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Champions League Quarter Final/Semi Final Draw


andykeenan

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16 minutes ago, theboyangel said:

Surely Pochetino will be heavily linked with the Barca job now? 

I'd have thought so, apparently the Espanyol link doesn't matter as they went down or something.  Not sure if they'd have the money for Poch to go back for Jack.  £25m for Luiz would be decent value for them too.

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7 minutes ago, The_Rev said:

Gonna be a weird couple of seasons for Barcelona.   They were guilty of letting a lot of players get old at the same time, it was Dad's Army out there tonight.  Morale seems to be low in the dressing room, the board seem to be batshit and it's gonna take a hell of a lot of rebuilding.   They'll be back obviously, they are too big to fail, but I'm not sure any truly elite manager is going to fancy that job right now which leaves them only able to recruit the calibre of guy that their players probably won't respect.   

Good thing they swapped 24 y.o  Arthur for 30 y.o Miralem Pjanić with Juve to make the squad even older. 🤦‍♂️

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Just now, sne said:

Good thing they swapped 24 y.o  Arthur for 30 y.o Miralem Pjanić with Juve to make the squad even older. 🤦‍♂️

Another incredible decision. Pjanic is a better player, and although Arthur has a lot of potential/talent, there are off-field question marks. But to make the squad even older is truly unbelievable.

The benefit is to the books due to amortisation, which is probably a huge motivating factor, but in footballing terms it's still crazy.

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Felt like the unceremonious end of an era - the Messi era.

 

Their transfer policy has been questionable for a long time now, they just got away with having a fantastic core of long term players who have now either left or are coming toward the natural conclusion of their careers.

 

Interesting times now to see them rebuild 

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I think Messi has been an issue for Barcelona for a while, not all in a bad way but the club were lazy and just expected him to do things to save them. They have not supported him compared to Real with Ronaldo, they brought the whole squad around him not just in attack. Instead of supporting Messi in defence or midfield, Barca signed Griezmann, Dembele, Coutinho with no gameplan for them at all but luxury signings and now they are **** financially

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2 minutes ago, Genie said:

Quique Setién has been sacked by Barcelona.

Its no big surprise, the issue is what they do next. I wouldnt be surprised if bring in another fall guy, a Catalan Paul Lambert

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1 minute ago, Zatman said:

Its no big surprise, the issue is what they do next. I wouldnt be surprised if bring in another fall guy, a Catalan Paul Lambert

The people linked like Xavi will not go near it in this state.

I wonder if he has to make his own way home :lol: 

Edited by Genie
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I think Xavi will still be very tempted if there are promises, but he'll probably hold out until there's new administration. Apparently Abidal etc are gone too but Bartomeu is clinging on at the top and he needs to go. Change needs to come from the top down, with a clear and long-term strategy.

They'll probably go for Koeman and I could see him maybe doing it alongside the Dutch job and then stepping down after the Euros, even though that would be a huge commitment. Again though he might not feel the time is right and understandably so.

 

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oh my, Barcelona are going to get torn apart by their fans/media, wonder if the club is in a small decline and needs huge investment to get back to the top again? (amazing to even consider that, becuase they have spent so much money the last few years on players who just havent cut it for therm).

conceding 8 goals, damn.

I wonder if Messi is past his best also?, obviously still a great player, but maybe he's not quite the player he was.

On top of that, Messi i beleive is well known to have a lot of control ofver the manager/team etc, and i think he also implies certain players he would like to play with?, i think the empire is crumbling, and Messi is crumbling along with it (not being hyperbolic, Messi is still obviously a very good player, but he doesnt look to be able to carry that team any more).

Their transfer policy though, its tragic, makes our transfer policy over the last 5 years look robust in comparison:

Pjanic - 50m, Griezmann - 108m, Coutinho - 130m, Dembele - 125m, De Jong - 68m, Malcom - 38m, Arthur - 28m, Gomes, 34m....the list goes on.

Thats about 600m spunked on players who largely have provided little in return, granted some might come good, but 600m!! (probably closer to 1 billion if you factor in all signings over the last 5 years).........shocking.

 

 

Edited by MaVilla
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Club hasn't been the same since Xavi left. This reminds me of when Bayern broke the whole tiki-taka system by marking busquets out of the game about 8 years ago and won about 7-2 on aggregate. 

Thing is with Barca is they need to recruit about 4 world class players of 100 mil plus, but they've got little money and I don't think any team would pay 300 million for Messi anymore at his age (or that any team could afford him), they might get 100 mil tops. 

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20 minutes ago, Troglodyte said:

I think Xavi will still be very tempted if there are promises, but he'll probably hold out until there's new administration. Apparently Abidal etc are gone too but Bartomeu is clinging on at the top and he needs to go. Change needs to come from the top down, with a clear and long-term strategy.

They'll probably go for Koeman and I could see him maybe doing it alongside the Dutch job and then stepping down after the Euros, even though that would be a huge commitment. Again though he might not feel the time is right and understandably so.

 

Koeman was supposed to be the manager after the Euros but since it was delayed I am not sure if thats still valid

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They need to do what pep did before, cut out all the old deadwood and utilise the youngsters they have, they might not be generational players but they have a decent crop again, put them in with the core of messi, griezmann and the young players that they've already invested in like de Jong and they'll be ok

If they spend anything it has to be on a CB

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4 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

They need to do what pep did before, cut out all the old deadwood and utilise the youngsters they have, they might not be generational players but they have a decent crop again, put them in with the core of messi, griezmann and the young players that they've already invested in like de Jong and they'll be ok

If they spend anything it has to be on a CB

Was easy for Pep to do it since he had established players like Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta even Messi. This Barcelona youth set up has been average since the gokden generation

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