Barcelona: Charged with corruption .... again!

[Niemans]

Its a matter of time before Xavi ends up there

but the bookies favourite... Arteta apparently?
https://bookmakers.co.uk/tips/betting-preview/next-barcelona-manager-odds

I don't think Laporta is so clumsy to put a coach who has a team like Arsenal in the bottom half of the premier league.
At the first bad result there would already be an unsustainable noise to put a coach who has not triumphed in any team.
My opinion is that Laporta knows better than anyone how the environment of Barcelona is and putting Arteta could pose problems to maintain the presidency.

Ten Hag would be much more realistic until Xavi arrives

 

[dinostar77]

Barcelona fans and board need to adjust to their new reality. Will probably take awhile. In a few years 3-5 they will be back, but theres some time to be spent in the wilderness.

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

Its a matter of time before Xavi ends up there

but the bookies favourite... Arteta apparently?
https://bookmakers.co.uk/tips/betting-preview/next-barcelona-manager-odds

That’s actually insane. Are they even watching what he’s done to Arsenal? Surely they’ll just wait out the season & go for someone like Ten Haag?

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

I don't think Laporta is so clumsy to put a coach who has a team like Arsenal in the bottom half of the premier league.
At the first bad result there would already be an unsustainable noise to put a coach who has not triumphed in any team.
My opinion is that Laporta knows better than anyone how the environment of Barcelona is and putting Arteta could pose problems to maintain the presidency.

Ten Hag would be much more realistic until Xavi arrives

Are you confident in Xavi being a good fit? I know it’s worked with Pep & Zidane but we’ve seen it fail with Pirlo, Lampard & numerous Milan ex-players. Seems like a big risk

 

[sun_tzu]

That’s actually insane. Are they even watching what he’s done to Arsenal? Surely they’ll just wait out the season & go for someone like Ten Haag?

Perhaps they are arsenal fans and its wishful thinking?

 

[ivaldo]

Hilarious. Sad. Pathetic even. Barcelona?
No, several Utd fans, already comparing Barcelona with post-2003 Leeds or 1991-2004 Liverpool.

09-11 obsession mixed with ignorance. Hilarious. Sad. Pathetic even.

Thanks for the update. Christopher. Walken.

 

[carvajal]

Koeman on the verge of being sacked according to ballbag

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— Twitter API (@user) date

Pedrerol also says the same.
I read somewhere that Jordi Cruyff refused because of the family's relationship with Koeman. I guess the ideal would be Ten Haag.
Conte would be a good option to wake them up but immediately the debates about style would arise

 

[Niemans]

Are you confident in Xavi being a good fit? I know it’s worked with Pep & Zidane but we’ve seen it fail with Pirlo, Lampard & numerous Milan ex-players. Seems like a big risk

I personally really want to see him training Barcelona.
I had read a journalist talking about him weeks before the elections, Xavi was the proposal of Victor Font to be manager or coach.
According to this journalist Xavi wanted to remodel the entire sports structure, working much more on the physical aspect and signing players of that type, bring together quality and physical.
From what I have heard of his statements brings me good feelings, then we will see if he triumphs or not.

 

[Daysleeper]

You are a long way away from this being just a "rebuilding season". It will get alot worse before it gets better.

Again and it cannot be stressed enough, how financially fecked you are as a club. We're not talking about a few lean years like Madrid, you are nursing massive debts, all of which are being compounded on at the moment and its only going to get worse while Barca are unable to fill their stadium. Not only that, its a massively ageing squad and thats only compounded by adding aguero etc.

Forget about player salary turnover, Barcelona are a massive club and if their net revenue last year was 700 million euro and they've lost 500 million euro in the same 12 months, it means your net revenue needs to be closer to 1 billion euro just to break even taking into consideration the salary's that have been wiped off the wage bill.

If the morons doing the accounting that come up with the bullshit "messi is worth 30% of Barca's brand" that means that the best you can hope for is 800-900 million euros and thats still 100 million euro short of where you may need to be.

we will be fine but it will take a few years for sure. By 2024 at the latest we will be back to normal. Getting Griezmann wages off the books was huge and the days of spending stupid money on signings won’t happen as often under Laporta. It’s bad right now for sure and will be for the next 2-3 seasons but we’ll be fine during this rebuild phase.

 

[ariveded]

Overall, the big mistake not to sell Messi last season. That was their best chance to start fresh, balance their books, and Messi would been faulted.

Now, all fault is Barcelona. It's just unfortuantely that La Liga isn't competitive, and Barca should finish in Top 4. Without regular Champs League, will they club just collapse?

 

[Pretzels81]

Apparently, they are trying to sign Sterling this January.

Another attacker?

They desperately need a CB,RB and DMF first.

 

[Niemans]

Apparently, they are trying to sign Sterling this January.

Another attacker?

They desperately need a CB,RB and DMF first.

