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Barcelona: Charged with corruption .... again!
- Thread starter The Boy
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If Barca don't go bankrupt in the next couple of seasons, it will be a slap in the face of every financially responsible club.
Dumb take, they’ve always had the money, this was about pleasing la liga 1:3 rule.
they’ve had the best transfer window this summer and the team is looking very good even if it is early days:
https://streamff.com/v/a11kxa
I thought that I would be free from the freak show that is Real Madrid Televisión (El chiricirco de Jugones) on a English speaking Manchester United forum but I guess not.
Good to see El Fenómeno back at the Camp Nou.
Anyway a nice convincing 4-0 win against Real Valladolid. Great to see that Xavi has sidelined Alba (so far at least) and that he trusts Balde. Now he just needs to understand that Busquets does not cut it any longer against good opponents or in high intensity games for the most part.
It is very important to start the season well before the absolutely brutal October schedule.
Good to see El Fenómeno back at the Camp Nou.
Anyway a nice convincing 4-0 win against Real Valladolid. Great to see that Xavi has sidelined Alba (so far at least) and that he trusts Balde. Now he just needs to understand that Busquets does not cut it any longer against good opponents or in high intensity games for the most part.
It is very important to start the season well before the absolutely brutal October schedule.
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Whatever about his business acumen, you can't fault Laporta's propaganda skills.
That last lever to sign Kounde was probably the mob who reminded him of the consequences of not paying on time
Got to hand it to the fat feck. At least he puts his own skin in the game.
Then there are the glazers. Thats how fecking bad they are.
Then there are the glazers. Thats how fecking bad they are.
It is noticeable, that there is no more club driven media agenda against Frenkie. At one point, they wanted him out badly. I believe because Laporta got assurances from his former colleagues and friends at City Txiki and Ferran Soriano, that they would let Silva leave. So the club tried everything to give Xavi his priority target and for that, Frenkie had to move on.
That didn't happen and now, this late in the transfer window, City closed their doors. The same reason, City won't sell Silva anymore forces Xavi and Laporta to keep Frenkie, at least for now. It's too late for a worldclass replacement and Barca can't sell him without one, because Pedri, Gavi and Kessie are not enough for the whole season on both interior positions. If one of those 3 get injured, the other two would have to play all the games and that only leads to disaster. In addition to that Gavi still has a lot to learn and Kessie brings in a different skillset.
Laporta even went so far as to vouch with his own money for the last registration. Well he had to, because he bought those players in the first place, but still. The sporting project this season is more important than simply to get rid of Frenkie's huge wage. Laporta sold no small amount of future income to be instantly successful again, so his leadership will be measured by it. So, what is worse than paying Frenkie off market wages? To end this season unsuccessfully after pulling all those levers.
I simply can't see, how Barca will agree to sell Frenkie in this window anymore. But that doesn't say much, because we have a world cup and the next transfer window coming up in a few months. If City opens the door to Silva again, the club will pressure Frenkie again, I'm sure of it and I don't like it. Xavi is obsessed with Bernardo like Ten Hag is with Frenkie.
That didn't happen and now, this late in the transfer window, City closed their doors. The same reason, City won't sell Silva anymore forces Xavi and Laporta to keep Frenkie, at least for now. It's too late for a worldclass replacement and Barca can't sell him without one, because Pedri, Gavi and Kessie are not enough for the whole season on both interior positions. If one of those 3 get injured, the other two would have to play all the games and that only leads to disaster. In addition to that Gavi still has a lot to learn and Kessie brings in a different skillset.
Laporta even went so far as to vouch with his own money for the last registration. Well he had to, because he bought those players in the first place, but still. The sporting project this season is more important than simply to get rid of Frenkie's huge wage. Laporta sold no small amount of future income to be instantly successful again, so his leadership will be measured by it. So, what is worse than paying Frenkie off market wages? To end this season unsuccessfully after pulling all those levers.
I simply can't see, how Barca will agree to sell Frenkie in this window anymore. But that doesn't say much, because we have a world cup and the next transfer window coming up in a few months. If City opens the door to Silva again, the club will pressure Frenkie again, I'm sure of it and I don't like it. Xavi is obsessed with Bernardo like Ten Hag is with Frenkie.
