some interesting comments from thiago silva today: "You can never close the door on something, because you don't know what will happen in the future. I am happy now, but you never know what will happen in the future," the defender toldEl Mundo Deportivo when questioned about a potential move to Barca. "There were conversations between Barcelona and my agent last year, but I had already given my word to [PSG director] Leonardo. There's no way back once you've given your word. "Everybody has dreams. I have been following Barcelona ever since I was a kid and they had players like Romario, Ronaldo and Rivaldo. "Do I have a buy-out clause? I only just got here and I'm not thinking about that. But we all know that a solution can always be found."
sadly yes . I had massive expectations of him after all the uTube footage I saw BUT he's been even less effective than flamin Pedro who's also been dire the last 12 - 18 months ...
and now it's hummels' turn to send in his application: "My father and I would turn down about 99.9 per cent of all the clubs in the world if they approached us," Hummels told Sport Bild "However, Barcelona are one out of two or three teams that could make me consider a summer transfer." --------------- so it seems like all three CBs we're most interested in - hummels, kompany, t.silva - have all been sending out come-and-get-me signals to barca.
Not on anyone's radar and a position we seemingly have well covered but here it is, from Phil Ball, "The real [Sociedad] gem [is not Pardo], and the one that Marca bizarrely failed to mention, is Asier Illarramendi. Permit me to take a deep breath, because in ten years of writing this column I've tried very hard to not make over-the-top statements (they tend to come back and haunt you, down the line), but if there is something approaching an Alonso clone, or to push the envelope further, a potentially better player still, then this is the guy. I've been watching Sociedad for over 20 years now, and Illarramendi ('Pea mountain' in Basque) is the best thing I've seen since Alonso. The whispers are that Barcelona have already made their move, because they see him as a better Xavi-clone than Thiago. Xavi or Xabi? Only time (and euros) will tell." full article here: http://espnfc.com/columns/story/_/id/1404174/ball:-clones-from-pea-mountain?cc=5901
I'll join you in supporting Alexis still. Trouble is we seem to have about fifty million Euros net to spend this summer, if we want a CB of Hummels quality, a GK of starter quality, and a forward of Barca quality (and possibly even with a price tag like Neymar's) then we need to sell some valuable assets - so one of Alexis or Villa needs to be gone assuming we do sign a forward. Of those two I think Sanchez has a better chance of fetching 20M Euros than the ageing Villa. I really don't see who else we raise significant money from selling - other than getting decent money for Valdes once we sign a new GK assuming Valdes won't change his mind and stay. We also are scheduled to buy back Bojan for a pretty penny (13M IIRC), we don't want him back nor his scheduled-to-raise salary, but we'll effectively have to pay another club something to keep him, and need Bojan and his agent to agree. Fontas is available to sell but we'll be lucky to get 2M I'd guess, and if Affelay doesn't come back he should be sold for 5M+ (more than we paid at least). The only other big money sale would not be popular but would at least fetch good bucks - Thiago Alcantara - whose dad/agent wants more PT and money. Supposedly ManU is interested which makes plenty of sense.
Gotta remember though that we got the result we wanted last night - it was a success rather than a fiasco. That said, I agree that we could sign a new attacker. But the new attacker is only third in importance (after goalie and CB), and definitely Neymar isn't the only possible candidate (not saying he isn't a good candidate). But like mentioned before, if we buy a top goalie (like we should) and a top CB (like we should), is there money left for Neymar? Maybe, maybe not. We could sell Villa or Alexis, and I'd be cool with it, but I think it would be a mistake to sell them both.
Obviously Thiago is exactly the kinda player we shouldn't sell. Xavi being 33, and Thiago being 22, it would be some dumbass decision to sell him now. The other is not that far from retiring, the other is slowly starting to hit real top years. Nice money we'd get no doubt, but much better keep the player.
Let's open a new thread. Recent performances are only going to fuel more speculation. Any thread title ideas?
Yeah, I don't mean to suggest we sell Thiago, it was more about the fact that his father recently was quoted about how Thiago needs to play more and that may mean a move away from Barca. Certainly we all could see this to some degree when Cesc was signed. Hopefully Thiago can be patient and Mazinho is not speaking for his son.
"Praying for Trinity" <- since we need 3 players: GK, CB and another striker who can score "A goaly who can play CB and a central striking winger" <- it's all about the flexible gameplan "Drought in the Kids' Pool" <- since it's so quiet around La Masia these days
Dude if we need a goalkeeper then we should go for alex mccarthy in reading as they are going down and this keeper is brilliant, so he must be going cheap and he is 24 years old http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_McCarthy
I'd go for a cheaper GK, who's proven in la Liga. I've always liked what I've seen from Osasuna's Andres Fernandez. I like it.
We're trying to sign three players in the summer and one of the targets is Kompany. Sandro, here's Three's Kompany!