All Aboard the Flick Wagen - The 2024-25 Season Thread

Excellent.

Who's still out, among those who can still return this season?

By my recollection, its Araujo and Christensen, correct?

 

Ferran left the Alaves match very early with an injury. Haven't heard any updates but would be surprised if he is back.

 

The stoopid Nations League has had the knock-on effect of having national trams isolated within their own confederations, rather than having interesting friendlies across confeds.

The USMNT just played Mexico. Again. And in Europe, instead of seeing teams from other parts of the world, its the same teams playing each other ad nauseum.

 

TBF, US played Mexico 1-2 times every damn year long before the NL. UEFA teams (actually all regions) would be totally engulfed in WC qualifying right now if this was October 2012, October 2008, etc. when the qualifying groups had more teams in it.

US plays Mexico because its an easy cash grab. Finding good WC warm up games was always an issue for host nations.

 

Mexico needed an opponent, and the US were pretty much the only cogent foe available, and it was also true for the US.

 

Didn't see this posted anywhere:

https://www.fcbarcelona.com/fcbarce...e-962a-91f7ac13ad60/MEM_2023_24_ENG-web-1.pdf

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/58...lona-finances-dani-olmo-la-liga-registration/

TL/DR:

1. The finances were balanced, as of last season.
2. Olmo's only registered until 31 December, after that 60MM Euros will need to be found to be cut from the wage bill, or 60MM Euros will need to be raised in another way.
3. Barca are still paying off transfers as old as Junior Firpo, Emerson Royal, and Pjanic
4. That said, the finances are improving.

 

I'd mind-holed that. When's that going through, anyway?

[And as usual, this is where I b!tch about the Olmo signing, in that it wasn't necessary.]

 

Yup, I just saw that these stories weren't paywalled, so I thought I'd share.

The "breaking even" part is me parroting the NYT/Athletic piece. So, who knows?

 

Asked, and answered:

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/official-barcelona-announce-nike-kit-153200302.html


Good news, although here's hoping that the board doesn't engage in moronic spending. To borrow from the Basques:

Amb La Masia,
i passió,
no hi ha necessitat
importació


[With La Masia,
And Passion,
there is no need
for importation.]

 

I like that saying, but the reality is that there will still be plenty of need for importing talent. Barca simply has higher ambitions and expectations than Athletic Club.

A better saying for Barca to go by is "the best transfer moves are often ones you don't make". Looking back at the last window, not signing Nico falls into that category. If we made that signing, Raphinha probably doesn't emerge into the player he has, and we are €90 million poorer (or more).

 

Meh, LaPorta and Deco should then prove to us that an oft-injured Olmo for however many millions of Euros in transfer fees, agents fees, salaries, and bonuses > a free, and already in the roster, Fermin or Pedri.

Take whatever was spent on Olmo [again, in terms of transfer fees, agents fees, bonuses, and wages], and add into it whatever was spent on Ferran. Back of the envelope, they've squandered some ~150 to 200MM Euros, all in over a few seasons between those two.

For that price, they squandered cash on two utility players, NOT definite world class difference makers.

Instead of squandering money on incremental improvements, saving that cash to buy the ELITE of the ELITE [such as a Haaland] would work better, full stop.

And that's because Barca has La Masia in their back pocket.

 

Not gonna get into whether Olmo is world class or not, since that term has no agreed definition and is just a term people throw around, but in this day and age you almost need 2 teams.

Part of the reason you want Haaland is because Fati has been such a flop. La masia is hugely important, but it doesn't fulfill all the requirements. As a simple example, look at the portion of goals that Lewa, Raphinha and Olmo (3 imports) have scored this season. We are way behind Madrid in the table w/o them.

 

How about the term "difference maker?" My view is that a player's first ability is "availability," and if you're not available, you're not making a difference.

Sure.

But of those three, two are "difference makers," while the other is injured and in the seats all the time. Two were acquired for positions of need, where there were no other options already in the team; one was a luxury purchase, where there are already extant options in place. Two were sane uses of resources, while the other is, well, an expensive utility player so far.


Haaland is great at football, in part because he's in a position where there really aren't any options in the team in a year or two from now. He'd make a difference on that basis.

 

Time will tell on that. It is of course the big question mark with Olmo. So far, apart from the month he missed this season with an injury, he has clearly made a difference.

At this level, every import will be expensive. Just the reality.

 

Ansu Fati out for a month after getting injured in training , he is also one of those that are injury prone , really hope we get a replacement in the winter transfers because him and ferran are just not cutting it as replacement wingers for yamal and raphinha or even cf for lewa

 

Fort was out with a lower back injury.

Maybe that's why he hasn't played much?

 

I don't know how accurate this is but this doesn't look good:

https://www.besoccer.com/team/injuries-suspensions/barcelona

Elsewhere, I've seen that Yamal might be out a few weeks with an ankle sprain