Matthijs de Ligt

[Raketa10]

It's not the same as with Arthur. When we signed Arthur, he was supposed to be a first sub-option (alongside Vidal) while our midfield trio was thought to be Coutinho Busquets Rakitić, as at the beginning of the season. Didn't work out well (due to various factors, Dembele not giving what the team needed as a LW, Couts not being comfortable with his role and Arthur performing, mostly). If you sell Rakitic and bring De Jong to replace him, that's an enormous gamble. Might work out for us (as it seems it's going to be the case with Arthur) or fail. And then we wouldn't have a reliable midfielder. Not to say that trio would severely lack experience. I can see us take another path: buy both De Jong/someone else and Rabiot. More chances that one of them will be good enough. I'd rather keep Ivan.

Well I suppose all of us would rather keep Ivan and sign De Jong than sell Ivan and sign Rabiot + De Jong. To be fair I would rather sell Vidal to China next summer since I doubt he can bring anything new to this team. Having a midfield consisting of Busi, Raki, Arthur, De Jong, Alena + Coutinho (if needed in midfield) is more than OK IMHO. In that way one of Puig and Oriol would also get some minutes, not to mention we should get rid of dead-weight like Denis or Rafinha.

In that way we would have 2 very experienced and 3 greatly talented midfielders and all of them would get their chance. IMHO that's the right way to go, and I see no much risk in that.

 

[Joan]

Well I suppose all of us would rather keep Ivan and sign De Jong than sell Ivan and sign Rabiot + De Jong. To be fair I would rather sell Vidal to China next summer since I doubt he can bring anything new to this team. Having a midfield Busi, Raki, Arthur, De Jong, Alena + Coutinho (if needed in midfield) is more than OK IMHO. In that way one of Puig and Oriol would also get some minutes, not to mention we should get rid of dead-weight like Denis or Rafinha.

And you see, take Ivan out of the equation, + one of Arthur/De Jong fails - we're left with no solid midfield trio. Coutinho doesn't seem to enjoy his role there with Barca, Alenya will struggle as there's no natural position for him in our midfield etc. I don't trust a CM Roberto. Imo, chances of us selling Ivan are low, but if there any, they depend on Vidal/Rabiot signing. I agree that it looks solid. I wouldn't complain much. Not that I'm high on Pogba or something. Right mix (or close to it).

 

[Raketa10]

And you see, take Ivan out of the equation, + one of Arthur/De Jong fails - we're left with no solid midfield trio. Coutinho doesn't seem to enjoy his role there with Barca, Alenya will struggle as there's no natural position for him in our midfield etc. I don't trust a CM Roberto. Imo, chances of us selling Ivan are low, but if there any, they depend on Vidal/Rabiot signing. I agree that it looks solid. I wouldn't complain much. Not that I'm high on Pogba or something. Right mix (or close to it).

To be fair it would be perfect if we keep Ivan and sign De Jong. The problem is if we try to sign Rabiot than De Jong won't come unless we sell Ivan. I don't even see what would Rabiot bring apart from his diva attitude?! Regardless of that we should try to sell Rafinha and Denis this winter.

 

[Joan]

I don't even see what would Rabiot bring apart from his diva attitude?!

Go read some of BBZ's posts in Rabiot's thread. He argued it. In depth.

 

[mia7007]

Get De Jong and Rabiot (if for free), and sell Vidal to China or USA or back to Juve if rumours are ok
Sell Samper as well as he has no place in barca
Midfield to be Busi, Raki, Arthur, De Jong and Rabiot with Alena to be given some time

 

[BBZ8800]

I don't even see what would Rabiot bring apart from his diva attitude?!

In shortest, Barca needs different types of midfielders.
When you remove Rakitic and Vidal who won't be here for too long, from younger players you have:
De Jong, Arthur=play a similar role, some sort of Busi-Xavi mixture
Alena=light attacking midfielder who doesn't even have a position in our 433
Puig=light midfielder
Oriol=another Busi

So, we don't have any midfielder close to a style of Rakitic and Vidal, let's say.
Plus, in terms of physique, we don't have a single player who can actually win an arial duel, a cross, or to bully someone a little.
That doesn't mean that Rabiot is a bully, but he is closer to a bully than De Jong, Samper, Alena.

Anyway, once when we'll see Rakitic/Vidal, the board will buy 1-2 or players of that profile in the future.
They will cost 40-80M each.
In that sense, Rabiot is a type of a profile which we will look for in the future.
And instead of buying random players for 50M, why not get this guy for free?

Also, if he fails, we can resell him in a season for 30-60M to Liverpool, Juventus and similar.
From a financial point of view, his free transfer is a win-win.
From a tactical point of view, he is a decent choice.

