What would Barca look like today if we had signed Pirlo in the summer of 2011?

by BarrileteCosmico Tue Apr 30, 2013 2:31 am

The Italy international spoke about how close he was to signing for some of Europe's leading clubs and tipped Clarence Seedorf to be a success at Milan - if he is offered the job
Juventus midfielder Andrea Pirlo has revealed he may have signed for one of Chelsea, Real Madrid or Barcelona if not for the intervention of AC Milan president Silvio Berlusconi.

The 33-year-old ended a 10-year spell with Milan in 2011 and, prior to signing for Juventus, a decision he believes was the best of his career, Pirlo says he was not short of suitors keen to secure his services.

"I had already reached an agreement with Chelsea, then after Berlusconi intervened and I stayed at Milan. I was also very close with Capello at Real Madrid and nearly joined them in 2006," he explained in his autobiography.

"Guardiola then convinced me to join Barcelona in 2011, but Berlusconi stepped in again."

The former Milan playmaker added he was happy with the decision to sign for Juventus, but stressed his departure from the Rossoneri was born out of a desire to seek a new challenge.

"Surely it was the best decision of my career to sign for Juventus," he said. "Do I regret leaving Milan? I decided I needed a change. I needed to find new ideas and that was the best thing for both parties."

Clarence Seedorf has been touted as a potential successor to Massimiliano Allegri at Milan and Pirlo believes his former team-mate is well-equipped to take the reins at San Siro.

"He is a great character, he has charisma and could do very well at Milan. But now he's still playing in Brazil, we will see when it stops," he added.

It is a career path Pirlo also harbours aspirations to follow and he credited current coach Antonio Conte for inspiring him to one day swap life on the pitch for life in the dugout.

He said: "Thanks to Conte I got the urge of coaching and I thank him for that. We will see what happens in the future."

Pirlo could pick up his second successive league winners medal with Juventus as early as this weekend.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/10/italy/2013/04/30/3942165/pirlo-i-could-have-joined-madrid-chelsea-or-barca

For starters I think this would have meant no Cesc, simply no room for him with Thiago coming up, Thiago would've played as the natural sub of Iniesta rather than Xavi (and as we have seen recently he excells there as well). It would've also meant a lot less fooling around tactically in 2011-12 to make up for Cesc's inclusion, which might have seen us have a more successful league campaign. Going into the 2012-13 season Xavi would have a class replacement which would hopefully mean more rotation for him and thus more general fitness, but I'm not so sure about this.

by windkick Tue Apr 30, 2013 5:07 am

The only thing I can think of is that I can't wait for Cesc to get his ass to another club.

by The Sanchez Tue Apr 30, 2013 6:18 am

Not sure really. Would cause a a double pain having to replace 2 players who play excellently in that one position...

by Donuts Tue Apr 30, 2013 6:42 am

I prefer all current starting midfields over Pirlo and would make our youth players like Thiago have a harder time to get minutes.

by futbol Tue Apr 30, 2013 6:48 am

This doesn't make any sense. It's unlike Guardiola to sign a 30+ year old player. Unless he thought that Pirlo was finished in 2011 and he wanted to utilize him as Xavi's sub.

On the other hand Pirlo would be the perfect player to play 4-2-3-1 like Spain. Pirlo in the Alonso role. Xavi a bit further forward.

Messi
Iniesta Xavi Pedro
Pirlo Busquets

DAT 90 % ball possession. Proud

by BarcaKizz Tue Apr 30, 2013 7:17 am

So signing a great player like Pirlo on a free would have been more stupid than Cesc for what was it 35M ?? scratch

Don't think it would have troubled transition at all. He would have been used to rest Xavi more and thus we'd get more years out of Xavi. The man is capable of playing till he's 38 but needs to be managed like Ryan Giggs. We are running him into the ground.

Thiago would have blossomed and then we'd have Roberto, Rafinha, Samper etc coming through...

He would have played less than Cesc probably so I don't see how he'd hurt Thiago's chances.

by BarrileteCosmico Tue Apr 30, 2013 2:51 pm

futbol wrote:This doesn't make any sense. It's unlike Guardiola to sign a 30+ year old player. Unless he thought that Pirlo was finished in 2011 and he wanted to utilize him as Xavi's sub.

On the other hand Pirlo would be the perfect player to play 4-2-3-1 like Spain. Pirlo in the Alonso role. Xavi a bit further forward.

Messi
Iniesta Xavi Pedro
Pirlo Busquets

DAT 90 % ball possession.

A) Guardiola wouldn't play double pivot as his standard formation
B) When did Guardiola ever buy a player because he's finished? He likes having top talent in his bench (Cesc, Masche, etc)

Donuts wrote:I prefer all current starting midfields over Pirlo and would make our youth players like Thiago have a harder time to get minutes.

Not any more so than Cesc. If Pirlo came (and Cesc didn't) Thiago would have just been Iniesta's natural sub for rotational and injury purposes, there's no doubt he would have received a fair share of minutes.

by Onyx Tue Apr 30, 2013 3:02 pm

If Pirlo wanted to be a starter, then it wouldn't make sense signing him. However if he didn't mind being a rotation player, then it would have been a decent signing.

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