Yesterdays 2nd half made it so obvious how big their problems are. An ageing squad of has beens with astronomical wages. They looked like boys playing against men in the 2nd half, losing every duell, being slower and weaker all over the pitch. No manager in the world can make that squad win anything. This will be a loooong rebuild and transition for them.
How do Barcelona rebuild?
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
I think that swap deal with 24 year old Arthur in exchange for 30 year old Pjanic really personified and showed how mental their business as of late has been, actually maybe you could even go back to the signing of Paulinho (i am sure there is many more examples)
I know pot kettle black etc and were hardly the brightest of well run clubs out there but Barca have got themselves in such a mess and all self inflicted, will be interesting to see where they go from here.
I know pot kettle black etc and were hardly the brightest of well run clubs out there but Barca have got themselves in such a mess and all self inflicted, will be interesting to see where they go from here.
They will pay Eric Garcia €8m a year in his third season. These decisions will only make their problems worse.
Those are the last 5 Barcelona coaches:
Gerardo Martino
Luis Enrique
Ernesto Valverde
Quique Setien
Ronald Koeman
Out of those five, Enrique and Setien are the only ones who represent the playing philosophy (re-)established under Guardiola. And while Setien obviously didn't possess the necessary quality, it is debatable if Enrique really deserves a mention since his style was still much less dominant and more pragmatic (Xavi criticized him back in the day because the team dropped back when they took the lead in a game).
Notably, no coach they appointed since Guardiola took over another top club before or after he became Barca manager. I mean, there have been some very obvious top coices for them stylewise that they didn't pursue: Sarri, Tuchel or Ten Haag for example. One could think they're looking for cheap solutions but they paid Valverde a whopping 20m per season and as far as I know Setien also earned a similar salary. This is just mental.
They really don't know what they're doing. Get their occasional transfer right, like De Jong or Arthur, and they can trust on La Masia bailing their failures out once in a while but in general, the club has been lead atrociously and fully deserves to be in the position they find themselves in. Self-inflicted.
De Jong actually looked great this season as far as I know. Fati and Pedri are class but so is Riqui Puig. Great midfield talent. Trincao and Dest are decent, too, and Araujo also received much praise if I'm not mistaken. For what it's worth their future doesn't look too bad, despite being atrociously managed. They can always trust on La Masia bailing they out.
Signing players will be much more difficult once Messi is gone since their revenue will be on free fall after it. However, there's no other way and although it will most likely hit them quite hard economically, maybe it will help them get back to the roots of their dominance in the last 15 years again.
Paulinho was a great signing and was a world class midfielder. His spell at Spurs doesn’t change that. He was excellent for Barca and was actually a rare example of a good signing for them in recent years.
Yeah I was thinking this last night.
It was the players I didn’t recognise who were the ones that looked decent and put in some effort.
Has anyone said “Sell Messi, Sack Koeman” yet?
Messi looks disinterested, and over the years he seems to have thrown his toys out of the pram when things aren’t necessarily going right, or his way.
I think it’ll be a bitter finish at Barca this summer for both sides as he’ll move on and the club will be able to start what is no doubt going to be a mammoth rebuild.
He’s not the force he once was, that much is clear, but he’s still managed what, 20 goals this season already, so I don’t think he’s completely done. I know he’s been benched a few times this year, and I think that’s how his career will go now, a bit like CR when he was still at Madrid in the latter years - sit out the meaningless games and step up when it comes to the business end of the season.
As for the Barca rebuild, I’ve no doubt they’ll remain in the top 4 in Spain but won’t be a real threat at home or in Europe for a good few years. With the financial mess they’re in, I don’t know who they’d sign so it could be a lot of promotion from La Masia.
Messi looks disinterested, and over the years he seems to have thrown his toys out of the pram when things aren’t necessarily going right, or his way.
I think it’ll be a bitter finish at Barca this summer for both sides as he’ll move on and the club will be able to start what is no doubt going to be a mammoth rebuild.
He’s not the force he once was, that much is clear, but he’s still managed what, 20 goals this season already, so I don’t think he’s completely done. I know he’s been benched a few times this year, and I think that’s how his career will go now, a bit like CR when he was still at Madrid in the latter years - sit out the meaningless games and step up when it comes to the business end of the season.
