Willian

[MTL_Barca]

Who are that 30 year old players that we signed? I can tell one.

Paulinho, Mathieu and we tried to sign Di Maria just last summer. Arda was also almost 29 when we got him, imo thats just too old to give out huge contracts and pay a big fee.

Its not that i would only sign 15 year olds like BBZ always suggests when people bring up age but its not a coincidence our wage bill is so high and we constantly have to replace players and struggle to get rid of them. A 32yo will almost never find a club that pays his sky high barca salary but is often enough already declining so you have to think about a replacement. The problem with Gomes or Paco wasn't/isn't experience its just a matter of quality, but imagine we bought them when they were 29-30, getting a transfer fee wouldn't even be an option now just like we are happy to loan out Arda until his contract runs out.

Someone like Mathieu only costed us 20M at least, Willian would probably cost us 60+, i would never ever pay that much for a 30yo player unless its like a world class starter. But for a SUB? Ridiculous.

Its also not like we have a super young squad that could use some experienced players, we already have one of the oldest starting lineups of the top clubs. Suarez, Messi, Rakitic, Busquets, Alba, Pique all around or older than 30 already. We shouldn't add more to that if we don't have to.

Nobody can tell me there isn't another attacker on this planet that could be signed for 70-100 (we could easily pay more as it evens out over the length of the contract) that would help us while not being 30 and occupying an non-EU spot.

I don't have something against Willian, but that whole transfer wouldn't make sense to me and i just can't watch us burn more money. This would be Di Maria 2.0 for me and i hope Chelsea saves us with too high demands just like PSG did last August.

The only good thing i see is that we would need to sell Paulinho because of the non-EU spot? So if the rumors of that 50M offer are true and we take it to bring in Willian we would at least just replace one old player with another.

 

[henias]

Willian is a fantastic signing for us!
People should really quit the logic 'where Dembele is going to play' and 'we are killing Dembele's development'. How can you be seriously arguing this after recent RM's success based on an excessively huge squad in terms of both quality and quantity??
You think that RM can win CL by bringing Bale from the bench, can win double by having Morata an James as LaLiga rotation in 16/17, but No, Barca should always play with a good starting XI and nothing else to support it??
You must have seen how bad our current squad is. You must have seen also the alarming state Suarez was at the beggining of last season
We need solutions, and good ones. We need not only Willian, but another attacker as well.
We don't also need clear and distinct differentiation between 'starters' and 'reserves', because it creates laziness and lack of competition, impacting both starters and reserves.
We need to get out of the shitty situation we are in in terms of squad quality

Dembele will only develop if he has healthy competition. EV was trusting more Vidal, Gomes or even Sergi Roberto at RW -solutions which are clearly non-Barca quality- because they were doing simple things he wanted that the young and tactically immature Dembele could not do. How is it bad to have another quality player to play when Dembele cannot cope with what EV wants??

Besides, this has nothing to do with formation. Either 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1, there are 4 forward players: two on the wings and two attackers or one '10' and one attacker. the RM or RW is cut for Willian, especially in games where EV would want the team to start pressuring close to the half way line and then break fast.

PS: Of course his price is not 80m. Something in the range of 40-50m is fair. I hope all of the deadweight we carry in our squad can be included to make the deal happen..

It sounds nice and all, but you act as if EV would proactively bring on a sub early at 0-0 or 1-1 to make a change in game. He didnt even move a muscle while he was 2-0 down. I definitely have no problem having a huge squad, the problem now EV hates the idea of having a huge squad and dont have a very strong policy of rotations.

Doesnt matter if Dembele is tactically inept as u would claim, but he is under EV and how EV wants to develop him and the instructions he given him depends on the coach. EV prefers Gomes because they are more "physically defensive" players but apparently that doesnt translate well on the pitch. In any case, his obssession with Gomes is a whole different story.

Even if Barcelona next season plays a more attacking mentality, the outcome of it will still be down to EV's instruction and style of play. Be it 442 or 433.

"would want the team to start pressuring close to half way line and break fast?" Sorry, last season our football ain't nothing like that and it's isnt Ev's style of play at all. Abit ironic because if breaking fast is his style at all, he would have used Dembele.