Sterling in January seems quite difficult to me and the price would be high. I find it hard to believe the news, all the money that Barcelona has will be to try to sign Haaland.

In the RB are Dest and Mingueza and this will be the season where they will have to show that they can be worth to be starters.

In the DMF the logical thing is to give minutes to Nico González and see how he evolves.

And yes, Barcelona needs a CB, the only one with the level to compete right now is Araujo

 

[VanDeBank]

Sterling in January seems quite difficult to me and the price would be high. I find it hard to believe the news, all the money that Barcelona has will be to try to sign Haaland.

In the RB are Dest and Mingueza and this will be the season where they will have to show that they can be worth to be starters.

In the DMF the logical thing is to give minutes to Nico González and see how he evolves.

And yes, Barcelona needs a CB, the only one with the level to compete right now is Araujo

What do you think of Ricky Puig and maybe moving De Jong to no 6?

Disregard the 3 oldies and the left over players that are reliable and satisfactory: Ter Stegen, De Jong, Pedri, Fati, Memphis.
You guys need a lot more than a CB. Haaland won't join a side that will be still be battling for top 4 in his first year.

 

[Niemans]

What do you think of Ricky Puig and maybe moving De Jong to no 6?

Disregard the 3 oldies and the left over players that are reliable and satisfactory: Ter Stegen, De Jong, Pedri, Fati, Memphis.
You guys need a lot more than a CB. Haaland won't join a side that will be still be battling for top 4 in his first year.

Ricky Puig's problem is when the team does not have the ball, it is like playing one less in the center of the field, Barcelona only plays with 3 and if one of them is Puig then the team suffers a lot.

In busquets' position is Nico Gonzalez who has great qualities, he needs experience but this year he should play a lot.
In the center of the field there are four untouchables: De Jong and Pedri are young but already a reality, Nico and Gavi have a lot of quality and a great future. If you sign a player of great level to me worries a lot that these 2 can have few minutes. The departure of Ilaix Mori was a shame but it was what should be done

Indeed Barcelona needs more than a CB, the problem is that there is little money. The most logical thing is this year to see which players perform well and then sign in the weakest positions.

And in the attacking positions everything is a big unknown. If Ansu Fati regains the level after the injury it would be a great relief, he can play center forward too, Dembele the same, last year was his best year by far, he was seen more focused on everything.

Memphis - Ansu - Dembele playing together wouldn't be bad at all , Demir has good qualities and below comes Ilias Akomach.

 

[The Boy]

Some reports floating around at the moment that Koeman maybe replaced with Roberto Martinez.

Who in their right mind would want to take over Barcelona right now and tbf on Koeman with the squad he has could anyone do any better?

 

[VorZakone]

"Koeman on the brink"

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Some reports floating around at the moment that Koeman maybe replaced with Roberto Martinez.

Who in their right mind would want to take over Barcelona right now and tbf on Koeman with the squad he has could anyone do any better?

Why not? Their squad has talent, it's not going to win the CL but it's capable of playing some good football. Koeman seems a very average manager who aside from his past does not suit Barcelona.

 

[Judas]

I know Barca are a mess and a bit of a joke, but surely Martinez isn't going to fluke his way into that job? Although he'd be a disaster there anyway. I don't get why he's even slightly rated.

 

[BerryBerryShrew]

Some reports floating around at the moment that Koeman maybe replaced with Roberto Martinez.

Who in their right mind would want to take over Barcelona right now and tbf on Koeman with the squad he has could anyone do any better?

I think the better question is could Roberto Martinez do better. And the answer is a resounding no.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Going from Koeman to Martinez is a lateral move. He's not good enough for a top club.

They should give Xavi whatever he wants and hope he pans out.

They are in ruins. I think it'll be a good 3-4 seasons until they're challenging for La Liga again.

 

[Ramos]

Are they really going to bring in Roberto Martinez?

Really want to see this. He never coached a club even close to that stature.

 

[horsechoker]

Why don't they just give Arsenal what they want and bring in Mikel Arteta who's is the second cumming of Pep?

 

[VinzentFTW]

A couple years and they`re back imo. We have been 8 years in limbo and still trying to get back so lets see how Barcelona do.

 

[stefan92]

Some reports floating around at the moment that Koeman maybe replaced with Roberto Martinez.

Who in their right mind would want to take over Barcelona right now and tbf on Koeman with the squad he has could anyone do any better?

I don't know if someone else would get much better results. But I am sure that someone else would try to play a style that is more true to the clubs history and strategy than what Koeman is doing. Sure the current squad can not play exactly as Barca 10/11, but they could still play a better system than relying on Pique as a striker and lumping crosses in.

 

[Guy Incognito]

Martinez? Another ex-Everton manager?

Scene is set for Moyes to manage Barca in 2023.