As for the Barca rebuild, I’ve no doubt they’ll remain in the top 4 in Spain but won’t be a real threat at home or in Europe for a good few years. With the financial mess they’re in, I don’t know who they’d sign so it could be a lot of promotion from La Masia.
You just know that Sociedad will now totally destroy United on Thursday.
There's absolutely no way Paulinho was world class, come on. He might have been a decent signing but at no stage would he have got anywhere near to a world 11 or squad.
youve only got to look as far as Martin Braithwaite. His name alone sounds like the least barca player.
I think there will definitely be calls for Messi to leave and he will leave regardless because he can activate the clause in his contract. And then all the barca fans will hate him for it. He's definitely way past his peak so its time to free up his wages. Personally I think he'll go to the MLS.
And he's a complete average Danish player. Never heard of him untill he transferred to Barca.
Meanwhile Suarez is scoring a goal per game in the league for Atletico. I have disliked Koeman since his Valencia days - much like at Barca(rightly or wrongly), he kicked out some of the team's most experienced players like David Albelda(remember him crying in the press conf), Baraja and Canizares. He later got sacked with the team hovering above relegation zone. Crap manager but one that Barca deserve for all the bs they have come out with it in recent years.
Would be a waste if he goes to MLS. He is on decline there is no deny of that, but he is still easily good enough to play a key role for any top teams in Europe.
I think top teams will only take him if he takes a major wage decrease and starts running and pressing more than he does. Money would better spent on the best young talents in the world or players in their prime. Personally I Messi as the type of player who wants to cash in when hes no longer the best in the world. Ala Pele to the MLS.
Messi needs to be sold for a new rebuild to take place.
Putting aside the political pull he possibly has in the team, there just comes a time where you need to start afresh. The money they could have gotten from him would mean they could have fast forwarded their re-build and possibly done it in one transfer window.
Putting aside the political pull he possibly has in the team, there just comes a time where you need to start afresh. The money they could have gotten from him would mean they could have fast forwarded their re-build and possibly done it in one transfer window.
The business they’ve done since that €222 million Neymar transfer is laughable and someones gotta be accountable for that.
World class is a bit of an overstatement, also he was only at Barca for 1 season ? It was a strange signing was my point and not one that seemed to be well thought out.
Get rid of Messi? No chance
Messi is out of contract end of season. He's gone
They have a number of good young players, right now with the financial difficulties the key is for the next president to nail the key hires(director of football, coach, etc) and then have patience and give the kids the time and chance to grow
They have a number of good young players, right now with the financial difficulties the key is for the next president to nail the key hires(director of football, coach, etc) and then have patience and give the kids the time and chance to grow
Yeah I know the deal was more to get around FFP but seems like Pjanic has hardly started any games this season. Probably didn't expect Pedri to do so well already so he's started plenty, De Jong a regular and Busquets still starts on occasions so another 30 year old + on high wages who dosen't get many minutes.
They'll probably offer him to Inter Milan end of season on heavily incentivised loan or something.
He could be Ronaldo’s boot boy
You can see City v PSG in the CL final, messi going to one of them
I don't think clubs would care about his work rate. It's getting more attention nowadays because Barca struggles but Messi has always averaged around 8 to 9 km per game. Even when he was on the good side of 25. Sure, the game has evolved since then but I'm fairly sure Pep's Barca would still have every other team chasing shadows right now.
yup, even Klopp said he wouldn’t ask for Messi to track back. Suarez doesn’t track back but he has ten work horses behind him now.
Isnt he a free agent at the end of this season??
yes.
If Barca can give him a new contract and pay his full wages, I think Messi would stay. I suspect a lot of his unhappiness is because Barca are not paying his full wages.
not even remotely true. He wants a competitive team for CL, he will be taking a paycut with psg or city, he knows with covid every team is going to have issue throwing crazy money out there. He wants a proper backline behind him.
The problems really started at board/director level and so the biggest question is whether they can sort things enough at that level to elevate people who are competent, willing to make tough decisions, and secure enough in their jobs that they won't make bad decisions in the misguided hope of getting back to the top immediately. Easier said than done.
But if they do get a decent DoF and structure in place, the rebuild will not be that bad. They have some atrocious contracts on the books. But they also have some very good young players to build a new team around, over a billion in annual revenue, play in a league that makes it very hard to fall out of the CL, and will always be an attractive destination for players from South America and Southern Europe.