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He's sold the club's future revenue streams on the cheap to play transfer muppet this summer.
He's put feck all of "his own skin in the game."
He sold them down the river so badly that he needed to find a transfer by himself isn’t some sort of brag
Well he is doing it to take a gamble to remain at the top and try to recoup/increase revenue by winning.
If he left the team as is this summer, there was a real possibility they fall out of CL places even in la liga.
He put his own money into the club to register Kounde according to reports. Not sure what else would be equivalent to putting skin in the game.
Milan and Manchester United are the reason for Laporta's and Barcelona's actions this summer. For them, becoming the next Milan/Manchester United is the same as not existing. So in their minds they're not really selling away their future, because if they didn't do this, they had no future in the first place
Double or nothing. Let’s see how that turns out as disposable income reduces drastically over the next few years.
What figure have you in mind with "drastically". Can you elaborate this?
When they get knocked out in the groups in CL this year for example
I hope that we will be able to get rid of Pjanic, Braithwaite (one of many “genius” signings by Bartomeu) Memphis or Auba and ideally Dest.
I don’t like the idea of Alonso nor Foyth who is now sidelined for 8-10 weeks. The Meunier option is even more absurd. Galán does not convince me either. I would personally prefer a stopgap solution for 1 season (I like the profile of Hamari Traoré) before the right RB is identified and bought next summer. Araújo, Roberto (who has looked rather good against City and Valladolid) and Koundé should be enough cover.
A shame with Azpi as he would have been a good solution (stopgap plus leadership) on both the RB and LB position this season at least.
There will most likely be some activity in the winter transfer window if Alemany does not finish all of his pending work.
I don’t like the idea of Alonso nor Foyth who is now sidelined for 8-10 weeks. The Meunier option is even more absurd. Galán does not convince me either. I would personally prefer a stopgap solution for 1 season (I like the profile of Hamari Traoré) before the right RB is identified and bought next summer. Araújo, Roberto (who has looked rather good against City and Valladolid) and Koundé should be enough cover.
A shame with Azpi as he would have been a good solution (stopgap plus leadership) on both the RB and LB position this season at least.
There will most likely be some activity in the winter transfer window if Alemany does not finish all of his pending work.
One of the levers hit his face?
Saddens me to say it, but Romero became an absolute clown tier this summer. He is still riding his Silva story, while everyone at City said several times, that it's way too late to sell him, because they can't get a replacement anymore. I don't doubt he has inside informations about barca, probably someone from Laporta's board leaking him, but he became so greedy with his twitch channel and subs this summer, that he rides even a dead story just to hold the views.
And in the end, he'll say something like "it was soooo close, but don't worry, we have a new window in a few months. Negotiations keep going, so keep subscribing!"
And in the end, he'll say something like "it was soooo close, but don't worry, we have a new window in a few months. Negotiations keep going, so keep subscribing!"
If they're not careful they're going to find out what 'not existing' actually means.
Do you really think that the most valuable sports club in the world according to Forbes magazine (as of 2022) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbes_list_of_the_most_valuable_football_clubs , the club with the highest revenue of any sports club prior to COVID-19, the football club with the biggest stadium in the world, one of the most followed clubs in the world if not the most followed club in the world (if all social media is combined), one of the most successful football clubs in history and one of the most storied clubs is going to "disappear"? Talk about blatant ignorance. Barça have survived far harder challenges throughout its 123 years of history.
If shit hits the fan down the line, the WORST CASE scenario, is us becoming a toy of some billionaire or state like 99% of all other European top clubs nowadays. Either a complete sale or a partial sale by selling parts of the club with the approval of the socios as that would be needed.
Barça and RM are pretty much unique in being 100% owned by its fans (socios) to this very day. The only other top club/historical club in Europe that has a similar ownership model is Bayern but they are not 100% owned by their fans any longer.
As far as levers goes, Barça has sold 25% of the TV rights of La Liga for the next 25 years (with a repurchase option) and with the way things are going (EPL becoming another word for the doping league) I highly doubt that the TV rights deals are going to grow much more than the current status quo and in any case it is less than 5% of the overall annual revenue of the club.
