Transfer Rumours V6

Isn't the buyback clause like 5M? Pretty good deal

I think it varies per season. The deal is for 5 years to for Adama, the buy back is good for the first 3.

Heard Read Madrid about to sign Kovacic.They are hoarding up talent in the early 20's age group.A worrying trend for us.
When Messi and Suarez start to decline, it is going to be Neymar and scrubs versus James,Isco,Kroos,Kovacic, Varane,DDG etc.
Going to be fun times.

There are still 4-5 absolute top years from Suarez and Messi

Worry about now and not that far into future

Arent we supposed to care about the medium tern future?
Squad building should always be done with a 4-5 year horizon in mind.We have a dispensation where the coach only cares about short term results,which is reflected in his transfer policy of buying experienced players and a management which indulges him.
If,as you suggest,we only start caring in 4-5 years, it might be too late.

For now we have a transfer ban.

We will be active in the transfer window next summer.

People love to overact

I am stating a simple fact that Madrid have a much more talented core of young players.
That is indisputable fact.Fail to see how you see me stating a fact as overreacting.

alexjanosik wrote:When Messi and Suarez start to decline, it is going to be Neymar and scrubs

Sounds like an overreaction to me. Are you trying to imply that we're not going to buy anyone and players like Roberto or Munir will be undisputed starters in 5 years time?

Ofcourse we will buy.But the question is,will we get the cream of the crop?
Elite midfield talent doesnt go on trees. With Kovacic,Madrid will have 3 of the best young midfield talent on the planet.When we finally decide that we need reinforcements and that Scruberto and Scrubinha aint gonna cut it, will we magically get 2,3 midfielders who are good enough to compete against Madrid's midfield?I highly doubt it.
Maybe you are right and I am overreacting. But its better to be ready especially when the rival is hoarding up on young talent.

alexjanosik wrote:Ofcourse we will buy.But the question is,will we get the cream of the crop?
Elite midfield talent doesnt go on trees. With Kovacic,Madrid will have 3 of the best young midfield talent on the planet.When we finally decide that we need reinforcements and that Scruberto and Scrubinha aint gonna cut it, will we magically get 2,3 midfielders who are good enough to compete against Madrid's midfield?I highly doubt it.
Maybe you are right and I am overreacting. But its better to be ready especially when the rival is hoarding up on young talent.

They will leave Madrid before they flourish tbh.

Yeah, Kroos, Isco, Kovacic, Ödegaard, Asensio, James etc. can hardly coexist together and I've already pretended that Modric has retired and can't play for another 3 seasons. They are buying for the sake of it and looking what sticks à la Illarramendi.

Obviously still a better strategy than buying Vermaelen, Douglas, Song, Arda and sticking with Roberto, Bartra and Co. At least their players will have resale value. Even if Kovacic flops, Juventus will probably take him in 3 years time for € 20M. Players like Bartra, Roberto, Douglas etc. have no upside at all and are certified waste of space.

More than Madrid stacking up elite talent in their ranks, I'm pissed @ the club neglecting two of our brightest talents in Samper and Grimaldo, and instead continually relying on Scruberto and coaxing the washed-up injury prone Adriano in to signing a renewal. Even the thought angers me multifold.

Yea they are obviously buying for the future. Signed Vallejo and Asensio and loaned them out. Odegaard is gonna get loaned out. Kovacic could likely get some small playing time here and there if they sell Asier.

I can't stand that team but I must admit they are doing some great work in the transfer window. Wrapped up Danilo mid last season before anybody else could get to him, and since have been signing nothing but U-20 future potential stars. Meanwhile we are dropping 25-40M on average on players are are around 27-30 years old.

