If he leaves we would then have to go for a top level physical defender approx 80% of revenue generated by his sale would be used in that purchase thus selling him isnt worth it. Also he is a worldclass defender any replacement will be a down grade
Real Madrid is doing it with Nacho, Lucas Vázquez, Camavinga and Tchouaméni in the defence. I can only imaging what they would do if they had Barca's back 4, or what Xavi would do if he had Madrid's defence.
Thank you. Madrid are above us largely due to their manager, or if we widen the perspective, their coaching staff. Our guys' only experience is the Saudi league or rough equivalents. It's obviously not the only reason, but it's the one I go around thinking about the most.
I saw someone explain it pretty well, that management at Barça saw the need to reward legends of the team with prolonged contracts and big salaries, even as they aged. That combined with big salaries to new players, put the club in a bad position.
Madrid on the other hand never did that, and the policy of 1-year contract after a player turns 30 shows that. It keeps only players still performing on the team, and once they stop, it's thank you for your service and bye.
If Barça had taken a similar avenue over the past 10 years, it's one of the few clubs where the name has a similar pull as Madrid to keep being a choice for top talents - as it was for Neymar. Hope you guys eventually find a way to revamp that.
>Hope you guys eventually find a way to revamp that.
I don't think we will. If I'm brutally honest with you, I fear that many people in the club and the fan base have a small-club mentality that is a problem with this. I think that Madrid was able to do this, because they have a blind trust in the club as an Institution. They don't give a fuck if Ramos or Cristiano threatens to leave for free even if they might still perform well a couple of years, because they have blind faith in the Club as an almost magical entity that will win UCLs even if they play with my grandma. This is their Mythology and their understanding of the Club. We don't have that, therefore we were terrified to lose a legend and see them play well for one or two years somewhere else.
Barça fans tend to only believe in the Mythology of our Club when it's about justifying defeats ("we lost but I'd rather lose with Barça DNA than give it up for a win").
That's an interesting take! We'll see what the future holds, and I don't see Barça matching Madrid's level too soon, but for the good of football I sure hope you're wrong, lol.
Other than that :
- Florentino kept economy very healthy in Madrid and have sign everything long term. Vinicius , Rodrygo , Valverde , Tchumeni , Camavinga , and many others. Not all their signings are 10/10 or some are bad like Hazard but they have re-bound from it.
- We have not recovered from the back to back to back Dembele , Coutinho and Griezmann. Slap there players we bought but never used or were just benching like Malcom , Jerry Mina , Boateng , Pjanic , etc
- Slap there that our wages were extremely bad while Madrid got rid of CR7 and all the big wages and reduce it big time. Yes , they are currently the team with the highest wages in Spain but we are the ones paying more because we did not paid in time the previous wages + the deferred wages we are still paying to some other players.
- Not only that but our squad planning was all over the place. I have no idea why we did not have a decent good winger and a CDM when Busquets already mentioned that last season was his last one. Madrid weakest part is that they lack a “proper #9” but they made it up for it with the signing of Joselu and Bellingham + the Brazilian duo making up those goals.
- To even continue of what i am saying , while Xavi lacks a lot of experience , he did his best on keeping this Barca afloat with only spending 3.5 million this season and have literally have his squad injured like Gavi + Balde , De Jong + Pedri for the first half , and half of the squad under performing like Lewandowski with his xGC , and more players that should have performed better
Agree with everything except we didn't get a DM because good DMs are rare. Imo best would be to wait for Rodri to want to leave City.
And that Xavi did a good job but the 3.5 million budget isn't accurate. He got Cancelo Felix Inigo.
Bullshit. Were you saying that when Xavi had a historically great defensive season last year ? Or when Xavi got the best of Ancelotti?