The other lever was selling 49.9% of Barça Studios for €200m combined. Barça Studios was barely making any profit for the club. In fact reports show that it was making financial losses each year. Whatever is the status quo, Barça Studios was/is (so far at least) a non-entity in terms of income for the club.
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Anyway looks like Auba, Pjanic and Braithwaite are almost certain to leave before the transfer window closes.
Not a fan of the Alonso option or Meunier one but I guess that they will do as short stopgaps for 1-2 seasons in mostly rotational roles.
As unconvincing as Dest has been (he is yet to turn 22) I would have preferred that Xavi would give him a final chance this season rather than buying a player like Meunier. It is a really strange option for me.
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Nah. They'll just stop being 100% fan owned and a big controlling stake will be sold to (insert plutocrats name here). That name and prestige is too big to be allowed to disappear for good.
Barcelona are basically too big and comfortable to fade away.
Real, Barca, Bayern will never really disappear. Too big to fail.
Bayern is not comparable to Barça and RM in terms of grandeur, pedigree, fanbase, global outreach, prestige etc. The Bundesliga is a joke compared to La Liga historically too.
Look at the biggest players of Bayern historically. Almost all of them have been Germans. Their arguably biggest non-German player, Lewandowski, just left them (after winning 10 Bayernliga titles in a row) for a historically bad Barça in crisis. Such is the poll of Barça and RM.
There is a reason why Barça and RM have had the most players within their ranks who have won the Ballon d'Or, FIFA World Player of the Year award and other such awards.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballon_d'Or#Wins_by_club
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Player_of_the_Year
Also have in mind that Barça's main domestic rival (international too) has been RM which has been overall the most successful club since the 1950's. Bayern's main historical rivals are not even Dortmund (in terms of German league titles) but Nürnberg FC to put it into perspective.
If Barça or RM had been playing in the Bundesliga they would have won 50 league titles each. The thing with Bayern is that they first became relevant in Germany in the 1970's. Prior to 1969 they had won just 1 German league title and had absolutely no European pedigree.
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Looks like Alonso will be bought for a rather small fee. Not sure how I feel about that. On the other hand if that means that Alba will be further sidelined, it is more than welcome news. Chelsea struggling too, could that be because of the absence of Alonso? Jokes aside, I find it incredible that they bough Cucurella for 70 million euros. A player that the club discarded 2 years ago. Talk about additional PL tax!
Romero is continuing his Bernardo Silva nonsense. I say nonsense, because I don't see such a transfer happening this late in the transfer window and with FDJ staying and likely lowering his salary. I really like Bernardo Silva and I personally never understood why our old useless board did not buy him in the first place rather than the criminal flop that was Coutinho. A much, much better fit. This is what you get with clueless leadership with a non-existing sporting vision. We are still suffering from the aftereffects of the mess that this cretin left.
Anyway I hope that the club is looking at finding a long-term solution at the RB position and looking for a replacement for Busquets. I am not convinced that Nico González is the solution.
Lastly, did any bético here on Redcafe follow Bellerín last season? How did he do as there are mixed opinions from what I could see. There is talk of him being a cheap RB option for the club. He would join with a very low salary.
Real Madrid is itself a level above Barca in terms of all those factors. I understand you're a Barca fan and you guys had your golden era recently but don't club yourself in with Real Madrid in terns of history or prestige.
Barcelona are lucky that their growth and golden period coincided with the rise of social media globally.
Before 2005, Barcelona had only 1 European cup in their history. That's embarrassing for a club their size.
If Barca were in the Bundesliga? Well Bayern have a much better head to head against Barca so I'm not sure about that.
The Spanish league is basically a 2 horse race and is nothing to shout about. Recently Athletico have grabbed a few titles but the gulf between the big 2 and the rest is just as big as Bundesliga. Let's not pretend La Liga is some 90's Italia. One of the most top heavy leagues around.
About individual awards, Real and Barca are the best at lobbying and these awards are largely political and PR based. There have been examples of blatant robberies in these individual awards which even the France Football organization have tried to hide and ended up embarrassing themselves globally very very recently. So in the grand scheme of things, individual awards don't matter much in a team sport. It's good for fanboys getting one up on the internet. That's pretty much it. Hardly a bar for sporting justice these awards...
