Village Idiot

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.

If we pay him when we resolve his contract with Barça it will count all of it towards this year, which will probably make us run afoul of the spending cap. I think that what we want is ManU to shoulder that.

Well, it's not really a pay cut, rather payment deferments. We are limited in our yearly spending by La Liga due to our beleaguered finances, and that's the only way to be able to sign people while not running afoul of our spending cap.

By all accounts the guy now in charge of football business (Salvador Alemany) is really good - and for a change our deals and transfers are mostly sensible. I am worried about Laporta's ego-driven short-termism, he already had his financial director resign a few months ago.

We have sold 25% of our La Liga broadcasdting rights for the next 25 years to a yank fund for something like €600m. There's a saying in Spain "bread today, hunger tomorrow", that's what this is. I love the signing, getting Dembelé back on a short contract with a pay cut (I find the whole affair hilarious after he was demanding 30 million/year last december, which nobody offered) is also a good bit of business. Unsure about Lewandowski - absolute top drawer of a player, but I don't think we should be spending 50 million on a 30+ player in our situation.

I haven't invited Birmingham to play.

Why are we made to suffer so much?

Well, Pedri (not a La Masia product) is simply amazing. And there's Fati, Gavi, Nico... And having Xavi as a manager gives a connection to that era - not dissimilarly to how Guardiola had Cruyff as his mentor. I think there's plenty to look forward to. We're broke, though!

Strong talk that Busquets will leave for the MLS after this season. When he goes it will only be Piqué remaining (who's also strongly linked with a move out) who was in the team during the Guardiola glory days. Well, there's Alves too but he hasn't been in the squad continuously.

Thank, it looks like he'll take on Piqué's role, then.