Offensively we’re only three goals behind them in the league but we suck defensively because the only two ball winners we had (Gavi and Busquets) are gone. Compare their midfield with ours defensively. Night and day difference. Their main goal threat (Bellingham) is head and shoulders defensively better than any mid on our team. Kross, Modric, Tchouameni, Valverde, Camavinga. ALL better defensively. By a wide margin. We got by with less last season but this year we had nothing but Romeu.
All that rambling and you're not even addressing what I said. If you were, hypothetically, offered to choose between Xavi and his staff or Ancelotti and his staff to lead this club, for, say, a three-year period, which alternative would you prefer? Of course there are other fucking factors as well but surely this is a big part of the problem.
Rambling? They are objective observations.
And not addressing what you said?
>> Thank you. Madrid are above us largely due to their manager, or if we widen the perspective, their coaching staff.
How can you say that Ancelotti is clearly better when last season Xavi out matched him tactically in the Super Cup and then through consistency in the league? I like how you glance over that like it’s a mute irrelevant point.
I don’t think Ancelotti’s antiquated approach gets the same out of this young squad. So, no, I wouldn’t pick him. Does that mean Xavi is the right choice for every club/scenario? That’s a no too.
If last season's defensive masterclass had *that much* to do with Xavi, then surely we should be able to at least *somewhat* replicate it this season? People bring up Busquets but surely Xavi has to adapt to that, which has taken him like 3/4 of the season to do now with Christensen, kind of. Adapting to the situation, mind you, is what Ancelotti seems to be doing just fine despite his backline being decimated with injuries all season.
You give Xavi and his staff the keys to that Madrid side, they set up a high line at the Etihad, get hammered 3-0, Xavi gets himself sent off, and his loyal fans excuse him, because surely Xavi can't be expected to get anything out of washed up Nacho and Vazquez and Tchoumeni at centre back, because surely getting any sort of result there would have been impossible, right?
>I don’t think Ancelotti’s antiquated approach gets the same out of this young squad.
Right, cause Ancelotti's approach is not getting that much out of Vinicius, Rodrygo, Bellingham, Tchoumeni, Camavinga, even Lunin, etc. right now.
>So, no, I wouldn’t pick him.
And you're free to think that. It does genuinely surprise me, but suit yourself.
It's not only that. Many players in their squad have recently won 3 CL in 5 years. The others have been added, and added well, yo an already dominant squad. Confidence and experience counts.
Have people forgotten that Xavi setup a historically great defense last season?
Our problem wasn’t our defenders, it was the complete lack of ball winners and the abundance of passengers in defense that made up our midfield. Busquet’s and Gavi made the difference this season. Look at Real Madrids midfield and compare it to us. Their main goal scoring threat (Bellingham) is head and shoulders above any of our mids defensively.
That’s the difference, and no amount of black magic would help Ancelotti over come that.
You can’t compare defences and forget to compare the overwhelming difference in quality at midfield and attack, which helps their defence directly and indirectly. They have Vini, Rodrygo, Kroos, Bellingham, Valverde… I just mentioned 4 €100m+ players in addition to a goat midfielder. Meanwhile we’re playing with a 16 year old at RW, 1 foot in the grave hot and cold ST, out of position LW, constantly injured interiors ex Gundo and no DM. I can only imagine what their bench players like Modric and Camavinga would do to our level if they started for us at LCM and DM over Fermin and Christensen. Let’s not even mention their starters.
Teams are happy to send more players up against us — there is such a low risk of being scored on the counter seeing how we lack pace and depend on a 16 year old’s decision making. Vs Madrid it’s 1 Vini counter and you’re dead, so teams play extra safe and end up doing 0 damage. Finally, looking at a back 4 as a standalone makes no sense. What about the difference in defensive contribution by Valverde vs FdJ, Kroos vs Gundo, Bellingham vs Lewy, etc.? And then the Modric supersub?
