First of all, like barcelonista said, this has been going for more than a year(just like in Pedro's case)..the CL final has been an exception.
And second, where did you see me write that we should sell Pique? I merely stated the current and future state of our defense..we need to buy at least a CB or a LB(if we decide to use Abidal as a CB more). And we need someone who is good in the air because we need to replace Puyol and Abidal and it doesn't seem fine to me to expect until these 2 are finished and then make a buy.
Pep is using Thiago and Cesc to ease the transition from a Barca with Xavi as a central piece to one where the catalan will be a secondary one. My opinion is that the same should be done for the defence.
Umm, it actually began towards the end of last season, so given this season is still ongoing it's practically not reached the point of being over a year. Semantics, semantics.
Where did you see me indicate that I actually accused you expressly of saying that? That was more of a general comment to those who have been arguing for his departure due to his current form. If that created confusion, I sincerely apologize for that. However, I am still somewhere in between whether we should buy a new CB or an LB or not. Mascherano has proved himself more than capable of playing in that position and mostly making it his own. His style of play is quite similar to that of Puyol's and he has that sense of leadership surrounding him as well. Then we also have the two curious cases of Bartrà, Muniesa and Botía.
The bottom line is, I wouldn't write Pique off just yet. Him and Mascherano are more than suitable pairing in the middle of defense with a few adequate youngsters as back-ups for the defense. However, if Pique won't sort himself out within the following 4-5 months, we can arguably say that buying a quality CB or an LB wouldn't be such a bad idea, depending also of how those youngsters adapt IF they will receive the necessary playing time in some of the games we have left.
Yes, I do know that there are heaps of various contingencies involved, but you cannot simply brush them aside. They still should be taken into account. And only given the result will be less than an admirable, we should get either Alba, Sakho, Kompany or Silva (just to name a few viable options).
I agree that the transition should be eased up, but only if it is absolutely necessary.
@barcelonista:
Great way of using quotes from around the times Pique has actually played bad. Quite a clever approach there. I suppose I'd be able to find quotes on some of the other first team players that have had bad game and arrange them in a suitable timeline to support my argument to make it look more convincing.
