Transfer Rumours

danyjr wrote:45 million for 30 year old Silva?

he is 28...

By the time he joins Barcelona he'll be 29. Seriously even if he was 28 who pays 45 million for a player that old? Bar Madrid and City.

danyjr wrote:By the time he joins Barcelona he'll be 29. Seriously even if he was 28 who pays 45 million for a player that old? Bar Madrid and City.

Ronaldo,28 for 45-60m is a bargain. That's an example. Silva is the best CB in the world by a country mile at the moment, and will be for the next 2 years for sure, and he is worth 45m.

Lol, so if you'd rather use that money to save for two other defenders who would you buy? Because as far as I know we seem to only be linked to Hummels.

Donuts wrote:Lol, so if you'd rather use that money to save for two other defenders who would you buy? Because as far as I know we seem to only be linked to Hummels.

Not sure, but 45M for ANY defender seems extremely excessive. If Thiago Silva was 24 or so I'd go for it, not like some one said 29 by the time the deal happens. Defenders rarely got for the crazy cash the midfielders and attackers go for, so for 45M we could probably easily land a Subotic + a up and coming top prospect or so. Maybe even Subotic and Inigo martinez, and guess what....they are young; both under 24 and it's two of them not just one.

Question is... Buy 2 guys who might flop? Or buy the best defender in the world?

Just because there are 2 of them, doesn't mean its better. I'm not saying I'm for it, but it must be considered.

The main stumbling block is wages... Barca didn't want to pay them last year, and unlikely he'd want a pay cut.

There is a new 75 % tax law in France so Silva might want out. After selling Villa who is on Xaviesta level wages, Barca could afford to give him € 10 million a year without any problems. Being 29 isn't that much of an issue either. He's as old as Iniesta! So if he can give 3 - 4 more seasons at his very best (CBs don't decline before 33), that would be enough. The issue I have with Silva isn't his age. It's his injury proneness. He has missed 8 league games due to injury for PSG already. Last season he has missed 10 for Milan. The best CB in the world is of no use if he's lying on the treatment table 1/3 of the season.

BarcaKizz wrote:Question is... Buy 2 guys who might flop? Or buy the best defender in the world?

Just because there are 2 of them, doesn't mean its better. I'm not saying I'm for it, but it must be considered.

The main stumbling block is wages... Barca didn't want to pay them last year, and unlikely he'd want a pay cut.

Right, trust me I'm a HUGE Thiago Silva fan. And I only used Subotic and Ingo as a pure example of the type of players you can grab with that amount to spend in that position. That whole back line needs some work, so I just hope the board doesn't blow all of its wad in one guy instead of reinforcing properly. Honestly I hope they find more Afellay, Adriano type bargains. We got both of them for cheap as shit and are quality.

I rather have one 29 year old Thiago Silva rather then two Mascherano's at age 19.
We shouldn't get more then one CB, preferably a mid age player so our younger players still have a chance to play, like Bartra who shows great potential, or more players from the B team who are just too young to play right now.
We need a world class defender now, not a player for the future, we need to be back on top in European competition next season not 4 years from now.

Bartra and Abidal should pretty much start all the games from here on. Its important we assess them and their value to us next year.

I have a bit of a suspicion Abidal might want to end his career at PSG or something... but equally I think he'd like to finish with Barca. Time will tell.

I have faith Bartra will put in some good shifts and considering Pique's form, I believe he should enjoy an elevated role. If Pique is playing poorly, I have no qualms with pulling him and throwing Bartra in there.

The annoying thing for me is... We will keep Masch, and thats one poor defender. I'd rather have Pique, Bartra, Puyol, New guy, Abidal/New guy...

I'm also for selling Adri now and bringing in a young Abidal type LB/CB with some height and physique.

Pique should be benched until he gets his shit together. If he doesn't by the end of next season, he will have to go. I honestly wouldn't mind seeing him leave this summer. Guy hasn't pulled a decent performance since.... a long, long time ago.

imagine if we actually bought a half decent cb instead of wasting 25m on that chryggfgrtrte guy couple of seasons ago

Till this day, i still dont get what pep and co saw in him

Deja Vu wrote:Pique should be benched until he gets his shit together. If he doesn't by the end of next season, he will have to go. I honestly wouldn't mind seeing him leave this summer. Guy hasn't pulled a decent performance since.... a long, long time ago.

