Luis Enrique

[BBZ8800]

They already made their bets for the future squad wise and changes would be minor reshuffling here or there.That type of overhaul is exactly how you go into free fall when you have a huge anchor chained to your neck in form of a new stadium.I can understand having these thoughts if something similar to spring 2013 had happened but it hasn't and even if it did the first thing they would do is get a new manager.

Well, they made bets, yes.
Or how I like to call them: "attempts".

The fact that they made a bet or an attempt doesn't mean that we have to stick with those players for xx years.
Denis is young. If he fails, we can return the money easily, right?
Gomes, Real and Man utd wanted him. If he fails, we can easily return the money, right?
Digne, well, we won't return too much here.
Cillessen, we can always return money on him.
Umtiti, he is a keeper, it seems.
Paco, we will lose some money probably.

At least they bought younger players, so if they fail, we can return majority of money invested.

About your post, when you say that directors made their bets.
For example, just take a look at Paco.
Paco was their bet and their choice.

I mean, if he'll continue to play like he is playing currently, what, should we keep him for 5 years, just because he was our bet?

I agree with your post, but with an overhaul, a team would get a nice amount of money (for example: Neymar 150M, Mats 40-50 like the last summer from Man City, Gomes 40M, Arda some money, Raki 20+M surely, Paco 20-30M hopefully etc). I know that this is not a manager game, but even on these players, we could get 250-ish M.
That money shouldn't be used for Pogbas and similar, but for smart buys, like Gundogans, some new Rakitics and similar.

I mean, if you sell: Mathieu, Arda, Masch, Neymar, Mats, Gomes, Rakitic, Paco, you would lose only a starter Lw and a Gk.
We would still have Iniesta, Denis, Rafinha, Roberto (and Alena, let's hope) as midfielders.
So, you would need only a star signing Lw, but way cheaper guy than Neymar, a starter Gk (De Gea was what, like 50M not too long ago?), a starter Rb, and a few 20-25M smart signings like Gundogan and Umtiti, accompanied by Alena, and 2-3 cheap La Masia kids to bring some new blood (let's say a back up fullbacks, Munir as a backup striker for 0 Millions etc).

This isn't even a huge overhaul what I have described above.
Further, majority will jump and say: no, no, no, we will never sell Neymar!

Well, guys, if we'll have trophyless seasons, our club won't keep MSN for too long, both from sporting and economical reasons.

I doubt that a club will keep a 200M Messi, 150M Neymar and a 80M Suarez if we'll have 2-3 seasons in a row without winning La Liga and a CL.
And especially if we'll play like we are playing currently.

But ok, we'll see whether we'll need an overhaul in upcoming 2 summers.

 

[DonAK]

A lot of this team's problems are based on Benitez-esque tactics employed by Luis Enrique. This team is more than good enough to be consistently top 3 in the World with this squad.

 

[gasgas]

We need an overhauul
The last two summers we bought utter trash except Umtiti.

 

[God Serena]

BBZ is right, I think one of MSN not named Messi has got to go when/if we overhaul the team. Enough of having the best attack in the world, let's have the best team again.

 

[evilhita666]

His lack of trust in La Masia should be enough to get him sacked...

 

[hulinat]

if he stays and keeps ignoring la masia we'll be complitilty fucked in a few years when theres no iniesta, busi, or msn. so frustrating to see us breed and grow players for years and then just throw them away for nothing so lucho can sign some overpriced old fucks who dont even care for the club one bit.

 

[Raketa10]

Guys let's be realistic, this la masia generation is nowhere near xavi-iniesta generation, so we can't expext to have 7-8 players from la masia in starting 11. I am not saying I don't want that to happen but I honestly think it wont happen again so soon.

That beeing said I agree that we should start giving some young players like Alena playing time from next summer. Sending them to loans won't work. It's time to introduce 2-3 young players from La Masia into our first team and give them a propper chance. We should stop expecting from other teams to raise our youngsters.

 

[Devils]

His lack of trust in La Masia should be enough to get him sacked...

That's only half of it. Lucho's downfall is going to be lack of trust in La Masia and a horrible transfer policy.

These are our big money 30m+ signings over the past two years:

Arda- 34m
Gomes- 35m
Paco- 30m

100m in transfers and the only thing we have received for was ~2 months of an in-form Arda. Gomes shows some good here and there, but the bad significantly overshadows the good. Paco is basically Aleix Vidal's replacement for being the new Barca outcast. The guy doesn't even play ffs.

It's a joke.

I don't expect the kids to come into the first team and carry us to titles, Messi can do that, but it's not hard to believe they would do a better job than the expensive trio mentioned above.

I also feel like ripping my hair out with these Ivanovic rumors picking up as we head towards the January window. It would be such a awful, yet predictable move by the current day Barca.

 

[DonAK]

That's only half of it. Lucho's downfall is going to be lack of trust in La Masia and a horrible transfer policy.

These are our big money 30m+ signings over the past two years:

Arda- 34m
Gomes- 35m
Paco- 30m

100m in transfers and the only thing we have received for was ~2 months of an in-form Arda. Gomes shows some good here and there, but the bad significantly overshadows the good. Paco is basically Aleix Vidal's replacement for being the new Barca outcast. The guy doesn't even play ffs.

It's a joke.

I don't expect the kids to come into the first team and carry us to titles, Messi can do that, but it's not hard to believe they would do a better job than the expensive trio mentioned above.

