Willian

[Jombi]

You said last year that Thomas Lemar was the successor to Iniesta. Barcelona signed a far superior player to Lemar. And you were going on about how Aouar is the next big midfield talent.

I'm curious how your narrative would be about our declining midfield players if we signed the likes of Lemar and Aouar instead of Coutinho/Arthur/Rabiot.

I never said Lemar was the successor to Iniesta. I wanted us to sign Lemar 2 years ago for around 20-25m euros. A low risk/high reward transfer. Not at all comparable to a superstar signing. No way should we have signed Lemar last summer with the crazy valuation of him by Monaco. In the end Atletico bought him for 65m which is still excessive.

I still believe Aouar is one of the absolute best midfield talents and one of the best opportunities in the market. We obviously dont have 200m to splash on some superstar from Man City or Man U, so what to do? Aouar was named in the team of the season in Ligue 1 by L'Equipe in his first season for Lyon (Rabiot was not). Clearly a player to keep a close eye on.

 

[Andrew M]

Ditch Willian and instead go for Callum Hudson-Odoi.

I hope you're joking

 

[JamDav1982]

I never said Lemar was the successor to Iniesta. I wanted us to sign Lemar 2 years ago for around 20-25m euros. A low risk/high reward transfer. Not at all comparable to a superstar signing. No way should we have signed Lemar last summer with the crazy valuation of him by Monaco. In the end Atletico bought him for 65m which is still excessive.

I still believe Aouar is one of the absolute best midfield talents and one of the best opportunities in the market. We obviously dont have 200m to splash on some superstar from Man City or Man U, so what to do?

You did want Lemar last summer and there have been plenty awful names mentioned as the next big thing that Barca should sign that have turned out to be nowhere near good enough.

 

[Devils]

I never said Lemar was the successor to Iniesta. I wanted us to sign Lemar 2 years ago for around 20-25m euros. A low risk/high reward transfer. Not at all comparable to a superstar signing. No way should we have signed Lemar last summer with the crazy valuation of him by Monaco. In the end Atletico bought him for 65m which is still excessive.

I still believe Aouar is one of the absolute best midfield talents and one of the best opportunities in the market. We obviously dont have 200m to splash on some superstar from Man City or Man U, so what to do?

http://www.barcaforum.com/showthread.php/13639-11-Ousmane-Dembélé/page38

You said right here that Lemar was the perfect replacement for Iniesta last summer.

I'm just having a difficult time understanding how with Coutinho, Arthur and possibly Rabiot we are still in a very questionable scenario toward the objective of replacing Iniesta and addressing Busi and Raki entering their thirties, while with Lemar and Aouar we would be in setting ourselves in the right direction.

 

[DonAK]

Lemar, Aouar, Rabiot.

None of them are the solution. We need an established midfield player. Rabiot is not an outstanding talent we should fight PSG till death for. We already have Arthur, Alena and possibly even De Jong next season as our talents. We need an established MF player. We have Coutinho and then Rakitic who's played a shitload of games. We need someone who can challenge Rakitic and even displace him in a 4-3-3 with our talents getting minutes spread.

If we want to win the CL now then we need someone better. It's plain and simple. No one here cared about Rabiot until MD started linking him with us and people realized his contract runs out next year.

I'd rather sign someone like Pjanic, Thiago despite his injuries and other players. Players that might not be World Class, but are very good and could challenge Rakitic big time for a starting spot strengthening our team and not standing in the way for our other talented players.

The last outstanding MF talent in that age bracket that I would have signed was Isco years ago. Rabiot is far away from being in the same class.

 

[messi2140]

Did we learn nothing from previous seasons? Roberto is not a RB, and the pace in that midfield screams of another early elimination in the CL. That’s without even mentioning Suarez, who is going to start no matter what so I won’t bother.

Amen dude. Seems when the summer transer window starts most people's memory capacities turn into goldfishes. Suddenly the last 4 embarrasing QF exits are forgotten and Barcelona have a fucking great team. Just pathetic.

 

[Devils]

Lemar, Aouar, Rabiot.

None of them are the solution. We need an established midfield player. Rabiot is not an outstanding talent we should fight PSG till death for. We already have Arthur, Alena and possibly even De Jong next season as our talents. We need an established MF player. We have Coutinho and then Rakitic who's played a shitload of games. We need someone who can challenge Rakitic and even displace him in a 4-3-3 with our talents getting minutes spread.

Well that's the problem, you bring in the likes of Thiago, Pjanic, Eriksen...whoever (80m+ player) in a 4-3-3 formation those players would probably even bench Rakitic and push the youth talents even further down the pipeline.

The way I see it, you'd either have to sell Rakitic and give opportunities to the younger players or loan some of the younger guys and use Rakitic off the bench.

 

[JamDav1982]

If Barca have Arthur, Rabiot, Alena and Coutinho as choice of midfielders that is big jump up from what has been in past and should mean not reliant on Raki.

Would still offer Raki for Thiago and see if Bayern fancy it though.

Arthur is unknown clearly but what quite like from his videos is that he looks like a little terrier who is quick to read game defensively and get stuck in.

Might be that is what is brings as much as being 'next Xavi'.

 

[Jombi]

http://www.barcaforum.com/showthread.php/13639-11-Ousmane-Dembélé/page38

You said right here that Lemar was the perfect replacement for Iniesta last summer.

I'm just having a difficult time understanding how with Coutinho, Arthur and possibly Rabiot we are still in a very questionable scenario toward the objective of replacing Iniesta and addressing Busi and Raki entering their thirties, while with Lemar and Aouar we would be in setting ourselves in the right direction.