 

[George_Costanza]

In shortest, Barca needs different types of midfielders.
When you remove Rakitic and Vidal who won't be here for too long, from younger players you have:
De Jong, Arthur=play a similar role, some sort of Busi-Xavi mixture
Alena=light attacking midfielder who doesn't even have a position in our 433
Puig=light midfielder
Oriol=another Busi

So, we don't have any midfielder close to a style of Rakitic and Vidal, let's say.
Plus, in terms of physique, we don't have a single player who can actually win an arial duel, a cross, or to bully someone a little.
That doesn't mean that Rabiot is a bully, but he is closer to a bully than De Jong, Samper, Alena.

Anyway, once when we'll see Rakitic/Vidal, the board will buy 1-2 or players of that profile in the future.
They will cost 40-80M each.
In that sense, Rabiot is a type of a profile which we will look for in the future.
And instead of buying random players for 50M, why not get this guy for free?

Also, if he fails, we can resell him in a season for 30-60M to Liverpool, Juventus and similar.
From a financial point of view, his free transfer is a win-win.
From a tactical point of view, he is a decent choice.

Barca should pass Rabiot simply because we already have similar players in Raki and Vidal. You can't think of long-term with a player like Rabiot. He will cause so much dressing room problems if he isn't a starter. So your long-term replacement of our workhorses/muscleheads should be after 2020 not now unless the player will be ok playing second fiddle which Rabiot won't.

 

[xXKonan]

[tw]1067197391516913665[/tw]

Says Abidal had Dinner with De Ligt, last week in Amsterdam to try and convince him to join us.

Also says Abidal talked with De Jong on the phone as well.

 

[Aryagorn]

It would be so beautiful if Gomes' and Paco's transfer money funds both these buys - But, who am I kidding

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

It would be so beautiful if Gomes' and Paco's transfer money funds both these buys - But, who am I kidding

One If we get good price for Gomes. These guys will cost combined of 150 million €. Paco and Gomes will net us, 60-70 mil.

 

[George_Costanza]

One If we get good price for Gomes. These guys will cost combined of 150 million €. Paco and Gomes will net us, 60-70 mil.

so if Gomes and Paco will net us 60m, we will receive also money for Paulinho 50m, sell Rafinha 25m, Denis 15m, maybe Munir 20m, plus 60m summer transfer budget. We will have around 230m transfer budget next summer.

FDJ+ De Ligt will cost us maybe around 140m

 

[khaled_a_d]

so if Gomes and Paco will net us 60m, we will receive also money for Paulinho 50m, sell Rafinha 25m, Denis 15m, maybe Munir 20m, plus 60m summer transfer budget. We will have around 230m transfer budget next summer.

FDJ+ De Ligt will cost us maybe around 140m

Rafinha won't get us anything with ACL injury, I thought he could bring us something before injury but right now best we can hope is that he saves us his salary and leave somewhere after season.
Munir can sign for any other club in 35 days as he is FA in 2019, Denis should bring us something
But at the end I think it will depend on how much the board want to spend, they have exceeded their 60M limit before and almost paid nothing last summer if you count Paulinho money.

 

[George_Costanza]

Rafinha won't get us anything with ACL injury, I thought he could bring us something before injury but right now best we can hope is that he saves us his salary and leave somewhere after season.
Munir can sign for any other club in 35 days as he is FA in 2019, Denis should bring us something
But at the end I think it will depend on how much the board want to spend, they have exceeded their 60M limit before and almost paid nothing last summer if you count Paulinho money.

I agree with you on Rafinha but I hope he will recover by April or early May and play some games.

Last summer Barca spent 125m on transfers and we got 82m (according to transfermarkt site) Mina, Digne, Deulofeu, Marlon, Vidal, plus loan fees for Gomes and Paco, not counting for Paulinho 50m, so net spending was 43m. That's 17m less than the summer budget of 60m.

 

[BBZ8800]

so if Gomes and Paco will net us 60m, we will receive also money for Paulinho 50m, sell Rafinha 25m, Denis 15m, maybe Munir 20m, plus 60m summer transfer budget. We will have around 230m transfer budget next summer.

FDJ+ De Ligt will cost us maybe around 140m

Rafinha 0
Munir 0
Gomes, I won't believe it until we get some money.
Denis not more than 8-10m.

He was a benchwarmer for 2 years, and this season he is only testing new haircuts and new skin losions.

That is 3 years without serious football.
I am highly sceptical that someone will pay a serious money for Denis in this state.

 

[Raketa10]

so if Gomes and Paco will net us 60m, we will receive also money for Paulinho 50m, sell Rafinha 25m, Denis 15m, maybe Munir 20m, plus 60m summer transfer budget. We will have around 230m transfer budget next summer.

FDJ+ De Ligt will cost us maybe around 140m

We wont get anything for Rafinha after this injury. Munir's contract is running out in 6 months so he will go for free. For Denis we might get max 10 mil if we re lucky so there is only Gomes left to bring something significant. If we get total of 70 mil for Paco+Gomes+Denis that would be more than great but for that Gomes needs to be sold for over 35 mil and I find hard to believe that right now.