I also feel like ripping my hair out with these Ivanovic rumors picking up as we head towards the January window. It would be such a awful, yet predictable move by the current day Barca.

That bad transfer policy is also Lucho's reponsibility. He and his team has made most of those transfers. Arda, Vidal, Gomes were 100% their call too. OTOH, so was Rakitic, Bravo too, so they did some great business as well.

I wouldn't call our current transfers, especially the midfielders, flops yet though. Lucho is channelling his inner Benitez this season so it's impossible to judge them for this. Even the likes of Modric looked bad last season when Benitez played without a midfield, when he and Kroos had no support whatsoever.

 

[Raketa10]

That's only half of it. Lucho's downfall is going to be lack of trust in La Masia and a horrible transfer policy.

These are our big money 30m+ signings over the past two years:

Arda- 34m
Gomes- 35m
Paco- 30m

100m in transfers and the only thing we have received for was ~2 months of an in-form Arda. Gomes shows some good here and there, but the bad significantly overshadows the good. Paco is basically Aleix Vidal's replacement for being the new Barca outcast. The guy doesn't even play ffs.

It's a joke.

I don't expect the kids to come into the first team and carry us to titles, Messi can do that, but it's not hard to believe they would do a better job than the expensive trio mentioned above.

I also feel like ripping my hair out with these Ivanovic rumors picking up as we head towards the January window. It would be such a awful, yet predictable move by the current day Barca.

Don't forget Vermaelen and Mathieu with their never-ending injury story!

But if we sign Ivanovic than we are officially biggest idiots ever! We should get FIFA IDIOT TROPHY for 2016 if we really sign him this winter.

 

[xXKonan]

Was it Lucho that wanted Vermaelen? I always thought it was Zubi that wanted him and even over ruled the Medical staff's warnings to sign him.

 

[Devils]

That bad transfer policy is also Lucho's reponsibility. He and his team has made most of those transfers. Arda, Vidal, Gomes were 100% their call too. OTOH, so was Rakitic, Bravo too, so they did some great business as well.

I wouldn't call our current transfers, especially the midfielders, flops yet though. Lucho is channelling his inner Benitez this season so it's impossible to judge them for this. Even the likes of Modric looked bad last season when Benitez played without a midfield, when he and Kroos had no support whatsoever.

Yeah I wouldn't call Gomes a failure, but I am skeptical of what I've seen from him so far for the money we spent and I do agree that tactics are the biggest issue facing the current team.

But I do think that it is worrying that after spending 150m+ over the past two years that our Gala XI from 2014/2015 is still hands down our best XI with only Umtiti arguably being the one who could debateably be in there.

Don't forget Vermaelen and Mathieu. If we sign Ivanovic than we are officially bigges idiots ever!

I was referring to 30m+ signings.

Mathieu wasn't a bad signing for me, he was exactly what we needed him to be when we signed him. A short term (2 years max) back-up CB. Short-term being the key word there, which leads to present days issues is now he is been kept longer than he should have and people are turning on him because he offers nothing now.

 

[Raketa10]

Mathieu wasn't a bad signing for me, he was exactly what we needed him to be when we signed him. A short term (2 years max) back-up CB. Short-term being the key word there, which leads to present days issues is now he is been kept longer than he should have and people are turning on him because he offers nothing now.

Yeah but we gave him a four year contract and he was 31 years old! Not to mention that Vermaelen got FIVE year contract!!!

Imagine if we sign a "short term" 33 years old RB solution this winter and give him a 2,5 year contract and what is worst of all THAT MIGHT HAPPEN!

 

[gasgas]

Yeah but we gave him a four year contract and he was 31 years old! Not to mention that Vermaelen got FIVE year contract!!!

Imagine if we sign a "short term" 33 years old RB solution this winter and give him a 2,5 year contract and what is worst of all THAT MIGHT HAPPEN!

This is true.
And I am actually

 

[BBZ8800]

That's only half of it. Lucho's downfall is going to be lack of trust in La Masia and a horrible transfer policy.

You are right about transfers.
We should add that also into our downfall (motivation, lack of La Masia gems, horrible transfers).

Imo, last 3 summers, under Lucho are almost as bad as our transfers from 99-03' under Gaspart.

Let's look how much we have spent:
-- bad:
1. Mathieu 20M (ok, he was a good squad player, but)
2. Vermaelen 19M (according to transfermarkt)
3. Douglas 4M
4. Arda 34M
5. Vidal 17M
6. Paco 30M
7. Digne 17M
8. Cillessen 13M
= 154M

-- hard to tell:
1. Mats 12M
2. Gomes 35M
3. Denis 10-ish wiith all clauses
= 57M

-- good:
1. Luis Suarez 81M
2. Rakitic 18M
3. Bravo 12M
4. Umtiti 25M
= 136M

Total invested in 3 summers: 347M

I mean, we are often laughing at "big spenders" Man Utd, City, Real and similar.
And then, our directors and scouts managed to buy 15 players in the last 3 summers, producing 2+1 starters (Luis Suarez, Rakitic and a GK) and producing 0-1-2 playable La Masia players.

Some people say that we don't have money, or that we won't have money.
Well, there were quite a few players like Gundogan, Rakitic and Kroos in these summers for 20-30M each.

But yes, there are lots of factors for our downfall:
1. low motivation (players won too many titles)
2. poor transfers, 350M spent
3. La Masia with a poor spell