FC Barcelona Discussion

[SirBalon]

25 minutes ago, Cicero said:

How would you lot reckon Vidal could do in the premier as a RWB? 

Aleix Vidal for me is probably the best full back in Europe when it comes to causing havoc to opponents defences. He has so many different techniques to his individual technical ability to make defences think twice and keep their own full back in his place. But defensively he has various holes which all have their roots in concentration... That’s the reason he’s been a bit part player for Barcelona due to the fact so much is asked from their full backs... Not only do you have to be decent defensively (decent is good enough at Barça), but you also have to be as good as any front man in knowing what to do with the ball at your feet and not just know how to get to the byline and blindly cross the ball. Barcelona’s midfielders and attackers are intelligent and expecting something more than just frenetic attacking.

The curious thing in all of this is that under Unai Emery at Sevilla he was more than just decent in the defensive side of things which makes you think it was the wrong signing for Barcelona and that under the right coach he will be a massive asset.

[Cicero]

I'd like us to go for him and partner Azpilicueta on that right side. Have Sterling as back up. 

Moses and Zappacosta have been nothing short of embarrassng this season. Wing backs who can't beat a man or cross. 

[Spike]

1 hour ago, Cicero said:

I'd like us to go for him and partner Azpilicueta on that right side. Have Sterling as back up. 

Moses and Zappacosta have been nothing short of embarrassng this season. Wing backs who can't beat a man or cross. 

Moses can beat a man but can't cross. Zappacosta can't beat a man but can cross. Cruelty.

[Cicero]

2 hours ago, El_Loco said:

 

The only downside is that Arthur won´t come now.

For Barca. 

Since the Coutinho signing, apparently us and United are the likely destinations. 

[Asura]

Yet you conveniently ignore the money spent on James, Isco and Bale and let them rot on the bench (Bale's due to injury though)

[SirBalon]

25 minutes ago, Teso dos Bichos said:

Troll? Thats the type of comment I expect from a dissapointing evertonian with a soft side for the cules.

Overpaid for cou and the prospect Dembele but don't you dare bring it up.... I used to call Madrid LPB...but now its LPC

Overpaid like everyone has been overpaying since the Neymar departure to PSG and what it cost. Look at the prices all around. Even before that...

[Guest]

Saw an Argentinian article saying that Christian Cueva is going to Barcelona. Would be a great signing if true. He's the replacement to Iniesta.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

Overpaid like everyone has been overpaying since the Neymar departure to PSG and what it cost. Look at the prices all around. Even before that...

Manchester United are the kings of overpaying

[Guest]

Peru's FBC Melgar will play against Barcelona

https://34.196.191.152/deportes/1168827-melgar-vs-barcelona

[SirBalon]

40 minutes ago, Teso dos Bichos said:

Since Neymar left??? You mean since Barcelona overpaid legally/illegally for Neymar?

What does that have to do with what I said and the €220m PSG paid for Neymar?

If you want to continue your swipe at Barcelona for dodgy dealings, open a thread on that subject and we can all debate it but to bring that up eveytime Barcelona make a signing with all sorts of rhetoric just pushes the derailing of the conversation into another subject. 

[SirBalon]

42 minutes ago, Blue said:

Manchester United are the kings of overpaying

They definitely overpaid for Pogba, but then again there were a few clubs ready to do this but they backed out in the end and Pogba took his third choice. 

[RandoEFC+]

Did I seriously just read people mocking Liverpool/the Premier League compared to Barcelona/La Liga because of the different fees paid for Van Dijk and Mina, when Van Dijk's transfer was funded by a humongous windfall Liverpool received from, which club was it again? BARCELONA .

The point stands though I guess. You don't see much of English clubs making signings like Mina from South America and developing them. Probably partly down to British fans and coaches deciding they're "not cut out for the British game" when they haven't broken into the first team by 21.

[SirBalon]

11 hours ago, RandoEFC said:

Did I seriously just read people mocking Liverpool/the Premier League compared to Barcelona/La Liga because of the different fees paid for Van Dijk and Mina, when Van Dijk's transfer was funded by a humongous windfall Liverpool received from, which club was it again? BARCELONA .