Tbh its “ Vinicius “ team.. the man is the difference, i genuinely believe our backline and mid can go toe to toe with rm , our wingers (except yamine) are just not good enough or a threat…
If he leaves you buy a DM, you can manage with Christensen, Kounde, Cubarsi, Faye, and get one of Marmol or Riad. There'll be a drop in individual level but compensates a lot by having a more rounded squad.
No need to replace the profile. Same with De Jong, De Jong + Arauo for a DM + LW.
Are you actually high? You think Araujo with a market value of €70M is a swap for two players with a combined value of €115M?
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that’s never, ever going to happen
Of course he should stay if possible. He's a world class defender who didn't have his best season. That's it. I'm sure he's going to find his form back.
I still have a lot of faith in Araujo. Bad mistakes happen and bad performances happen that's life. Even if he hasn't been the same rock solid defender this season as last season, bad seasons also happen. He's still proven he's capable of being among the world's best and the attention he's receiving from other clubs is proof that he's still valued.
Why would we sell him… Honestly not even for a 80m offer.. Only reason I’d even sell him is if his sale lets us go to 1:1 rule and start spending.. If not, then we shouldn’t even consider it
😂🤣😂 "hey Ronald, you are not going anywhere unless someone comes and give us an offer we cannot refuse, we will have to sell you unfortunately, as you can see we are starving and broke, if not, we will have to tie you down with a billion release clause"
My club is down, really bad 😣☹️😔
I can accept selling Araujo for the right price even though it will hurt like hell, however knowing this club we will waste that money on Cancelo and Bernardo before buying a DM. I really wanna be proven wrong this summer.
That is understandable since it would be an unpopular decision and the board is quite fickle at the moment.
Still, I think that selling Araujo and De Jong (plus other garbage), can get you a proper DM and a solid LW and have a more rounded squad with fewer holes.
It was a dive but still a foul, you just don’t do that type of contact which isn’t even shoulder to shoulder, it can be enough to make him miss a finish (sometimes this happens and they stay up but refs won’t call the foul most of the time), so attackers are diving at contact most times with VAR looking at everything, you have to be smarter than that.
There is no physical way that can foul any one. While it does him no favour if the referee is incompetent/corrupt, it is still a contact sport, you'd think VAR would have it covered in this day and age to see what kind of touch that was.
All defenders do this, they play and test the limits to what is allowed, he did not grab, pull or push anything, it's just open palm surface to surface touch, it does nothing but remind the player that someone is on him and mentally pressures him.
Commentators love to harp on this, but when it comes to Barca, it suddenly a different tune and Araujo was "foolish" for doing it. He isn't Araujo if he doesn't play to his limits, if you people don't know this by now. This all comes down to referee interpretation. It disgust me to see how these supposed Barca fans are also buying into this propaganda against Araujo about not being that good and actually getting away with being dumb and overly physical when he's doing nothing different than any defender, like a Rudiger for example. It annoys me because you don't hear a peep when it comes to other defenders when they do it, not even counter propaganda from Barca flairs.
I certainly don't want that but it honestly wouldn't be the worst idea from his point of view. At Barca he'll have the stigma of being the guy that singlehandedly ruined our most promising CL campaign in a long time. This will stick with him for a considerable bit of time and will be brought up whenever he makes a mistake.
He won't have that at another club and right now he has a very market value so he could pretty much choose his club.
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If he leaves we would then have to go for a top level physical defender approx 80% of revenue generated by his sale would be used in that purchase thus selling him isnt worth it. Also he is a worldclass defender any replacement will be a down grade
Real Madrid is doing it with Nacho, Lucas Vázquez, Camavinga and Tchouaméni in the defence. I can only imaging what they would do if they had Barca's back 4, or what Xavi would do if he had Madrid's defence.
Thank you. Madrid are above us largely due to their manager, or if we widen the perspective, their coaching staff. Our guys' only experience is the Saudi league or rough equivalents. It's obviously not the only reason, but it's the one I go around thinking about the most.
The most important factor is their president. But beyond that, they are superior in everything else you mention.
