Jokes about levers aside and their obviously precarious financial situation going forward, in terms of incoming transfers this has been quite a good summer. Will it pay off? Who can say? But on paper they look much better.
Barcelona: Charged with corruption .... again!
- Thread starter The Boy
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I think their new owner has to take on the debt.
Only if they can register their new signings.
Think we can all agree that there is nothing honourable about this current Barcelona setup, or the previous one either.
What a beast Araujo.
Towards the second half of season they looked much better. Some of the football they played against Napoli away was as good as anything I have seen lately. But lack of depth makes them inconsistent.
If these players click I can see them challenging from this year itself. Christensen and Kounde could be massive to settle them at the back.
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He is talking about something related to the Superleague most likely. They have outright said they will at the very least get lawsuit money. They believe this.
It is at THIS point that they desperately hope to be SO good everyone … just won’t notice?
Nico is leaving very good feelings in these preseason games in the position of Busquets.
It is still too early to make more serious assessments, but the boy promises a lot and is only 20 years old.
It is still too early to make more serious assessments, but the boy promises a lot and is only 20 years old.
Annoying cnuts have some really good La Masia players on their books.
Glad to see him get more playing time, past season with Xavi he looked to be looking less than under Koeman. Allegedly Xavi wants him to stay instead of getting playing time loaned because he wants to mould him personally and to lear from Busquets.
However, watching him playing as a 5 reminds me of Thiago Motta and not Busquets, wouldn't be bad if he ended being as good as Motta on PSG
Will it though? Kounde is known for taking a LOT of chances, especially on the ball. Which, in a back 3, or paired with a calm, competent running mate, wouldn’t be an issue. AC though is known for his nerves and going near spastic in such situations, which is why he was viewed as a train wreck at times before Silva pairing and move to a back 3. They might end up being good, but I can’t imagine the word “settled” ever being used to describe this pairing.
What a lovely club this Barcelona is. Truly more than a club.
They do not. That has been settled. The basic issue being: who would the debt be paid to? If you say Roman can’t write off the debt , then the money would be going to a company … that can’t receive money? And if he’s not sanctioned, then he’s free to cancel whatever he likes (which he already did formally). Todd Boehly and the group
Backing him are some of the wealthiest and most successful owners in sports. It’s like the Fenway group, but on steroids.
They both are huge upgrade on Eric Garcia and might move one of them to play RB( Should be Kounde) and the other alongside Araujo who is very impressive. I think LB is where they are still short
Well, I did consider RB for Kounde, but just because he has played there doesn’t meant mean he’s ideal in that position. He’s good on the ball for a CB, but he’s nowhere near the threat going forward that you guys expect your RBs to be in your system.
Stealing Koulibaly would have made sense. But I wouldn’t have even wanted Kounde if we played a different system. But you guys historically use non traditional CB’s so maybe it will work.
Rudiger's face when he can't move Araujo.
This is correct. The longer term issue for Chelsea is threading the needle when it comes to spending on transfers with less revenue than the other big clubs. Clearly there is a plan in place regarding the stadium and growing the brand but I expect the 200M war chest this summer will be the exception rather than the norm for a while until they can grow revenue in a sustainable way. I don't anticipate Boehly going for quick fixes which will have damaging long term impacts a la Laporta lets put it that way. Will be fascinating to see his approach.
Just saw their full lineup from yesterday's game. Bloody hell, their team is huuuuuge. They have three players on each position. What a strange club
Nothing strange about that; the problem is that they are blowing money on players to stay competitive while their debt is still there. It's like managing to get 4000 from the bank to get some air after a bad year, but then you spend 2800 on furniture, clothes, and clubs.
It is strange when you are in debt and begging players to take paycut. While you are spending 200 mil on new players.
Laporta is doing that to veteran " past it"players (like Pique) or Barto's signings (like FdJ).
Barca and Real are more a political party than a club
They are always supported by the banks for political reasons
So they are going to continue to spend not caring about nothing
Laporta and Florentino are local politicians
They are always supported by the banks for political reasons
So they are going to continue to spend not caring about nothing
Laporta and Florentino are local politicians
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Don't you worry about the Spanish banks. They've been dancing but the music has stopped playing.
Just got done watching the Madrid-Barca match.....Frenkie is going to be one HELL of an expensive sub or non player if they can't either convince him to leave or get him to renew his contract at a lower wage
Well apparent, much like Telles, that Xavi rates the other players in his position over him
Well apparent, much like Telles, that Xavi rates the other players in his position over him
Anyone who truly rates current Busquets above a fit, competent, professional football player (never mind the position he plays in) is a moron.
Let alone the fact that all the rumblings from Barcelona suggest that he's going to be their only guaranteed starter throughout the campaign. Just imagine, a player that should have been kicked out a couple of seasons ago without qualms because he's completely useless is treated like some sort of crown prince there...no words whatsoever.
