Oh!! Dembele just became more costly
Supercopa de Espana | Real Madrid / Barcelona
- Thread starter jojojo
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
Our scouts are beyond useless. Real Madrid unearthed Varane from Ligue 2 and signed him for peanuts. We spent 40 million on a 29 year old in the Chinese League. How come we can't find any talented young players? How come we overpay so much for average old players?
Now you know how it feels.
To be fair, Lens were in Ligue 1 during Varane's last season there. I think your problem goes far beyond scouting...Real have just outmaneuvered you (and really everyone else in Europe) in the transfer market over the past few years.
There are certain players in which Barcelona can not spend 40 million, especially when Barcelona B has just been promoted to Segunda.
That is what this board does not understand.
And yet after all the criticisms they sign Paulinho and get rid of Samper at the same time.
I imagine that the scouts have been working for the club for many years, so Bartomeu and the board are responsible for all this.Anyway I think they will not last long.
90 games in all competitions. 68 wins and 15 draws with only 7 defeats. 75% win rate.
Bayern have way better depth than us. They have Vidal, Thiago, Tolisso, James, Muller, Robben, Robery, Conan and Lewandowski to fill up 6 positions.
Juventus also have more depth than us. They have Marchisio, Khedira, Pjanic, Bernadeschi, Pjaca, Costa, Dybala, Mandzukic, Higuain for 6 positions.
Who dafuq do we have? We don't even have a first choice midfield let alone a second choice.
We haven't just been outmaneuvered by Madrid, all the other top teams have outsmarted and outdone us in the transfermarket.
After our treble in 2015 we had the perfect opportunity to build a team after Xavi. Instead we spent stupid money on Turan, Gomes, Paco and Paulinho while Real bought Kovacic, Cellabos, Ansensio.
The worst part is that even if (a big if) Barto is voted out of office on the 8th, it will take at least 3 to 4 years to fix the damage that has been done by him. By that time, Messi will have likely declined a lot.
Yes Valverde is their Moyes
Wait until they spend 100m on Coutinho to launch the ball over the bar from all kinds of distances.
André Gomes is a dodgy transfer, never has a player looked more out of depth at that level. In some level I'm very happy because I know a few arrogant and extremely smug Barca fans. Serves them right.
had to skip the game due to the kickoff time and early work. Checking out the highlights, I have to say that the Barsa decline is alarming. What the feck has their board been doing? Andre Gomes? Really?
If they don't fix it, Messi might leave them at the end of this season
If they don't fix it, Messi might leave them at the end of this season
Great video
From Iniesta, Xavi and Busquets dominating the midfield to Paulinho and Andre Gomez. Attacking options consist of Denis Suarez and Deulofeu....their transfer deals have been worse than ours and that takes some serious doing.
Other than masche and Iniesta the others are supposed to be in their primes. They have plenty of time to replace them, yet
Ah right, this is the caf, where 30=60
Barca put all their eggs in the MSN, they've covered the squads overall weakness for many years.
It seems that they've forgotten Football is a game of running, since the tiki taka team they think being good at passing will guarantee you a win.
Madrid looked faster, fitter and stronger than them across both legs. even without Isco, Bale and Ronaldo they still pretty much dominated the game, that shouldn't be able to happen.
Once Messi leaves they'll be in big trouble for a few years.
It seems that they've forgotten Football is a game of running, since the tiki taka team they think being good at passing will guarantee you a win.
Madrid looked faster, fitter and stronger than them across both legs. even without Isco, Bale and Ronaldo they still pretty much dominated the game, that shouldn't be able to happen.
Once Messi leaves they'll be in big trouble for a few years.
Huge test for Barca this season. I expect they will get Dembele this week, Coutinho will most likely stay. I dont see that being enough for them to challenge Real this season. RM's transfer model over the last few years has been far superior and there's now a gap forming between the two. Really interested to see how Messi does without Neymar but take him out of their team and I honestly think they are fairly mediocre.
Everyone has their own view about "prime" but yes, they're not a million miles away. The issue is (and maybe the point the original poster was trying to make) there's a lot coming to their peak/the ends of their peaks around the same time?
Ideally, a club would want to be making a couple of key improvements a season but Barca run the risk of having to make 6, 7, 8 in 1-2 seasons (remembering players peak differently) which is poor management and puts them beholden to selling clubs..... as we've seen recently, clubs are fighting Barca (and others) more as there's silly amounts of money sloshing around.
Barca run the real risk of dropping behind not just Real but several other European clubs at the worst possible time (i.e. when there's more money around), making it so much harder to get back to the uber-elite. Yes, they're pretty much guaranteed CL qualification but they could turn into Arsenal .... qualify, don't make last 8.
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which would be great.
Varane was fairly well known, he chose RM because of Zidane iirc, but it's not like they discovered a player no-one else spotted.
I know these players can play to they are 33-34-35 - but the fact is, every single keyplayer in that side is around 30 - and they haven't got a single younger (world class) player ready to replace them. And let's be realistic, they are not gonna get better over the next 2 years. And if Barcelona with their players arent good enough now - I would be concerned about next year and the year after that.
So 30 is prime and 32 is too old? That makes sense.
You only have to see some of them perform to know their best is behind them or will be soon enough.
Mascherano is clearly past it, and Iniesta doesn't have the legs to play every game anymore. The others are all very much in their primes. They've already got Umtiti and a couple more young CBs, Semedo at RB, and they're trying to sign coutinho and dembele
Agreed that caf is insane with age, but I think physical decline is a lot more about mileage than age. The Matic worries were insanity because he's barely played more first team matches than Lukaku, while Rooney at 29 has played around 200-250 (can't be bothered with math) more first team matches than Matic and he's only spent 3.5 years at a big league unlike Rooney. The worry is that the likes of Suarez, Rakitic, Busquets, and Pique have been around for a long time and may start to lose their sharpness.