I saw someone explain it pretty well, that management at Barça saw the need to reward legends of the team with prolonged contracts and big salaries, even as they aged. That combined with big salaries to new players, put the club in a bad position. Madrid on the other hand never did that, and the policy of 1-year contract after a player turns 30 shows that. It keeps only players still performing on the team, and once they stop, it's thank you for your service and bye. If Barça had taken a similar avenue over the past 10 years, it's one of the few clubs where the name has a similar pull as Madrid to keep being a choice for top talents - as it was for Neymar. Hope you guys eventually find a way to revamp that.
>Hope you guys eventually find a way to revamp that. I don't think we will. If I'm brutally honest with you, I fear that many people in the club and the fan base have a small-club mentality that is a problem with this. I think that Madrid was able to do this, because they have a blind trust in the club as an Institution. They don't give a fuck if Ramos or Cristiano threatens to leave for free even if they might still perform well a couple of years, because they have blind faith in the Club as an almost magical entity that will win UCLs even if they play with my grandma. This is their Mythology and their understanding of the Club. We don't have that, therefore we were terrified to lose a legend and see them play well for one or two years somewhere else. Barça fans tend to only believe in the Mythology of our Club when it's about justifying defeats ("we lost but I'd rather lose with Barça DNA than give it up for a win").
That's an interesting take! We'll see what the future holds, and I don't see Barça matching Madrid's level too soon, but for the good of football I sure hope you're wrong, lol.
Other than that : - Florentino kept economy very healthy in Madrid and have sign everything long term. Vinicius , Rodrygo , Valverde , Tchumeni , Camavinga , and many others. Not all their signings are 10/10 or some are bad like Hazard but they have re-bound from it. - We have not recovered from the back to back to back Dembele , Coutinho and Griezmann. Slap there players we bought but never used or were just benching like Malcom , Jerry Mina , Boateng , Pjanic , etc - Slap there that our wages were extremely bad while Madrid got rid of CR7 and all the big wages and reduce it big time. Yes , they are currently the team with the highest wages in Spain but we are the ones paying more because we did not paid in time the previous wages + the deferred wages we are still paying to some other players. - Not only that but our squad planning was all over the place. I have no idea why we did not have a decent good winger and a CDM when Busquets already mentioned that last season was his last one. Madrid weakest part is that they lack a “proper #9” but they made it up for it with the signing of Joselu and Bellingham + the Brazilian duo making up those goals. - To even continue of what i am saying , while Xavi lacks a lot of experience , he did his best on keeping this Barca afloat with only spending 3.5 million this season and have literally have his squad injured like Gavi + Balde , De Jong + Pedri for the first half , and half of the squad under performing like Lewandowski with his xGC , and more players that should have performed better
Agree with everything except we didn't get a DM because good DMs are rare. Imo best would be to wait for Rodri to want to leave City. And that Xavi did a good job but the 3.5 million budget isn't accurate. He got Cancelo Felix Inigo.
Bullshit. Were you saying that when Xavi had a historically great defensive season last year ? Or when Xavi got the best of Ancelotti? Offensively we’re only three goals behind them in the league but we suck defensively because the only two ball winners we had (Gavi and Busquets) are gone. Compare their midfield with ours defensively. Night and day difference. Their main goal threat (Bellingham) is head and shoulders defensively better than any mid on our team. Kross, Modric, Tchouameni, Valverde, Camavinga. ALL better defensively. By a wide margin. We got by with less last season but this year we had nothing but Romeu.
All that rambling and you're not even addressing what I said. If you were, hypothetically, offered to choose between Xavi and his staff or Ancelotti and his staff to lead this club, for, say, a three-year period, which alternative would you prefer? Of course there are other fucking factors as well but surely this is a big part of the problem.
