Year in review

So what did you guys think of Rosell's first season as Barca president? It would be hard to rate him so perhaps it would make sense to compile a list of Positive and Negative things he has done for the club?

i think that a very big positive is the fact that he doesnt splash the cash and applies a conservative approach to the club when trying to decrease debt.

only negative thing that i can remember is removing cruyff from the honorary president position.

What spanky says is pretty much spot on.

I think Rossell showed competence in his first season. Our team was in debt and it needed cash badly. We eventually borrowed from banks to meet our obligations. We also signed a €150 million shirt ad deal with Qatar Foundation. He also avoided selling our starts to raise money which is significant. He put the team on firmer footing financially and we have to see if he trims down the team's debt so that we can continue spending on much needed transfers.

On the transfer side, he made a number of good signings. I think signing Machete was his best deal. Although Masch took some time to fit in, he was a monster in defense in the CL. Ibi Afellay also looks very promising. He needs time to jell with the team. I hope that he will be used as an attacking midfielder next year.

Our team won La Liga and CL with the current line up so the transfers were good enough.

I think a president's job will be judged on how well the team does financially and on the pitch over the course of the years. From what he has achieved, I think Rossell has shown his competence so he has the credibility to do more "risky" transactions next season.

It's going to be interesting going forward because we know that Real Madrid have much deeper pockets and our team has been facing financial problems recently. If the team manages to win major trophies next year, it will further cement Rossell's reputation as a good club president.

Negatives:

- Constant revenge against the best president in history, Laporta.Taking Laporta to the courts.
- Removing Cruyff as honorary president.
- Announcement of severe budget cut in other barça sports.
- Not standing up against Real Madrid all season long.
- Not allowing new Barça members unless certain conditions.
- Forgiving Espanyol to pay us 3m€ for Baena.
- Bad sell of Ibra.
- Other stuff that is probably too much into detail for you guys (Migueli, Rexach, Travel Agency, Viagogo...).
- Expensive signing in Adriano (good signing, but over transfer market).

Depends:

- Selling the shirt to promote a dictatorial country like Qatar (IMO is a
negative, but the price was quite good and some will think it's a
positive).

Positives:
- Has not screwed up Laporta's legacy. (mild positive).
- Good signings in Machete, Afellay and Adriano.

In my opinion, a very bad president so far. His real test will come once Guardiola leaves. Let's hope he doesn't screw the Club.

free_cat wrote:Negatives:

- Constant revenge against the best president in history, Laporta.Taking Laporta to the courts.
- Removing Cruyff as honorary president.
- Announcement of severe budget cut in other barça sports.
- Not standing up against Real Madrid all season long.
- Not allowing new Barça members unless certain conditions.
- Forgiving Espanyol to pay us 3m€ for Baena.
- Bad sell of Ibra.
- Other stuff that is probably too much into detail for you guys (Migueli, Rexach, Travel Agency, Viagogo...).
- Expensive signing in Adriano (good signing, but over transfer market).

Depends:

- Selling the shirt to promote a dictatorial country like Qatar (IMO is a
negative, but the price was quite good and some will think it's a
positive).

Positives:
- Has not screwed up Laporta's legacy. (mild positive).
- Good signings in Machete, Afellay and Adriano.

In my opinion, a very bad president so far. His real test will come once Guardiola leaves. Let's hope he doesn't screw the Club.

Free, can you comment on this further? I don't get much Barca related news here in the US so this is all new to me.

Also, what is the vibe in barca regarding Rossell and his first season? I've always thought it was really interesting that he is so heavily condemned on the forums, but obviously catalans must like him because they did elect him after all.

loooooool awesome sig everest

Yeah I have to agree with Free. A lot of the things Rosell has done I find quite poor. Chief among them being Cruyff's dismissal (and the poor way in which it was managed) and limiting the means towards becoming a socii. I find the financial aspect too overplayed. I 100% believe that with Laporta we would no longer be in-debt during this year, it was mostly an issue of liquidity after-all. The signings were all positive, though, and I suppose that if Barca had to sell its soul then it'd be best to do it to a non-for-profit.

