Richarlison

You guys are crazy.
You are quite easy to jump on a hype train.

Anyway, I will pull numbers from my ass as always, chances for a player who is not a CF to suddenly into a CF for biggest teams in the world are probably 1%.

I mean, there are 200 NT Cfs around the world, and none of them is good enough for you.
There are 50-200 decent European NT Cfs around there and you are talking about a guy who started to play like a 9 only 3 Months ago.

This "but what if" part is just too tempting for you, isn't it?
You can't resist to think about a player as soon as "he is young, what if" questions start to arise.

Someone mentioned Suarez.
This is how a 20-21 years old Suarez played.
This is how a true CF looks like, who is playing on his position from teen years and who knows movement, has automatism and a true killer instinct for a goal:

BBZ8800 said:

You guys are crazy.

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Its not about madness, its about reality. We dont have an infinite amount of money and the superstars already play in rich clubs. Why bring up stats from today when we're not signing anyone today but in the summer?

You seriously would consider 200 different European NT strikers in the summer ahead of Richarlison even if Richarlison goes on to become top scorer in the PL by the end of the season? Richarlison played both winger and CF in Brazil by the way. And Tite has started playing him as a striker for Brazil as well.

If you had your way with your "too young, too few senior goals" attitude, we would go for Carlos Bacca instead of Mbappe in 2017.

Richarlison plays in EPL guys. If he has an insane season, his price will skyrocket like what happened with Kane. He will not be cheap, and would potentially pass the 100m barrier. EPL is not a good market for us.

I'd rather sign Maxi Gomes from Celta.

serghei said:

Richarlison plays in EPL guys. If he has an insane season, his price will skyrocket like what happened with Kane. He will not be cheap, and would potentially pass the 100m barrier. EPL is not a good market for us.

I'd rather sign Maxi Gomes from Celta.

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His price will skyrocket if he totally blows up and the EPL is a place where almost no bargain can be had, but should we simply rule him out completely if he blows up? What's Kane's price? 250m euros? Even 100m if he blows up, means we can also strengthen other areas of our team which is needed.

Everton is definitely a much smaller club than us and they will sell to us. Maxi Gomez is interesting and definitely one to watch as well. Will be interesting to see if he can manage at least 20 La Liga goals this season.

Jombi said:

Everton is definitely a much smaller club than us and they will sell to us. Maxi Gomez is interesting and definitely one to watch as well. Will be interesting to see if he can manage at least 20 La Liga goals this season.

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20 goals is an awful lot for a team like Celta.

Porque said:

Worth keeping an eye on, but I feel that many would have rated Malcom above him before the start of the season so watch this space now that he is going to get his chance.

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Funny you should say that. I think we were in for Malcolm and instead went for Richarlison because Malcolm rejected us.

Although that said Silva probably wanted him from the start.

As for Richarlison. Yea there's a bit of Suarez in him but he's just started playing as a CF so it's very early days toth for us and Brazil. Far too early for Barca. The last thing he needs is to become another Dembele.

I think right now he's more suited in an LWF role than just a pure striker.

But it seems Silva is going to change that.

Jombi said:

Its not about madness, its about reality. We dont have an infinite amount of money and the superstars already play in rich clubs.

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It seems that you don't get the core of Barcelona and Real.
And a core of these ultra attacking teams.

Priorities at Barca were always:
1. attackers
2. midfielders
3. defenders
4. a goalkeeper

I will pull numbers from my ass to explain it to you.
Imagine if we have these options:
10/10 attack
5/10 midfield
5/10 defense

5/10 attack
10/10 midfield
5/10 defense

5/10 attack
5/10 midfield
10/10 defense

Ok, there are always options to have 8/10 in everything, but you get the point.
For being a champion and try to win league titles, attack is usually a no1.
Defense and fullbacks are least important.
Look at Real Madrid now. Their midfield consisted of Kroos, Modric, Isco means shit when they don't have a scorer.
Midfield alone can't do too much without killers in attack.

And a difference between an average Cf like Munir and having someone like CR7 or Suarez is huge.
On the other hand, having the best Cb in the world like Ramos, Varane and similar and having a decent CB like some Valencia's CB is NOT as huge as Munir vs CR7.
With CR7 instead of Munir, you will get 30-40 more goals scored over 38 league rounds.
With Ramos instead of a random Spanish CB, you will concede 10 goals less per season, roughly.

