LRD Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Barca never seem to have any luck with foreign center-halves, with expensive flops like Milito, Henrique, Caceres, Chygrynskiy in recent years. Should have gone for David Luiz before Chelsea did. He's going to be the next Coloccini. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginola Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Caceres and Henrique (possibly) still have a chance don't they? Especially with Barcas lack of depth at the back atleast one of them might not go out on loan or be sold next season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colocho Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 And Arsenal fans wonder why Barca have a sense of entitlement to players like Fabregas. Stealing them at 16 ffs. Sorry, I fail to see it as stealing. Surely Barca had the opportunity to keep him there? Or is there some kind of loophole I don't know about? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Village Idiot Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 David Luiz is great, but we were never linked with him. We really need a couple more CBs this summer. Our depth there is abysmal and Puyol can't go on forever. Hopefully one of Fontàs/Muniesa can make the step up too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Village Idiot Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 And Arsenal fans wonder why Barca have a sense of entitlement to players like Fabregas. Stealing them at 16 ffs. Sorry, I fail to see it as stealing. Surely Barca had the opportunity to keep him there? Or is there some kind of loophole I don't know about? There is a loophole. We can't offer 16 year olds professional contracts. English clubs can. Same way we lost Cesc (and Piqué, and Mérida, and Pacheco...). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Roger Kint Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 And Arsenal fans wonder why Barca have a sense of entitlement to players like Fabregas. Stealing them at 16 ffs. Sorry, I fail to see it as stealing. Surely Barca had the opportunity to keep him there? Or is there some kind of loophole I don't know about? Is it not something to do with Spanish employment laws and they cant offer a proper contract until 17 or 18? Edit: Damn you VI Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colocho Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 And Arsenal fans wonder why Barca have a sense of entitlement to players like Fabregas. Stealing them at 16 ffs. Sorry, I fail to see it as stealing. Surely Barca had the opportunity to keep him there? Or is there some kind of loophole I don't know about? There is a loophole. We can't offer 16 year olds professional contracts. English clubs can. Same way we lost Cesc (and Piqué, and Mérida, and Pacheco...). They don't have to accept the offer though ... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JH Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 And Arsenal fans wonder why Barca have a sense of entitlement to players like Fabregas. Stealing them at 16 ffs. Sorry, I fail to see it as stealing. Surely Barca had the opportunity to keep him there? Or is there some kind of loophole I don't know about? There is a loophole. We can't offer 16 year olds professional contracts. English clubs can. Same way we lost Cesc (and Piqué, and Mérida, and Pacheco...). They don't have to accept the offer though ... But it's unlikely they'll refuse a professional contract at that age. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ponsaelius Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Especially when the clubs will be talking direct to their nearest and dearest, offering their parents a house, stable jobs etc. Couple this with waving massive amounts of money infront of their faces and it's pretty difficult for an ill-advised 16 year old to turn down. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginola Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Is there any reason why youngsters can't be offered professional contracts until a later age in Spain? Surely the Spanish FA can't be happy to see a lot of their youth talent being tapped up and going abroad like this Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colocho Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Is there any reason why youngsters can't be offered professional contracts until a later age in Spain? Surely the Spanish FA can't be happy to see a lot of their youth talent being tapped up and going abroad like this ... Well, yeah? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Village Idiot Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Is there any reason why youngsters can't be offered professional contracts until a later age in Spain? Surely the Spanish FA can't be happy to see a lot of their youth talent being tapped up and going abroad like this It's the labor law. Would need of some heavy lobbying to get it modified. Personally I don't mind Spanish clubs not being able to tie their youngsters with golden chains until they are 17, what I regret is how this doesn't apply to other nations that exploit it against us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginola Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Makes sense Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gash Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 And Arsenal fans wonder why Barca have a sense of entitlement to players like Fabregas. Stealing them at 16 ffs. Sorry, I fail to see it as stealing. Surely Barca had the opportunity to keep him there? Or is there some kind of loophole I don't know about? At the end of the day it's exploiting the rules and (i don't know if it's the same now?) but we in England are able to offer a professional contract earlier than they are in Spain, the thing is they tried it and failed with Afobe so we've finally found something that they aren't good at Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Village Idiot Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 I don't think we ever offered anything to Afobe, to be frank. But we did scout him indeed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exiled in Texas Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Perhaps they will start offering contracts with Barca UK FC....located in Surrey? No reason why they could not offer contracts to promising players from either country. