Transfer Rumours

Just a general question to all here. If a player's level falls then no matter who he is are you ready to sell him for the right kind of money? I mean what if he is Xavi, Puyol, Messi, Iniesta, etc. ? Are there any exceptions at all or is this the general rule that should apply to each and every one?

Well, I don't consider Alves to be in the same group as Messi, Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta. Especially considering a Alves plays a position that relays on speed for his specific style of play. He if gets older and his legs arent what they used to be, asking to run and attack and run back to defend can make him a liability (thats on a pretty big payroll). So, I think he is one that due to his position and what it asks of him then yes, I would sell him. Our holy group of players like the ones you mentioned, no I wouldn't sell them and I think they should retire with us. But if a player like Alves starts to dip due to his, and his huge paycheck, then yea the smart move is to sell him.

Don't forget he almost left us, not to long ago. When City came a knocking with there huge deal he legit sounded like he was considering on pulling the trigger

if we sell alves we need to find a replacement. Montoya is definitely not as good

danyjr wrote:Neymar: Corinthians loss was not my last match for Santos. I'll be back after summer.

keep alexis and pedro for another year and get neymar when he's a free agent

and to answer messixaviesta, personally ill only consider selling a player if a good offer comes up e.g 30m for Alves, otherwise wouldnt even consider selling. I dont even want guys like fab and alexis to leave this season, i would be annoyed if they do end up leaving.

windkick wrote:Well, I don't consider Alves to be in the same group as Messi, Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta. Especially considering a Alves plays a position that relays on speed for his specific style of play. He if gets older and his legs arent what they used to be, asking to run and attack and run back to defend can make him a liability (thats on a pretty big payroll). So, I think he is one that due to his position and what it asks of him then yes, I would sell him. Our holy group of players like the ones you mentioned, no I wouldn't sell them and I think they should retire with us. But if a player like Alves starts to dip due to his, and his huge paycheck, then yea the smart move is to sell him.

Don't forget he almost left us, not to long ago. When City came a knocking with there huge deal he legit sounded like he was considering on pulling the trigger

Thanks for a nice reply. I don't think Alves ever wanted to leave. I think some of those rumors were exaggerated. After a small disagreement he signed immediately and as far as I remember he didn't get that much improvement in financial terms. I think all he actually wanted was to be recognized as a very key member of the team.

For 25+ I would definitely sell Alves. Alves + Alba doesn't work, and the future is Alba.
Sell Alves and get a good defensive RB. Even Bartra could play that role.

Given that Alves is Brazilian and about to turn 30 that scares me. If a very good offer comes (30+), I wouldn't blame the board for selling. But we won't find a replacement anywhere near like him, so on footballing terms I don't think we should sell.

There is a scary tweet on my Twitter right now.

It says that there is a clause in Thiago's contract that allows him to leave for as less as E20m for lack of playing time and he is considering invoking it.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Given that Alves is Brazilian and about to turn 30 that scares me. If a very good offer comes (30+), I wouldn't blame the board for selling. But we won't find a replacement anywhere near like him, so on footballing terms I don't think we should sell.

We don't need a football as good as him to be equal or better as a team.
We just need someone who is a better defender than Alves and can overlap some times (I suppose there can be many RB or even CB than can feel the profile)

messixaviesta wrote:There is a scary tweet on my Twitter right now.

It says that there is a clause in Thiago's contract that allows him to leave for as less as E20m for lack of playing time and he is considering invoking it.

That is scary. It would be a terrible management from Tito for not playing him enough.

free_cat wrote:We don't need a football as good as him to be equal or better as a team.
We just need someone who is a better defender than Alves and can overlap some times (I suppose there can be many RB or even CB than can feel the profile)

Going from Abidal + Alves to Alba + Defensive RB would be a huge downgrade in my opinion. Not to mention our left side would be Alba + Neymar with Iniesta covering? God we would get raped in that wing.

Sergi Canos officially poached by Liverpool

lame.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Going from Abidal + Alves to Alba + Defensive RB would be a huge downgrade in my opinion. Not to mention our left side would be Alba + Neymar with Iniesta covering? God we would get raped in that wing.

Nail on the head. Alves eats Alba both defensively and offensively, even though I think he's past his best. Abidal may not offer as much offensively as Alba but in defence they are not even comparable.

Alba is not a winger, lacks trickery to get past an opponent and the reason for his success in Valencia was him and Mathieu being a duo-force together, always overlapping. That's the best way to use Alba and utilising his pace and crosses.

Alba is not a defender, he is poor at marking, gets rounded easily by average wingers, lacks strength and aerial presence.

Hence my dilemma. What is Alba?

Alba would be the best player in Boca though.

Terrible news that Liverpool poached Canos.

Can't see any confirmation that canos is leaving but I found this nice profile of him:

www.thisisanfield.com/2013/05/sergi-canos-liverpools-brightest-prospect/

Pretty sure there's an image floating around of Canos leaving Liverpool's academy building from earlier today.

And this isn't exactly out of the blue... I've been asking about him for months now, and the reports that we were chasing/closing on him have been around even longer.

The images I mentioned (no idea if that's actually him):

Spoiler:

Thats him.

I think its clear he's gone. Unfortunate, but main priority is holding on to Lee...

Dammit, Canos is really a good player. Anyway, at this age you can't never know if they will triumph or stagnate and we will bag his formation rights (I guess around 300.000€)..

That loyalty from Canos...

I'm pretty sure Lee won't go, he is asian and asians are generally very loyal.

So true we can't say at this stage whether they will triumph or stagnate. Remember Gai Assulin who many here had high hopes from and how it eventually turned out.

The most thrown names of our signings are all basically youth players

Marc-André ter Stegen - GK 21 years old
Neymar - Forward 21 year old
Marquinhos - CB 19 years old

My question to you guys is would you be content if we got these three players? would they solve any of our problems?
Tito hasn't shown us any slight use of youth players and I feel the idea of buying young players might not work with him.

Well, if you really get Marc-André ter Stegen, you will get a very good young keeper who was thrown into the cold water at Mönchengladbach when he was but 18 years of age and who was one of the big reasons they didn't get relegated in that season.

To quote a post of mine from February 2012:

Before Marc-André ter Stegen guarded the goal of Borussia Mönchengladbach, they conceded an average of 2.21 (62/28) goals against per match in the Bundesliga season 2010/11. Right after Favre selected ter Stegen as GK, they only got 0.5 (3/6) goals against them in the remaining 6 matches of the last season.

Here: http://www.goallegacy.net/t304p54-german-goalkeeper-appreciation-thread#462089

Not that he's bad or anything, or won't succeed, but all these stats go out the window when you arrive at Barca. The goalkeeping job is completely different; don't think many people understand this. Its why people may only realise the value of Valdes once he leaves.

Whenever I see some idiot (not you RWO ) trying to point out that Valdes is not that good because he makes 50 less saves a season than their divinely chosen player I want to beat my head against a wall. And it applies to pretty much every stat...

BarcaKizz wrote:Its why people may only realise the value of Valdes once he leaves.

So true kizz.

@BarcaKizz

If you'd check the link, there is some more info on him. The points that really make Marc-André ter Stegen stand out is his presence in the box plus that he is a great football player, too, that is you can easily involve him in build up play and he isn't afraid when he gets the ball played at him under pressure either.