The point stands though I guess. You don't see much of English clubs making signings like Mina from South America and developing them. Probably partly down to British fans and coaches deciding they're "not cut out for the British game" when they haven't broken into the first team by 21.

The reasons English clubs don’t make those signings from Latin America is because they haven’t got a network of scouts there traditionally.  Infact scouting in UK based football has always been poor historically and only started to become nothing more than ok in the late 90s and through the early 2000s... Most of them being Scandinavian footballers in the late 90s to be honest.

Since the advent of the Premiership/Premier League, English football clubs haven’t really invested in scouting, not proper scouting in the traditional sense because of the money that’s entered into the game over here.  What does scouting players doing well in Europe’s top leagues actually mean?  You could do that job, anyone here could do that job if they’re an avid aficionado to the game that goes beyond an insular outlook on the world of football where everything seems to start and finish with this league.

Did Manchester United really pay a scout a salary to sit at Juventus matches all of that previous season to signing him so as to ascertain that he was one of Europe’s most signified players?  Or maybe they paid someone to watch a load of BT SPORTS. Who knows, but what I do know is that isn’t what a scouting network is all about.

Yes some decent finds are made every now and then, but they’re very few and far between with midium scale to lower defining sides being the ones to experiment in that sense and then you get a Van Dijk moment where Southampton get £75m for someone that even Holland didn’t play for ages and when he was played didn’t make much difference defensively.

Of course Liverpool funded the signing of Van Dijk off the fact that the inevitable was going to occur with the sale of Coutinho but even then the sale of the Brazilian came post the signing of the Dutchman from Southampton... Barcelona on the other hand spent €25m (£19.5m) on Samuel Umtiti two years ago and is now one of the most renowned young central defenders in the world and have just spent €11m (£7.8m) on Yerry Mina who we now have to wait and see what occurs with him in the same manner that occured with Umtiti.  But I can assure you that the Barcelona scout following Mina has been there for three years enduring every Palmeiras game home and away while sending all the info back home and not with the club basing their opinion on tv coverage or what the media are saying in various other countries,

Yes Barça, Real and some other clubs spend big, but that’s because they are big and coupled with the great tracking they do with players, they also dip into the stardom market and pay top dollar for it becaus that’s also the nature of the game. What you won’t see a Barça or a Real do is spending that sort of money unless there are massive grounds to be doing it under.  All of this obviously goes beyond whether an expensive player purchase ends up being successful or not because to know something based on the future belongs to science-fiction. Scouts do their homework or should be doing it correctly so as to acquire the necessary information required for what’s needed at the club they’re workings for... Hence why Monchi who isn’t even a head coach and never has been one is paid as much or more than some of the biggest coaches in the world because he knows and understands how to direct a network of scouts in the correct manner.

[SirBalon]

Der Spiegel release information about a supposed offer Real Madrid made to Messi in 2013

 

It sounds far fetched and almost James Bond 007 like this story, but according to an investigation made by German magazine Der Spiegel, Real Madrid’s president, Florentino Pérez met with Lionel Messi and his father on a private jet over that flew over the Atlantic Ocean and turned back while the conversations took place so as they could remain as secret and private as possible.

According to the Spanish lawyer who was the family’s representative back in 2013 and who now works for the Spanish news network El Mundo, Iñigo Juárez is the guy who released the documents to Der Spiegel.  

Apparently Florentino Pérez wanted to get rid of Cristiano Ronaldo after he had publicly come out at the time saying that he wasn’t happy and thus creating a boom in the Spanish media which resulted in him getting a massive pay increase with a new contract.  Words were spoken the day Cristiano Ronaldo said this between the president and himself which were leaked to the press with witnesses where he told him; “You can go if you like, go and bring me the fee a club signs you for so I can sign Messi”.

It was apparently due to what was occurring with Cristiano Ronaldo at the time why allegedly the this meeting on that private plane was made, and that Florentino Pérez offered Lionel Messi back then the astronomical sum of €28m per season before bonuses and €1m for Messi’s father.  Florentino Pérez then went on to tell the Messis that Real Madrid would pay the then buy-out clause Messi had at Barça which was set at €250m if he agreed to the move.

