Transfer Rumours

I really hope we beat Madrid to Gündogan in the future.. that man screams talent and I would fear to see him against us.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Lucio played in a defense that sat deep and didn't require him to make as many runs, so I wouldn't call his case an example for Barca purposes. But I agree that defenders especially get better with age and usually peak at 28-29ish.

Agree, but to me that helped Samuel alot more than it did Lucio. Lucio was pretty mobile and you would imagine because of that fine in a high or low line. But yeah, I wasnt suggested because Lucio did well at his age it means anything related to us...merely, some defenders arent everything they are going to be at 25.

Donuts wrote:I really hope we beat Madrid to Gündogan in the future.. that man screams talent and I would fear to see him against us.

Me too. he is very talented and seems to suit our style of football. would love to see him in a Barca shirt someday.

Just to clarify things even further. I didn't say that Luiz is a bad defender. Also, i don't believe that defenders cannot improve, of course they can. I believe that Luiz has already shown he is capable of that over the last couple of years. I'm skeptic about signing him because i believe that defense is not down to individuals but it is a combined effort of the team as a whole. If we sign Luiz he will probably be our only signing and he along with Pique will form our starting defensive Line up. That partnership is what I'm skeptic about. I believe that both defenders are a bit rash and prone to similar types of mistakes. IMO what we need most is a smart, calm and composed type of defender.

barcaholic wrote:Just to clarify things even further. I didn't say that Luiz is a bad defender. Also, i don't believe that defenders cannot improve, of course they can. I believe that Luiz has already shown he is capable of that over the last couple of years. I'm skeptic about signing him because i believe that defense is not down to individuals but it is a combined effort of the team as a whole. If we sign Luiz he will probably be our only signing and he along with Pique will form our starting defensive Line up. That partnership is what I'm skeptic about. I believe that both defenders are a bit rash and prone to similar types of mistakes. IMO what we need most is a smart, calm and composed type of defender.

Suggest a realistic option of your type then.....
Ofcourse if you do not think that rather not get anyone then buying Luiz just because Luiz is not that type.

barcaholic wrote:IMO what we need most is a smart, calm and composed type of defender.

Of course in an ideal world you'd want a defender with all those good characteristics but the quality Barcelona is lacking in defence right is that athletic physical beast in defence with tenacity rather than a calm and composed Piqué clone.

danyjr wrote:

barcaholic wrote:IMO what we need most is a smart, calm and composed type of defender.

Of course in an ideal world you'd want a defender with all those good characteristics but the quality Barcelona is lacking in defence right is that athletic physical beast in defence with tenacity rather than a calm and composed Piqué clone.

o-O

are composed defenders a fairytale?! and who said anything about a pique clone?

neuro11 wrote:

barcaholic wrote:Just to clarify things even further. I didn't say that Luiz is a bad defender. Also, i don't believe that defenders cannot improve, of course they can. I believe that Luiz has already shown he is capable of that over the last couple of years. I'm skeptic about signing him because i believe that defense is not down to individuals but it is a combined effort of the team as a whole. If we sign Luiz he will probably be our only signing and he along with Pique will form our starting defensive Line up. That partnership is what I'm skeptic about. I believe that both defenders are a bit rash and prone to similar types of mistakes. IMO what we need most is a smart, calm and composed type of defender.

Suggest a realistic option of your type then.....
Ofcourse if you do not think that rather not get anyone then buying Luiz just because Luiz is not that type.

I understand your logic. But it is still a bit early to judge how realistic Luiz is as a transfer. Let's wait and see if Chelsea wanna sell and how much they will ask for him before we continue this discussion.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2380309/Barcelona-bid-Manchester-City-youngster-Denis-Suarez.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

barcaholic wrote:

danyjr wrote:

barcaholic wrote:IMO what we need most is a smart, calm and composed type of defender.

Of course in an ideal world you'd want a defender with all those good characteristics but the quality Barcelona is lacking in defence right is that athletic physical beast in defence with tenacity rather than a calm and composed Piqué clone.

o-O

are composed defenders a fairytale?! and who said anything about a pique clone?

