That's an interesting point. I think Barca is right in wanting to add more depth to their midfield. Xavi (who is not getting younger) and Iniesta (who is a bit injury-prone) have been playing their asses of in recent years, so I guess there will be more rotation in midfield. Also, Busquets and Mascherano probably will play at the back four much more often now, thereby freeing up at least one spot in the midfield.
Cesc might not play in every game or be part of the starting eleven all the time, but I doubt that he will just be sitting on the bench much - he is too good for that (even at a club like Barca) and, maybe even more importantly, he was too expensive for that.
Still, one could argue that a guy like Thiago would have been perfectly fine as a depth adding player. I guess there is quite some prestige of getting Cesc back to his old club involved as well.
Oh I think he'll play. He'll play in the Copa Del Rey matches where they rest everyone they actually care about. With 3 compe ions its not like there's not enough games to go around. I just think its redundant move based more on - as you said - prestige than an actual need.
It's so stupid, paying such a high price for an unnecessary player. They should have targeted another strong central defender, or no one and simply save towards that debt. It's just seems like Barca was really stubborn in this Cesc pursuit, wanted him more to win the Cesc war between Arsenal.
CROFL after evaluating their financial position and saying they'd look to only spend 40-45 million euros or pounds on summer signings (w/e it was) and they go out and sign Alexis Sanchez and Cesc Fabregas in the same summer.
I'll be surprised if he's ahead of Afellay in the peeking order tbh.
Cesc has a somewhat winning pedigree but he has never won a league le.
Jesus I completely forgot about Afellay...I'm sure he wants out already now that they signed Sanchez and still have Pedro. CROFL having so many bench players other teams in the league would kill for to have as starters, La Liga is re ed.
Xavi/Iniesta insurance.
I love the game, and I hate egomaniacs like him giving the game a bad name. He's severely overrated too. He never coached a small team in his career.
+1 ...... they needed a player like him but IMHO, not at that price.... I'd use that money to get a "cheap" good player to cover that position and two good defenders.
Cesc gives Guardiola a backup to key guys: Xavi/Iniesta/Busquets. All key guys in Barça midfield for which he has no true quality reserves. It's the same reason they acquired Alexis Sanches, to have a quality reserve for Villa or Pedro.
They'll be playing 6 different compe ions this season. That's a lot of games for a team that didn't even have pre-season training, and went on tour instead.
If you looked at Thiago play yesterday, you can tell he's not ready or at the level to play against experienced teams. Cesc gives them that.
Not saying that Porto was a small team when they won the Champions' League in 2004, but it was still a great achievement
I don't think a lot of coaches would have won a CL with that roster (again, not a bad roster, but not hall of famesque either)
I would like to see Guardiola winning the CL with that lineup
And if you want a severely overrated coach, look no further than Arsene Wenger
theres plenty of cheaper options...
They had an easy run that year, and Porto is number 1 or 2 in Portugal. The only seemingly complicated team was Manchester United in the first knockout stage. After that: Lyon, La Coruña and AS Monaco.
I don't disagree about Wenger, BTW. But at least he started from the bottom.
With that familiarity with their system? Who?
any clown whose played on the spanish team
Like who?
mendieta
Not likely given they don't really play the same position.
Yeah, but is that really his fault? Even Messi wouldn't have won a le with the defenders running around the pitch for Arsenal the last couple of years.
I don't think that Cesc will primarily be a back-up. Even with the prestige thing in mind, I don't think Barca is that stupid.
Jona
Gaizka? He retired from soccer in 2008 or so...
...should give team b players a few tryouts...
valencia fc is a farm team, should poach players
Porto may be top 1 or 2 in Portugal, but the rest of that league is crap
I agree with you on the fact that Deportivo wasnt a real threat, but Lyon and Monaco were pretty good back then
Which is my point. They don't have a compe ive league all year round. A bit of over the top talent, and you're set there. It's either Sporting or Porto.
tbqh, I don't even remember who played for them. I do remember that was around the start of the decline of French football coming out of the '98 WC, but their best players (Zidane, Henry, Trezeguet, etc) all played overseas.
If you look at the knockout stages though, you can see Monaco did the legwork there, eliminating Madrid and Arsenal.
BTW, Morientes was the top goalscorer that year, even though Madrid was eliminated in the second knockout stage.
Morientes played for monaco in 2004. (scored twice against real in the quarter finals)
Have to disagree with this. He took a mid level European team like Porto and won the Champions League. Haven't seen anything comparable to that lately tbh.
Now if you want to talk about anyone who hasn't coach a low level team, look no further than Guardiola. Actually he never coached any other team besides Barcelona. I would like to see him coach something else than his home team club witch almost plays by themselves (just look at the Spanish National Team) before I can pronounce him a world class coach.
Mourinho on the other hand has proved to be a winner in every place he has been. Further more both Chelsea and Inter got significantly worse after he left the clubs witch further proves that he hadn't that much of an easy job.
It's fine not to like it's style or personality but to question his competence is ridiculous.
Last edited by ogait; 08-15-2011 at 02:41 PM.
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