What Next for Barça?

Busquets is allegedly staying, albeit for a bench role

If all of the seniors leave, we have a chance to put a sound structure in place. First thing which will happen is we instantly become financially sound. Messi, Suarez, Rakitic, Vidal etc leaving frees up pratically the entire wage bill. We should then put a firm wage structure in place like Madrid. And rebuild.

The lineup BC posted is not league winning material but you can build around it. Bring in a couple of players and I think that team can compete.

Yeah honestly the first team is not terrible. I think the issue will be depth and just what signings this good-for-nothing board is able to complete. I almost want them to trust the cantera, not buy anyone and wait for the next president to make his moves.

it's pretty obvious now. Build the team around Griezmann

alexjanosik wrote:If all of the seniors leave, we have a chance to put a sound structure in place. First thing which will happen is we instantly become financially sound. Messi, Suarez, Rakitic, Vidal etc leaving frees up pratically the entire wage bill. We should then put a firm wage structure in place like Madrid. And rebuild.

The lineup BC posted is not league winning material but you can build around it. Bring in a couple of players and I think that team can compete.

One thing wrong with it, Dembele has barely been fit since he signed on. I wouldn't count on him to be a starter for Barca for any amount of time. Then who plays there?

Kick wrote:

alexjanosik wrote:If all of the seniors leave, we have a chance to put a sound structure in place. First thing which will happen is we instantly become financially sound. Messi, Suarez, Rakitic, Vidal etc leaving frees up pratically the entire wage bill. We should then put a firm wage structure in place like Madrid. And rebuild.

The lineup BC posted is not league winning material but you can build around it. Bring in a couple of players and I think that team can compete.

One thing wrong with it, Dembele has barely been fit since he signed on. I wouldn't count on him to be a starter for Barca for any amount of time. Then who plays there?

Dembele's health is a serious concern. Still hopeful that he can stay fit. Despite the criticism, he has looked dangerous whenever he has played. Obviously can't rely on him though. Alternative would be finding a great CF.
The forward line would then be Fati LW, Griezman RW and CF. Griezman would play better as a side forward compared to CF. The CF would have to be well thought out. Try for Haaland perhaps who is a killer in front of goal.

alexjanosik wrote:

Kick wrote:

alexjanosik wrote:If all of the seniors leave, we have a chance to put a sound structure in place. First thing which will happen is we instantly become financially sound. Messi, Suarez, Rakitic, Vidal etc leaving frees up pratically the entire wage bill. We should then put a firm wage structure in place like Madrid. And rebuild.

The lineup BC posted is not league winning material but you can build around it. Bring in a couple of players and I think that team can compete.

One thing wrong with it, Dembele has barely been fit since he signed on. I wouldn't count on him to be a starter for Barca for any amount of time. Then who plays there?

Dembele's health is a serious concern. Still hopeful that he can stay fit. Despite the criticism, he has looked dangerous whenever he has played. Obviously can't rely on him though. Alternative would be finding a great CF.
The forward line would then be Fati LW, Griezman RW and CF. Griezman would play better as a side forward compared to CF. The CF would have to be well thought out. Try for Haaland perhaps who is a killer in front of goal.

I think that would be a better idea. Someone who can hold up the ball would be ideal, like Giroud does for Gressy in the NT. Rotate Fati with Dembele and build around Griezmanns strengths.

alexjanosik wrote:

Kick wrote:

alexjanosik wrote:If all of the seniors leave, we have a chance to put a sound structure in place. First thing which will happen is we instantly become financially sound. Messi, Suarez, Rakitic, Vidal etc leaving frees up pratically the entire wage bill. We should then put a firm wage structure in place like Madrid. And rebuild.

The lineup BC posted is not league winning material but you can build around it. Bring in a couple of players and I think that team can compete.

One thing wrong with it, Dembele has barely been fit since he signed on. I wouldn't count on him to be a starter for Barca for any amount of time. Then who plays there?