 

[Messi983]

Who are that 30 year old players that we signed? I can tell one.

Yeah, and he has proven most of his doubters wrong. People are still complaining about our signings from 3 or 5 years ago but since 2016 we've bought 12 players. 9 of them were 23 or younger. Coutinho was 26 and I don't see any complaints about his age, Cillessen 27 (age is not really important for backup GK and quality wise he has also surprised most of us) and Paulinho 29. We can complain about the quality of some of the players we've signed but we can't say anymore we're only buying old players like we did in 2014 and 2015. But even then we got MATS and "older" players like Bravo, Suarez, Raki and even Mathieu have also proven their quality over the years though people will probably disagree about some of them.

Our next two signings will be Arthur and Lenglet who are also U23 players and we are/were linked to many other youngsters. So considering all those younger players I don't think buying an older player occasionally is problematic as long as he'd bring what's expected from him and younger players will develop and perform good as well. That said, I'm still not a fan of paying 70M+ for Willian because I don't think he would really bring us anything special but if we could get him for around 40-50M I'd maybe reconsider. Otherwise I'd prefer to bring back Pedro if we're looking for experienced versatile workhorse forward.

 

[Ghostmaster]

Willian is a fantastic signing for us!
People should really quit the logic 'where Dembele is going to play' and 'we are killing Dembele's development'. How can you be seriously arguing this after recent RM's success based on an excessively huge squad in terms of both quality and quantity??
You think that RM can win CL by bringing Bale from the bench, can win double by having Morata an James as LaLiga rotation in 16/17, but No, Barca should always play with a good starting XI and nothing else to support it??
You must have seen how bad our current squad is. You must have seen also the alarming state Suarez was at the beggining of last season
We need solutions, and good ones. We need not only Willian, but another attacker as well.
We don't also need clear and distinct differentiation between 'starters' and 'reserves', because it creates laziness and lack of competition, impacting both starters and reserves.
We need to get out of the shitty situation we are in in terms of squad quality

Dembele will only develop if he has healthy competition. EV was trusting more Vidal, Gomes or even Sergi Roberto at RW -solutions which are clearly non-Barca quality- because they were doing simple things he wanted that the young and tactically immature Dembele could not do. How is it bad to have another quality player to play when Dembele cannot cope with what EV wants??

Besides, this has nothing to do with formation. Either 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1, there are 4 forward players: two on the wings and two attackers or one '10' and one attacker. the RM or RW is cut for Willian, especially in games where EV would want the team to start pressuring close to the half way line and then break fast.

PS: Of course his price is not 80m. Something in the range of 40-50m is fair. I hope all of the deadweight we carry in our squad can be included to make the deal happen..

Well said, RM had Bale, Asensio, Vasquez on the bench in CL final and we afraid to add one quality player because Dembele won't be able to start in 60 games next season...

 

[BADGERBHOY]

Again, because Willian is a way better player right now.

Maybe the board is also tired of buying "what if" players, who aren't offering too much right now.

We don't need to sign almost 30 year olds though to get the final product

 

[Catta]

The only problem is his price. If it was 40 mil, it would be a no-brainer.

 

[MTL_Barca]

Yeah, and he has proven most of his doubters wrong. People are still complaining about our signings from 3 or 5 years ago but since 2016 we've bought 12 players. 9 of them were 23 or younger. Coutinho was 26 and I don't see any complaints about his age, Cillessen 27 (age is not really important for backup GK and quality wise he has also surprised most of us) and Paulinho 29. We can complain about the quality of some of the players we've signed but we can't say anymore we're only buying old players like we did in 2014 and 2015. But even then we got MATS and "older" players like Bravo, Suarez, Raki and even Mathieu have also proven their quality over the years though people will probably disagree about some of them.

Our next two signings will be Arthur and Lenglet who are also U23 players and we are/were linked to many other youngsters. So considering all those younger players I don't think buying an older player occasionally is problematic as long as he'd bring what's expected from him and younger players will develop and perform good as well. That said, I'm still not a fan of paying 70M+ for Willian because I don't think he would really bring us anything special but if we could get him for around 40-50M I'd maybe reconsider. Otherwise I'd prefer to bring back Pedro if we're looking for experienced versatile workhorse forward.