Also at this time in 2013 was when Lionel Messi’s tax fraud case had gone into motion with the Spanish courts and that Florentino Pérez told Messi’s father and Leo that he would put pressure on the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy to help drop the case and make it all look like an error.

That’s the story... Far fetched? Crazy?  Not half!  True? Who knows, but there are parts to it that sound familiar almost and quite believable.  Other parts just sound like something out of a movie.  But nothing surprises me anymore in the world of football and how it moves brandnames in a manner that nothing else does.

[SirBalon]

53 minutes ago, Teso dos Bichos said:

Fake news

I’d like to know if it is infact fake news... Do you have proof seeing as you seem to know?

Pass me a link so I can send it to a friend that is adamant it’s true as I also think it’s far fetched.

[Spike]

@SirBalonMate Umtiti wasn't a 'find'. I bloody well knew he'd be a star five years ago, where is my scouting job!? A good deal reggardless 

[SirBalon]

3 minutes ago, Spike said:

@SirBalonMate Umtiti wasn't a 'find'. I bloody well knew he'd be a star five years ago, where is my scouting job!? A good deal reggardless 

Really mate?

Ill trust that you knew mate... I said at the time when Barcelona signed him that I knew who he was, but not much else.  Put it this way, I didn’t know he’d end up being this good and if that’d been common knowledge, trust me, he wouldn’t have gone for €25m.

To be honest, I haven’t followed the French League properly (like I tend to follow football when I’m into it) since the early 2000s.

[Spike]

1 minute ago, SirBalon said:

Really mate?

Ill trust that you knew mate... I said at the time when Barcelona signed him that I knew who he was, but not much else.  Put it this way, I didn’t know he’d end up being this good and if that’d been common knowledge, trust me, he wouldn’t have gone for €25m.

To be honest, I haven’t followed the French League properly (like I tend to follow football when I’m into it) since the early 2000s.

And the best defender in England cost a third of that. Sometimes it happens.

 

We've had this discussion at least twice before

[SirBalon]

10 minutes ago, Spike said:

We've had this discussion at least twice before

Have we? 

Barcelona had been going at Thiago Silva at PSG for three years and being willing to offer almost €100m for him with PSG unwilling to budge at all.  Then Barça centred their attention on their (PSG) younger Brazilian centre-back, Marquinhos but again PSG didn’t want to know even though at the time of Barcelona’s interest Marquinhos hadn’t hit the first team proper yet... But the reasons behind PSG’s reluctance to do business with Barcelona had nothing to do with maintaining their team because of ambition with those two players as it was an ongoing war between FCB and the owners of PSG... That’s another story that doesn’t concern here.

What I’m saying is that thankfully the poor work done in pinpointing attention on the two Brazilian defenders who would’ve been massively more expensive and not as prosperous and good scouting as what was done with Umtiti, wouldn’t have been as satisfying.  But you already said that it was a good deal regardless.  Barça didn’t have to go through an auction to obtain the services of Samuel Umtiti which shows how bad scouting has become in the modern game in my personal view.

[Stan]

26 minutes ago, Spike said:

@SirBalonMate Umtiti wasn't a 'find'. I bloody well knew he'd be a star five years ago, where is my scouting job!? A good deal reggardless 

is this only because of his wonder goal against Spurs  

[Stan]

Arda Turan has joined Istanbul Basaksehir on loan

 

[SirBalon]

10 minutes ago, Stan said:

Arda Turan has joined Istanbul Basaksehir on loan

 

He didn’t want to go and apparently he was told by Valverde that he wouldn’t be selected for his teams as there were others ahead of him. 

[Guest]

Aren't they recent Turkish champions? Still its weird to see him go back at this point. Its like if Edison Flores came back to Universitario on loan.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Cannabis said:

The six months that Arda had to wait for his Barcelona debut killed him. He's not been the player he was at Atletico and there are a handful of names that off the top of your head could be selected ahead of him in the squad. I'm just surprised that he hasn't gone back to a bigger Turkish club such as Fenerbache, Galatasaray, Besiktas.

Its because Istanbul Basaksehir are reigning Turkish champions.

[Carnivore Chris]

Yerry Mina is nuts. The new Alves of the dressing room?