I said last year in this very thread that our squad leading up to January was going to be super imbalanced (this is when I thought we would be fine in January with Gundogan and Pogba arriving, not Vidal and Turan) and I pointed out how we would have a bunch of players slightly past prime or wrong side of 30 (Iniesta, Mathieu, Adriano, Alves, Masch, Verm) and a bunch of guys that aren't near prime form or that might turn out to be nothing (Douglas, Sergi, Rafinha, Bartra, Sandro, Munir) playing with a few guys are still prime (Messi, Suarez, Neymar, Rakatic) and then Pedro and Xavi who were our reliable power houses off the bench would be gone. Mole criticized me for being so negative given we were on route to win the treble, but long term it was obvious this team wasn't going to have much to offer after last season with such an imbalanced team. Look at Real Madrid, almost all of those guys are in prime form or on route too it and are already world class vs our team. Not even close, they have a better balanced team and will continue to do so for many years with our current transfer strategy vs theres.

linetty wrote:There are still 4-5 absolute top years from Suarez and Messi

Worry about now and not that far into future

You think simply having Suarez and Messi will win us games? What about now? We just gave up 8 goals in the last 2 games and Messi and Suarez couldn't get the ball cause our midfield couldn't get it done. Our problems are current, and to top it off our board is not thinking about the mid to long term future either. I don't understand your "everything is going to be ok because we have Messi" outlook. Look at Argentina.

Halilovic's father would have put a loan to Sporting on hold because he prefers his son to join a team that plays in a Uefa competition [ec]

This is what I'm talking about. WHO CARES?! Go and develop as a player, no one gives a shit if you play in the Europa League.

windkick wrote:You think simply having Suarez and Messi will win us games? What about now? We just gave up 8 goals in the last 2 games and Messi and Suarez couldn't get the ball cause our midfield couldn't get it done. Our problems are current, and to top it off our board is not thinking about the mid to long term future either. I don't understand your "everything is going to be ok because we have Messi" outlook. Look at Argentina.

I never said that. That was never the point of discussion anyway. Alex claimed we will have scrubs beside Neymar when Suarez and Messi are done and I just said that they still have at least 4-5 years in them and there's lots of time to find proper replacements. I mean, Alex made it looks like our starting front three in 5 years would look like Neymar-Sandro-Munir or something.

I actually said we should worry about our current situation and not look 5 years ahead. Problems are evident but we're serving a transfer ban and nothing can be done at this very moment.

Samper will get his shot eventually when things go to shit.

I don't think I have a 'we have Messi so everything's ok' outlook. I am aware of our deficiencies.

Our upcoming talent in midfield is relying on Samper and Halilovic coming good and we aren't giving minutes to Samper and Halilovic could go any which way. Midfield is already somewhat of a problem NOW--Busquets is fantastic of course but Iniesta is getting old, Rakitic is 27 now and a good player but has never been elite for us, and backups include scruberto and scrubinha. It's even worse when you look at those same players in the future.

Our defense literally has a nonexistent future, and actually looks like shit right now, too.

We're relying on MSN so heavily it's not even funny. This type of attitude means when Messi and Suarez start to decline all we'll have in our team as of right now is...Neymar. I think anyone who is worried about our upcoming talent, especially in comparison to Madrid is certainly right to be worried.

Transfer ban or not, we can't just buy all of the upcoming talent in a couple transfer windows--1) that's not how it works, 2) Madrid are hoarding a lot of the good ones, and 3) our current idea of getting upcoming talent means buying 29 year olds

Barca fans are the most depressing in the world. Let's go position for position:

Forwards:

Neymar: 23, needs no replacing for 10 years. Everything cool.

Messi: just turned 28. Has AT LEAST 4 more seasons in him. Buying or developing any youngstar in his position is pointless when he won't miss a single game for the next 4 seasons at least. In 4 years he'll be only Ronaldo's current age who is still going strong.

Suarez: 28. Same argument as Messi. Pointless to try and develop or buy anyone for the future now. Maybe in 2 years it's time to think about it.

Midfield:

Busquets: 27. No need to worry for at least 5 more years.

Rakitic: 27. Same as Busquets. LOL @ "has never been really elite for us". Do you watch Barca, bruh? If only prime Xaviesta level is elite enough you'll wait a long time for "elite" midfielders.

Iniesta: 31. Needs replacing soon. If for example Pogba comes that's the midfield sorted for 5 years.

Defense:

Alba: 26. Needs no replacing soon (at least not because of age )

Pique: 28. Needs no replacing soon. Has 4 more seasons in him at least. Defenders can usually play even longer.

Mascherano: 31. Needs replacing soon.

