Kevin’s Quote of the Day (with apologies to Pep)
By: Kevin | June 23rd, 2009I don’t often do this, but you so rarely run across a quote from a player that absolutely cracks you up. Deportivo left back and Barca target Filipe, talking to El Mundo Deportivo, said of the opportunity to join the Blaugrana ranks:
I’ve played against them and I know what it’s like to run after the ball without getting near it.
Category: Team News
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And forlan’s agent said he hasnt been negotiating with us because villla is our preferred option. He was in the city for “personal reasons” he says. JC might be right about the whore after all
lolPosted from
United States
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Malouda has just extended his contract at Chelsea as far as I know, so I think they’re pretty ok with him.
And if the Zhirkov-story turns out to be true, we will regret this opportunity, 21m € is definitely an acceptable price for a LB of his quality (and age). I’m a big fan of Zhirkov, and I still have some hope left he’ll join us!
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And Zhirkov was in the euro team of the tournament and a ballon d’or nominee.Signing him would give us depth on the left wing and left back positions so its not too expensive. Another one bites the dust
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No signings until after month’s end, as has been reported. I like this one, too:
In an interview with El Pais, our Xavi said:
“I would not pick up the phone to Florentino Perez. I would not be happy in Madrid. I have a lot of cule in me and it is very well established. But OK, if he wants to pay for the conference call.”
And why is anybody shocked that Villa would prefer playing with the EE? What is he going to get with us, on a line with Henry, Messi and Iniesta, except for third billing, at best? He could go there and instantly be the man, plus make a LOT more money. Were I Villa, I’d be saying the same thing.
We don’t know the full story about Zhirkov. Often, in the case of a side such as ours, players look at the roster and wonder where they’re going to fit in. This can affect negotiations. Filipe would be a great signing. Zhirkov, not so, because we’d be paying 20+m for a 7th or 8th man? Abidal is durable, so LB is set, and can anyone really see him having the skill to play LW for us?
As I see it, we have four needs (Note: The number might go up as I start to enumerate them)
–A replacement for the African mids
–A big striker, even if we keep Eto’o
–Backups for both left and right back (more than Puyol)
–Midfield help for Xavi and IniestaNone of these necessitate spending gobs of cash, frankly. And the EE is rumored to be doing a deal with Valencia’s Albiol, the first defender they’ve actually talked turkey with.
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I’m guessing by the comments that ESPN acquiring broadcasting rights for our beloved la Liga has already been discussed here?
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I know it’s not our thing to flash the cash, but is it really our thing to pick up the scraps left from EE, Chelsea and whoever else?
I’m fairly annoyed by this season. We should really have laid the foundations for the transfers so that EE’s dealings would have made no difference to our summer.The way I see it, everyone knew that Sylvinho was not going to renew so why not agree the €8million fee with Depor for Filipe and send Victor Sanchez and Pedro to them on loan or something.
Why not agree with Bayern a €35million fee for Ribery after our CL encounter, knowing that he was priority number 1 for the summer. I would bet that at that stage Bayern would have accepted a €10million profit on him two years after signing him for €25million. Now he has doubled in price.
I’ve similar thoughts to Kxevin on the minimal needs for our squad though.
We are set in goal: Valdes & Pinto
Defense: Filipe should be added and Caceres & Henrique can cover right back
Midfield: Guddy should move on and we should sign a solid midfielder. I don’t think that DM is the necessity, Busquets, Henrique & Marquez are solid enough considering that ACN isn’t on during the CL. A combative, attacking midfielder who can shoot long would be what I would add.
A good left winger: Ribery is a ‘no’ financially but Di Maria, Michel Bastos, Lavezzi or someone as a backup to Henry & Iniesta would suffice.
1 striker: either Ibra if Eto’o leaves or LLorente if he stays.Posted from
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*I’m fairly annoyed by this TRANSFER season.
This season hasn’t been all that bad
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Kxevin, do you mean Villa or Ribery? Ribery’s agent is the one who came out and said he preferred Madrid, not Villa. The Villa-Madrid business is just speculative reports. According to Sport and EMD, Villa would rather play with us for several different reasons including that his idols Quini and Luis Enrique played for us.
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and Kyle, yes we have discussed the whole Espn La Liga thing in a previous post yesterday.
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Villa is different.. if he wanted money, he’d have left a year ago.. Besides, EE already have a forward, Perez’s Hilton.. to modify a moniker given by someone else..
When he’s playing, he’s the man, woman and a whole lot more.. players who can adapt in other positions will have to do so – like Rooney did..
If I were Villa, I’d come to Barca
and score a Shitload of goals..IMO, Henrique played as an RB for a while at Leverkusen and was good at it too.. and Filipe Luis should cover LB..
As for the midfield, Masche will certainly be a better than decent replacement but I’m not sure if he’s coming.. We certainly need a Hernanes type player..
