Monday 17 August 2009

Barcelona could sign no more players

Speaking to journalists yesterday, Barcelona sports director Txiki Begiristain made an analysis of the transfer market events and didn't exclude that Barcelona won't signs any more players this summer:

"We continue to work to make the best squad possible. We had selected some names with the coaching staff and we're fighting to sign them.

Sometimes it's possible and sometimes it's not. The transfer of Cesc is very complicated and the transfer of Chigrinsky even more. And when we're then looking at alternative options, those have to be better than what we have and have to convince all of us, especially the coaching staff.
And the players that we want aren't cheap because they have to be really good.

I don't know if we have a small squad. That depends on how we value the youth players. If we think they're not worth a lot, then we have a small squad. We have to believe in the players we have now. If some players aren't coming, that's also because the youth players are doing so well. We're certainly not going to pay silly prices. We will see what will happen in the next two weeks."


Read more:
Guardiola stoical about summer transfers
Last-minute attempt for Chygrynskiy coming up
Guardiola ends Cesc speculation

38 comments:

Anonymous said...

This would be a big mistake although we have some promising youth players we still need 2-3 more signings(replacement for Hleb,CM and a CB)If one of our main players get injured we´re screwed.

Ekar said...

well then atleast dont sell

Manolo said...

I think the squad is to small. WE cant trust Jeffren,JDS and Munisa 100% yet.

We should buy a centreback or keep Henrique and buy a midfielder.
My vote is on Arteta but he isn't even talked about so it's unlikely.. too bad though.

Anonymous said...

Whye are our transfer targets "complicated" and "even more complicated"? Maybe because we want to sign players that are key players in other teams 2 weeks before the transfer period ends? RM already made an agreement with CR like 1 year ago and they were fighting for Alanos for like 2 months and he finally forced his way out. If there's 2 weeks left of the transfer season no player will force his way out because a transfer is much more unlikely to happen and he will only get in trouble at his own club when he stays.
I know we should use our youth players, but they are to inexperienced to relay on. We do need one more defender and one more midfilder (and actually one more forward cause' Bojan is not good enough cover). One could ask if the loans of Keirrson and Hleb were good choices before we settled our own targets.

OKT said...

Txiki is so annoying! He doesn't have a clue really. "Complicated", "Very expensive because they have to be good", come on, Txiki, Cesc is not the only player in the world that would strengthen our team, use your brain, Arsenal won't sell him now, and this unproven Chygrynsky you are so desperate about is not the only central defender in the world. Have Txiki looked at all the central defenders in France, Germany, Portugal, Netherlands?

What about a list of the best 10 defenders and midfielders from those leagues, and then a description of their playing style. Surely, you don't think any of them will strengthen our team instead of third division youth players? Are Fontas, Jeffren, Montoya and Dos Santos really better than the best players from the Portuguese, German or French league?

Fred_FCB said...

There's a thin line between madness and brilliance. With no more signings, that thin line will be quite sharp at the end of the season. Either our youth proved there was no better options and we stride to more titles. Or... well, it would have been madness to not spend on overpriced players.

Anonymous said...

Not everybody is overpriced. They only become overpriced once we start to mess up with our player targets and negotiations for them. Like Caceres for example. No more excuses Txiki!

Conako said...

I feel it's a good thing for us. Txiki now under the stress. and maybe we will sign with player will not fit in the squad Because we are hurry and want to sign with any player fast with high cost he don't deserve. Patient is the best thing now.

Unknown said...

Manolo

Arteta is great. His story is similar to what is happening now to Crosas.

But the problem is that he is suffering now from a bad knee injury .

barca4life said...

Remember a few weeks back I said we were moving so slowly and I felt we would have to panic buy? Guess what european clubs here comes txiki with 60 million euros in a panic. Expect Hleb and Caceres part 2 soon.

frett said...

You can't blame Txiki, he's doing what he can with the limited budget we have.

If Guardiola wouldn't have wanted to replace Eto'o, this transfer summer would already have been over.

barca4life said...

We are not going to pay silly prices? 16.5 million for Caceres that Guardiola doesnt want to touch with a 10 foot pole. 15 million for Hleb who doesnt even bother to learn the language and blasts barca after he won the CL? 10 million for Henrique who looks like he could be sold without ever playing a game for Barca? Maybe its best had taken that 40 million and paid a "silly price" for cesc or Arshavin 1 year ago.

