SirBalon

Ludovit is a very good player but he's only 18 and should've stayed at Groningen where he apparently played 29 games for them this season and he currently plays for the U-19s with the Netherlands. Now here's the problem that FIFA have caused with their strict rule on signing young players (the rule Barcelona were punished for some years back for breaking and suspended from transfer windows)... Instead of bringing these kids in when they're young, tutoring them and bringing them up with a home football ethos which then applies itself within the home ranks, what they've done is that clubs like Barcelona (there are many many more in Europe) with a massive web of scouts around the world will then wait until they're of the legal age to sign under FIFA rules. This breaks their professional playing career as they will slip right into the youth categories when they were already playing professional football like in this case with Ludovic Reis who plays for FC Groningen in the Eredivisie. Ludovic knows 100% he will be playing for Barcelona 'B' and yet he's willing to do this! It's the same as what I said about Venezuela's young wonder keeper Wuliker Fariñez the other day on this forum where I stated he would be mad at his age to sign for Barcelona just to get that on his cv when he is already established and even an international... He's young and he will surely be signed by another European club to be a first team keeper and not an understudy like in this case he would be to Marc-André ter Stegen. That FIFA rule has made things worse for these players and the clubs that have nurtured them and all because of some rogue clubs in Europe that have brought very young kids and when not good enough, they then dump them on the streets... The culprits being nearly all French clubs with kids from African nations.

With the amount of games Barcelona play a season there's more than enough minutes for all. But Busquets has already publicly stated that he will not be renewing his contract when it ends and will retire early which means De Jong (if everything goes well for him) will slot into his natiral position.

All of them. He's special because he's excellent in every midfield position and has a natural sense to attack. Slowly slowly like that what happened with both Iniesta and Xavi he'll win his first team place.

In the long run yes. But until then he'll be playing beside him to learn even more. I can see Aleñá playing even more next season.

If the ban is for real, what’s the club’s public stance on the loss of Hazard without a replacement?

Quite a few are surprised at this! Kroos has been off his best for three years now (I know some innocent people will find that weird considering the Champions League success Real have enjoyed) and has only showed up in sparse moments. This one is obviously a Zidane renewal as that's how he works.

Alot of the time they tend to be in the know. Real Madrid 100% want rid of Bale but there are currently no clubs interested in him. Dani Ceballos is a fantastic player but made the same mistake as Isco, so I'm not surprised there and he looks to be off. Would love him at Arsenal. This one with Navas is a perfect example of how massive clubs have become horrible. He has done nothing wrong on the ptich (quite the contrary). Zidane has personally told him he won't even make squads of 22 next season and that he should look for a new club. Navas doesn't want to leave! What I've heard about Llorente is that if Atleti lose Rodri, they will be going in for him.

And the thing is that it just has to be accepted under that very poor and lazy excuse for being permitted to be racist, xenophobic, anti-semitic, Islamophobic... Fuck it... A lazy bigot! Why? Well unless one develops a biological difficulty to digest vocabulary and what it means, then being excused is just as lazy from us excusing them as it is for society to accept a crap reason for enablement.

I agree that it should be kept private and especially off the record if that's what it was. But people have suddenly started to believe that they can spout any rubbish that the rest of us know it's either bullshit, baseless or just simply conditioning and grooming rhetorical doctrine without being challenged on it. The moment you pump something into the public sphere purposfully be it a comment to the media if you're famous or even for us more mundane people somthing you say amongst family, friends or acquaintances... You should expect to be challenged on it and to make you back up what you say with facts.

You are right with that but there are results that say he's done very well when not overthinking it all. For example Spurs who are in this year's final were played off the park at Wembley... There are other results that point to this... I think with Liverpool it was a different story and this is where we can really aim criticisms at Valverde because we can go back to last season where there was a comment he made to a journalist in private before the second leg in Rome that tells a story. He spoke about Liverpool at length and Klopp in particular, about how he's followed Klopp's coaching career all the way from where he coached Mainz in Germany. He seemed to be afraid that Klopp's style of play was the worst team Barcelona could ever meet, it was the antidote for anything his team could offer in terms of wanting to dominate a tie properly... He said if he faced them after Roma, they'd have to play it tactically. He didn't have to meet them last season, but we now have recent history and your comment to prove Valverde's fears.

Hahaha You obviously don't like Valverde and I get it although I don't feel he's as bad as you're making out. Remember, that the semi-final could've easily gone the right way with one goal in that second leg. With the right players in next season, there'll be more high end options. But I would prefer another coach, Erik ten Hag would be my immediate choice until Xavi is ready.

Ter Stegen may have suffered a knee injury which could rule him out of the Copa del Rey Final against Valencia. That’s the news release although I would’ve thought Cillessen would be playing that anyhow.

FC Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu has just announced that first team head coach Ernesto Valverde will be managing the first team next season 100%. So the rumours on possible replacements can now cease.

Just seen this... Wow! If true, it fits right into today's rise in populism and how people have thrown political correctness out of the window. Peope feel free to say what they want now without repercussions and without being made to expand and explain their comments. I can now say these days that the moon is made of cheese in a public environment and it will be accepted by most without questioning.

Who knows, but what's for sure is that Keylor Navas is a million light years superior in every way to Luca Zidane and Navas doesn't want to leave Real Madrid. So what we have here is a blatant case of nepotism.

Reports suggesting Zidane wants his son Luca as the number two mate.

Various sources suggesting Zinedine Zidane has told Costa Rican international Keylor Navas he should sort out his future because he won’t make any team selection from next season.

I get where you're going with that and I personally agree with you in its existence. People of different colour and even culture or religion in today's times get treated with a different yard stick compared to those seen as what's viewed as a native. But in the case of Paul Pogba I think a hell of a lot more was expected of him and what's more, he CAN offer more than what he has even with the stats he's accumulated. Call it having been lazy, call it not being arsed, call it what you like, it's got nothing to do with his colour in his particular case for me.

It almost certainly reads more than just odd and maybe even un-relative, but any footballer that carries a Gucci toiletry bag to football matches just isn't serious about what football fans expect on an achievement level in the football relative. It's sometimes small details where you can observe related issues to objectives in life.

I think everyone goes through moments where they need to find themselves mate. There are times where my own company is extremely important... Let me rephrase that. Before I got married and had kids, I used to go through moments like that and I would just act upon it and find moments for myself whether it was reading or whatever. A completely normal necessity in my opinion, so I wouldn't dwell on it too long as overthinking and analysing can surely be worse for your condition whatever that may be?

Neymar wouldn't make it in the Premier League in my view, he's weak! He would get ripped apart by the English press with his diving antics and some of the other stuff. There is a but though... He would provide special moments which football fans love to see and remember. That in itself would be a plus for the league product. But he ain't a player to lead a club to glory and other big signings would be required. As for Pogba... He is tailor made for everything PSG is. A Barbie football club with no tangible essence to it.