Alves leaving Barca?

All signs point to him simply wanting a new challenge, ala Valdes leaving around the same age he is now. No sign of him being upset with the club, players or staff. No signs of him asking for more money either.

If anything, I think he did us a solid. He was trying to move on last summer, but we had the transfer ban and only Douglas as our right back with Montoya loaned out. So he agreed to sign a new contract with us to help us out, in exchange for us adding a clause that he could leave for free during the first weeks of each summer transfer window of 2016 and of 2017 (2018 he would be a free agent). So with that in mind, we should be forever grateful to him, he has been a pillar in our squad for so long now, and easily one of the best right backs of all time, and easily the best right back our club has ever had the pleasure of having wearing our colors.

I wish him all the best at Juve

Official now. Huge loss.

Drama queen.

Robert: "We trust Aleix to cover for Alves, that's what we signed him for, we have not contacted Bellerin"

Running this club to the ground...

What else is he going to say?

"Hey, look every potential selling club, we are IN DESPERATE NEED of a new rightback. You hear us? DESPERATE. Pls charge us an extra € 20M on top of the usual transfer fee. Love and hugs. Barca's sporting director."

Duh.

Sergi Roberto got this

Skill wise he will not be missed much. he had only few great matches this season. injury free Vidal can replace him. Same was with Xavi.He is a legend but at this age Rakitic was more important than him and suited enrique style, direct play, hard work, long shots etc. But i will miss Alves as a person and as a player who was part of every good moments in recent barca history. who will make jokes in title celebrations and who will badmouth r.madrid players? Nobody

Skill wise he will not be missed much???
I respectfully disagree.His passing(he will comfortably be the best passer in Serie A now) and effortless play under pressure will be missed. His one two play will be missed. His relentless pressing will be missed(our half baked press works in large part because of him). And he was consistently good throughout the season.

Had hoped Messi would convince him to stay. Was not to be. Thanks for everything Alves. You are a club legend and will forever be remembered fondly.
Thank you champion.

alexjanosik wrote:Skill wise he will not be missed much???
I respectfully disagree.His passing(he will comfortably be the best passer in Serie A now) and effortless play under pressure will be missed. His one two play will be missed. His relentless pressing will be missed(our half baked press works in large part because of him). And he was consistently good throughout the season.

Had hoped Messi would convince him to stay. Was not to be. Thanks for everything Alves. You are a club legend and will forever be remembered fondly.
Thank you champion.

Agreed. I think he was an integral part of Barcelona's style of play and you will not be able to replace him, just like after 4 years you still haven't managed to replace Abidal.

His one twos will be missed and his play under pressure too.other than that not so much. but Vidal also has his own strength.he looked faster and better shooter to me in his few matches. Team didnt miss alves when vidal played.maybe useless matches but still

New players has more energy and desire. Usually it improves the team.suarez, neymar, bravo and ter stegen are examples.Sometimes it doesnt. like abidal and puyol. We will see which one will happen with alves vidal swap.my feeling is that it will not be a tragedy

I think his competitive spirit will be missed the most. Those are the kind of attitudes you need in a champion team.

He won't be missed. I'll never forget what he's done for Barça but it was high time he moved on. Maybe Lucho will finally put faith in Aleix.

'He won't be missed?'

Absolutely monumental player for you. Will leave a monumental hole.

He was monumental in 2008-2011

Not anymore, you'll see

Marcus Aurelius wrote:He was monumental in 2008-2011

Not anymore, you'll see

Still far better than any potential alternative. Alves is not only a world class wingbackk, but like his compatriot Marcelo, a world class footballer. Could see him  playing Rakitic's role easily at a higher level than the Croat himself.

alexjanosik wrote:Skill wise he will not be missed much???
I respectfully disagree.His passing(he will comfortably be the best passer in Serie A now) and effortless play under pressure will be missed. His one two play will be missed. His relentless pressing will be missed(our half baked press works in large part because of him). And he was consistently good throughout the season.

Had hoped Messi would convince him to stay. Was not to be. Thanks for everything Alves. You are a club legend and will forever be remembered fondly.
Thank you champion.

I completely agree alex. Alves was an outstanding player for us and an utterly indispensable part of the golden era.

I can take a little solace in him leaving happily. I understand it's his decision to leave and the club haven't forced him out. However I cannot deny that I think there is more to it. Mascherano is just one year younger than Alves but there seems to be so much more desire within the club hierarchy to keep him and value him. How come Mascherano was made the fourth captain instead of Alves last year? Maybe Alves never really got along with this management but since he was such a special player they had to keep him. I am also surprised at the low key send off. Was there a full press conference as there was for Puyol, Xavi and Abidal? Nothing that I got to know of.

Anyway many thanks and best wishes to the best right back (or perhaps even full back) in Barcelona history.

None less than the maestro Xavi said last summer that we would miss him.

