Rumor: Mission Impossible: Replacing Infinito ∞ | The 2018-19 Transfer Thread

https://www.fcbarcelona.com/en/news/1082434/jordi-alba-a-blaugrana-until-2024

Barcelona and Jordi Alba have reached an agreement to renew his contract for the next five seasons, until June 30, 2024. The buyout clause is set at €500M.

 

Yeah, glad that got done. Now I kinda hope that they don't spend 30M or more (plus a fat salary) to bring in someone like Lyon's Mendy just to back up Alba. We still control Cucurella and have Miranda with Barca B, and Alba isn't going anywhere for 4.5 years. I mean we may have sold Digne a year too early (although I grant that he wanted to go and we don't want to hold players "hostage" even when they are well paid and under guaranteed contracts), but I think Cucurella has gotten great experience this season at Eibar and should be ready to come home. If Miranda can outplay him again in the preseason as last preaseason, then maybe we sell Cucurella (10M valuation as of today on transfermarkt), Eibar can buy for 2M, but we can trump their buy for 4M (2M net payment by us as I understand it). The only tricky thing is that if we trump their buy, we may have to keep him on our first team for the next season (that was how Deulofeu's "trump" clause worked, not sure it is in play here).

 

Miranda is too young and his lack of experience shows and needs to be loaned to gain it , Cucu is more offensive and plays better as a winger than a LB but the problem is his defending abilities are not good , kinda like playing Malcom as LB

 

Valverde playing Malcom at LB may not be out of the question ..:

 

But only if Roberto and Vermaelen are out injured.

 

So Rakitic says he’s staying and will fight FDJ for his place in the midfield ...

Great , just great !!

 

Good summary from Sport - basically get a veteran on a Bosman or very low cost transfer for a two year deal. Loan out Miranda. Sell Cucurella. Add a youngster to Barca B. In 2 years Miranda or Barca B should have be ready to back up Alba (and hopefully Alba is still world class). I like the approach, esp. as it gives Miranda a good chance to get experience in La Liga to show he can be Alba's back up and maybe even Alba's replacement (same for the cheaper target who fills in for Miranda at Barca B). Just hope the veteran they sign to back Alba proves as solid as Gio van Bronkhorst for us, when called upon. Filipe Luis is most interesting.

Barca have made an effort economically speaking with Alba’s renewal. Now they want a cheap player to be his back-up. The candidates are Arsenal’s Nacho Monreal, Liverpool’s Alberto Moreno, and Atletico Madrid’s Filipe Luis...

With Miranda going on loan the club will have to sign a B team left-back and want a small cost investment for a player with good potential. One option is Brazilian Luan Candido at Palmeiras. He is an U20 international and fits the profile.

Full article: https://www.sport-english.com/en/ne...di-albas-back-up-at-barca-next-season-7330840

 

https://media.giphy.com/media/3o6Ztip1Hq0NNGfqyk/giphy.gif

 

Yeah, it was a "mutual recission" - Barca saves the salary, Sergi free to sign somewhere he may get real PT, all signs point to joining Iniesta and Villa (and Podolski and Wellington) at Vissel Kobe. Shame about all his injuries, talented kid who stayed with us when the English clubs were dangling much more money and his friend and fellow La Masia crack, Jon Toral, left for Arsenal

 

New revelations about old transfers, I love how Lucho said in the interview, "don't laugh" about not having enough money for both, when both were darn cheap even at the time and especially by today's standards... Why Lucho picked Rakitic over Kroos:
https://www.barcablaugranes.com/2019/3/13/18260656/luis-enrique-i-chose-ivan-rakitic-over-toni-kroos

 

Please don’t tell me we picked Rakitic over Kroos all those years ago . .. sob

 

Oh I'm very glad we did, the only sob is that we did not buy both at those low prices.

 

Have you seen how slow Raki tracks back ?? Players run past him trying to get back !

 

Raki is a couple years older to naturally he started his decline a bit before Kroos. You also seem to be comparing 2017 Kroos with 2019 Raki, so then we're talking about a 4 year age difference.

But Raki was very effective when we first bought him and is still a useful player (although hopefully more rotation next season).

 

Has anyone watched both Jovic and Maxi Gomez enough to make a comment on how good they really are currently? I see both names mentioned as attacker transfer options, but beyond stats, clips and some analyses, haven't really watched them play too much, esp. Jovic.

 

Valencia's Rodrigo is another name that has been mentioned recently.

 

He's 28, I think we want a younger and frankly better pure striker (or younger with at least the potential to become better than Rodrigo currently is, which is basically peak Rodrigo at 28), someone who might learn from and back up Luis for a season or two before beating him out for first choice).

Lot of ex-Barca scored this past Europa round this week Munir and Grimaldo, last week Pedro and Munir.

 

To me, it looks like we're going for Jovic.

It's not all-decisive, but the fact that Abidal, Segura and Planes were all in Milan to watch Jovic (presumably, as opposed to watching the game in general or some other player) means the interest is serious.

I see us make three key summer deals, one for each line: Jovic to attack, De Jong to midfield, De Ligt to defence. And that's it. Maybe won't happen, but looks like our plan is close to that, and looks like our chances of doing that aren't minor. We'll see, but these are good players to try to sign.

 

Yeah, totally agreed, far from certain we will sign him. Although I do think that if we don't sign him this summer, we won't sign him at all (as I think it's far more likelier that he moves somewhere than stays put at Ajax). And we're of course far from signing Jovic, too.