So, my point is: the biggest difference is always in attack, in terms of end results.

In that sense, people here are mentioning how we have a lot of "holes" in our team to fix.
Let me guess:
1. Frenkie De Jong?
= not too needed as a priority no1, as long as we have Rakitic, Arthur, Alena, Puig, Rafinha etc.
We could use De Jong, but we can survive without that 80M transfer.
2. RB situation?
3. LB backup?
4. more wingers?

Well, if you have been following Barca's history in the last 30 years, THIS is how all these problems will be sold:
If a star CF (like Icardi/Firmino) costs 150M, this is how it will work:
If we have 150M to spend:
1. we will buy Icardi/Firmino for 150M
2. we will sell some players like Paco, Rafinha, Gomes, earn 50M and: buy a 10M 29 years old LB from Celta or Las Palmas
3. buy some 20-30M 25 years old La liga CB to be our 4th choice
4. we won't buy new midfielders. At RB: Roberto and Semedo will play as RBs in the next season

If we have 200M to spend:
1. we will buy Icardi/Firmino for 150M
2. we will sell some players like Paco, Rafinha, Gomes, earn 50M and: buy a 10M 29 years old LB from Celta or Las Palmas
3. since now we have 40M left from our 200M transfer budget and additional 50M from player's sales, we will now buy either De Jong or De Light for 70-90M
4. we won't buy new RBs. Roberto and Semedo will play as RBs in the next season

On the other hand, if you add some scenario with Dembele, who will be sold for 80-90M, then:
1. we will buy Icardi/Firmino for 150M
2. we will sell some players like Paco, Rafinha, Gomes, earn 50M and: buy a 10M 29 years old LB from Celta or Las Palmas
2. since now we have 90M from Dembele and additional 50M from player's sales, we can now buy BOTH De Jong and De Light for 150-160M in total.
4. we won't buy new RBs. Roberto and Semedo will play as RBs in the next season

So, my point is: regardless of how much money we have to spend:
1. a star, proven CF will be a priority no1
2. we will buy a 10-15M backup LB
3. and then, if we will have more money, or if we will sell Dembele: we will buy 0, 1 or both out of De Jong and De Light
4. a new RB can be bought ONLY if we sell Semedo first and we will buy a new guy for that money

On the other hand, when you say that we have a lot of priorities, you probably think that we will buy players in this order:
1. De Jong 80M
2. De Light 80M
3. a backup LB 30-50M
4. maybe a new RB
5. some younger low risk CF

That will NEVER going to happen.
This is Barca.
Our politics has always been: splash EVERYTHING you have for R9, Rivaldo, Kluivert, Saviola, Ronaldinho, Etoo, Henry, Villa, Ibrahimovic, Suarez, Dembele.
You will never hear: SPLASH everything for a GK, CB or RB (at Barca). That is something what Juventus or Milan would do.

Anyway, forget about new Dembeles, Malcoms, Richarlisons.
Our new CF will be a 150-200M signing.
And we will buy De Jong/De Light only if we will have money after that, or if we will sell Dembele.

Also, forget about big money transfers for a new RB and a new LB.
1. a star "9" aged 24-27
2. De Jong
3. De Light
4. a cheap backup La liga LB

That's it.

BBZ8800 said:

It seems that you don't get the core of Barcelona and Real.
And a core of these ultra attacking teams.

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Now you're arguing what you think will happen. Thats different than arguing you want a superstar striker for 200m (Icardi? Really?) and to hell with the rest of the team.

The sensible thing to do in this awful market is to be smart. You've argued that we will again spend truckloads of money. Is it realistic that we have all this money you think we have? RM have hardly had any net spending in the past 5 years and they've consistently had higher revenue than us as well. Next season we'd have ageing midfielders with Raki, Busi and Vidal around 32 years old, Pique is past it and Alba will turn 31 while his main asset is pace and acceleration. Its blatantly obvious we need reinforcements in the summer of 2019. Splashing our entire budget on someone like Icardi instead would be awful. You make a big deal out of NT strikers, yet Icardi would be 26 and still has yet to score a single goal for Argentina. This season's Suarez is even better than Icardi.

Jombi said:

Now you're arguing what you think will happen. Thats different than arguing you want a superstar striker for 200m (Icardi? Really?) and to hell with the rest of the team.