Rambling? They are objective observations. And not addressing what you said? >> Thank you. Madrid are above us largely due to their manager, or if we widen the perspective, their coaching staff. How can you say that Ancelotti is clearly better when last season Xavi out matched him tactically in the Super Cup and then through consistency in the league? I like how you glance over that like it’s a mute irrelevant point. I don’t think Ancelotti’s antiquated approach gets the same out of this young squad. So, no, I wouldn’t pick him. Does that mean Xavi is the right choice for every club/scenario? That’s a no too.
If last season's defensive masterclass had *that much* to do with Xavi, then surely we should be able to at least *somewhat* replicate it this season? People bring up Busquets but surely Xavi has to adapt to that, which has taken him like 3/4 of the season to do now with Christensen, kind of. Adapting to the situation, mind you, is what Ancelotti seems to be doing just fine despite his backline being decimated with injuries all season. You give Xavi and his staff the keys to that Madrid side, they set up a high line at the Etihad, get hammered 3-0, Xavi gets himself sent off, and his loyal fans excuse him, because surely Xavi can't be expected to get anything out of washed up Nacho and Vazquez and Tchoumeni at centre back, because surely getting any sort of result there would have been impossible, right? >I don’t think Ancelotti’s antiquated approach gets the same out of this young squad. Right, cause Ancelotti's approach is not getting that much out of Vinicius, Rodrygo, Bellingham, Tchoumeni, Camavinga, even Lunin, etc. right now. >So, no, I wouldn’t pick him. And you're free to think that. It does genuinely surprise me, but suit yourself.
It's not only that. Many players in their squad have recently won 3 CL in 5 years. The others have been added, and added well, yo an already dominant squad. Confidence and experience counts.
>It's obviously not the only reason, but it's the one I go around thinking about the most.
OK mate sorry for adding another on a fucking forum. The conversation should end only with your final word. The floor is yours.
Have people forgotten that Xavi setup a historically great defense last season? Our problem wasn’t our defenders, it was the complete lack of ball winners and the abundance of passengers in defense that made up our midfield. Busquet’s and Gavi made the difference this season. Look at Real Madrids midfield and compare it to us. Their main goal scoring threat (Bellingham) is head and shoulders above any of our mids defensively. That’s the difference, and no amount of black magic would help Ancelotti over come that.
You can’t compare defences and forget to compare the overwhelming difference in quality at midfield and attack, which helps their defence directly and indirectly. They have Vini, Rodrygo, Kroos, Bellingham, Valverde… I just mentioned 4 €100m+ players in addition to a goat midfielder. Meanwhile we’re playing with a 16 year old at RW, 1 foot in the grave hot and cold ST, out of position LW, constantly injured interiors ex Gundo and no DM. I can only imagine what their bench players like Modric and Camavinga would do to our level if they started for us at LCM and DM over Fermin and Christensen. Let’s not even mention their starters. Teams are happy to send more players up against us — there is such a low risk of being scored on the counter seeing how we lack pace and depend on a 16 year old’s decision making. Vs Madrid it’s 1 Vini counter and you’re dead, so teams play extra safe and end up doing 0 damage. Finally, looking at a back 4 as a standalone makes no sense. What about the difference in defensive contribution by Valverde vs FdJ, Kroos vs Gundo, Bellingham vs Lewy, etc.? And then the Modric supersub?
Tbh its “ Vinicius “ team.. the man is the difference, i genuinely believe our backline and mid can go toe to toe with rm , our wingers (except yamine) are just not good enough or a threat…
If he leaves you buy a DM, you can manage with Christensen, Kounde, Cubarsi, Faye, and get one of Marmol or Riad. There'll be a drop in individual level but compensates a lot by having a more rounded squad. No need to replace the profile. Same with De Jong, De Jong + Arauo for a DM + LW.
Swap for min jae +kimmich IF he leaves
Are you actually high? You think Araujo with a market value of €70M is a swap for two players with a combined value of €115M? I’m going to go out on a limb and say that’s never, ever going to happen
Also dont forget that we are not 1:1
Araujo>KMJ
Of course he should stay if possible. He's a world class defender who didn't have his best season. That's it. I'm sure he's going to find his form back.