Extremely delighted for our dear former legend though. At Barca no matter how well he played and how much of a difference maker he was someone or the other almost invariably took away his limelight. That's not the case any more.

Man of the match in both legs of the UCL semi final at the age of 34.

Yeah obviously he still has the genius in him but in his last days at Barca he did not perform up to the standard and definitely not up to his salary. Great players can deliver even when it seems like they're past it but these are one offs.

The only reasonable decision was to get rid of him....our stupid board wasn't able to replace him properly (no suprise) but it doesn't mean we should have kept him. Shoulda given a chance to some youngster instead of buying mediocrity, the least these morons could have done.

Myesyats wrote:Yeah obviously he still has the genius in him but in his last days at Barca he did not perform up to the standard and definitely not up to his salary. Great players can deliver even when it seems like they're past it but these are one offs.

The only reasonable decision was to get rid of him....our stupid board wasn't able to replace him properly (no suprise) but it doesn't mean we should have kept him. Shoulda given a chance to some youngster instead of buying mediocrity, the least these morons could have done.

Please stop. He was brilliant last season for us. Its the under appreciation from fans like you that led him to leave.
Had he stayed, we would have won the league this season at a canter. Yet, now we are trailing behind a frankly uninspiring Madrid team.
He is a champion and I hope he can trump Madrid one last time. Both for himself and as a favor to us.

messixaviesta wrote:None less than the maestro Xavi said last summer that we would miss him.

Extremely delighted for our dear former legend though. At Barca no matter how well he played and how much of a difference maker he was someone or the other almost invariably took away his limelight. That's not the case any more.

Man of the match in both legs of the UCL semi final at the age of 34.

More than people taking away the limelight, it was that fans never appreciated him. Got the feeling that because of his outspoken ways, he was hated by many. Despite the fact that he gave his all every single time.
Am glad that the wider audience finally realizes what a champion he is. Hope the Barca system player argument finally dies down now. For my money, the greatest fullback to have played the game.

alexjanosik wrote:frankly uninspiring Madrid team

I couldn't agree more. I have written in another thread some time back how I don't see much special or brilliant in this team. However they have learned to win. Just imagine if this team becomes the first to win back to back UCLs. My emotions in this final are close to what it would be if Barca were in a UCL final. There is Dani Alves. There is Gianluigi Buffon. I think very highly of Max Allegri as well. Leonardo Bonucci. A lot of people associated with Juventus I really like. When they thrashed us 3-0 I went on record to say this is the best team in the world. Now I am desperately hoping they prove me right.

alexjanosik wrote:

messixaviesta wrote:None less than the maestro Xavi said last summer that we would miss him.

Extremely delighted for our dear former legend though. At Barca no matter how well he played and how much of a difference maker he was someone or the other almost invariably took away his limelight. That's not the case any more.

Man of the match in both legs of the UCL semi final at the age of 34.  

More than people taking away the limelight, it was that fans never appreciated him. Got the feeling that because of his outspoken ways, he was hated by many. Despite the fact that he gave his all every single time.
Am glad that the wider audience finally realizes what a champion he is. Hope the Barca system player argument finally dies down now. For my money, the greatest fullback to have played the game.

I think some fans did like him immensely such as so many on this forum. The big problem was the board. For some reason they just refused to treat him as a legend unlike how they treated so many other players.

He is a guy who always spoke his mind whether the board liked it or not. In the locker room my guess is he must have been the most beloved character. Always jovial and always ready to stand by each and every one of his team mates. Which player in recent times has changed his jersey number twice just to honor two different players??? That's Dani Alves for you.

Alves was well within his rights to proclaim in the media that he should be treated on par with Xavi and Iniesta. Instead what he said was that its unfair that neither Xavi nor Iniesta ever won the Ballon D'or. All he wanted was that the powers that be recognize his contribution but this sorry excuse of a board could not even give him that. It was so sad that there was no farewell ceremony for him. I understand he himself declined it but that was probably because he wanted nothing more from this board.  

Peter Staunton of Goal.com recently claimed that Alves was Barca's second best player in Pep's team after Messi. We have argued at times that he should be rated ahead of Iniesta but this is the first time someone has placed him ahead of Xavi.

As for the debate on whether Barca should have sold him or not here's how I see it. We do not sell club legends. Did we sell Puyol? Did we sell Xavi? Even now there is not even one serious report suggesting that we are ready to sell Iniesta. Why should Alves not have been treated on par with these names? His only mistake was arguing with the board???

You called him the greatest. I say it would please me if pundits started mentioning him among full back legends. The best comparison that I make is with Philipp Lahm. I would argue that Alves edges out Lahm on club career but because the latter has done so much better in international football, he will always be rated higher by the wider football world.

By the way there are talks of Dani Alves making the Ballon D'or podium this time. For that to happen he has to be the difference making winner in the final which is certainly not beyond him.

GO ALVES !!!