Crap, Roma takes first lead, no PKs unless we equalize Also Jasper Cillessen is not improving his sale price if he does want to go and start somewhere.
Would you be happy with the following squad? Do we need another forward? MATS, CillesenS. Roberto, Semedo - Pique, Umtiti, Langlet, Vermaeln -Alba, Cucurella Rakitic, Busquets, Arthur, Coutinho, D. Suarez, Rafinha, Aleñá, Samper Messi, Suarez, Dembéle, Malcom, Munir
Well it looks like you removed Digne, Mina, Paco, Gomes, Marlon, and Vidal at a quick view (maybe others?) but we have yet to finalize/announce deals for any of them (Digne seems almost done, Vidal pretty close too, Mina likely, not sure about the others, esp. Gomes with his injury and salary and our desire to sell him for money). Then we are keeping Jasper Cillessen, Rafinha, Samper, and Munir, any of whom we may also sell. MATS, Cillesen S. Roberto, Semedo - Pique, Umtiti, Langlet, Vermaelen -Alba, Cucurella Rakitic, Busquets, Arthur, Coutinho, D. Suarez, Rafinha, Aleñá, Samper Messi, Suarez, Dembéle, Malcom, Munir So I guess my point is I'd still like to add 1 more great player, but as far as Ernesto Valverde's desire to have a smaller squad of greater quality (more competition / less drop off between starters and bench), I think the new signings help greatly, as does the return of Munir and a healthy Rafinha (not sure about Samper's return yet). But seems like we are not yet set on which of the may be gone players will in fact be gone, so a bit premature. I think if Jasper leaves we sign another keeper given that Ortola left. If Paco and Munir BOTH leave then we could certainly use another forward but we still have Arnaiz and Abel Ruiz in Barca B, plus I see Coutinho as a forward or hybrid mid/forward in a 4-4-2. Arnaiz might be sold but we want like 10M supposedly for him, and Abel Ruiz is still at least a year or more away from contributing beyond a CdR cameo based upon my watching 75% of the 2 preseason meaningless games where he played less than 90 minutes total.
^ Digne appears to be official now (for 18M quid). I hope Barca keep Rafinha. As long as Denis Suarez is around I'm not sure why Barca are always so eager to get rid of Rafinha.
Agreed. Albeit having a soft spot for Denis, Rafinha has looked amazing these past two games. Especially the connection between him and Arthur but also the other Barca players he already knows so well. That one-two passing sequence with Munir for the first goal vs Roma is a case in point. If he keeps playing like this he’ll be challenging for a starting spot very soon. I wonder who else we could realistically sign and would improve on the current squad.
Digne has signed a five-year deal with Everton. The cost of the deal will be €20.2m, plus a further €1.5m in variables. (€20.2m is the same as 18M British Pounds or quid - so I'm saying the same thing as BocaFan). It was two years ago, in July 2016, when Digne signed for Barça in a €16.5m - plus €4m in variables - deal from PSG. What I don't know is how much of those variables were earned; if they were based on minutes played, matches started, or CL success then very little; but if based on Liga or CdR success of club, quite a bit. Funny quote or bad translation: THE COACH'S OPINION Everton's manager, Marco Silva, said this about Digne: "Since I saw him the first time I saw that he wanted to play for Everton. Lucas is a player who will bring competitiveness in the right back position for us." Hopefully Marco knows Lucas plays left back.
6 minutes in and Miranda has already impressed me more than Cucu in his last two games. Mind you Miranda was great in the 1st half vs Spurs as well. As things stand, Miranda gets the nod for me.
What a ball by Arthur, would have been a great assist. What a talent we have in midfield with him. So glad we got him. Absolutely love how secure he is in possession, shielding the ball nicely and always looking for the right pass to get out of tight spaces.
Well he plays RW, LW, and 2nd striker per Transfermarkt, and it was only a decade ago that all left footed players played LW not RW before the whole inverted winger thing took hold, and it's a meaningless preseason friendly so Valverde is trying to see how he can do there. We do need a speed demon LW at times, cannot always rely upon Alba, so it's a good time to see what Malcolm (and later Dembele) can do there.
Damn, Puig and Arthur look promising when thinking of the medium and long term. Will try not to get too excited as there is still alot of developing to do.
Puig and Arthur are only 2 years apart. Getting the Xavi-Iniesta tingles. Like @BocaFan said though, don’t want to get ahead of myself. Couldn’t be happier that both these massive talents play for us though. Add Coutinho, Busquets, Vidal and Rakitic to the mix and we probably have the best midfield we’ve had in a while. Cannot complain about our transfer window tbf.
🚨[@BarcaStatsAr] | Arthur Melo will wear the no. 8 jersey as his photo was on No. 8 locker.pic.twitter.com/sCknKbSYYG— BarçaTimes (@BarcaTimes) August 6, 2018
📊 | Kepa: 80 million, Allison: 75 million, Courtois: 35 million. MAtS: 12 million pic.twitter.com/qh8b7d8UWG— BarçaTimes (@BarcaTimes) August 8, 2018
We paid even more for his backup, 13M for Cillessen, and even Jasper is worth more than that (20M per transfermarkt), but MAtS was a true bargain, worth 60M per transfermarkt and certainly better than Kepa especially for Barca. We also paid 12M for Bravo and sold him for 18M (currently rated at 3.5M on transfermarkt). Goalies seem to be the one thing Barca is good at buying, and occasionally selling.
Also when Barca signed MAtS they set his buyout at €80mn, which was something nobody would have paid for a goalkeeper in 2014 (and which of course was more than doubled 3 years later). If the same had been done for Neymar (buyout more than 6 times the purchasing price), his buyout would've been about €500-600 million!