Ganso wrote:loooooool awesome sig everest

thanks man!

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Yeah I have to agree with Free. A lot of the things Rosell has done I find quite poor. Chief among them being Cruyff's dismissal (and the poor way in which it was managed) and limiting the means towards becoming a socii. I find the financial aspect too overplayed. I 100% believe that with Laporta we would no longer be in-debt during this year, it was mostly an issue of liquidity after-all. The signings were all positive, though, and I suppose that if Barca had to sell its soul then it'd be best to do it to a non-for-profit.

The shirt deal really, really bugs me too (i'm officially boycotting buying a new jersey until Qatar Foundation comes off the front). And I would definitely not call them an admirable organization like UNICEF, despite the fact that they are a registered non-profit. Their mission is not to feed starving children in third world countries, but to use dirty oil money to coerce western academics to move to Qatar. Might as well be sponsored by Exxon/Mobil. Overall grade for Rossell on this one: C-/D+.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:The signings were all positive, though, and I suppose that if Barca had to sell its soul then it'd be best to do it to a non-for-profit.

Better than bwin.com right?

I do find it hypocritical calling an organization that would spend 150M in advertisement a non-for-profit though

everest1 wrote:

free_cat wrote:Negatives:

- Constant revenge against the best president in history, Laporta.Taking Laporta to the courts.
- Removing Cruyff as honorary president.
- Announcement of severe budget cut in other barça sports.
- Not standing up against Real Madrid all season long.
- Not allowing new Barça members unless certain conditions.
- Forgiving Espanyol to pay us 3m€ for Baena.
- Bad sell of Ibra.
- Other stuff that is probably too much into detail for you guys (Migueli, Rexach, Travel Agency, Viagogo...).
- Expensive signing in Adriano (good signing, but over transfer market).

Depends:

- Selling the shirt to promote a dictatorial country like Qatar (IMO is a
negative, but the price was quite good and some will think it's a
positive).

Positives:
- Has not screwed up Laporta's legacy. (mild positive).
- Good signings in Machete, Afellay and Adriano.

In my opinion, a very bad president so far. His real test will come once Guardiola leaves. Let's hope he doesn't screw the Club.

Free, can you comment on this further? I don't get much Barca related news here in the US so this is all new to me.

Also, what is the vibe in barca regarding Rossell and his first season? I've always thought it was really interesting that he is so heavily condemned on the forums, but obviously catalans must like him because they did elect him after all.

Viagogo: is an internet company that acts as intermediary to resell tickets for events. Rosell is a shareholder of this company. This company sells regularly tickets of Barça matches, which is ilegal according to Spanish laws and Barça statutes. Clear clash of interests.

Migueli and Rexach: both were huge anti-Laporta pundits and when Rosell came back to the club they were hired as President assistance. They are earning an important sum of money without doing nothing. No one knows what they are doing in the club. Payback of favours.

Travel Agency: Rosell promised to create a travel agency for the away matches in the elections. Instead he gave the lease to Halcon Viajes, a travel agency that helped Rosell during the campaign to get signatures. Payback again.

Also, Rosell said during the campaign that he would reinforce the other sports in Barça, not cut their budget to a 50% as they have recently anounced. So he lied.

Last thing, is that Rosell media has attacked and manipulated against Guardiola several times this season. For example claiming that Guardiola dismissed Ozil, while Barça was never near to sign him (Pep said himself), or with other matters.

Although Rosell has all the media to his favour, he is starting to attract heavy criticism recently.

Ps. Barrilete Cósmico is alfredandrew right?

cat has explained in a lot of detail and I agree to some extent. The point about humiliating Laporta very unjustly had been skipped so far but just should not be forgotten. The one area where I will give him credit though is that he is economical. Yes he showed bloated figures for political reasons but he does give us reason to believe that money wastage is more unlikely in his tenure.