Transfer Rumours V6

Theres no hype... He's a bench warmer, and they only want him because of Catalan heritage. The newly elected president will have to green light this transfer so this may not even come to fruition in the end anyway.

ffs. City didn't even try to keep the guy

English press reporting Wijnaldum rejects Liverpool renewal and will join Barca. The sources aren't very reliable though. For free or low transfer fee I wouldn't mind, better than Busquets and Pjanic.

I actually think he could be amazing for us, we really should have gotten him in the summer. I dont watch him a lot but seems very much an all rounder who can play a number of positions, a real work horse and energy (which we so badly need consider the state of Busquets for example), has the technical and passing abilities (I think?), and have goals in him too. So sort of like a young Vidal (instead of the old past it one we had unfortunately).

He would be such an upgrade from our other midfielders we got atm...

So what's the player exodus going to look like?
We will have to sell assets to meet our loan obligations. My worry is that we will sell our best youngsters to meet the loan obligations. The likes of Pedri, Fati, FDJ, Araujo will all probably be sold to finance the debt repayments.
And more concerning, with the out of touch Laporta coming in; we might make an effort to keep hold of the seniors including Messi.
The situation was salvageable to an extent even last summer. All we had to do was get rid of Messi. City would have paid us $50m and we would have saved $100m in wages. But no, we insisted on keeping Messi increasing the strain on our already tough finances.

Now, we are close to bankruptcy. Ideally, we renegotiate with our debtors and ask for an extension. Over the summer, get rid of all the high wage earners starting with Messi. Get rid of the likes of Busquets, Griezman, Coutinho, Alba, Pique and Umtiti. That should free up around $200m in annual wages. Try to keep hold of the young exciting core. And then most importantly put in place a solid wage structure. This should not be broken for any player. We should never again end up in a situation where we allow a player to bleed us dry for $100m a year.

Agreed with all the above. It should've happened last summer, but Bart kept them in an attempt to... stay as president? Didn't turn out exactly like he planned.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Agreed with all the above. It should've happened last summer, but Bart kept them in an attempt to... stay as president? Didn't turn out exactly like he planned.

Yep. He thought holding Messi against his will would help him stay on. That didnt happen. Says a lot that we got rid of 3 high wage earners in Suarez, Rakitic and Vidal and still have the highest wage bill on the planet by a country mile. The club of amigos was and is bleeding us dry ably enabled by a weak president. Completely unacceptable unless you are delivering the CL every single year without fail.
Madrid's model is the one to follow. Have a proper wage structure and dont break it for anyone. They got rid of freaking CR7 when he asked for too much.

Yup. Perez calling Ramos' bluff in the current wage negotiations is a sight to behold, can't remember the last time the Barca board didn't cave for anyone.

Fwiw though selling Suarez to a direct competitor has proven to be a mistake.

I think we are agreed on the seniors.
Out of youngsters, who do you think we should keep? We would be forced to sell them I think.
Out of FDJ, Fati, Pedri, Araujo and Dest; if we could keep only 2; who would you keep?

I can't imagine Fati, Pedri and Araujo are straining our finances at all, but I would keep Pedri and FDJ in that hypothetical scenario.

Pedri, Fati and De Jong must be kept at all cost. The rest is disposable

BarrileteCosmico wrote:I can't imagine Fati, Pedri and Araujo are straining our finances at all, but I would keep Pedri and FDJ in that hypothetical scenario.

They are not straining our finances. But, I guess we will be forced to sell our prized assets to generate funds to pay off some of that short term debt.
I would keep Aruajo, FDJ and Fati. One each from the 3 lines. If it came to it, would sell Pedri over FDJ. And I would keep Araujo over Pedri(as tough as that would be) as we dont have any good CB's and it would cost an arm and a leg to get a good one.

Lets not be overdramatic, they just gotta find investors from the middle east. Selling naming right to the stadium will already bring some revenue and i read they're looking to reschedule the short-term payment of 700m for next year. No need to sell youngsters

I wouldnt mind rich owners since clearly socios are retarded too so no difference

If recent leaks are to be believed, Messi's contract is even filthier and disgusting than previously known. Apparently, its 550m over 4 years. the fact that he has not come out and denied it means its probably true.
The filthy disgusting greedy dictator has brought us to the brink of bankruptcy. He does nowhere close to enough on the field to justify 100m a year. For 100m, he has to bring home the triple every single year and even then its not enough.
550m over 4 years is a whole another scale of greed and ungratefulness to the club who made him. He would be a no name without us.
Shame on Bartomeu too for bending down to the disgraceful greedy dictator. He should have been shown the door long back.
Can't wait for the day this ungrateful greedy overrated hack leaves. We will be much the better.

CAT RADIO: Laporta will try to sign Haaland and Alaba this summer

Barcelona have made a formal offer to Manchester City striker Sergio Agüero (32).
- 'Kun' has the possibility of leaving at zero cost in June
- As one of Messi's best friends, he could be a key factor for Barcelona's number 10 to stay at the Blaugrana club. [tyc sports]

Makes sense. I dont think Haaland this summer is likely, but I might suggest hardly anyone could sign him this summer and the real war begins next one.

Aguero as a stop gap until then makes some sense. Obviously still an elite finisher but wont play every 3 days, so this opens up spaces for other players who need minutes.

The thought process behind giving Suarez away for free only to buy Agüero who no doubt is on big wages?

