Something fishy is going on at our club...

Is it coming to the end of an era already?
Pep's team and continuation was supposed to be ensured when Tito took over but something Surely happened before Pep left and now little by little details are coming out.
Can't say I am surprised that Rossell's reign seems to be going bad now,tbh.

and remember, the most important position to be filled hasn't been filled as yet.

Thiago gone and Fabregas may follow... and we apparently need money.\\

Time to ease out the likes of Xavi and Puyol. Play them less than before. Thiago,lMO, should have been given assurances as long as 4-3-3 is going to be kept as we expect. Fabregas going for 25mil would have been accepted. So too is getting in some new blood who have it all to prove.
Would have promoted Thiago and Montoya this season and given them bigger roles.
Let Alexis Sanchez have another chance this season as well.

I dont know whats up, but I was thinking about this as well. Something really odd is going on. I think the club is worse financially than we know. Maybe everything they planned involved us winning the Champions by now, but we havnt and that huge income hasnt came in. Im guessing all the players being sold or let go are just clearing up space and they are not spendig this 50m transfer kitty we apparently had because maybe they need to it keep the club out of dept. Neymar is all we might get.

I don't like "end of an era" talk especially in our case. I think this is a good chance to point out some of the choices by management that can lead to a recession, and some general concerns I have for the future.

First, I watch American football. College and professional. I'm a junkie. In professional football you have a salary cap. You add the yearly salary of the top 51 contracts and it has to be over 123mil. Now let's say you pay a guy 60mil of 5 years. That's 12mil a year and nearly 10% of your budget on one player. Now if that player becomes injured or their player begins to deteriorate than your losing substantial value. I realize that Futbol doesn't have a salary cap so I view it this way. A players transfers has to be directly comparable to his contributions on the field. Now the maxim of my point is Ibra. Barca essentially paid 69mil for a single season of production. You also have the transfer of bench warmers like Cesc and Song. You have the signing of Alba that actually makes are defense weaker. This is just bad business and for 3 seasons I've watched the club buy players that were not needed and did not fit. Wasting large percentages of the clubs overhead. This is not sustainable but La Masia products like Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, and Puyal has overshadowed errors that would lead to financial ruin with any other club.

This leads me to my second point. If an era is truly ending it's not the success of this club but the retiring of the old national team guard. For 5 years we've watched the success of the Spanish NT intertwined with the clubs success. Xavi can't press and he doesn't deliver the long ball or through ball anymore. Now this is partially because of defenses playing deep but then again when they do he can't breach the midfield to draw defenders and open space. Everything has to run through Messi. Xavi can't hold up near as well in the midfield. Iniesta is still in form but he to is even showing signs of wear. He hasn't scored a goal in forever. Villa is done. Puyol done. Alba, Pedro, and Busquests are young but let's be honest that's not the engine of this team. Xavi and Iniesta are the foundation and I have a feeling that that they're going to get worse next season. If they go down the entire team goes down. The lack of pressing in midfield killed us in big games and they were straight muscled out against Bayern. Our 4-3-3 is contigent on pressing in midfield. When we tried to just soak up pressure it failed HORRIBLY(Bayern). All this is magnified by the fact that coaches know how to play us. That was alright when we pressed lack mad men because it slows the counter attack. It was alright when we had Puyol to sweep things up. It was alright when our brand of attack football was fresh and still effective. Guardialo is probably the greatest thing that happened to this club. He saw the pieces in front of him and he knew what he had. He fashioned the greatest attacking team in history but that dream is over. We need to end the Spanish NT 2.0 project. The 4-3-3 has been broken.

Last but not least I'm gonna get all crazy and say we should switch to a double pivot. 2 DM would allow Alves and Alba to press with an extra body to cover the wings. A fast CB that's good at tackling would do the trick. We would need another DM that could take the ball forawrds. Maybe Song could be utilized for spreading the ball to the wings and Busi could be the guy to take the ball up and with Messi playing CAM he could drop back to pick up the ball as well. With all the pace we have on the wing and Cesc playing the false nine we would have no problems scoring goals creatively and we would greatly strengthen the defense with an extra DM. That's just crazy talk though.

If we get noticeably worse next season does Tito get fired?

If the the club is in financial troubles it wouldn't have spent what it did on Neymar.

agree with Kantian. Great post. Hit the nail on the head.
btw, playing 2 Dms is not in any way crazy and can be incorporated into our 4-3-3. instead of Xaviesta playing ahead of Busquets it is time to tweak and give Busquets help.
A CB still is Priority number 1. With the frontline having the main 4 of Messi, Neymar, Alexis Sanchez and Pedro. The MF contains Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Fabregas, Alex Song and Sergi Roberto. The defence needs refurbishing.

In a 2 DM system where would Fabregas fit? I don't agree with Messi coming deeper just yet,tbh. He until proven otherwise is our ONLY source of goals,atm. until someone(e.g. Neymar) can prove to be a second regular match-winning source, moving Messi from CF/False 9 is ill-advised. This leaves Fabregas with no fixed position since Iniesta will HAVE to play CAM in front of 2 dms and Neymar will obviously play LF/LW. Also, Montoya needs to be pushed more as well to keep Dani Alves on his toes.

I do not expect anything this season. La Liga is possible, other than that the management killed our Dream Team 2 with series of shady decisions.

What I find fishy is that we don't seem to get any transfer fee straight - why not just say the right number? Some fishy money laundering going on at the club...

Yes, something fishy is in our club. It's called Rosell, the boiled fish of Ipanema.