Dembele's health is a serious concern. Still hopeful that he can stay fit. Despite the criticism, he has looked dangerous whenever he has played. Obviously can't rely on him though. Alternative would be finding a great CF.
The forward line would then be Fati LW, Griezman RW and CF. Griezman would play better as a side forward compared to CF. The CF would have to be well thought out. Try for Haaland perhaps who is a killer in front of goal.

Lacazette is available

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Yeah honestly the first team is not terrible. I think the issue will be depth and just what signings this good-for-nothing board is able to complete. I almost want them to trust the cantera, not buy anyone and wait for the next president to make his moves.

Agreed, if Messi leaves on paper we still have a solid squad, ter Stegen, Semedo, Dembele, Griezmann, Lenglet, de Jong and Coutinho and youth players like Araujo, Puig, Fati, Trincao and Todibo, while keeping Pique, Busi and now Pjanic. If City are interested in Messi and he doesn't walk for free we can negotiate B.Silva in the deal as Dany mention in another thread (won't happen but one can dream).

It's a good balance of players in their peak/prime with some youngsters/youth and veterans in the team. As long as this board doesn't mess up and bleep off next season I'm looking forward to the next couple of years.

Until Barto resigns we have shit!

Have you noticed that the Barca downward spiral began when Luis Enrique (Last decent coach) left (or maybe it was when fart took over presidency)?

futbol_bill wrote:Have you noticed that the Barca downward spiral began when Luis Enrique (Last decent coach) left (or maybe it was when fart took over presidency)?

It was when Rosel (Farts buddy) took Barca. We had exodus of technical staff and complete abandon of Massia. First two bad things.

LE was a solid coach, but was playing Barto's game by buying old farts in Massia's expense.

I am not saying we had exceptional players in Massia, but I am sure they would have performed on Arda Turan level had they been given a chance and they would potentially generate money instead of draining us.

Si tienes un mal día solo piensa en todas los culés que se tatuaron a Messi.

futbol_bill wrote:Si tienes un mal día solo piensa en todas los culés que se tatuaron a Messi.

I expect Harmonica will be one of those with the tattoo!

Most fans don't seem to be blaming him yet, no one burning his shirts.

If he goes to Madrid...

Looks like seniors are going to stay. When Koeman came in, there was talk that all the seniors would leave. None has left till now. That's what happens when you pay a bunch of past it has beens obscene wages which no one else dares to pay. We are stuck with them. Even if they stay, hope they are frozen out of the team.
None of them should get a sniff of first team football. Make them train like dogs and bench them.

Rakitic, Suarez and Vidal seem on track for the exit. Busquets, Pique and Alba not so much.

Busquets will be a bench player. Would have been nice to find replacements for Alba and Piqué but at the moment they will start. You have nobody even close to them.

Suarez and Busi both can serve one more good year in a sub role. Selling them won't give us much money, not enough to replace.

I was thinking about what this team needs the most right now. And I think it's glaringly obvious that it needs attacking wingers/wide forwards.

There is simply no threat out wide, and so the opposing fullbacks have no fear in bombing forward against us. This spells disaster against our fullbacks because they can't defend worth shit. We haven't had a fullback who can defend since Dani Alves. Even Puyol would get utterly exposed in this current setup.

Think about how different this Barca team has looked in the last couple of seasons when Dembele is on fire, or when Ansu Fati was playing effectively. It's like night and day.

I think this has been the biggest source of our problems for a while now. Of course, without Messi (and possibly Suarez) where will the goals come from? We'll need to get a player in the mold of Lautaro Martinez too.

Neymar leaving really fucked us, more than we knew it would. And it's too bad that guys from la masia like Deulofeu, Tello, or Cuenca never panned out. We really needed La masia to produce at least one wide attacking player.

Honestly I'd rather this board not spend anything this summer. Let's see what some of the kids got and how some of the players we have come together. The board is finished anyways might as well wait maybe Koman will be gone too, so I'd rather wait it out until new management comes in and go from there.

It doesnt seem like they're even active on the market. Its not like there is no talent to buy, Aouar and many others are open to move surely but the only link I've seen in the past weeks was Wijnaldum and Van de Beek but he's already off to ManU

Lautaro changed his mind is what they're saying in the papers due to Messi leaving. Thank god another to be flop for 110M.