For 20-30m euros, obviously. Its was a no brainer to go for Lemar. A low-risk/high reward transfer. But when Monaco jacked up the price to 100m euros, its madness and you wont find any quote from me defending signing him for that price.

Last summer I wanted us to sign Fabinho and Naby Keita as our prime targets for midfield, and you'll find plenty of quotes about that. Instead we bought Paulinho. Now both Fabinho and Keita have signed for Liverpool. I think we would have been better off with Fabinho and Keita today in our midfield.

I consider Coutinho a Neymar replacement, he's best there, so I dont why you even bring him up. I support the signing of Arthur, so I dont know why you bring it up either.

 

[DonAK]

Well that's the problem, you bring in the likes of Thiago, Pjanic, Eriksen...whoever (80m+ player) in a 4-3-3 formation those players would probably even bench Rakitic and push the youth talents even further down the pipeline.

The way I see it, you'd either have to sell Rakitic and give opportunities to the younger players or loan some of the younger guys and use Rakitic off the bench.

It's the same with Rabiot. He want to have guaranteed a starting spot at PSG, he has attitude problems over not being picked as shown with France.

Why are you willing to take the same risk with Rabiot and not Pjanic or Thiago who are a lot better players?

If Barca have Arthur, Rabiot, Alena and Coutinho as choice of midfielders that is big jump up from what has been in past and should mean not reliant on Raki.

Would still offer Raki for Thiago and see if Bayern fancy it though.

Arthur is unknown clearly but what quite like from his videos is that he looks like a little terrier who is quick to read game defensively and get stuck in.

Might be that is what is brings as much as being 'next Xavi'.

I would sign Pjanic or Thiago and keep Rakitic for at least another season. I would have Rakitic/Thiago/Pjanic depending on who starts for depth instead of Rabiot. That way you have someone who can step in, in case of an injury when it comes to the CL.

 

[JamDav1982]

For 20-30m euros, obviously. Its was a no brainer to go for Lemar. A low-risk/high reward transfer. But when Monaco jacked up the price to 100m euros, its madness and you wont find any quote from me defending signing him for that price.

Last summer I wanted us to sign Fabinho and Naby Keita as our prime targets for midfield, and you'll find plenty of quotes about that. Instead we bought Paulinho. Now both Fabinho and Keita have signed for Liverpool. I think we would have been better off with Fabinho and Keita today in our midfield.

I consider Coutinho a Neymar replacement, he's best there, so I dont why you even bring him up. I support the signing of Arthur, so I dont know why you bring it up either.

You were still pushing for him when Arsenal were said to be getting 80m bids turned down though.

 

[JamDav1982]

It's the same with Rabiot. He want to be guaranteed a starting spot at PSG, he has attitude problems over not being picked as shown with France.

Why are you willing to take the same risk with Rabiot and not Pjanic or Thiago who are a lot better players?



I would sign Pjanic or Thiago and keep Rakitic for at least another season.

Last chance to get some decent value for Raki might be this summer. He had a good season but if looking to future would let him go for likes of Thiago and still take in Rabiot etc who I think would be a very good signing... but will stay at PSG anyway would think.

 

[DonAK]

Last chance to get some decent value for Raki might be this summer. He had a good season but if looking to future would let him go for likes of Thiago and still take in Rabiot etc who I think would be a very good signing... but will stay at PSG anyway would think.

We might get some value for him next year, but I agree this summer is the best time to sell, but they will never let him go anyway so I'm not even considering that tbh.

I honestly don't value Rabiot that much unless we're willing to commit to him as a starter or be prepared for the headache he might become with his representative.

 

[hamoon32]

[MENTION=16942]BBZ8800[/MENTION] what you say about coaches not trusting Dembele is not accurate.

Most of Dortmund fans believe he was their second best player throughout 2016-17 season. Some even say he was more important than Aubameyang. Tuchel was and admirer of Dembele and had a high opinion on him in his interviews.

In national team, at first Deschamps plan was to play without a no 9 and Dembele was up there with Mbappe and Griezmann. It didn't workout so one of those 3 must've been dropped and it's clear that Dembele is not a better player than Griezmann or Mbappe. It's not a matter of trust, it's just that they are both among the best and clearly better than current Dembele at. If Deschamps favored Thauvin over him then i would agree that he doesn't rate Dembele that high but you can't really conclude anything in this case. Do you think Willian would start over them? The only thing you can say is Dembele and Fekir are next behind Griezmann and Mbappe.

And also keep in mind Dembele was called up over other decent players like Martial or Coman. The French squad is stacked with quality players.

The only manager who clearly doesn't seem to rate Dembele is EV. I don't believe EV is an idiot, as i don't believe Mourinho is idiot even though he made mistake on KDB, Salah, Lukaku and possibly Martial. But he's making a mistake by being too coward and short-sighted.

 

[Devils]

It's the same with Rabiot. He want to be guaranteed a starting spot at PSG, he has attitude problems over not being picked as shown with France.

Why are you willing to take the same risk with Rabiot and not Pjanic or Thiago who are a lot better players?



I would sign Pjanic or Thiago and keep Rakitic for at least another season.

Because we also need another attacking player?

If we sign Thiago or Pjanic for 80m+, chances are we aren't going to have the funds for an forward player. I'm sure if we had the funds, we would be after those two other than Rabiot.

If we can sign Rabiot for a discounted amount as he is on the final year of his contract, then I don't see the harm in signing him. At worst he's going to be a massive upgrade over the likes of Denis and Gomes, which again is a positive for me.