FC Barcelona Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

SeantheMan · 08-07-2012 07:36AM

Silva signed a new contract with Milan last week I think I remember reading.

We have pique, mascherano ,puyol and fontas....though I'd have liked to see the latter get a few more games last season. He impressed when he did play .

CongoPowers · 09-07-2012 01:26AM

Delighted the big day went well for Don Andrés. Didn’t see any pics of Pep, but I think I read somewhere that he showed up later for whatever reason.

It’s always sad to see someone like Keita leave, but I do think it’s for the best. He’s been the perfect squad player, example to the whole team, and he deserves his payday now. You only need to listen to Guardiola speak about him to know how highly regarded he was at Barça.

Personally, I don’t think it’s a massive loss for the season ahead, and I agree with miralize that it’s positive so far as it being an opportunity for a young player coming through. Remember too, his contract was mutually terminted because he didn’t play enough in the season just passed, plus there are bigger leaders in the squad to begin with.

But anyway, I’m really grateful for all the great work he’s done in the last four years and wish him all the best. It’s fitting that his time at the club was parallel to Pep’s. And he scored the last league goal in the Guardiola era. So yeah, gràcies per tot, Keita!

As for signings, the papers now seem set on a player who can play both as a centre-back and a holding midfielder. Javi Martínez is obviously most people’s favourite, but Étienne Capoue of Toulouse is also being mentioned. Unless I’m mistaken, Athletic’s president has recently said that Javi Martínez’s contract would have to be bought out for €40M. Plus taxes. So yeah, unrealistically expensive for now..

Sean, I honestly don’t see Fontàs being part of the squad next season. I think the club have higher hopes for both Bartra and Muniesa. And he will probably want playing time after a lenghty injury. But you never know.

Davaeo09 · 09-07-2012 07:06PM

CongoPowers wrote: »

As for signings, the papers now seem set on a player who can play both as a centre-back and a holding midfielder. Javi Martínez is obviously most people’s favourite, but Étienne Capoue of Toulouse is also being mentioned. Unless I’m mistaken, Athletic’s president has recently said that Javi Martínez’s contract would have to be bought out for €40M. Plus taxes. So yeah, unrealistically expensive for now..

I think Bielsa said that as kind of an extra condition to him staying on Muniesa and Martinez both had to stay next season. I read some where earlier that the hot heated coach turned up and training today and the dispute had been resolved. (Eurosport I think?)
Either way, at 40m I think he is to expensive.
Vortongen would have been a steal but he seemed to have his heart set on london and spurs in particular all along.
I'm sure there are plenty of other options being weighed up. From the euros alone, Kyriakos Papadopoulos of Shalke was great. Plays with determination and a steel reminiscent of our very own Puyol. Who know's though, maybe Tito has his eyes on some one already? we can only wait to find out.

Delighted for Iniesta, what a summer its been for him. We really missed him when he was out before Christmas and when he wasn't at full form for the end of the season. He's such a model professional and his record speaks for itself.

gimmick · 10-07-2012 02:03PM

Fixtures are published it seems. Barca start off at home Vs Real Sociedad.

Real start at home to Valencia.

First Clasico is at Camp Nou, October 7th, return is March 3rd.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero · 10-07-2012 02:13PM

Not sure if it's been mentioned yet but the Supercopa has been fixed for the 22nd and 29th of August, with the first leg on in the Camp Nou.

dfx- · 10-07-2012 03:02PM

Has there been an outline of the not ridiculous jetsetting, Harlem globetrotters style this time pre-season?

News on Villa's fitness?

CongoPowers · 10-07-2012 07:59PM

Davaeo09 wrote: »

I think Bielsa said that as kind of an extra condition to him staying on Muniesa and Martinez both had to stay next season. I read some where earlier that the hot heated coach turned up and training today and the dispute had been resolved. (Eurosport I think?)
Either way, at 40m I think he is to expensive.
Vortongen would have been a steal but he seemed to have his heart set on london and spurs in particular all along.
I'm sure there are plenty of other options being weighed up. From the euros alone, Kyriakos Papadopoulos of Shalke was great. Plays with determination and a steel reminiscent of our very own Puyol. Who know's though, maybe Tito has his eyes on some one already? we can only wait to find out

Yeah, looks like Bielsa could stick around. Can’t blame him for demanding that the likes of Iker and Javi Martínez be kept. Papers need to be sold though, so I reckon this story linking JM to Barça will run for a bit longer. I don’t see why we’re supposed to believe that Sandro, the same man who held out for an extra few million off Cesc’s fee and went out of his own way to avoid paying the full 15M for Jordi Alba is going to buy out a 40M contract. Makes no sense.

I’m sure you’re right and that Tito has a number of players in mind for CB already. He said himself that he got the job on short notice, but himself and Pep would have spoken with Zubi about targets for the summer during the season.