We apperently couldn't afford the 45m for de Beek so I highly doubt we can afford Aouar 60M unless we sell Messi.

I think Aouar  would be great, but the thing is we have had zero links to him. I read Harvetz preffered destination was Madrid or Barca and neither moved for him so his next best location was Chelsea. There are great, young players out there but we keep going for old/not good enough players that we can't build on and are short term fixes. Lets face it, the board is gone next summer they dont care what the state of the club is in when they are gone that will be the next presidents problem to fix. They are just worried about balancing the books right now, not building a winning, long term project.

In other news, Rakitic is finally gone. He has been transferred for free to Sevilla, and he is currently going his medical. But whats stupid about it is, that we are probably going to turn around and replace him with soon to be 30 Gigi Wijnaldum (while Liverpool turn around and sign the superior player we should be looking at instead Thiago).

And more importantly, if we play Koemans Netherland formation, 4-2-3-1, then that means Planic and De Jong are going to be the 2 mids with Busqs coming off the bench (or starting in a 3 man midfield). So Gigi would be a power sub. We have plenty of young, energetic and exciting mids that can easily take up those power sub mins that have been waiting there whole life to make a mark in the team. So why take those sub mins away from them for a 30 year player? Just save the cash and promote one of Puig, Ilaix, Monchu or use Alena who just came back from loan and is probably ahead in terms of first team quality to the other kids I just mentioned due to his age and experience gained last season.

I have no idea what this board is trying to do. What the transfer strategy is. I read the want to terminate Suarez's contract to replace him with Debay. So our 2 strikers would be Braithwate and Depay.

Thats some Real Betis level bullshit.

Yeah Wijnaldum totally doesnt make sense either especially considering that he's pushing 30 too. If Liverpool want to replace him with Thiago then why don't we just call Thiago?

There is no vision whatsoever at this club

windkick wrote:I think Aouar  would be great, but the thing is we have had zero links to him. I read Harvetz preffered destination was Madrid or Barca and neither moved for him so his next best location was Chelsea. There are great, young players out there but we keep going for old/not good enough players that we can't build on and are short term fixes. Lets face it, the board is gone next summer they dont care what the state of the club is in when they are gone that will be the next presidents problem to fix. They are just worried about balancing the books right now, not building a winning, long term project.

In other news, Rakitic is finally gone. He has been transferred for free to Sevilla, and he is currently going his medical. But whats stupid about it is, that we are probably going to turn around and replace him with soon to be 30 Gigi Wijnaldum (while Liverpool turn around and sign the superior player we should be looking at instead Thiago).

And more importantly, if we play Koemans Netherland formation, 4-2-3-1, then that means Planic and De Jong are going to be the 2 mids with Busqs coming off the bench (or starting in a 3 man midfield). So Gigi would be a power sub. We have plenty of young, energetic and exciting mids that can easily take up those power sub mins that have been waiting there whole life to make a mark in the team. So why take those sub mins away from them for a 30 year player? Just save the cash and promote one of Puig, Ilaix, Monchu or use Alena who just came back from loan and is probably ahead in terms of first team quality to the other kids I just mentioned due to his age and experience gained last season.

I have no idea what this board is trying to do. What the transfer strategy is. I read the want to terminate Suarez's contract to replace him with Debay. So our 2 strikers would be Braithwate and Depay.

Thats some Real Betis level bullshit.

Not sure we don't have money. if we offload all of the seniors (including Messi), then we have a ton of money. Offloading all of the seniors means freeing up $200m in wages or more. Plus, if we sell Messi for $100m, there is your money for transfers. Or better yet, a swap for Bernardo Silva. You get a young talented versatile midfielder.
I am caught in 2 minds about Wijnaldum. He is exactly the sort of midfielder we have lacked last 2 seasons. Great athlete, physical but good technique. He is 30 though. What we should do is scout for a younger midfielder like him. Don't think the midfielders coming through for us have his profile. I like Puig and I like Monchu even more and think both should get a shot. But we can give them minutes by getting rid of all 3 of Rakitic, Vidal and Busquets.