Anyways, my original point was about Bayern being way too comfortable to fail in their environment. Basically this guarantees them dominating domestically and going deep in Europe every year. Hence, they won't really fade away.
Surely they'll be desperate to get him off the wage bill now if he's shown he's not budging with the whole criminal contract. And we're there to offer a helping hand.
The PL is also a 2 horse race in recent years. Bundeliga was a one horse race where Bayern wins every August. I'd easily take Barca young core over Bayern's young core. I'd argue Bayern have been more lucklastre in CL over the past decade than Barca for the most part. Barca had some epic choke jobs but Bayern were losing to far more random teams and weaker teams in CL than the ones who knocked out Barca. And this is coming from someone who absolutely think Bayern own Barca head to head.Real Madrid is itself a level above Barca in terms of all those factors. I understand you're a Barca fan and you guys had your golden era recently but don't club yourself in with Real Madrid in terns of history or prestige.
Barcelona are lucky that their growth and golden period coincided with the rise of social media globally.
Before 2005, Barcelona had only 1 European cup in their history. That's embarrassing for a club their size.
If Barca were in the Bundesliga? Well Bayern have a much better head to head against Barca so I'm not sure about that.
The Spanish league is basically a 2 horse race and is nothing to shout about. Recently Athletico have grabbed a few titles but the gulf between the big 2 and the rest is just as big as Bundesliga. Let's not pretend La Liga is some 90's Italia. One of the most top heavy leagues around.
About individual awards, Real and Barca are the best at lobbying and these awards are largely political and PR based. There have been examples of blatant robberies in these individual awards which even the France Football organization have tried to hide and ended up embarrassing themselves globally very very recently. So in the grand scheme of things, individual awards don't matter much in a team sport. It's good for fanboys getting one up on the internet. That's pretty much it. Hardly a bar for sporting justice these awards...
Anyways, my original point was about Bayern being way too comfortable to fail in their environment. Basically this guarantees them dominating domestically and going deep in Europe every year. Hence, they won't really fade away.
Excuse me? That's just not true, they've won the same amount and if anything bayern's overall performance has been marginally better.
Bayern have been knocked out on average by worse teams than the average team that knocks out Barca. They rip through the group stages and then fall apart in the knockouts. Barca have been miserable in CL too lately, but Bayern should have more than 2 CL's in the past decade and they've had their humilations as well like the Madrid loss and it was the biggest upset of last season heading into a match for Bayern to lose to Villarreal of all teams. Madrid had the epic comebacks, but Bayern had the most lopsided matchup in their favor and still lost.
There's some truth to this I think. After most of Bayern's losses you asked yourself "how could they lose that?" while Barca just had more epic meltdowns
Saying they underperformed is a better assessment in that case, they still reached more finals and generally performed better during that period.
Underpeformaned - lacklustre same difference. More often than not they have underperformed.
Silva himself yesterday confirmed he is staying. There has never been even an offer, because Frenkie refuses to move. Romero just kept this story hot for his twitch views and subs. Another sad example of todays journalism. Such sources should be blacklisted everywhere.
Haven’t Bayern smashed your boys the last few times they’ve played?
Have more European cups too
Have probably helped produce more World Cup winning players than most as well
sounds like pedigree to me
To make it short: no. While Bayern has been underperforming in the CL lately their exists were in general against better teams than Barca's.
Bayern went out against Villareal, PSG, Liverpool, Real x3, Atletico and Barca while winning the CL twice.
Barca went out against PSG, Bayern x2, Liverpool, Rome, Juve, Atletico x2, didn't make it out of the group once and won the CL once.
21/22:
Bayern lost QF against Villareal (while beating Barca in the group stages 3:0 twice...)
Barca didn't make it of the CL group stages
20/21:
Bayern lost QF against PSG
Barca lost R16 against PSG
19/20:
Bayern won CL
Barca lost R16 against Bayern 2:8...
18/19:
Bayern lost R16 against Liverpool
Barca lost SF against Liverpool
17/18:
Bayern lost SF against Real
Barca lost QF against Rome...
16/17:
Bayern lost QF against Real
Barca lost QF against Juve
15/16:
Bayern lost SF against Atletico
Barca lost QF against Atletico
14/15:
Bayern lost SF against Barca
Barca won CL
13/14:
Bayern lost SF against Real
Barca lost QF against Atletico
12/13:
Bayern won CL
Barca lost SF against Bayern (0:7 on aggregate...)
