Josep Maria Bartomeu

JamDav1982 said:

Fake news as Barca already knew about him and made an approach but wanted him for B team initially.

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Messigician said:

Surely fake news?
Bar?a legend Hristo Stoichkov spoke to Bartomeu about Alphonso Davies months before Bayern came on board. Bartomeu's response was "he is Canadian, no thanks." [@LuisOmarTapia] https://t.co/AEgJbwCSVt

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DonAK said:

I would say it's likely fake news, but it wouldn't surprise me either. Barto only knows big name players he'll have to pay 100m+ for.

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This era of Josep Maria Bartomeu's club presidency, and the previous one, appear to have been on a mission to root out every trace of common sense, existing wisdom, identity and any of the other elements that once made FC Barcelona the greatest team in the world. And, boy, they've put their heart and soul into it.

But the absolute nadir of Blaugrana headless chickenry arrived in Lisbon on Friday night, exactly two decades after the club and fans felt as helplessly humiliated and embarrassed as they do now. Bartomeu and his acolytes were wholly unprepared for Neymar leaving them for Paris even though the warning signs were there for months. Honestly, a child could have deduced what was happening when he turned down both a wage increase and the club's wish to raise his buyout clause. Barcelona just carried on blithely and were caught with a sucker punch that had been telegraphed for about nine months.

Once Neymar stomped off, this board not only failed to re-assess their performance, their priorities, their decision making or their football manual, but they made things significantly worse by handing out fat contract renewals to players who, frankly, needed to be either replaced or feel challenged rather than ultra-secure. Just FYI, Busquets and Alba, who look dog tired and are in their very late autumn years athletically, have contracts for three and four more years respectively.

Institutionally, the past three years have, literally, been a re-run of the years between 2000-2003 when Barcelona alternated between being a figure of fun, a trophy-less desert and an institution careering toward a desperate cash-flow problem. More lessons that have gone unlearned. The key difference is that the football era Bartomeu and Co. have squandered and complacently misused benefited from players who were talented, tough-minded and determined enough to keep winning trophies. While the wheelhouse was overtaken by terrible decision-making and faulty strategy, the sailing line was maintained because the crew was worth a thousand of the commanding officers.

The thing Bartomeu's reign wanted to be famous for was their financial turnover. Would they rate higher than Real Madrid in the rich lists? It became an obsession. It's the kind of cart-before-horse nonsense where the overall lust for cash quickly obscures the real football values, corrodes the health of the relationship between a club and its squad, and ignores the delicate micro-climate in which the local fans' love for the club exists.

This board used Messi. Forgive the animal metaphor, but instead of thinking of the best way to protect and support their "G.O.A.T." (greatest of all time), they viewed Messi as a cash-cow, no more than a part of the Barca brand and a means to global marketing nirvana. They piggy-backed on his greatness, wondering not how they could support him, make him greater still, prolong his excellence but how much they could make out of his fame and global adoration while he was still active. It has been disgusting.

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Wambo said:

Any idea why this guy never tried to sign a big name coach and instead went for literal whos like Valverde and Setien (he got lucky with Enrique in the first season tho) ?

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Andrew M said:

To me it's not so much about the coach having big name but more about the personality profile.

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Total-Football said:

To me the death certificate of this team was the highline played by bayern. They basically told us : "look.. Why not put everyone upfront when you old fucks can't even bust a run behind us without our fit defenders catching u"
They knew they were playing "names" and no actual athletes.

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Total-Football said:

To me the death certificate of this team was the highline played by bayern. They basically told us : "look.. Why not put everyone upfront when you old fucks can't even bust a run behind us without our fit defenders catching u"
They knew they were playing "names" and no actual athletes.

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Total-Football said:

To me the death certificate of this team was the highline played by bayern. They basically told us : "look.. Why not put everyone upfront when you old fucks can't even bust a run behind us without our fit defenders catching u"
They knew they were playing "names" and no actual athletes.

Click to expand...