Let’s see how L’Affaire Eto’o unfolds.. despite that, as Kevin mentioned, we need a striker like Llorente who can head decently along with other required skills..
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Thanks Jnice, I’m behind on the blog due to travel.
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@jordi. so zhrikov would techincally be able to replace both Sylvinho and Hleb? I just dont know that if we added up Silvinho and Hleb’s minutes from last season it would be enough to offer a €21 signing…
@ kyle, yes. I think we determined it was a good thing.
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Not that I’m fully convinced that Busquets will become as good as Yaya but isn’t the signing of Mascherano going to hold back Busquets?
Busquets started the freakin Champions League Final. And he didn’t do a shabby job.
If we were to sign a more forward-thinking midfielder who would not have a problem keeping pressure on the opponent, then any of Yaya, Keita, Busquets, Henrique or Marquez could fill that role. I personally, feel that the above list is more than enough.
On the flip side, we have Xavi and Iniesta and then a big drop in quality to the next midfielders, Keita, Guddy & Hleb.
If we were to count Keita as a DM and signed Gourcuff, to pick a name, then when Iniesta & Xavi are rested we would still have creativity and goals from midfield.Posted from
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Well we spent 15 million euros on hleb and now we had to give arsenal 3 more million for winning the treble which equals 18 million, im maybe no longer certain on what is cheap and expensive anymore these days
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@ Ciaran. Agreed 100% our def. mid. ranks are covered. Masch would hinder Busi’s development, and cant contribute to the attack.
i am not even sure we need another left back. Henrique’s technically covers sylvinho’s departure because taking up a cb slot frees up Caceres.to exclusively be our # 2 LB.
he isnt ready yet, but i am sure that preseason, supercups, wc of clubs, cdl, and cl group stage games should get him the experience/confidence he needs.
having said that, our priorities should be
A) a Striker to replace Eto’o
B) a midfielder good enough to give Xavi or Iniesta an occasioanl restthen, and only then should we think about defenders.
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Perhaps they are hoping on counting on Hleb improving and Thiago to act as xavi and iniesta subs.
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Crap! Yes, Jnice, I am indeed confusing too expensive and unavailable targets. Ribery would be very different, but I think that the issues still hold. He ain’t replacing Henry, and he sure as hell ain’t replacing Iniesta. If he moves to the right, where is he going to play?
And I don’t think any of us “hey, Masch wouldn’t be bad” folks were thinking of the Busquets issue. Hmmm.
jordi, I think they are definitely counting on Hleb improving. In watching the first few matches of the season again, he was pretty darned good. He moved the ball well, and really showed signs. On the up side, he couldn’t be any worse.
Fiscally, I rather imagine that any monies gained from the treble wins went to paying incentives.
And yes, Kyle (sorry). We mourned the potential loss of Ray-Ray, but like the high-def potential of the Clasicos on ESPN.
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i saw this in Crosas contract at Celtic:
note: barcelona can buy the player back at the end of the 2009-2010 season for 2 million euro and when the player is transferred barcelona receives 25% of the feedo you guys think we should buy him back? i dont know how good he is, but i dont think the club is thinking bout him righ now.
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oohh.. its at the end of 2010.. so it would be next year..
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Crosas needs another season to be judged, he missed the early part of the season with an injury and the coach was afraid to use him, let’s see how he adapts to the new Celtic next year.
Madrid is out of the Villa running..it’s us or nobody.
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I’m bummed Ciaran brought up the Masche/Busi conflict before I did. And since I missed it: where did you folks stand on the cash + Bojan for Villa deal. Isn’t that a lot more Galactic than homegrown? (Not that as a RM fan I have a leg to stand on, at the moment.)
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john, I always believed that 50 million plus Bojan and Caceres for Villa was a bad rumor. There’s no way we would make that offer for a player we aren’t in dire need of. That’s just ridiculous. After all that anti mega spending stuff Laporta and Sala i Martin were spewing, they would look like gigantic hypocrites if that deal was made.
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Im fully against the bojan option john >={
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haven’t seen much of Felipe, but in Sid Lowe’s la liga team of 2009, if I remember rightly, Sid had Felipe as top lb. Pique was in there too.
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I’m still watching those clips of the real Ronaldo from his Barca days…that level of domination has no comparison – as much as I like Eto’o, I’ll never deny that his great service is what allows him to get to that next level of performance. Ronaldo (like Ronaldinho, as someone, was it Bill? said earlier) single-handedly pulled those goals.
But seriously, in the grand scheme of footballing history, Ronaldo is at the very highest of greats. World Cup Winner, all time highest world cup scorer (although, I swear, one of his goals vs Costa Rica in 2002 was a clear own goal), close to a 70% goals to games ratio for his career. Even without the goals, Dinho is at the same level – winner of everything a player can win. I’m an Eto’o fan boy, but I acknowledge that he will never reach that level. But honestly, only South Americans and the odd Mediterranean ever seem to reach that level.
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United States
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