 

[Spaghetti]

A couple years and they`re back imo. We have been 8 years in limbo and still trying to get back so lets see how Barcelona do.

Slightly different. There are only 2.5 top teams in Spain. Leicester, Chelsea, City and Liverpool have all won the league in these last 8 years, with other clubs also investing heavily.

It will be a much easier ride for Barcelona to get back to the top as they have fewer external obstacles. There is not a lot of competition in la liga and FCB will never fail to attract star names.

Their main difficulties are internal.

 

[wise_old_man]

Martinez? Another ex-Everton manager?

Scene is set for Moyes to manage Barca in 2023.

The father of all crosses. La Liga can't handle that.

 

[Niemans]

Barcelona's biggest problem right now is the toxic environment. Everything is criticized because there are many interests, whether political, fighting for the presidency of the club, the press wanting to put various people in the club as a coach. And Koeman in the middle of it all, of course he is the person of all this hysteria with more ethics and morals by far.
He left the Dutch national team a year before the European Championship to coach a club in the midst of an institutional crisis.
He was the first to set an example and lower his salary... and convince the players.
He was brave and put a lot of young player who right now is important for the club: Pedri, Araujo, Mingueza and this year Demir, Gavi, Baldé, any other coach who could be fired would have played with the veterans.
He also installed the ethic of hard work that he had lost with Valverde, you just have to watch and compare some matches and others.
And my opinion is that last year Barcelona did much better football than the previous 3 years with Valverde and even the last with Luis Enrique, in fact Barcelona was the second highest scoring team in Europe only behind Bayern Munich and that with all the problems.
Koeman has 2 wins and 2 draws with half an injured team, I can't imagine what would have happened if he had started like Juventus...
This is Barcelona and all its hysteria at its best
If Koeman is not fired, it is because there is no substitute and the president does not want to pay the compensation, just that.

 

[golden_blunder]

Klopp also mentioned

go on Bucky you know you want too

 

[Adam-Utd]

Wasting more money on sacking another manager? I really don't see the point.

With their squad they're probably only going to be top 3 anyway, might as well ride with it until they get their finances back in check.

 

[Wednesday at Stoke]

The way Barcelona are going, they can either do the smart thing and bring back someone like Luis Enrique or do the Barcelona thing and poach someone like Rafa Benitez, to create an atmosphere even more toxic than it is right now.

 

[Steve Bruce]

Klopp also mentioned

go on Bucky you know you want too

Not happening but would love the meltdown by the scousers

 

[golden_blunder]

Not happening but would love the meltdown by the scousers

Food from the gods

 

[wholesomejen]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/58643421

An interesting article on the BBC by Balague about the tension between Laporte and Koeman.

 

[Ish]

Going from Koeman to Martinez is a lateral move. He's not good enough for a top club.

They should give Xavi whatever he wants and hope he pans out.

They are in ruins. I think it'll be a good 3-4 seasons until they're challenging for La Liga again.

Yeah I think Xavi is a smart guy. He'll wait 2-3 years when they're in a better position squad wise, and financially, before he takes on the role.

Someone like Ten Haag would be a good appointment for them (seems to have worked well with limited budgets and losing his best players) but I am also not sure what his appetite is for a massive rebuild. His stock is quite high and failing at Barca might set him back in his career - though it'll still be a massive step up for him I guess. Who knows.

 

[Ish]

Klopp also mentioned

go on Bucky you know you want too

that would be something for the scousers!

 

[ariveded]

Why Koeman got the job itself is a mystery and mistake itself.

It's not just toxic environment, it's lack of leadership and low morale. Combine it with young unproven players with big money, and thus big ego and little motivation.

 

[Blood Mage]

I think this is the first time in decades where going from Liverpool to Barca can be considered an obvious step down. I'd love to see the back of Klopp but he definitely won't be going there.

I still can't believe they hired Koeman after the appalling job he did at Everton. Very rarely do ex-legends pull a Pep or a Zidane.

 

[stefan92]

I think this is the first time in decades where going from Liverpool to Barca can be considered an obvious step down. I'd love to see the back of Klopp but he definitely won't be going there.

For sure not now during the season. However I could imagine Klopp going there in the summer if he feels he has done all he could at Liverpool.

Rebuilding big clubs is what he excels at, so it would fit his profile.

 

[Niemans]

I think this is the first time in decades where going from Liverpool to Barca can be considered an obvious step down. I'd love to see the back of Klopp but he definitely won't be going there.

I still can't believe they hired Koeman after the appalling job he did at Everton. Very rarely do ex-legends pull a Pep or a Zidane.

Klopp here would be dismembered and buried at the first 2 adverse results for his way of playing directly, here people don't like so much long ball from one band to another in attack.
The football here is that of Guardiola, Luis Enrique, Cruyff, Ajax or Bayern right now.
They just did a lot of things wrong, now they have to be done right and it will take time.