There's an over emphasis by the Barcelona crowd on getting a centre back who is composed and can play the ball from the back. All which are understandable for a club of possession philosophy, but you should not ignore the priority. A CB is there to defend and if he can't do that then that's no good (Mascherano anyone?)

http://www.corrieredellosport.it/calcio/serie_a/napoli/2013/07/28-329747/Calciomercato+Napoli%2C+voglia+Sanchez.+Tentazione+per+Benitez%21

YES!
Napoli don't fool around. Make it happen and Tello starter!

If we didn't loan out Deulofeu I'd be all down for this. I think as things stand he should stay because we will only have Pedro for the RW. But Napoli have been overpaying for a bunch of players, so who knows, we might get a very good price for him.

Tello can play right wing and so can neymar. And we can sign a replacement, either a winger or a striker.

How much money do Napoli have? Havent they spent like 65m on Higuain, Callecrap and Albiol already? Signed Mertens for 10m and getting Riena too? To me its incredible how they can afford all this and Milan say 20m is out their price range.

Their owner said that Napoli have around 120m to spend after selling Cavani, and Lavezzi last year.

Milan used most of their cash they got from Silva and Ibra on Debt. They don't have much money left atm.

Forgot how much they sold Lavezzi for. Good point.

When I read Gallani say "we cant afford 20m right now"...it was shocking.

The Franchise wrote:How much money do Napoli have? Havent they spent like 65m on Higuain, Callecrap and Albiol already?  Signed Mertens for 10m and getting Riena too? To me its incredible how they can afford all this and Milan say 20m is out their price range.

They've only spent a net 13m once you take in Cavani's sale. Starts sounding a lot less ridiculous then.

Either way I don't see why they need more forwards. If anything they should sign a CM in the mold of Verratti.

No idea how they got hustled into paying 25m for Albiol and Callejon though

Also Napoli are essentially debt free:



So they don't have to use income to service debt.

Benitez is blatantly doing Perez a favor.

Being the noble Madridista that he is.

Amazing. Lavezzi and Cavani set them up very well and they replaced them pretty well too..at least on paper.

Overspent on all the Madrid guys horribly though, each of them worth like half, 3/5th of what they spent lol

Honestly you have give it to Madrid, they know how to do business.

Signed Callejón for €5.5m, sold for €10m.
Signed Albiol for €15m, sold for €12m.

This is considering the fact that above players barely played last season (all bench players). I always liked Napoli's transfers because they never overpaid for players in the past few years but they got screwed big time here.

Higuaín is obviously an established striker and definitely worth €35m, but I'm amazed that Madrid stood firm regarding his transfer and didn't get bullied while Barcelona act like nice guys by letting Villa go for peanuts when they already had received an offer of €10m from Spurs.

I'm in awe.

I dont think he is worth 35m but whatever.

I would also be more impressed (while still not admitting it) if Madrid sold to someone who wasnt Rafa.

Doubt the club sells Sanchez or Cesc.

Honestly wouldn't care if we sold them both, just don't think it happens

free_cat wrote:Tello can play right wing and so can neymar. And we can sign a replacement, either a winger or a striker.

I agree with you on Tello. Also, you raised a very interesting point. What does everybody think about getting a real right winger? Someone speedy and physical like Farfan for example like you suggested before. I think it will give us extra width and more importantly extra space in the middle. Having a real winger drags defenders away from the the edge of the box and force the opposition defensive line to rush back because they can't allow messi or neymar to get behind them fearing a low fast cross. which might lead to 2 goal scoring scenarios:

1. messi or neymar actually get ahead of them and tap in the low cross.
2. because of the rush a gap opens between the two lines of defense most teams use against us and one of our midfielders finds space and back pass or a cross finds them.

We were a bit too fixated on running through the middle in some games and I will welcome having that option explored more often. We already use that sometimes but not as much as we actually should be.

But we already have Cuenca who could theoretically do that kind of play. No real need to sign anyone if that specific skillset is what we need.

I do agree every team should have one genuine winger in the squad though.

Isn't Cuenca loaned at Ajax again?