But if they do get a decent DoF and structure in place, the rebuild will not be that bad. They have some atrocious contracts on the books. But they also have some very good young players to build a new team around, over a billion in annual revenue, play in a league that makes it very hard to fall out of the CL, and will always be an attractive destination for players from South America and Southern Europe.
If the leaks about his wages are true, clubs would be mad to take on a free if he isn't willing to take a major decrease in his wages. Peak Messi might have been worth it, but a 34 year old Messi certainly isn't. So it depends on whether he is willing to do that.
I wonder if Pep would ever go back?
Doubt he'd go back to them in the state they are in. Probably PSG next or Juventus.
He's always said he'd never go back as manager. I can see him being head of La Masia or something but that's a good few years off.
They started 5 players last night that started in the final 6 years ago. That's kind of mental.
No player is worth 110m a year when you just consider what he brings on the pitch. Barca didn't pay Messi so much because of his goals and assist but because of his brand value. If a club can renegotiate the contracts with its sponsors due to them signing Messi and make a surplus worth a hundred million out of that, they'll pay him that. And considering that Barca's partners were willing to do that and have such clauses in their contracts, I doubt he'll earn much less at his next club. Covid might be the only reason for that.
It was the same with Cristiano, only that he even cost 100m. I also didn't believe he could be worth that much for Juve but obviously he was. One shouldn't underestimate the marketing value those superstars bring to their clubs. Barca's revenue will nosedive once Messi is gone and whichever club signs him will see its incomes fly. The performances come on top of that and are a different topic.
Yes. I meant he should have been sold last summer. Crazy sums were being branded about but they forced him to stay.
They will only rebuild properly once Messi leaves.
He's on a massive contract and all the moves they have made have been to either accommodate Messi's skills and bolstering the squad with big-name talents OR in more recent times, shed players who are actually still capable (Suarez for example) to maintain Messi's outrageous wages.
The club has been run poorly and blindly by people whose only interests have been winning elections and/or keeping Messi happy.
Now when everything has started to come apart and the club is in dire straits financially it's too late to apply any more quick fixes.
The squad isn't stacked with talent anymore, the defense is old and dire. The midfield is patchy at best and the attack is mismatched and dysfunctional and the bench depth? Braithwait is the weapon of the bench, enough said.
Barcelona would need a clean slate, some proper investment in the squad and the plug pulled on Busquets, Pique and probably Jordi Alba too, and embrace that they will need to rebuild.
They need to fix La Masia and start bringing through their own talents again to prevent as many talented young players from leaving the academy.
Invest in young talent across the board and accept that this is going to take time. They also need to get a decent manager in, someone who isn't just a stop-gap solution, someone with a good track record with youngsters who is in it for the long run and that can understand the core culture of the club.
They also need to get a working financial structure to prevent this from happening again. It's irresponsible to be one of the biggest clubs in the world and to feck their economy up this badly.
It's going to take time for Barcelona to find its feet again but this happens to many great clubs that have been at the top for a long time. They will find their way back on top eventually.
He's on a massive contract and all the moves they have made have been to either accommodate Messi's skills and bolstering the squad with big-name talents OR in more recent times, shed players who are actually still capable (Suarez for example) to maintain Messi's outrageous wages.
The club has been run poorly and blindly by people whose only interests have been winning elections and/or keeping Messi happy.
Now when everything has started to come apart and the club is in dire straits financially it's too late to apply any more quick fixes.
The squad isn't stacked with talent anymore, the defense is old and dire. The midfield is patchy at best and the attack is mismatched and dysfunctional and the bench depth? Braithwait is the weapon of the bench, enough said.
Barcelona would need a clean slate, some proper investment in the squad and the plug pulled on Busquets, Pique and probably Jordi Alba too, and embrace that they will need to rebuild.
They need to fix La Masia and start bringing through their own talents again to prevent as many talented young players from leaving the academy.
Invest in young talent across the board and accept that this is going to take time. They also need to get a decent manager in, someone who isn't just a stop-gap solution, someone with a good track record with youngsters who is in it for the long run and that can understand the core culture of the club.
They also need to get a working financial structure to prevent this from happening again. It's irresponsible to be one of the biggest clubs in the world and to feck their economy up this badly.
It's going to take time for Barcelona to find its feet again but this happens to many great clubs that have been at the top for a long time. They will find their way back on top eventually.
Yep. 100% agree