Andréssibraviquénryalvesyol said...

barca4life
Agree with what you have written. But no one would have predicted them to be such failures. But again that can be called as indeed the scouting mistake.
And then it's not like we entirely lost out on that 40 million as well. We could get back atleast 30 from them, so we lost out on 10 million. It's worth to take such a risk had the scouting been real good

yuti said...

If Guardiola says: "I want a centre-back, I don't want guys to fill the squad and I will only accept Chygrynskiy" and Shakhtar asks 25 millions and has no financial problems so you can't really negotiate, what should the club do? Try and try like they did. Can't blame them. Seems Guardiola only wants players who can be starters (although they could end up on the bench) but that comes with a price.

Anonymous said...

You think we could get 30m back from them, Andressi? No way. And don't forget the wages they got either.

You say that no one can predict the failures? But clearly, Caceres had very bad ball control and passing in Recreativo too. Did Pep or Txiki think that it didnt matter how bad he was with the ball?

And then there is Hleb. Didn't they know that he is not a winger like Messi? I could have understood it more if he was brought in as a backup for Xavi, but it seems he was brought in as a right wing backup. Very strange move.

And Henrique? Getting 90 minutes in friendly matches and will probably never see Pep again after that. They were not only failures, that happens of course, but they were such huge failures and massive loss, basically money down the toilet, that it is simply unacceptable.

Anonymous said...

yuti: I don't believe that. But if Pep is so narrow-minded, then he is to blame. But he must also be convinced that there are other players out there in the world, surely Pep is humble and realize that he doesn't know all the players in the world from different leagues.

Andréssibraviquénryalvesyol said...

Exactly... That's what I'm saying. BAD scouting. Had they been properly watched and then bought, it would not have been such a huge risk. They just bought a player who's been voted the most-promising center back of La Liga, a player who's been enjoying a very good game at one of the elite clubs of Europe & a player who's been voted as one of the most promising defenders of the Brazil league. They hadn't worked on their play, and hadn't checked if they were really suited to our system :(

LeónDragón said...

as i said before

it's difficult to bring new players, who are willing to sit on the bench as backup's, for the right prize and with quality, but for me, it's necessary and time is running out.
this season promises to be much more tougher, more competition and stronger opponents, as everyone will try to beat us now, after last seasons success.
to me, it's ridiculous to see new transfers as fillers, as they will be needed, now with hleb and caceres (who were crap, but available) gone.
to count on youth is good, but doubt, that it's realistic, as the season can bring injuries of keyplayers (hope not) and the ACN coming.
bojan didn't convinced me so far, he has talent, but til' now he ain't proved that he's ready as a starter, IMO, no matter what most here think, pedro was good, but was never proved over some games in a row (also not very experienced, what's needed specially in the cl), jeffren? don't know, gudjohnsen? with him, it's like we play ten vs twelve, alibi-footballer, better gone yesterday.
to me, a left-winger is priority, for rotation and backup for henry, or allow henry switch to center if needed and midfielder would be good too, for the same reason, rotation, but not a must.
as i said, to count on youth is good, but to have someone on the bench, who can change games, with proved quality and experience, would make me, more confident over such a long season.
i'm sure, pep knows best, but doubt a little (or maybe big) on txiki and his transfer-market-business-qualities.
hope for the best!!!
to name one, would hope for silva, as he's versatile and able to cover more positions, but just an example.
hopefully, i'm wrong, for the success, but if not...time will tell

my opinion bout arteta...good, but not good enough, i vote for a left-winger, best if he can play also on the right.
if txiki can't manage, he should ask himself, if he got the right job.
nothing is impossible!!!!! especially for those, who earn big money for making things possible, sorry, but that's what i think.
an option would be, to bring someone on loan, like davids, albertini, etc in the past.
and next year, there is the option to bring those who wanted, but a good solution for the moment, without commitments

Anonymous said...

I agree. we should have been out earlier now its almost to late and we have to settle for 4-5 option players. just like all the tears before something isnt working Txixi

LeónDragón said...

p.s. if gudjohnsen make it to stay for another year, i think, he can become the biggest magician of all times. bigger than houdini or even copperfield etc
this can't be without magical tricks or maybe voodoo, as he's surely the most worthless and badest player of the world

LeónDragón said...

Andréssibraviquénryalvesyol...
wow, what a name :) mean it positive

Anonymous said...

That's harsh LeonDragon. Guddy does his work, and doesn't complain. He is a professional and might not fit so well in the very technique based game of ours, but surely he is a good all round footballer with many good seasons in the Premier League.