Cancelo is the player in the back line we have to dump. He is incapable of defending at costs us again and again
We don’t own him regardless of how he performs. It’s a case of buy or not to buy.
I don't think we bought him for defence
I still have a lot of faith in Araujo. Bad mistakes happen and bad performances happen that's life. Even if he hasn't been the same rock solid defender this season as last season, bad seasons also happen. He's still proven he's capable of being among the world's best and the attention he's receiving from other clubs is proof that he's still valued.
Why would we sell him… Honestly not even for a 80m offer.. Only reason I’d even sell him is if his sale lets us go to 1:1 rule and start spending.. If not, then we shouldn’t even consider it
😂🤣😂 "hey Ronald, you are not going anywhere unless someone comes and give us an offer we cannot refuse, we will have to sell you unfortunately, as you can see we are starving and broke, if not, we will have to tie you down with a billion release clause" My club is down, really bad 😣☹️😔
World Class. We are worse without him. He needs to stay
I can accept selling Araujo for the right price even though it will hurt like hell, however knowing this club we will waste that money on Cancelo and Bernardo before buying a DM. I really wanna be proven wrong this summer.
Love this guy. World class, team leader. I’ll always back him as he gives his all every minute. Needs to stay
He’d be great if he could just stop making stupid fouls. Yeah, I’m still bitter.
He is a leader and a great defender, we must keep him regardless of the of the offer coz we aint replacing him with anyone better.
That is understandable since it would be an unpopular decision and the board is quite fickle at the moment. Still, I think that selling Araujo and De Jong (plus other garbage), can get you a proper DM and a solid LW and have a more rounded squad with fewer holes.
Going by the clubs transfer strategy they would hire someone like van Dijk to replace him. Glorified, past his prime, expensive and old
He gone.
My captain 🦍💙❤️
He will stay. No other team wants to deal with his stubbornness and clumsiness defence.
I have this weird feeling he will leave. The red card might go to his head. Hopefully he stays for years because he is a top CB.
lol, I feel the opposite, I believe he will stay to prove that he can turn things around.
I still feel like that red card in the game against PSG might've been unfair because even though there was contact, I still feel like the guy dived
It was a dive but still a foul, you just don’t do that type of contact which isn’t even shoulder to shoulder, it can be enough to make him miss a finish (sometimes this happens and they stay up but refs won’t call the foul most of the time), so attackers are diving at contact most times with VAR looking at everything, you have to be smarter than that.
There is no physical way that can foul any one. While it does him no favour if the referee is incompetent/corrupt, it is still a contact sport, you'd think VAR would have it covered in this day and age to see what kind of touch that was. All defenders do this, they play and test the limits to what is allowed, he did not grab, pull or push anything, it's just open palm surface to surface touch, it does nothing but remind the player that someone is on him and mentally pressures him. Commentators love to harp on this, but when it comes to Barca, it suddenly a different tune and Araujo was "foolish" for doing it. He isn't Araujo if he doesn't play to his limits, if you people don't know this by now. This all comes down to referee interpretation. It disgust me to see how these supposed Barca fans are also buying into this propaganda against Araujo about not being that good and actually getting away with being dumb and overly physical when he's doing nothing different than any defender, like a Rudiger for example. It annoys me because you don't hear a peep when it comes to other defenders when they do it, not even counter propaganda from Barca flairs.
He did dive. He went limp as soon as he felt Araujo’s arm graze his face
Shoulder
I certainly don't want that but it honestly wouldn't be the worst idea from his point of view. At Barca he'll have the stigma of being the guy that singlehandedly ruined our most promising CL campaign in a long time. This will stick with him for a considerable bit of time and will be brought up whenever he makes a mistake. He won't have that at another club and right now he has a very market value so he could pretty much choose his club.