure, la Liga will be exciting again, but we only plays those teams 4 teams, the league is won outside of those 4 games, more often times than not.

 

[TheStig]

We can buy 10 players big money if we take enough loans, registration is the problem. We are 3 days away from our first match and many players are still not registered, amateurs.

 

[ajnotkeith]

Okay fair enough I can get these type of arguments.

The question is, who else could we have signed, for me the only big wasted money was Torres for 65m and potentially lewa, by the end of this season and will say if he's a total failure or a solid stop gap.

But as of now, we could definitely have used those 110m more efficiently, no arguments there, but context is needed when speaking of these transfers, especially the Torres one, where the club clearly wanted to give Xavi is man.

I think the main items on the agenda should have been signing a DM and an athletic forward who can get in behind. Especially when we're considering that Xavi's best football was played with both Dembele and Busquets (declined, but still an actual DM), then they both left and we had no forward capable of takeons and Romeu at DM, which is probably the reason we looked poor last season.

I wonder if Onana would have been a better signing rather than Olmo this window. Olmo is not a bad signing and probably adds some creativity we needed to our attack actually but maybe sorting out DM was more important.

Nico was their attempt at addressing the attacking problem but really anyone with a similar profile would do, even though at the moment top level wingers are hard to find. If Dembele wanted a higher wage I would have given it as long as it wasn't astronomical, but in terms of signings, there were some 1v1 wingers moving on the market like Doku or Barcola, or even someone like Diaby at this time (we could have signed him for the same amount we paid for Olmo). Zhegrova is another one I would keep an eye on.

Sterling also isn't a bad option in my eyes, even though he's on a career decline he has a fantastic goalscoring record, pace and movement and some dribbling ability, and I think would do very well here with his smart movement and speed. He also wasn't that expensive when Chelsea signed him (50m?) and they would likely accept less for him now as they want to get rid of him.

A lot of options but it is tougher when you have to do it rather than speak about it and we don't know the precise financial situation or when we were able to sign this summer.

 

[JamDav1982]

Torres has not been great but can guarantee if you offer the club to get rid of one of them off the books right now it would be Lewa.

His fee and salary is completely ridiculous and choking up the FFP when can least afford it.

This was all said years ago and the fact his age and salary means cant move him on and cant renew him or sell him to release FFP room.