Andréssibraviquénryalvesyol said...

ANDRES iniesta
lionel ANDRES messi
IBRAhimovic
xAVI
pIQUE
hENRY
YAya
ALVES
puYOL

love it :)

Anonymous said...

Yaya gets lost in the Henry-Alves combination!

AndréssibraviquénrYAlvesyol said...

I guess since Yaya is THE beast of the squad I'll make it AndréssibraviquénrYAlvesyol :)

LeónDragón said...

somehow you right bout guddy, anony. very good or best character and attitude, also well as a team-member.
but, for me, he's no big help and you can count his good performances on one hand.
so many times he came in as a substitute, but never was able to give the game something positive by him, always staying beside the action, not involved in anything.
again, good guy, but a zero as barca-player.
also can't understand, why he does not looks for more, maybe at another club and is satisfied with so rarely playtime.
he loves barca, but isn't really an add to this team

Barcabeast said...

i wish to see three more signings

number one has to be hernanes i would love to see him in a barca shirt

then mata would b a quality signing
then eboue for his vercitility

skanjos said...

somehow now i cant see guddy leaving,we cant afford losing another player.

this has to be the worst summer transfers ever i can remember ....about 6 players leave and only 2 came to an already small squad.we "may" promote 4 good youngsters fontas/muniesa/dos santos/jeffren but still its the worst transfers period for the team.

only 2 transfers i see we need more

Anonymous said...

sound real bad

mario ch said...

an intresting player in my opinion would be mesut özil from werder bremen. he is technically really good, have a good eye and a strong shoot, show presence in the game altough he is just 20 years old. give him a year or two to show such performances in a regular basis and then get him. he would fit in perfectly in our game as back up and coming starter.

AndréssibraviquénrYAlvesyol said...

Why not give those two years to our kids itself huh?!? We are not obsessed with the prodigies, we only want players to step up if our regular players are injured/banned/out-on-national-duty and to rotate with the squad and give some much needed rest to them :)

Anonymous said...

Andréssibraviquénryayalvesyol: We already bought Keirrison remember. Not exactly an old man.

SJP said...

man some people! what do you expect txiki to do, he has been trying to get players all summer its just that other teams have been hard-balling us. should txiki then do a madrid and say fuck it money is no object, we can make it back through shirt sales!! no we are barca, we have more pride AND we trust our youth, imagine if someone had bought a RB/CB when puyol was coming through, or a CM when iniesta/xavi were coming through, or a back-up to guily instead of trusting messi? i'm not saying we these current youth players will be such successes but we should give them a chance. everyone expects us to either buy superstars or mediocre back up players just because madrid have gone out and spent crazy money. this is the best squad in spanish history, it just needs fine tweaking not more major work. get kompany, maybe one more and we are set. and these massive failures, did they cost us any competitions last year, any? no we won them all, so well done txiki keep up the good work during our most successful period ever.

AndréssibraviquénrYAlvesyol said...

@anony
Keirrison is bought because we don't have proper poucher... And Bojan is getting groomed to be our LW not '9'
Regarding Ozil and other prodigies that we are discussing about, we already have such promising players for their positions & none in '9'... hope you got my point.

Anonymous said...

AndréssibraviquénrYAlvesyol: Not really. Where did Bojan play yesterday? Did he play on the wing? No, Henry played on the wing, and Bojan in the middle. If Bojan was "groomed" to be a LW, he would have played as a LW and Henry as the striker.

AndréssibraviquénrYAlvesyol said...

Bojan is not good with his back to the goal, he'll be more comfortable cutting in from wing... That's the main reason he's been playing at LW through out last season. There's been a lot of debate on his apt positioning in the past and if I remember every body kinda agreed he'll good cutting in from the wing. He's not got the physique to use all his skills being at CF say like Ibra or Benzema and he'll have the opportunity to not waste his skills by playing at wing. He himself acknowledged this fact by announcing recently that he's comfortable playing any where on the front line :)

Anonymous said...

If that was the case, why did he play as striker last game then instead of Henry?

There are problems with Bojan on the left wing too. Like his lack of pace and dribbling compared to Messi for example. Bojan doesn't have the pace and dribbling skills for a winger role.

Fenderek said...

SJP- very sensible post. Obviously will be ignored here.

Cause who cares here that Pedro scored in SuperCup- he's not Barca quality because we didn't pay anything for him- we need Hulk or something... we need to spend money like Real does. Fucking hell, we're supposed to be proud to be different than those bastards...

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