Busquets is far better than you give him credit for. I’d like to see him slowly phased out but Frenkie’s best position doesn’t exist in the current Barca setup. It’s like putting a square peg in a round hole. I love FDJ, I hope they can find a way to make it work as his ceiling is tremendous but the reality is that he’s always been an awkward fit. Having said that, Busquets should be faced out but to say Busquets is useless is completely wrong. He’s been decent for Barca and much better for the NT.
Once upon a time I wanted to be a referee, in order to qualify for anything above fourth division or its equivalent any candidate was required to clear a standardized fitness test (it was called a Cooper test at that time if my memory serves me well). I'm more or less certain that current Busquets would comprehensively fail that test which begs the question what the hell is he doing out there masquerading as a footballer?
I laughed but you’re wrong mate. He’s getting older but still solid:
https://www.besoccer.com/new/amp/uefa-named-busquets-the-best-player-of-the-nations-league-1053897
I still want the midfield to be Kessie/FDJ/Pedri but Busquets is still good and serviceable.
In the next 10 years when only Manchester city and Newcastle are the winners of the PL, fans will be begging for the SL.
As long as those two aren't invited.
To me what Laporta is doing feels like almost like the gambler's fallacy: chase the win even when losing. There's no question that the current Barca squad (assuming they can register all the new signings) is good enough win the major trophies. The question really is: will winning the major trophies increase revenues enough to pay for the current squad?
All indications suggest under the current economic conditions, no - Barca cannot afford to cover operating costs with operating revenues. Hence the need for 'leveraging' future revenues to create current income.
That is obviously no way to run a business that doesn't have a huge potential for growth. Do Barca have that? I'm not sure, the world is likely hitting a recession, interest rates are rising, there's still a pandemic and a war on etc.
BUT
As other posters have said, I also get the feeling Barca would just get away with going bankrupt somehow, for non-footballing reasons.
All indications suggest under the current economic conditions, no - Barca cannot afford to cover operating costs with operating revenues. Hence the need for 'leveraging' future revenues to create current income.
That is obviously no way to run a business that doesn't have a huge potential for growth. Do Barca have that? I'm not sure, the world is likely hitting a recession, interest rates are rising, there's still a pandemic and a war on etc.
BUT
As other posters have said, I also get the feeling Barca would just get away with going bankrupt somehow, for non-footballing reasons.
If we went by purely fitness, the likes of Riquleme would never have made it as a professional footballer.
Obviously some new rule will emerge and they will be free to do anything they want, they are just too important for spanish football.
Many crying "what will barca do....what will barca do..." the answer is nothing...they will be just fine, they have a good manager a good squad and they will fight for the title and CL.
But to be clear, it isn’t really “ok” to do that to anyone. If they do it to those players, then tomorrow it could be you; that’s how players should/need to see it.
It like dating a girl that cheated on her last 4 boyfriends and naively thinking “I’M the one she’s going to be faithful to!”
I promise you Goldman Sachs does not care … at all …. about their politics, or how important they think they are to world football.
The fact that Barcelona “did not comply with its liabilities to banks, the Spanish League, or UEFA” means they burned the bridges they had with people that did care about such things.
It doesn’t matter if the whole country of Spain is willing to prop you up, or if La Liga exists to promote you, if you don’t have confidence in those institutions not failing.
Barca and Madrid know this, and that is why they launched the whole Super League plan.
They have been acting like these levers are genius moves collecting on money that would otherwise just be sitting around. But teams make budgets years in advance, and that money was budgeted to pay people, go towards operating costs, cover future payments on contracts, etc. With the Euro spiraling and Spain being one of the most susceptible countries in the Euro region to a Greece-like collapse when predicted recessionary forced hit …it looks bleak.
They thinking winning major trophies and being super “relevant” when all this starts to hit is the key to saving themselves. It is not grounded in reality, but will be very interesting to watch play out.
They used up money they will NEED in the future to pay back part of a loan that will only get more costly as time goes on. For those who doubted that: ask yourself why they paid back nearly a full quarter of the money when they are on 15 year note at a VERY friendly rate if that 3 percent is true. The Euro will go negative to the dollar by the end of this year. They didn’t make any NEW money with their levers. They basically took an advance. And when it comes time to pay for the things budgeted to be covered by that money … then another loan? Further advances?
Going after the Super league even harder, and suing the other big teams in Europe in the process … it will not end well.