Dani Alves: 32. Needs replacing soon.

GK:

MAtS: 23. No problems.
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So to sum up: Barca will need 1 midfielder, 1 rightback and 1 CB soon, preferably next season. If that's done the first XI is sorted for about 5 years. Everything else is depth issues. Hardly "Neymar + scrubs". Buying 21 year old unknown Serie zZZzzZ talent because of Fifa potential does nothing right now if they are going to watch Messi, Neymar, Suarez, Iniesta, Busquets, Rakitic, Pique from the bench week in week out for the next few seasons. Mehdrid randomly buying all hyped names doesn't prove anything for their future. They'll have more trouble once Ronaldo slows down and MSN still goes strong in 2 years than the other way around. If Kovacic becomes the next Illarra don't be surprised.

This forum.

Fuss telling it like it is

People do overact

BTW what it is with Halilovics father blocking his move to Gijon and demanding european competition lol? As if he would get lots of playing time in a cl or el club

Iniestas heir is developing at sevilla btw 2 goals and assist last game

You seem to be acting as if depth does not exist. Here is the thing about Barca right now--we are lucky. We didn't get any major injuries last year, but that luck does not last forever. Out of the current team then you point out we have three current players right now who need replacing within the next year or two. This point? I can agree with you. The current first team doesn't need a major overhaul, but a sizeable change when the transfer ban is up.

What's the problem with that though? Is the current defense even good enough? Is the current midfield even good enough? I feel that if Messi or Suarez get a big injury, or god forbid both--we're in trouble because they're carrying us. Now this is OK, this is not a bad problem to have IF you have talented young players that are rotating in with the squad that can take over their places when they're not good enough anymore or they can compete with the first team squad and potentially take their places. A good example of this is Thiago with a great coach like Pep who was willing to play him and rotate him in.

That doesn't exist for us anymore. We have scruberto--and actually talented players like Samper aren't getting any time. We don't have any depth as it is, and the depth that we do have isn't good enough. Munir? Sandro? Rafinha? They are decent players that as they get older will develop into good players but will they be Barca level? I am not sure they ever hold down a place in the Barca starting lineup.

This is not just a problem now but it is a problem for the future, unless our plan is to ignore young talent, buy the best and most talented of every position no matter their age, expect them to slot in to the team right away and play well, then fair enough. However, I don't think that's the best plan, and the fact that we have no real future as a team in terms of young talent is a worry. The fact that we have little depth right now and are expecting MSN to carry us for another season is a worry as well.

I am not overreacting, I'm saying that it's reasonable to worry about these things. " I think anyone who is worried about our upcoming talent, especially in comparison to Madrid is certainly right to be worried."

I wouldn't think this is a talking point considering the transfer ban if not for the fact that before our transfer ban, our moves were to buy a bunch of 28-30 year olds. I don't have much faith it will be a lot better post transfer ban.

First of all I don't think we're in trouble if Suarez gets injured. Actually it's a proven fact. He was injured in the title decider against Atletico away and we won. In fact he was not even available at the start of the season and all games were won with the likes of Munir and Sandro. First loss was on his debut against Madrid. Even if only 2 of "MSN" are available that's already more firepower than any other team in the world can offer bar maybe Real Madrid and Bayern. There is no depth issue in the frontline.

Bottom line: What is it that you are actually saying here? What talented youngstar or backup player would be able to mitigate the quality loss of injured Messi and/or Suarez but also sit on the bench 90 % of the time while they are fit? Because that's what's going to happen. Or do you think Messi is going to be part of a rotation system from now on? Suarez is a bit more easygoing when subbed but only a little. He's also throwing little tantrums. Like Neymar.

The Thiago example actually doesn't help your argument. With Xavi still at a good level, Iniesta in his prime + Fabregas and Thiago we had at least one too many midfielder. Pep made it work with a defensively unsustainable 3 man backline formation and nonsense like 3-7-0. It led to 0 tituli, Tito reverted back to 4-3-3 and Thiago left because he felt he didn't play enough. Top quality talent isn't willing to sit on the bench for too long. Even 35 year old Xavi prefers to play in the desert now rather than being a backup at Barca.

