Barcelona Thread

[wirE]

Some mates of mine who are Barca fans are hoping to see Laporta making a comeback as president. They're tired of Bartomeu's way of running the club and were all hoping that Real Madrid was gonna win La Liga and crashing out of Champions League as a way of having the entire board sacked.

I can see that the board itself has started the job as they now have sacked Abidal

Laporta wants Guardiola back if he wins election to be Barcelona president

Joan Laporta said he will attempt to bring Pep Guardiola back to Barcelona if his push to return as president in 2021 is successful

www.theguardian.com

 

[JCRD]

Nobody. All the players they want rid of bar Umtiti are the wrong side of 30 and in decline.

And I'm not convinced about Umtiti either.

I mean even on a free? i do think perhaps Semedo? there is a significant amount of deadwood over there I agree

 

[LeParisien]

There's an encyclopedia of stuff that Dragon1 has said since about 2010

Ok I have some itk for fans of Dragon1 -

We’re in for at least one right back. Possibly two. Picking up rumours of a leftback who could be pretty tasty. Also hearing that we could be in for a Kane backup/ someone who can play along the front line. Possibly another cm too. Exciting times ahead! Mourinho revolutionizing transfer strategy! COYS!!!

If you would like daily itk like this I have some tips. Write out what AG and other journalists are reporting in blue font with a bit of hyperbole. I started doing this and I get itk from dragon1 8 times a day!!! It’s great!!!

 

[RichieS]

De Jong would be nice....

Realistically? No one, watch Arsenal get Suarez at last, 33 years old, got to be worth a 4 year contract on 250k a week for them.

Will it still cost them £40,000,001?

That was an epic piece of trolling tbf.

 

[Marty]

Love the optimism

 

[LeParisien]

View attachment 71922

Love the optimism

Ha ha ha

I assume that was from before the official announcement

 

[wirE]

View attachment 71922

Love the optimism

I was looking for the "BBC SPORF" tag in the upper corner. Is the quote legit?

 

[Marty]

I was looking for the "BBC SPORF" tag in the upper corner. Is the quote legit?

I nabbed it off the official BBC Sport Facebook page so have to assume so.

 

[C0YS]

Koeman is the wrong man at the wrong club.

He can't manage big egos, he fell out with half of valencia players.

He doesn't have a particularly good record, patchy at best.

His teams don't even play with a particularly exciting or barcelona esk style.

He is not a project manager, he has managed 11 teams and the most he stuck around was 4 years at Ajax, and that was 15 years ago. Since then he has had 10 teams in 15 years.

Sometimes Barca have hired managers who might not have the best CVs in the world but are seen to stylistically suit Barca. Koeman isn't that. He is a decent mid-tier manager who plays a possession based football with a heavy dose of pragmatism. Its such a strange appointment. You can't blame messi for wanting to leave, an appointment born out of connections not vision

 

[Amo]

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Love the optimism

Seemingly, it was misplaced.

 

[C0YS]

Koeman's management record

Ajax - won a few titles every other year or so, but not exerting any meaningful dominance over PSV with on paper a very talented team (De Jong, Ibra, VDV, Litmanen, Heitinga, Sneijder and Pienaar) - qualified hit

Benfica - Finished third, won nothing meaningful - big miss

PSV - lucky to win the title but did, did well in the Champions League - hit

Valencia - Won the cup, but took a CL team into 15th place and fell out with half the team - mixed

AZ - took charge of a title winning team, lost 7 out of the first 16 games and left - big miss

Feyenoord - Took an under performing team and transformed them into title chasers, though he never won anything - hit

Southampton - did well - hit

Everton - did the yo-yoing like Martinez, one good season one bad - mixed

Netherlands - has helped a resurgence - hit

Very uninspiring. They needed an appointment that screamed long term plan, revitalisation and all that. Now Poch I'm happy didn't go, but someone like Nagelsmann, or if they wanted a more experienced head, someone who has a little bit more to show for it, like Lowe or go real strong on Pep. Can understand why they wouldn't go for more available pragmatic types (Allegri, Conte etc) but talk about an appointment that just furthers the sense of chaos at Barca...

 

[Amo]

They need someone to shit over the fan and turn it on as they leave the building. Nangelsman or Poch ain't that.

Koeman's first words to Messi were "your privalges here are over." Do folks not see the performative nature of this statement?

 

[C0YS]

They need someone to shit over the fan and turn it on as they leave the building. Nangelsman or Poch ain't that.

Koeman's first words to Messi were "your privalges here are over." Do folks not see the performative nature of this statement?

Yes, but the statement is the fundamentally the wrong direction.

The players, like Pique and Messi are in the right here. The club has been run incredibly badly. If the club listened to the players they wouldn't be in this mess.

The interests of the hierarchy right now, is to gain control of the club, to stop the internal rebellion, and I guess for them that's what 'rebuilding' means. But the club doesn't need to distance itself from it's past. It actually needs to get in touch with what made the club successful in the first place.

There needs to be a revitalisation with younger players, which is exactly what people like Pique have been pushing for for some time now. But the board just puts plasters over everything and is so focused on short term thinking, it killed La Masia system, and turned it into a system that prioritised winning over youth development, and in the team itself no plan. Do one thing, than undermine your own decisions by doing another thing, sacking managers at strange times. Signing the wrong players for too much money because we are 'Barca', then trying to patch the rest of the team out of senior players, who were probably never good enough.

Messi isn't speaking for messi when he was confronting the board, he was speaking as club captain, for the players, and these arguments are from that annoyance. Messi is leaving, and he will leave, because there is no clear strategy for renewal. I don't think Messi, and the players annoyance is 'I want to win the champions league next year' but rather, 'where are we going?', 'whats the plan?'.

There is no direction and burning and rebuilding is all well and good, but lets not confuse a power play with renewal. Maybe you do need to clear the slate before bringing in a project manager. But, these clubs aren't run by the manager, there is no reason to bring someone specifically for that. They are just bringing in an ally.

 

[nailsy]

They need someone to shit over the fan and turn it on as they leave the building. Nangelsman or Poch ain't that.

Koeman's first words to Messi were "your privalges here are over." Do folks not see the performative nature of this statement?

It doesn't seem like the best thing to say to someone that you're trying to reconcile with.

 

[Tucker]

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Love the optimism

*Ron Howard narration* “Something went wrong.”

 

[mr ashley]

Koeman is a stop gap appointment just to get the club to the presidential elections (when victor font is expected to win and bring in Xavi).
The club need to get the wage bill down- there are some crazy contracts.
Hopefully we’ll be able to benefit from the mess

 

[wirE]

*Ron Howard narration* “Something went wrong.”

 

[Marty]

Koeman is a stop gap appointment just to get the club to the presidential elections (when victor font is expected to win and bring in Xavi).
The club need to get the wage bill down- there are some crazy contracts.
Hopefully we’ll be able to benefit from the mess

How would we benefit aside from if we actually bought Messi? The rest of their squad is going so rapidly downhill I don't think any of the over 30s would cope in the PL. Maybe Suarez could be good for one season if he stays injury free.

The one player I would've liked us to seriously look at was Arthur and he's already gone to Juve. Semedo was a full back I was keen on but having seen him more recently in both LL and CL I don't think he'd do better than Aurier.

 

[Amo]

It doesn't seem like the best thing to say to someone that you're trying to reconcile with.

Who said he's trying to reconcile with him?

 

[nailsy]

Who said he's trying to reconcile with him?

If he's not trying to reconcile with the best player in the world then he's not doing his job.