Saurez comes with the unspoken understanding he has to start nearly all games, cant really be substituted and has a huge wage.

Aguero doesnt have to start the majority of games and is already used to coming from the bench, is very used to being subbed off and theoretically wont be joining without a severe deduction of wage in comparison to what Saurez was on.

I will also say at this point in time, Aguero is better than Saurez in some really key aspects. He can still run behind a defence, he is still a clinical finisher, loses the ball less often and is at least willing to work hard defensively. All things I dont think Suarez is.

Letting Saurez go wasnt wrong, letting him go to Atleti was.

Thats my take on it.

How does someone who can't run behind a defense anymore score 34 goals in his last 44 games while also missing gazillion chances on top of it?

The other points are fair enough, though I doubt Kun outside of Pep's demands is a hard worker either.

I didnt say Suarez is absolutely useless. He can still play.

But for our current needs and what limitations we have, he is a terrible option as the last 2-3 seasons proved.

We try and combine in small spaces, his touch is unpredictable and 1-2's break down. Teams close the space between the lines so Messi cant operate, Saurez cannot exploit the space behind. Messi doesnt consistently put a defensive shift in, Saurez doesnt either so you are automatically defending with 9 players.

Again, Suarez isnt totally finished and he has his strong points still. But he is a bad fit in this current squad. The fact he scores for Atleti in pretty irrelevant because his role is completely different.

I also dont think Aguero will be quite as hard a worker as today, but he wont be a liability either. Which also leads into the main point, if he isnt suitable for a particular game or situation, he can be saddled to the bench in a way Saurez couldnt be.

Franchise is like a football journalist

Years of watching Argentina have convinced me that Kun can't play along Messi. But as a Messi replacement he could be a stopgap.

President Laporta respects Ronald Koeman a lot, but he wouldn't have signed him for his project. He could continue, but he likes other coaches better, including RB Leipzig manager Julian Nagelsmann. [cadena ser]



I like this thinking

The Franchise wrote:I didnt say Suarez is absolutely useless. He can still play.

But for our current needs and what limitations we have, he is a terrible option as the last 2-3 seasons proved.

We try and combine in small spaces, his touch is unpredictable and 1-2's break down. Teams close the space between the lines so Messi cant operate, Saurez cannot exploit the space behind. Messi doesnt consistently put a defensive shift in, Saurez doesnt either so you are automatically defending with 9 players.

Again, Suarez isnt totally finished and he has his strong points still. But he is a bad fit in this current squad. The fact he scores for Atleti in pretty irrelevant because his role is completely different.

I also dont think Aguero will be quite as hard a worker as today, but he wont be a liability either. Which also leads into the main point, if he isnt suitable for a particular game or situation, he can be saddled to the bench in a way Saurez couldnt be.

Disagree that Aguero is a better fit for a current Messi led Barcelona than Suarez. History indicates that very few forwards play well with Messi. Suarez is the exception rather than the norm of forwards who play well with Messi. Ever since Messi changed roles under Pep, the list of forwards who have struggled to play with Messi is long. Zlatan, Villa, Aguero, Higuain (just counting strikers) have all struggled to play with Messi. Villa was a LF with us who occasionally played central but even he struggled.
Suarez is the only striker who has played well with Messi. You mention that Aguero runs in behind better than SUarez. True, not sure that would be better for a current Messi Barca than Suarez and Messi.
Messi is not a traditional number 10 who looks to feed the striker every single time. If that was the case, I would agree. Messi looks for something different in his CF. His run of the mill play, the one he turns to most often and the one he uses most often is the sweeping ball to Alba. And in that play he wants the CF to make the decoy run so he can arrive in the box with space to meet the ball back from Alba. Over the years, Suarez made countless decoy runs to enable the ball back and goal for Messi. Aguero cant do that better than Messi. Other standard play is the give and go around the box with Suarez pushing against the CB's. No running in behind. Just creating that yard of space for Messi. Not sure Aguero can do it better.
Those are just the 2 most standard plays.
Aguero probably closes down better but not by much. History with Argentina also shows that the 2 dont play well together.
On wages, I am not sure he would take a wage cut. Last contract, not sure Aguero would come on less wages than Suarez. Sub part I agree but at Atleti; Suarez gets subbed off quite a bit in the second half.
Overall, for a Messi Barca; Suarez is still the better option than Aguero imo.

Generally (not related to Barca); as great as Aguero has been, Suarez is still a level up. And he continues to prove that this season. Difference between 3rd and Atleti probably winning the league this season. Scoring clutch goal after clutch goal to give Atleti the points. Last game against Bilbao was no exception. Won the penalty with a good piece of skill. Ice cold penalty to help Atleti win.

Barcelona are willing to move on multiple squad players such as Junior Firpo, Philippe Coutinho, Antoine Griezmann, Martin Braithwaite, Neto, Samuel Umtiti and Miralem Pjanić in order to raise funds for the signing of Erling Haaland.

Matheus Fernandes is also available for sale, although any value may be minimal, while they are even willing to listen to offers for central defender Clément Lenglet.

President Laporta is very clear: his absolute priority signing is Erling Haaland. All other signings will either be free deals, or low-cost signings. [marca]

This is Marca just writing articles for the sake of writing articles.

Title reads "Laporta certain: Haaland is the priority", as if the other clubs' presidents weren't thinking day and night about signing him as well