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delima Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 And Arsenal fans wonder why Barca have a sense of entitlement to players like Fabregas. Stealing them at 16 ffs. Sorry, I fail to see it as stealing. Surely Barca had the opportunity to keep him there? Or is there some kind of loophole I don't know about? There is a loophole. We can't offer 16 year olds professional contracts. English clubs can. Same way we lost Cesc (and Piqué, and Mérida, and Pacheco...). I dont understand why English clubs just don't scour all the nest Spanish underage players this way. Cheap n no work permit issue. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LRD Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 They probably did. Not all clubs have the pulling power of a Arsenal with their recognized youth setup and development, or a Man City or Chelsea with their financial clout though. It'll take some good convincing to a teenager and his family to move to a foreign country. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Village Idiot Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 They routinely scout our youngsters. It's a bit of a joke, if you go to a youth game near that age bracket, there's always a bunch of English scouts piled up on a side of the pitch. As you said, it's not that easy to convince a youngster to move to another country and this same week Sergi Samper and Pol Ballesté refused Arsenal, while Toral accepted. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LRD Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Why don't you conduct the matches and training sessions behind closed doors or under selective admission, and make it more difficult for the scouts? Toral has an English mother so it could have made it easier to accept a move to England. Since you've mentioned them, how good are Samper and Balleste? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Village Idiot Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Samper is amazing, Ballesté is a good goalkeeper. There seems to be a lot of hype about him but I always find difficult to judge young goalies. Toral is a great loss, but we had known that Arsenal had made an offer to Samper since December and I'm relieved we'll get to keep at least him. We don't have control over who attends our youth away games. Also a lot of the scouts become club members and we can't weed those out. A lot of the games at this level are very informal and you really don't have people at the door enforcing attendance rules, etc... mostly just the families of the players and some odd loon attend. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Village Idiot Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Rumor going round that we'll try to get Cesc to do a Webster this summer in reprisal. That would bring the cost of signing him down to 25m-ish. Don't think it's true, mind, since I'm adamant Cesc wants to leave Arse in friendly terms and NO big club wants to open that can of worms (cue Alves leaving for €5m) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrmojorisin75 Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Rumor going round that we'll try to get Cesc to do a Webster this summer in reprisal. That would bring the cost of signing him down to 25m-ish. Don't think it's true, mind, since I'm adamant Cesc wants to leave Arse in friendly terms and NO big club wants to open that can of worms (cue Alves leaving for €5m) that would be fucking hilarious - i like wenger and arsenal but that would be some sweet payback Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shearergol Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 And Arsenal fans wonder why Barca have a sense of entitlement to players like Fabregas. Stealing them at 16 ffs. Sorry, I fail to see it as stealing. Surely Barca had the opportunity to keep him there? Or is there some kind of loophole I don't know about? There is a loophole. We can't offer 16 year olds professional contracts. English clubs can. Same way we lost Cesc (and Piqué, and Mérida, and Pacheco...). But you signed Messi at 13 didn't you? Or was there still a change he could have gone somewhere else for a few years? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zero Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Rumor going round that we'll try to get Cesc to do a Webster this summer in reprisal. That would bring the cost of signing him down to 25m-ish. Don't think it's true, mind, since I'm adamant Cesc wants to leave Arse in friendly terms and NO big club wants to open that can of worms (cue Alves leaving for €5m) If Barca really do that, I can see Arsenal stop doing any business with Barca in the nearby future. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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