by sussexpob » Fri Feb 04, 2022 11:01 am
The problem I think stems from Barcelona trying desperately to cling onto the success of a once in a lifetime line up. About 5 years ago all their top players from that great side had either turned past 30 or had hung up their boots. I could give you a trillion pounds to spend, and put simply, you aint replacing the quality of Xavi or Iniesta because there is no one in football right now that comes close to the quality of these two players. I could give you a time machine and allow you to bring any player from history, and they aint Messi at his peak in his 20s. They were always going to decline, it was impossible for them not to.
Rather than embrace that decline and try to build a sensible squad, they just spent a billion quid instead. And then showed zero patience with the players they brought in. I mean the most bizarre thing was spending about 300 million on De Jong and Coutinho, both who play in Messi's position.....and then playing them in central midfield engine rooms and complaining they were flops. De Jong is about 10kgs, he just got battered routinely because he needs to play between the lines. Dembele showed flashes of brilliance and Messi took him under his wing (was great to see Messi coaching him constantly on the pitch, telling him what to do) but he was another that was instantly another Messi and got canned in the press (he was like 19/20 - youngsters under that pressure will just fall apart, and he did). May as well have burned a billion, because at least then they wouldnt have a squad full of crap earning 200k a week to be subpar.
They are pretty embarrassing at the moment. They have signed a Man City reject (in the only position Man City have need of quality) and proclaimed it a once in a generation coup (then couldnt play the person after buying him for salary cap reasons). Then proclaiming they are once again buying the top talent, while signing utter garbage. They loaned a 18 year old kid from Austrian Wien for christ sake. They loaned Luuk De Jong who is now 33 and couldnt get a game at Newcastle in the Championship.
Auba! Give me a break .... paying him 300k a week, when he already proved at Arsenal he got a big deal and was happy to ride out to retirement. A player nearly 33 whos not produced recently, has a bad attitude, and commands an incredible salary. What the hell are they doing.
The most mental thing about it is, they are about to double their debt to nearly 2.5 billion!!!! because they just approved plans to increase the stadium capacity. They want a 110,000 capacity increase.... they currently when games against the Madrid teams are taken out, cant get more than 35,000 in. Its total madness. I think even if you gave some a job to hijack the club covertly, he couldnt do a better job than Laporte.
Its got to the point its no longer even a joke.... they really, really might fold at some point in the not to distance future.
2010 French Open fantasy league guru 2010 Wimbledon fantasy league guru 2014 Masters golf fantasy guru 2015 Players Championship FL Guru 2016 Masters Golf Fantasy Guru
And a hat and bra to you too, my good sirs!