At Madrid it will also not work. They are buying hyped names randomly. Tell me more how Bale + Benzema + Ronaldo/Ronaldo's inevitable big money successor + James + Kroos + Isco + Kovacic + Asensio + Ödegaard will all have a future together. I haven't even named a single defensive midfielder yet.

We will buy when we need it. Don't need to stack and destroy talent in the hope that some will come good in a few years.

Not to intrude, which I am gonna do anyway but Futbol, you're giving the impression of someone who hopes it doesn't work with Madrid than someone who believes it won't work out.

Also, I understand cBarca's point. No one is going into a mass panic but even you, who switches from sparkly eyed optimism to down right I hate Barcelona mode rather interestingly, can admit that there is some degree of worry that should be taking place.

You, of course, outlined your point well enough but nothing is inherently wrong with living on the side of caution. Anyway, carry on gents, lovely stuff.

RAC1 reporting Halilovic will join Sporting Gijon on loan within 2-3 days. Good news as there were reports his stupid daddy might block the move

Should we have a thread for our loanees?

futbol wrote:First of all I don't think we're in trouble if Suarez gets injured. Actually it's a proven fact. He was injured in the title decider against Atletico away and we won. In fact he was not even available at the start of the season and all games were won with the likes of Munir and Sandro. First loss was on his debut against Madrid. Even if only 2 of "MSN" are available that's already more firepower than any other team in the world can offer bar maybe Real Madrid and Bayern. There is no depth issue in the frontline.

Bottom line: What is it that you are actually saying here? What talented youngstar or backup player would be able to mitigate the quality loss of injured Messi and/or Suarez but also sit on the bench 90 % of the time while they are fit? Because that's what's going to happen. Or do you think Messi is going to be part of a rotation system from now on? Suarez is a bit more easygoing when subbed but only a little. He's also throwing little tantrums. Like Neymar.

The Thiago example actually doesn't help your argument. With Xavi still at a good level, Iniesta in his prime + Fabregas and Thiago we had at least one too many midfielder. Pep made it work with a defensively unsustainable 3 man backline formation and nonsense like 3-7-0. It led to 0 tituli, Tito reverted back to 4-3-3 and Thiago left because he felt he didn't play enough. Top quality talent isn't willing to sit on the bench for too long. Even 35 year old Xavi prefers to play in the desert now rather than being a backup at Barca.

At Madrid it will also not work. They are buying hyped names randomly. Tell me more how Bale + Benzema + Ronaldo/Ronaldo's inevitable big money successor + James + Kroos + Isco + Kovacic + Asensio + Ödegaard will all have a future together. I haven't even named a single defensive midfielder yet.

We will buy when we need it. Don't need to stack and destroy talent in the hope that some will come good in a few years.

We are in trouble if Suarez gets injured.The Atletico game proves nothing. Game was almost a friendly. Atletico had already qualified for CL and they werent going to hand Madrid the title. If you want to talk about games against Atletico,lets talk about the 3 games which actually mattered. Suarez proving instrumental in us winning 3 in a row when we couldnt beat them in 6 attempts the season before.
We dont win squat without Suarez last season. I dont think we will win anything this season if Suarez is out injured for a significant length of time and the replacements arent up to scratch.

Squad depth is extremely important.Last season was an anomaly where a lot of things went our way.
Firstly we had no major injuries,which meant that we could play a full strength team in every important game.Not going to happen again.
We were also lucky that 2 all timers in Messi and Suarez decided to go into GOD mode together post January. And ofcourse the other all timer in Iniesta showed up in the important games.
Very remote chances of the same happening again.

Dont agree with your assessment of the squad either. You are being extremely optimistic if you really think Pique is going to be world class for the next 5 seasons. Last season was his first world class season in 3. In all probability,he will coast the next couple of seasons.
Why do you mention Alba being 26 as some kind of positive? I am talking about elite level talent here. Alba is not elite. So that is almost the entire backline which needs replacing with elite talent.
Rakitic and Busquets are excellent but who will replace them when one of them gets injured? Quality young talent is important for 2 reasons. To sub in when required without much of a drop in quality and to groom for the future.