Village Idiot

I was over the moon when they bought him. He's washed. Anyway, nice game from us yesterday. Yes, the opposition was weak but it does look like stuff is starting to click upfront. Lewandowski is a force, and Dembele is finally putting together a string of consistent games (until his next injury, I guess), he ran Valladolid ragged yesterday.

Yeah, but not sure we can use that formation consistently, it's definitely a "break the glass in case of emergency" thing. Which I guess it's good to have. Still, there are so many new pieces that I can excuse us looking somewhat dull. But it's obvious Xavi hasn't quite figured out the team yet.

Fati We were pretty dogshit until he came in though. Xavi is being weird.

He's played both wings during preseason. We'll see but I agree with you that he should be on the right.

I didn't vote for Laporta and I've always thought he's a classless twat. I feared stuff like this would happen, because he already did a lot of ridiculous evil shit last time he was in charge (he spied on his own staffers!). So for me this isn't something "new", I guess people didn't pay attention back then because Ronaldinho and Messi. Also, we don't really have a cash flow problem (short-term). We could pay all those wages. We *do* have a balance problem though (a serious one), which in turn creates a wage cap problem given La Liga's financial regulations, hence all the deferral malarkey to bring new signings in. I personally would rather spent another year rebuilding and healing our finances, since we do have a crop of very talented young players to build around, and we have to deal with the rebuilding of Camp Nou, but Laporta has gone all in to try to contend right away - which I don't think it will work.

I'm guilty of watching PSG games just for him, and worst of all, wanting them to win Football is just too beautiful when he's in it.

I suppose the fact we've been shit makes us an easier target for negative coverage. The Athletic has been having a field day with all those "HAHAHA look at how terrible Barça are" for a while now.

What have we done that we weren't doing 10 years ago? I mean, don't get me wrong, we're reprehensible, just not sure how it has worsened as of late. I mean, remember the Abidal cancer feelgood story? The Spanish courts have, for years now, trying to ascertain whether we helped him pay off a dude to buy his liver I suppose Messi et al covered up a lot of shit.

Thanks, I appreciate it.

Depay is very talented but so so inconsistent. He's definitely surplus to requirements right now after bringing in Torres/PEA/Lewandowski and hopefully Fati staying healthy. We managed to register all our signings except Koundé (who's still recovering form injury), reportedly we just need to clear equal salary to register him (€10m).

Nico going on loan to Valencia. He was outstanding last season given his age, but he tended to be the one dropped when our midfield was healthy. Since Valencia are being stripped for parts, I guess he'll get a decent amount of playing time there. I'm a bit nervous about this because these developmental loans never never seem to work for us, and he's a good talent and a natural Busquets replacement.

Went to Camp Nou yesterday to watch the team presentation and the Gamper friendly against Pumas. It was a meaningless game (we won 6-0), but I'll reaffirm what I said earlier in the summer: if Pedri stays healthy and plays 40+ games we'll compete for everything. He's that kind of talent.

Surprised to see Chelsea fans being so pessimistic. They landed on their feet on the Abramovich issue and the new owners are splashing the cash.

No idea. It does seem like a career misstep to me, even if Galaxy will probably pay him a larger wage than what he would get outside of Barça.

We don't know! He's never had much of a run of games and has seen the likes of Gavi/Pedri/Nico leapfrog him. That said, the fact that 4 different managers have never given him a consistent run - Koeman straight wanted to get rid of him - has to mean something.

Glad to see Cucurella moving up. Always thought he had potential but he had it tough getting minutes behind Alba. I wish we brought him back from his loans instead of selling him to Getafe, though. Another shortsighted move (although it was probably the best for his own career).

None of the above. Our bylaws barred him from serving 3 consecutive terms as president, and he wanted to pursue a political career (he was elected MP of the Catalan parliament and later tried to run for mayor of Barcelona). The cooking the books allegations, plus other crap he engaged in, surfaced afterwards.

DId you know that we need money? They raised €700k. Some people just have way too much money.

Yeah, I meant it in a "I'm not sure we should be spending so much", rather than "we can't get the money". Lewandowski is a lot of money for a rather short term signing, but getting a reliable #9 is very expensive. PEA was great last season, but I think the club just doesn't want to rely on him to replicate that kind of form, and there was just nobody on the market (I laughed at all the hype about us getting Haaland) who was younger and which we could afford. Lewa also adds a "I've seen it all" veteran presence on the pitch when both Piqué and Busquets are expected to take a step back this season. Laporta is doing exactly the same he did when he first took over, btw. We were also skint at the time after seasons of gross mismanagement, and he spent his way out of that predicament. But he nailed pretty much every big signing: Ronaldinho, Deco, Eto'o...

We'd been linked with Koundé for weeks. I think it's more the case we jumped in when we learnt that Chelsea was close to a deal.

Not really. It's been around for quite a while. Now, the club didn't really have a meaningful media strategy until the Bartomeu board (and meaningful might be a stretch, it was more "we want to make millions off this stuff!" rather than how to get there), but the whole thing has failed to get off the ground. The club can use an experienced partner here. At the end of the day, as an organization there's some things Barça knows how to do, and some that doesn't. One of the good things (there are some!) that Bartomeu did was to bring back commercial activity (merchandise, stores, etc...) fully under the club's control (Nike was running it), but the club does have experience in those areas. It knows how to run stores, manage merchandising licenses, etc... because it has done that for years in some capacity. Making interesting sports documentaries and other TV content? Not so much, and the attempts have been pretty embarassing.

The talk is that if we either close the deal for Barça Studios or sell players (De Jong, particularly) the math will work. I suspect that it's an "and" rather than an "either" but we'll see.

Also, I'm liking our transfer window a lot. I wish we had this acumen when we actually had money.

I don't like these deals, but you're overstating their impact a bit. It's 25% of the broadcasting La Liga revenue, not "most of our TV rights". Barça Studios has't made a single penny in profit since it was setup (and most of the efforts at branded Barça media content have been frankly embarassing), actually bringing in a partner here, with experience in the business, makes sense. But that deal hasn't been closed yet. It really isn't a great asset. The vision inside the club the past few years (and they might not be wrong) is that TV revenue for the most part is tapped out, and that ultimately commercial revenue will be the largest driver of revenue growth, which is why they are holding off on selling the unit that handles merchandise, stores, etc... But to to grow commercial you have to win, hence the gamble they're making (which makes me uncomfortable, but I'm a risk-adverse person). We haven't sold anything else, but if we can't close a deal for Barça Studios I fear they'll sell something more valuable.

Roughly €18 million deferred wages + €10 million in pending loyalty bonuses. So €28m lump sum that has to be paid to him if we sell him.