Hindsight isn't 2020 - The 2019-20 Season Thread [R]

Whatever Bartomeu's tactics are they aren't working. The last several years we've greatly overpaid for all players we signed. We paid as much or more for freaking Dembele than LPB paid for Hazard. WTF

There were times when players wanted to play in Barca but not anymore. Serious legit stars like Henry, Zlatan, Suarez, Neymar used to fight to play for us only 5-10 years ago. Our club has lost a lot of prestige it seems. It pains me to see it.

 

Our image got spoiled since Rosell. ********ing muppet. But I’m glad our board ain’t as bad as Arsenal’s.

 

Ugh
But I suppose it's better than checked shirts.

📰 | Barça will debut their home kit for next season against Espanyol on July 7th or July 8th. pic.twitter.com/BojuOKj6Fm

— Barça Insider (@theBarcaInsider) June 13, 2020

 

^ I like this kit a lot. Way way better than checkered. Looks clean and the yellow lines given nice accent.

 

So ugly.

 

We’ve evolved to Crystal Palace

 

Or FC Basel.

 

Breaking news, not unexpected but now with dates: Road to Lisbon update via Sport:

UEFA's executive committee will meet on Wednesday to confirm plans for the resumption of this season's Champions League. The idea has already taken shape, with a final eight to be played in Lison, and Sky Italian have already reported when the games will take place.

The remaining last 16 games will be played on Aug. 7, 8 and 9 at the venues where they were supposed to be played. That means Barça will host Napoli at Camp Nou, following a 1-1 draw in the first leg. The other games to be played are Manchester City vs. Real Madrid, Bayern Munich vs. Chelsea and Juventus vs. Lyon.

Atletico Madrid, Leipzig, Atalanta and Paris Saint-Germain are the four teams already through to the final eight in Portugal.

The quarter-finals, instead of being two-legged ties, will be one-off affairs played across four days: Wednesday, Aug. 12, Thursday, Aug. 13, Friday, Aug. 14 and Saturday, Aug. 15.

The semifinals, also one-off games, will then be played on Tuesday, Aug. 18 and Wednesday, Aug. 19, leaving the final to be played on Sunday, Aug 23 at the Estadio de Da Luz.

Meanwhile, the European Super Cup will be played on Sept. 24.

 

So I was almost right

Preliminary round: 8 and 11 August
First qualifying round (Q1): 18/19 August
Second qualifying round (Q2): 25/26 August

Those happen at the same time with QF-SF-F.

And CL 2020-2021 is delayed a month. This year started in September 18th. Next season in October 20th

 

Look at my avatar. That is the real Barcelona kit and it should not change. Real M, Atletico, Valencia, Sevilla and many other clubs never change their kits.

 

Look at this image.
The "real" Barca kit was supplied by Meyba and has no sponsor logo soiling the front.
Everything worn since mid-90s has been done to leech as much money as possible from the public.

 

Technically, they are the same, but Meyba's kit is more like FC Basel. I like both of them. Just think that Barcelona's real colors are the ones from my avatar. And that is Nike model. I agree all these new kits were made to generate as much sale as possible. Last year, I have seen Barca shirt in Camp Nou fan shop for 75 euros. They make good money from all new articulates sale.

 

Here's a better photo of the shirt, taken from ebay. This is more representative of how the shirts looked. True bluagrana colors. Worn from 1982-1985.



What made the Meyba shirts better (imo) was that Meyba was founded and continues to be based in Catalunya.
The company still sells the 'retro' shirts but without the Barca club crest on them.
https://www.meyba.com/en/football-archive/
These days I'm guessing kit suppliers (Nike, adidas, Kappa, etc) design the kits for maximum revenue.

I only own one Barca shirt, the 2016-17 version. And I only bought it because there was no sponsor logo on it. The way it should be.
There's was a brief window in June 2017 when you could order the shirt without a sponsor logo. This was when the contract with Qatar Airways had ended and Rakuten had yet to be signed.

 

I love the one with no ad, I bought this one when I knew Qatar was replacing UNICEF since UNICEF is a great organization.

But even when UNICEF was announced and FCB was paying UNICEF not vice versa, I knew it was just a matter of time, a segue if you will, before FCB sold shirt naming right to the highest paying sponsor. So in that sense even UNICEF was a sad development. I never bought another shirt, though I lust after some of the old ones (pre sponsor) on resale sites.

 

We're going way off topic now but one more from me.
(Do we have a thread for collectables?)

I didn't get a player's name/number on the back of my shirt. I'm simply not into that although I do wish I had bought a Puyol or Ronaldinho 2004-05 shirt.




I normally collect outerwear (hoodies, sweatshirts, etc)
Here's my small collection.
- The two upper right are hoodies, I think Pep era (100% cotton).
- Two upper left are pullovers, I think Rijkaard era. (90% polyester/10% spandex)
- Bottom left is mid-90s Kappa jacket (shell 100% nylon, lining 100% polyester)
- Bottom right is late-90s Nike pullover (100% polyester)

 

At least next kit will be vertical stripes. So we will use it in this season?

 

We play again on Friday, just a day after Real play their 2nd. Unfortunately, we are down to 15 first team players! Umtiti suspended for YC accumulation, Roberto rib fracture, de Jong hamstring strain, Dembele ineligible due to Braithwaite signing and also still recovering.

So 23 man roster is filled out with the usual 6 B teamers: Fati, Puig, Araujo, Collado, Inaki Pena, Monchu, plus two more: Chumi - CB, and Kike Saverio - LW.

3rd place Sevilla in their stadium albeit without their fans looks to be our toughest fixture (hosting Atleti always tough as well), so I'd expect our best available lineup:

MAtS
Semedo-Pique-Lenglet-Alba
Arturo-Busquets-Arthur/Rakitic
Messi-Suarez-Griezmann​

Besides the question of Arthur or Rakitic as the 3rd mid (with FdJ out) - I'm guessing Rakitic gets the start against his old team, the other area where we could see a surprise is Braithwaite or Fati getting a start in place of Griezmann or still rounding back to fitness Suarez.

 

I would like to see Puig as a starter but Rakitic will play from start. Puig may come in second half.
Our front three Setien would play Messi-Braithwaite-Griezmann. Suarez is not 100% fit to ready.

 

De Jong out for several weeks

 

I don’t see how they can finish the season before the Euros at this rate(?). Every league season (in the big leagues) will be starting late plus there won’t be as many mid-weeks available to catch up because CL/EL will be condensed by 5-6 weeks.

 

Pique is right. It is impossible. Referee saves RM every time.

 

Forget about the remainder of the season, I won't be watching any of the games because the fix is in and La Liga have decided LPB are to win the title, just give it to them now to save time.

 

Fivethirtyeight still calculates we have better chance of winning Liga.