I see a piece on the official site saying Jonathan and Sergi Roberto could pick up Keita’s minutes. Nothing wrong with that if you ask me. JDS has been tidy in a holding role for the B team this past season and Sergi Roberto is a very talented player. I guess either himself or Muniesa will stay with the B team depending on the signing that’s made. A lot of people are saying that Tello will be registered as a B player, obviously with the idea being he plays more whilst being available for the first team, too.

dfx- wrote: »

Has there been an outline of the not ridiculous jetsetting, Harlem globetrotters style this time pre-season?

News on Villa's fitness?

Link

Better than last summer. Only trip outside Europe will be for that friendly in Morocco.

I think Villa is grand now and will fully take part in pre-season.

Wasn’t expecting the fixtures today. La Real at home is a reasonable start. And a good sign? Started against them in 93/94 – won with a Romário hattrick, all assisted by Pep – and ended up winning the league. Also played them on day one in 97/98, and again finished as champions.

What a hattrick. Cheek of the last one.

G.K. · 10-07-2012 09:01PM

Is Montoya coming up this season?

BKC · 10-07-2012 09:05PM

Javi Martinez to Bayern Munich is apparently all but done, so there goes that one.

CongoPowers · 11-07-2012 07:06PM

G.K. wrote: »

Is Montoya coming up this season?

Yeah. He's the player best prepared for first team football at the moment.

Also, I'm only hearing something else about David Villa now. Apparently everyone is saying he will miss pre-season and be out until the end of August? Wow. That's pretty terrible for him. He's 31 in December and at this rate, he's really going to struggle to get in the team ahead of Alexis. (assuming Pedro plays)

gimmick · 12-07-2012 08:55AM

Villa is a better player injured than Sanchez is fit

The injury that Villa had is they type of injury which shortens careers. He will struggle to get back to what we know he can do IMO.

CongoPowers · 12-07-2012 03:26PM

gimmick wrote: »

Villa is a better player injured than Sanchez is fit

The injury that Villa had is they type of injury which shortens careers. He will struggle to get back to what we know he can do IMO.

I’m waiting on him to prove anything like it at Barça!

I don’t want to be negative, but I sort of had my hopes up thinking he would have a pre-season under his belt and be ready to ease back into things once the games started. Now it looks like a massive ask for him to get back in the first team any time soon when you consider that Pedro and Alexis work harder than anyone else, Afellay is saying this will be the season he proves himself, and then there’s Cuenca/Tello fighting for minutes as well. Not to mention when Cesc has Iniesta out on the left.

He may be replaced by Neymar next summer anyway, but without a strong season this year he will probably leave disappointed with his time at Barça. After such a long wait, too. I still believe in a comeback, no one doubts his ability, fans will be behind him of course, but it will be hard.

In other news, journalists writing for MD are suggesting Barça play the Supercopa with the B team in protest after Mourinho wasn’t punished for the Tito eye gouge. Unlikely

Kun being asked who are the best three forwards in the world:

I think he picked Van Persie and CR later. And he said Messi isn't actually his son's godfather, which is kind of disappointing after that pic of Benjamín. Too good to be true :P

miralize · 13-07-2012 02:04PM

We're playing Real Sociedad in our first league game of the season.

And surprisingly both of the Clasicos have been moved to about 6 weeks earlier than usual. Hopefully that will spare us the agony of 3 the space of a week

The Floyd p · 13-07-2012 02:33PM

Is anyone worried that Mou will get the upper hand on Tito straight away because he's way more experienced?

CongoPowers · 14-07-2012 02:03PM

miralize wrote: »

Hopefully that will spare us the agony of 3 the space of a week

I’m pretty sure it will. Second round of the CL is played end of February, start of March. We can’t draw a Spanish team at that stage, so a build up of Clásicos looks impossible. Great news

The Floyd p wrote: »

Is anyone worried that Mou will get the upper hand on Tito straight away because he's way more experienced?

I’m not. He’s been there with Pep for the past five years, it seems like everyone at the club thinks very highly of him, most importantly the players. I’m confident he’s going to do very well.

Looks like David Villa will be back for pre-season after all. Thank God.

The papers are raving about Deulofeu after his brace against France. Even talk of him joining the first team this season. If anything, his performance on Thursday showed how much he needs at least another year with the B team. He was playing very poorly until he scored his first goal. I do have to give him credit for sticking at it when things weren’t going his way, and with a bit more luck he could have even scored four, but he really does need to become a more selfless player. His general contribution suffers a lot because of his own self-indulgence. People following the B team agree that this is an important season for him, hopefully he can start playing well consistently and force himself into the first team.

Other than a bad tackle that actually injured the French lad, Grimaldo had another good game and even assisted Spain’s second goal. He was taken off just before FT which kind of back-fired with Spain’s defence being so terrible. Highlights.