The sensible thing to do in this awful market is to be smart. You've argued that we will again spend truckloads of money. Is it realistic that we have all this money you think we have? RM have hardly had any net spending in the past 5 years and they've consistently had higher revenue than us as well. Next seasons we'd have ageing midfielders with Raki, Busi and Vidal around 32 years old, Pique is past it and Alba will turn 31 while his main asset is pace and acceleration. Its blatantly obvious we need reinforcements in the summer of 2019. Splashing our entire budget on someone like Icardi instead would be awful. You make a big deal out of NT strikers, yet Icardi would be 26 and still has yet to score a single goal for Argentina. This season's Suarez is even better than Icardi.

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I don't know whether we will buy a new CF in a summer of 2019 or 2020.
But when we will buy him, it will be a 150M player and not some new Dembele or Malcom.

Raki and Busi will play at least until 2020' as starters.
So, there is no hurry for that.
You have Arthur.

And as I have said, with selling Dembele you can get everything: a 150M CF and De Jong.
Arthur-De Jong, a young midfield.
And a world class Cf with Messi and Coutinho in attack.

Some fans here say that we have the best rooster in the world.
If you add a star CF and De Jong, how much more can you ask for?
I know, our RBs are not perfect, but you can't have everything.

BBZ8800 said:

I don't know whether we will buy a new CF in a summer of 2019 or 2020.
But when we will buy him, it will be a 150M player and not some new Dembele or Malcom.

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Which 150m CF do you think will the selling club be willing to part with? Who do you have in mind? Paco?

BBZ8800 said:

I don't know whether we will buy a new CF in a summer of 2019 or 2020.
But when we will buy him, it will be a 150M player and not some new Dembele or Malcom.

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Thats like saying RM would definitely buy a superstar last summer to replace Ronaldo. They did not. Raki will be great until 2020 and the same with Busi and Pique? You pretend you know what will happen, when you clearly dont. 150m in 2020 is definitely different than 150m today as well. If Richarlison becomes PL top scorer this season, it wouldnt surprise me if he'd be a 150m player either. And he'd have more NT goals than Icardi for sure with his grand total of zero, so you'd be happy about that. In this awful market, and us having spent a huge amount of money compared to our competitor for many seasons now, and if Suarez continues to be decent, it makes sense to sign a cheaper backup plan if Suarez turns into complete garbage because of ageing next season. Whats not sensible is to say 32 and 33 year olds are fine as starters, no hurry to prepare for anything. Thats the stuff that ruins our season.

Everton is not a selling club. They bought him for 50 mil, signed a 5 years long contract with him, after a season, chances they sell a promising player for low amounts (70, 80 mil) are, well, low. In my opinion, he'll either explode and, if he pushes for it, go for crazy sums, or remain at Everton. Train to buy Richarlison and call it a 'low-risk high reward' transfer has departed. Doesn't mean we shouldn't keep an eye on him. By the way, slightly offtopic. Does Icardi still have that 100 mil clause?

Joan Laporta said:

Everton is not a selling club. They bought him for 50 mil, signed a 5 years long contract with him, after a season, chances they sell a promising player for low amounts (70, 80 mil) are, well, low. In my opinion, he'll either explode and, if he pushes for it, go for crazy sums, or remain at Everton. Train to buy Richarlison and call it a 'low-risk high reward' transfer has departed. Doesn't mean we shouldn't keep an eye on him. By the way, slightly offtopic. Does Icardi still have that 100 mil clause?

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Dont get so hung up on that phrase. The point is that he should definitely be on our radar, whether he has a fantastic season, or just a decent season and him being available for 80m. Everton is definitely a selling club. I can also see a player like Richarlison strongly preferring Barcelona over Everton. His versatility alone is very useful for us, as its very rare for a player to be able to play all across the front line. Its far harder to sign players from clubs that are not selling clubs like PSG, City and Chelsea unlike Everton.

Jombi said:

Everton is definitely a selling club. I can also see a player like Richarlison strongly preferring Barcelona over Everton. His versatility alone is very useful for us, as its very rare for a player to be able to play all across the front line. Its far harder to sign players from clubs that are not selling clubs like PSG, City and Chelsea unlike Everton.

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Not in the mold of Monaco. With owners investing serious amounts every season. I agree with you that we should definitely keep an eye on him. Just not about the nature of the transfer. If that clause still exists, similar amount could get you Icardi (not that I'm a fan, just an example).