Great quote from Liverpool's Rafa Benitez in today's SoccerAmericaDaily. I hope Laporta reads it... Amen.
I have nothing to add. All media should read that. But what would they write if they would respect this?! End of fun..
i think syvinho has been putting in some superb performances. he's been one of our best players, and his understanding with ronaldinho down the left is really terrific. i would rather see a right-back signed, because with gio and silvinho, we're stronger on the left than with oleguer and belletti on the right. maybe if we sign a top CB then puyol can move back to his old position on the right. anyway, any moves should wait till the summer. there's not need to make any changes right now.
True, the left side has been okay especially with the way Silvinho has been playing, to me our best left full back this season. We need strengthening on the right and also may be in central defence to provide depth.
Hm, this wont happen until summer but a scenario is here. Gabri is out of contract this summer and it is believed that Barca wont give him an extension. So we will need a replacement. Saviola will have one more year on his contract and I guess we wont loan him again but instead rather sell him. He is more than willing to stay in Sevilla and Sevilla would like to buy him, no question. So, Barca will use Saviola in operation to swap Daniel Alves from Sevilla. Alves will end up in Barca as a replacement for Gabri and Damia and will be competition for Belletti in right back. We will gain a great players for virtualy no money
That is a great scenario. I'd like for us to make a hard cash offer for Patrice Evra. I think he is the best left-back still at a relatively small club (My apologies to Monaco supporters), unless Giuly and Evra did not get along I can't see him not wanting to come. So far I have been pretty good with player predicitions (I thought Deco would be good, I thought Giuly would be nice, I wanted the Davids loan, I wanted us to get Van Bommel, so I am placing my interests behind Kompany, Evra, and probably Dani Alves)
while true that many big clubs want him...the BEST club wants him and I would think that he would want to join us versus the white plague or red menace, or the blue ballskeas Playing for FCB has to look pretty attractive to a young player at this stage in his career.
If all teams offered him the same exact deal, I think Milan, Juve, and Barca have the best shot at signing Kompany.
Dont forget Chelsea! He has sort of agreement with them. Only if someone offers more (which is unlikly) he might change his mind. Kompany is very mature player for his age but he lacks some expiriences in highest level. Everytime I see him playing in Champions league he doesnt show the needed quality. Why is so I dont know, perhaps the whole team is a problem. He still need atleast two seasons to develop before joining top club.
How cool would it be to have Ricard Quaresma now? Why did we have to trade him? Pss the guy showed promise and is really skillful.Loan him out but dont trade him.Good move
We still own a % of him, so if he is sold (hopefully for a large sum of money) we get a good chunck of it. Is he doing well? Last I heard, which was last year, he was doing poorly and fighting with his manager at Porto.
New manager and he seems to have matured in the past year. If you look at the Porto forum he's definatly a fan favorite now instead of a 'player who shows promise'.
We have quality defenders......Marquez, Puyol, Bellitti, plus barca tends to develop their own defenders as a means of saving money in the long run
http://www.sport.es/ According to a british newspaper Dinho has said that Lampard and Henry will play with us next season.
Yeah right its probably just the billiointh time where the press was like "Ronaldinho, do you like Henry and Lampard and would you ever play with them" and Ronnie was like "Yeah of course they're fantastic players and I would love to see them on Barca someday". Im really getting sick of these rumors.
According to this source we have 20M to spend on players. http://www.tribalfootball.com/december/spanishnews4281205.html
"...at the end of the season." Don't hold your breath for any winter signings. We're doing juuuust fine.
Financially i also thought we are doing well. We need to however save some of the money and also keep investing in the youth scheme. I would welcome at least a world class sweeper/stopper in the winter transfers. Great that Van Bommel`s return is on schedule as we will need him. The right full back is another problem area however i doubt we will go out to sign some one for that area as Belletti, Ole and even Gabri can all fill that position. Left wing same but i need at least a central defender. Also on the issue of the shirt sponsorship, i can see us getting a very lucrative deal on whatever company ends up sponsoring us judging by how we are performing.
what would happen with marquez then? don't you think it would be a little unfair for him to sign a world class stopper? do you think we need a new partner for puyol, or just someone to cover for marquez and puyol. personally, i have become a big fan of the marquez-puyol partnership, and then oleguer and edmilson are both good back-ups. if we signed a CB who's better than marquez, then that would basically amount to asking him to leave becase it would be pointless to waste that non-EU spot on someone who isn't an undisputed first-choice. it seems to me that the CB situation is similar to the whole question of whether or not to sign henry, if he comes then the squad is certainly stronger, but then that leaves messi in a difficult situation, which overall might be worse for the team. i think signing a right-back is much easier to justify. because belletti has been a bit of a disapointment (great runner, just doesn't manage to deliver the final ball), oleguer doesn't contribute much going forward, and gabri hasn't played at RB much (which would seem to suggest that FR doesn't have complete faith in him, besides i have a feeling he might well be leaving next summer).