A lot of Boca sources are saying that Sergio Araujo will be the next signing for Barça B. The club tried to get him last summer (I think? May have been two years back), but he was too expensive at the time. It would probably mean that Rodri would be let go, which isn’t exactly terrible news.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero · 14-07-2012 02:27PM

Recently acquired Graham Hunter's book, very interesting so far, can't believe Messi was as close to joining Rangers on loan as he was :eek:

The Floyd p · 14-07-2012 02:39PM

It's a great read. I loved the Xavi chapter

miralize · 14-07-2012 02:43PM

The section on Iniesta was brilliant. Really enjoyed that book actually

dagdha · 14-07-2012 06:15PM

THFC wrote: »

Recently acquired Graham Hunter's book, very interesting so far, can't believe Messi was as close to joining Rangers on loan as he was :eek:

I meant to buy it since it came out but only got around to getting during the week aswell. I did'nt expect it to be such a big book, I was expecting it to be only about 200 pages in length. It's pretty interesting so far, I'm looking forward to reading the rest of it.

Bodhisopha · 14-07-2012 06:59PM

The Floyd p wrote: »

Is anyone worried that Mou will get the upper hand on Tito straight away because he's way more experienced?

Perhaps tactically, he either is a good manager or he isn't, we shall see, but in terms of the usual mindgames and whatever that follow Mourinho i don't see it being an issue. The Barca players have won too much at club and international level to be phased by any of that.

gimmick · 16-07-2012 08:54AM

Its a great read. My favourite chapter (surprise surprise) was the one about Puyol and Pique - The Odd Couple.

Was hoping if I bumped into Mascherano again on holidays that he would sign it. Alas, no.

CongoPowers · 18-07-2012 08:42PM

Cà, Edgar and probably Araujo in. Villa and Fontàs back in training. Abi visiting the squad and even working in the gym.

What a great week for Barça.

kryogen · 18-07-2012 08:52PM

What's the name of the guy joined from Boca! on a season long loan with Barca B with a fee of 10mil being agreed if the move is going to be made permanent?

Scratch it, its Araujo

cheers

CongoPowers · 18-07-2012 08:57PM

Haha, good man. I was just about to reply before I saw your edit

miralize · 18-07-2012 10:28PM

Villa looks in shape from the training pics. Cant wait to see him this season, we missed El Guaje...

Dolph Starbeam · 19-07-2012 02:52AM

Just got Graham Hunters book tonight as a birthday present, unfortunately I couldn't put it down and now have to be up in 2 hours for a flight, totally worth it tho, very good read so far.

G.K. · 19-07-2012 06:39AM

It's really good.

Davaeo09 · 21-07-2012 01:38PM

Just been following the eurosport transfer bot and Affelay seems to be popping up a fair bit from both Aresnal and Liverpool supporters, which brings me to my next question. Should we cash in on him?

Let's be realistic here, he did not have a great Euro's by any standard. He missed about 80% of last season through injury, and spent the other 20% gelling with the team and still adapting. The season before, he looked good but didn't really have the confidence to take players on and he seemed discouraged from shooting outside the box. He did how ever play well out wide and we can thank him for that assist against Madrid. I still remember how he skint Marcello and left him caught in the long and dry grass in the BB that night.

I am one of his admirers, as I know congopowers and miralize are. Gimmick you'd probably be happy to see the back of him? Sorry for pointing you out I just recall you not having much patience for him, apologies if I am wrong!

He did make a huge effort learning the language and fitting in, and he does prefer to play LM/RM or RW/LW more than the centre, which does suit us considering, Xavi/Cesc and Thiago all play through the centre 95% of the time.

If he was to leave how much is fair? I've seen Arsenal 8m and Liverpool 9m floating around. I'd personally have though 12 would have been more in his region considering how long he still has left on his contract and he's already got some experience at winning major trophies. Albeit very minor.

Oat23 · 21-07-2012 02:20PM

What sort of team are you lads expecting to be put out on Tuesday? Bild are saying that Messi has to make an appearance as it's in the contract. Will it be Messi and a bunch of Barca B players?

CongoPowers · 22-07-2012 02:51PM

Well Cuenca has been told that he's in Tito's plans for next season, so I guess we should assume that either Ibi or Tello aren't.

Personally I think Tello is the player who needs regular playing time more than anyone else, whether it be with the B team or another club. His speed is something unique that adds to any squad, but he needs to mature a lot as a footballer to make it at Barça in my opinion. I've said before, I think both Ibi and Cuenca use the ball more intelligently and for that reason are better equipped for first team football at the moment.

Plus Afellay's age is a positive. He's 26, perfect to fill a gap before someone like Deulofeu breaks through. So I don't see the point in selling him for a few million more than we paid PSV. These things change every day, but my guess for now is that our six forwards for next season will be MVP, Alexis, Ibi and Cuenca. And that Villa and Ibi will eventually be replaced by Neymar (feels inevitable at this stage) and Deulofeu.

Oatesy23 wrote: »

What sort of team are you lads expecting to be put out on Tuesday? Bild are saying that Messi has to make an appearance as it's in the contract. Will it be Messi and a bunch of Barca B players?

Familiar names available are Messi, Villa, Mascherano, Alexis, Afellay, Adriano and Pinto. Then there's the likes of Bartra, Fontàs, Muniesa and Jonathan Dos Santos. The rest will be B team players and since it's a friendly, I suppose everyone will play at some stage.

FC Barcelona Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

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