This.Also why I am not against signing Hummels.He neednt be looked at as a player to partner Pique but rather as a player to replace Pique.With the way Pique has been playing,Hummels would be an improvement and he would offer better build up from the back.

MaraVilla wrote:imagine if we actually bought a half decent cb instead of wasting 25m on that chryggfgrtrte guy couple of seasons ago

Till this day, i still dont get what pep and co saw in him

25m! dont remind me of this. and also dont forget Kerrison and henrique...anyway
I doubt we will buy 2 CB. That means you bench Pique or ask him to fight. With his current form thats though seem to be necessery, i highly doubt management will do so. So 1 wc CB thats all we can expect.
I wish we do not buy anaother mash/song, in that case i dont see we buying more than 1 defender unless Abi/Alves leaves only when we will need one more backup/starter.

Hello culés,

I hope you're well. I also hope you watched the Madrid-BVB match tonight. I'm saying this because of a myth going around this section that Hummels is too much like Piqué. I personally don't watch Bundesliga much hence I rarely commented on that matter. However, having watched the couple of matches against Madrid, I can claim the contrary. In fact I dare say Piqué hasn't played like how Hummels played in his career. the German's positioning, aerial capability, intelligence, reading the game and even his technique was top notch, absolutely brilliant and in some aspects, he was far superior to the Spaniard.

Regards
Danyjr

Spoiler:

I admit I have been harsh on Hummels few days back. Some of it was a knee jerk reaction. He is a very capable player. Whether he is the right player for us to buy is debatable though.

I have no idea what people are talking about replacing Pique for.

Dont care how bad you think he is, hes better than Mascherano and Puyol is a part time player.

You want to get rid of Pique and leave us needing a complete set of centerbacks? Really?

I still dont agree with a lot of the criticism of our players like Pique....

Hummels showed his worth today... Not sure if all these Dortmund stars with leave in the one summer though

This is going to be a longggg summer, unless Barca find and annouce a CB signing early

barca will never get rid of pique anyway, he's la masia after all

The Franchise wrote:I have no idea what people are talking about replacing Pique for.

Dont care how bad you think he is, hes better than Mascherano and Puyol is a part time player.

You want to get rid of Pique and leave us needing a complete set of centerbacks? Really?

Think its more about Hummels compatibility with Pique that people are on about.

I'm still skeptical myself but Hummels ability is there for all to see.

Well 1 person said Hummels is better than Pique has ever been, another said Pique should be benched and then sold and another said Hummels should just directly replace him.

Donuts wrote:I rather have one 29 year old Thiago Silva rather then two Mascherano's at age 19.
We shouldn't get more then one CB, preferably a mid age player so our younger players still have a chance to play, like Bartra who shows great potential, or more players from the B team who are just too young to play right now.
We need a world class defender now, not a player for the future, we need to be back on top in European competition next season not 4 years from now.

Jesus, how did you get 2 Mascheranos out of me saying a pair of Inigo Martinez + Subotic types

Pique will not be sold considering he is La Masia product as well as being our best centreback this season...
Inigo Martinez? He is any good?
Bartra has to stay. We haven't got the best out of him yet and what I have seen, he has alot of potential and a certain starter in the next few seasons.
Main thing is that we got to get a centreback, not a defensive mid that sometimes plays centrebacks but an actual experienced, youngish tall centreback

I have said before we should not buy midfielders and I still stick to it. However if we were buying one midfielder then ahead of all the names that have been mentioned including Wilshere I would take Ilkay Gundogan.

Barca can do better than Wilshere who spends most of his time chatting to the physio team at Arsenal.

Does anyone want to buy a sick note like him?

Some thoughts on where to go from here:

1. Buy players that expand the skill set of the current team – specifically power, pace, and strength. We have overemphasized technique over physicality. However, one or two players can make the difference (for example, losing Abidal really threw the team over the edge on this point).

2. Pay the prices necessary for the right players. Simple.

3. Time to rethink tactics. Guardiola was constantly altering the tactics, evolving the team. This season for whatever reason we got stuck in the false-nine 4-3-3. Our best match of the season came when Villa played as a forward in front of Messi (and Villa didn’t even play that well). It’s time for a serious discussion on whether Messi should have a “9″ in front of him. There are other issues as well, such as poor attacking shape leaving us vulnerable to counterattacks…

4. Transfer the workload from older players (Xavi, Alves, Puyol, Villa) to younger players (Thiago, Montoya, Bartra, Tello). Especially in Liga matches.