On what basis would you argue that? You pulled that one out of your a*se, didn’t you? There’s no way anyone with a tiny bit of objectivity or clue would support that statement.
Yes, Bayern underperformed on a few occasions but that would be underperforming on a really high level. They should have made the final in 16, 17 and 18 but they either shot themselves in both feet, the ref was utter garbage, it just wasn’t supposed to happen or a combination of those three things.
The only time were they massively underperformed was last season, a season in which barca didn’t even make it out of a group that contained Bayern and then in true mes que un club fashion were knocked out by mighty Frankfurt in their own stadium in front of an audience that mostly consisted of stadium tourists and Frankfurt supporters.
Thing with Bayern is a lot of those eliminations looked really bad for how they came about
Chelsea '12, Atletico '16, Madrid '18, PSG '21 were all ties Bayern should have won easily, but they bottled it big time. It's the "WTF HOW?!?!?!?" factor
Barcelona just gets straight up humiliated every year on the other hand
Chelsea '12, Atletico '16, Madrid '18, PSG '21 were all ties Bayern should have won easily, but they bottled it big time. It's the "WTF HOW?!?!?!?" factor
Barcelona just gets straight up humiliated every year on the other hand
Sounds like you're the one pulling things out of your a*se
Bayern should have made the finals in 2016, 2017, and 2017 and didn't, that is under performing.
Frankfurt beat Bayern last season as well.
Bayern have been a let down more often than not in CL. Period. As many other posters have said multiple times, there are a ton of 2 legged ties where people ask themselves how the hell Bayern lost that. It's routine. Barca have had some epic humiliations no doubt about it, but Bayern only winning 2 CL's in the last decade feels a lot less than what you'd expect considering how much hype they get every single year. They have been a let down in CL overall.
Exactly. Villareal last year as well, that was a huge shocker. Bayern just fall apart compared to expectation in CL more often than not.Thing with Bayern is a lot of those eliminations looked really bad for how they came about
Chelsea '12, Atletico '16, Madrid '18, PSG '21 were all ties Bayern should have won easily, but they bottled it big time. It's the "WTF HOW?!?!?!?" factor
Barcelona just gets straight up humiliated every year on the other hand
Bayern losing to Villareal was 100 times the shocker than Bayern beating Barca 3-0. Tons of injuries in 2013 but yes I have always said Bayern own Barca. But as @giorno pointed, TONS of let downs by Bayern where it is inexplicable how they lost considering how heavy of favorites they were going into a tie. They win the league every August but come CL knockouts they more often than not don't live up to the hype. People get excited when they beat Porto 6-1 or Shaktar 7-0 but then when they play proper competition they come up short. They're still a good team obviously, but in CL they've been lacklustre compared to expectations.
4 CL titles in 16 years (2006-2022) is not bad at all though. Should have won 3-4 more though, Only RM have been better in the CL in the “modern era” (1990 onwords) than Barça and half of RM’s CL wins could only have been accomplished by them in the fashion (marginals almost always on their side) that they won those CL titles. Best example was last season.
Barça on the other hand can only win the CL when we are the best team in the world which is why we have always won the league title when we won the CL. RM can win it (like in 2000) while being 7th in the league. Barça would have self-destructed due to the toxic local media and environment.
In any case the CL is a cup tournament with a lot of luck involved and nowadays (in fact for quite a while) a “glorified“ tournament with the same teams winning.
No wonder that the Super League is inevitable as the CL is an ancient concept that has run its time. Compare the CL group of Barça with that of RM for instance. Too many arbitrary elements are involved. Always been the case.
Barça on the other hand can only win the CL when we are the best team in the world which is why we have always won the league title when we won the CL. RM can win it (like in 2000) while being 7th in the league. Barça would have self-destructed due to the toxic local media and environment.
In any case the CL is a cup tournament with a lot of luck involved and nowadays (in fact for quite a while) a “glorified“ tournament with the same teams winning.
No wonder that the Super League is inevitable as the CL is an ancient concept that has run its time. Compare the CL group of Barça with that of RM for instance. Too many arbitrary elements are involved. Always been the case.