The Importance of Being Ernesto - The 2017-2018 Season thread [R]

Damn that's low. I thought he'd get more faster.. think the good results are showing it's hard to convince moron socios. He won't make it.

 

Barca now favorites to win La Liga, FWIW. Bwin has them at 1.5 to win the league (bet $100 to win $50 net). By comparison, Juve are 1.91 to win Serie A.

 

Barca are not favourites to do anything,our expectations are a trophy less season,thats all,maybe just the copa and with costa back in atletico,even thats not clear.

 

Good timing - spend spend spend

 

Please god, no! Spending in January never seems to work well. I hope any vote is delayed until at least the spring.

 

Liverpool bought Suarez and Mascherano in the Jan window.

United bought Evra and Vidic.
Chelsea bought Matic and Ivanovic .

Wolfsburg bought De Bruyne .

All bought in January .

 

And how did Suarez help Liverpool in the second-half of the season he was transferred? Same question wrt De Bruyne?

I mean, I think it depends on the situation. If things are going well the last thing you want to do is bring in some big-name players in January and upset the balance, IMO. OTOH if you're out of the title chase then and you're in a 'nothing-to-lose' mindset it might be worth it to bring that star in so that he has time to gel with the team before the start of the following season.

 

January is far away,there is much football left before that.let us see how this team stands by then

 

Most seem to agree that Suarez hit the ground running ...

 

Exactly! Our starting XI already looks quite different this season compared to last. Lets see how this group plays together before talking about making even more changes.

 

That was an amazing season and an amazing January loan transfer (we paid 2M but only had Edgars on loan), only with us for half a season but had a huge impact. As did Ronaldinho's transfer, Marquez's transfer, the loan of Gio van Bronkhorst, and the promotion of 3 youth players Valdes, Iniesta, and Oleguer. Quaresma transfer in not as successful, similarly the previously expensive signing of Riquelme was loaned out and we lost the 16 year old Fabregas to Arsenal.

BBC also made a documentary about it all, it's translated somewhere but this was the version I could find:
Here's the english teaser/preview just 3 minutes long:

What is weird with Davids was that he was out of contract at the end of the loan, Inter signed him for a 3 year deal, weird that Barca did not try to keep him, but he was 31, and we signed Edmilson (and already had Motta) instead, plus Deco, Eto'o, Giuily, Belletti, and Sylvinho that next summer.

 

2004 was maybe the best year to be a Barca fan in the last 25 years even though we didn’t win anything.
In a sense it was better than winning a major title - we knew we were going to win titles soon. As sure as we were that the sun would rise the next morning.

 

Yes, I knew someone posted it here long ago, great video, I did not have the time to dig for it and see if the posted link was still working.

 

I remember what an impact he had on us !!!

 

It was a great year, and also the swan song of many exciting Barca players too (Kluivert, Luis Enrique, Saviola (sure a bit of an overspend, and many thrills too), Luis Garcia, Cocu, Reiziger, Davids himself) and some duds Rustu and Enke let go as Valdes took control of goal straight out of La Masia and Joquera was brought in as back up, Quaresma (though he plus cash brought in Deco), perhaps Overmars (1.6M in transfer fee per Liga goal a bit too much).

 

Those were the days and beginning of something amazing. I can still remember that special feeling and honestly I haven't felt that since 2004-2006. Guess it was because it was the start of something great and left a special taste in us who were being starved for great success for a long time and from then on just kept becoming better but still not the same high as 2005-2006 season with first ever CL since 1992. This Messi era is just out of this world but those years... Ooh the nostalgia!

 

Yupp,best 2nd half of any season.Davids as DM and Xavi as a CM,he should have stayed,we would have swamped chelsea in 2004-05

 

and the next year we bought players like santi ezquerro and that RB Damia Albella and of course Uh Uh Ulague

 

Edmilson/Belleti were all Rossell's signings

 

So was Ronaldinho!

 

Ronaldinho transfer was helped by Rosell but the choice was obvious