The 5 messages rules per day is frustrating... i had messages that i couldn't post, then i forget and by the time i'm back we have another 2-3 pages so it doesn't make sense anymore...
barça will get away with bankrupt for non bootballing reasons, those non footballing reasons are paying what we owe by ourselves.
besides, tebas is not happy with barcelona due to SL and the fact that barcelona rejected CVC (waaaay worse operation than the "levers").
apparently players see otherwise. they trust barça more than chelsea. makes sense since they dont know if chelsea new owners will continue to post 200M of losses per year and will be covered as they were by the criminal's war friend. will chelsea come back to be just another mid table team as it has always been until the russian oligarc came in? considering chelsea revenue is way lower than barça, does it makes sense offering kounde almost twice as barça? does kounde deserve a higher salary than lewandowsky this year? is it sustainable without being the toy of a criminal's war friend? maybe players takes that into account too.
laporta has always said that the levers are BAD and that they wouldnt do it in normal situation, does it sound like "genius collecting money sitting around"? board has always said that it is a bad operation, but it is the least bad option they have.
for those who doubt, and for you, who obviously have 0 knowledge about anything related to barça rather your full time hate job. why did barça return 100M to GS at that rate? well... reason is that the loan barça took from them (at 1.98%) was backed by 90% of the LaLiga tv rights, so it was fine to sell 10%. However, they needed to negotiate with GS as they couldnt sell the rest because it was used as collateral for the GS loan. They negotiated and Barça cancelled 100M of the debt to be able to freed those TV rights. that is why it was done in 2 rounds to the same buyers (Sixth Street).
and obviously, if you have a debt and you need a loan you are taking and advance.
and other "big teams" will be sued if they signed something and they want to break a contract. if you dont want something, dont sign it.
what banks exactly? and how? can you please elaborate?
not a single bank was rescued in the previous crisis. not a single private bank, only public "banks" (which are not called "banks" in spain anyway as they are a different, non for profit, thing, and managed by politicians).
why do you say that we cannot cover operating costs? wage bill has been reduced over 200M, in the next 2 years it will decrease another 50-60 minimum. last year 560 was "fake" because it included one time payments that won't be repeated. at this moment we are at real madrid levels or a little bit more, due to busquets, fdf, alba, pique and ter stegen, that are the only ones that are not in the new scale salary. chelsea has offered kounde more money than what we are paying lewa (and he is a top earner next 2 years in the new scale). from the 500M lost last year, the "real" lose was less than 200 (the rest were one time payments and extra savings for potential costs). so we should already be able to balance that or to be very close.
barça will get away with bankrupt for non bootballing reasons, those non footballing reasons are paying what we owe by ourselves.
laliga is not going to come with any new rule. they could have done it last year (when the situation was way worse) and they did nothing, they just followed the rules. messi had to leave because we couldnt keep him even if playing for free. we could pay 0 to messi and we werent abile to register him anyway. losing messi for free when you can keep him for free is a easy to sell situation but laliga never accepted that. and they did it right. no special rules should be applied to anyone.
besides, tebas is not happy with barcelona due to SL and the fact that barcelona rejected CVC (waaaay worse operation than the "levers").
those are way overpaid players with long and ridiculous contracts.
apparently players see otherwise. they trust barça more than chelsea. makes sense since they dont know if chelsea new owners will continue to post 200M of losses per year and will be covered as they were by the criminal's war friend. will chelsea come back to be just another mid table team as it has always been until the russian oligarc came in? considering chelsea revenue is way lower than barça, does it makes sense offering kounde almost twice as barça? does kounde deserve a higher salary than lewandowsky this year? is it sustainable without being the toy of a criminal's war friend? maybe players takes that into account too.
laporta has always said that the levers are BAD and that they wouldnt do it in normal situation, does it sound like "genius collecting money sitting around"? board has always said that it is a bad operation, but it is the least bad option they have.
the last loan signed with GS was at 1.98% rate, not 3% (maybe that's another). we could sell 3 times what we have sold and we would still have higher revenues than chelsea, who is offering higher salaries, so... what?
for those who doubt, and for you, who obviously have 0 knowledge about anything related to barça rather your full time hate job. why did barça return 100M to GS at that rate? well... reason is that the loan barça took from them (at 1.98%) was backed by 90% of the LaLiga tv rights, so it was fine to sell 10%. However, they needed to negotiate with GS as they couldnt sell the rest because it was used as collateral for the GS loan. They negotiated and Barça cancelled 100M of the debt to be able to freed those TV rights. that is why it was done in 2 rounds to the same buyers (Sixth Street).
and obviously, if you have a debt and you need a loan you are taking and advance.
and other "big teams" will be sued if they signed something and they want to break a contract. if you dont want something, dont sign it.
In that case Barcelona need to pay all of their players the wages they agreed to when they signed them and stop bleating and whining about them being overpaid and insisting they need to take pay cuts. This is the crux of why everybody is sickened with Barca right now. Legally you may be ok but morally your club is in the sewer.