Was mostly talking about our board desperately going after Di Maria last summer. Or Arda wo was already rather old too. And Paulinho who is still a waste of money imo unless we sell him now.

I get it with starters or cheap subs, but Willian would probably end up as our 4th most expensive signing ever as a 30yo sub. That can end up as Arda levels of burning money unless we're lucky and some dumb Chinese club comes to the rescue 2 years from now.

 

[Sorin]

The only problem is his price. If it was 40 mil, it would be a no-brainer.

This. 40 million with maybe 10 million more in performance and apps bonuses would be ok. Anything above that and it's an overpay really.

 

[henias]

Well said, RM had Bale, Asensio, Vasquez on the bench in CL final and we afraid to add one quality player because Dembele won't be able to start in 60 games next season...

That isnt the issue. I dont know why's everyone acting like people are only caring about Dembele. Problem is with EV. I'm pretty sure no one's complaining about having a huge squad depth but when u have EV that's a whole different story. Which is why most are afraid that Griezmann comes to Barca, even though he's supposedly a replacement for Suarez but EV would never bench Suarez.

 

[Joan]

Paulinho, Mathieu and we tried to sign Di Maria just last summer. Arda was also almost 29 when we got him, imo thats just too old to give out huge contracts and pay a big fee.

Its not that i would only sign 15 year olds like BBZ always suggests when people bring up age but its not a coincidence our wage bill is so high and we constantly have to replace players and struggle to get rid of them. A 32yo will almost never find a club that pays his sky high barca salary but is often enough already declining so you have to think about a replacement. The problem with Gomes or Paco wasn't/isn't experience its just a matter of quality, but imagine we bought them when they were 29-30, getting a transfer fee wouldn't even be an option now just like we are happy to loan out Arda until his contract runs out.

Someone like Mathieu only costed us 20M at least, Willian would probably cost us 60+, i would never ever pay that much for a 30yo player unless its like a world class starter. But for a SUB? Ridiculous.

Its also not like we have a super young squad that could use some experienced players, we already have one of the oldest starting lineups of the top clubs. Suarez, Messi, Rakitic, Busquets, Alba, Pique all around or older than 30 already. We shouldn't add more to that if we don't have to.

Nobody can tell me there isn't another attacker on this planet that could be signed for 70-100 (we could easily pay more as it evens out over the length of the contract) that would help us while not being 30 and occupying an non-EU spot.

I don't have something against Willian, but that whole transfer wouldn't make sense to me and i just can't watch us burn more money. This would be Di Maria 2.0 for me and i hope Chelsea saves us with too high demands just like PSG did last August.

The only good thing i see is that we would need to sell Paulinho because of the non-EU spot? So if the rumors of that 50M offer are true and we take it to bring in Willian we would at least just replace one old player with another.

Ok. Get it. Won't write you a long response although I intended to. Messi983 put it well.

I wouldn't buy Willian myself for such price, but I believe that sometimes we need impact right now. Quality even if older.
Giving such players 5+ years contracts is something I'm never gonna understand.

 

[Trickykid]

Did we ever establish if there was any substance to this rumor, or if it was just one "source" that was regurgitated through various outlets?

Anyhow, I hope there's no truth to it - and doubt it as well. Pretty good player that would strenghten the squad, but he would obviously be much too expensive.

 

[defyqa]

EV would never bench Suarez.

Messi would never bench Suarez. Hell, even Suarez would never bench Suarez. EV is just a puppet.

 

[Ghostmaster]

Did we ever establish if there was any substance to this rumor, or if it was just one "source" that was regurgitated through various outlets?

Anyhow, I hope there's no truth to it - and doubt it as well. Pretty good player that would strenghten the squad, but he would obviously be much too expensive.

Yes, MD, DailyMail and skysports all reported it separately and Willian himself didn't deny it.

 

[Tekkers]

why don't real make these kind of signings? 70 m on mangala, 80 m on biglia. wtf is wrong with this board man

 

[Trickykid]

Yes, MD, DailyMail and skysports all reported it separately and Willian himself didn't deny it.

Not exactly the most trustworthy sources to say the least, but if they really reported it independently, there's probably some interest. Hopefully the price will throw us off then.