Álvaro Pereira

[barcaboy15]

You guys are all talking shit, his release clause definitely ISN'T 20m.

Chelsea (Villas-Boas) tried to buy him last summer and according to Andre himself their valuations were so far off so a deal couldn't be made.

Now this is Chelsea FC, the team that bought Torres for 50m. You really think Pereira would've cost 20m and that was way off from Chelsea's valuation!? Bitch please...

[Bojan]

His release clause is 30 million euros. And considering he has a contract until 2016, it's really a long shot.

[Metaphysical]

Tabarez uses like 4 or 5 different formations though, Sometimes he uses Alvaro as a wingback, in a lot of instances he uses Caceres on the left and Alvaro in front of him, but in that case Urugauay is often playing a slightly off-kilter 3-4-3 with Maxi a bit deeper. But part of that has to do with the fact that Alvaro is a more multi-dimensional attacker while Maxi can only run in a straight line. Alvaro is not exactly a guy who will bring defensive responsibility but he plays LB plenty of times, and in Uruguay there's shifting roles so it's hard to judge absolutes from that.

all true.

but 9 times out of 10, he keeps Alvaro in advanced positions.

it's just a red flag to me.

Oh, and technically Alba isn't a "graduate", he was basically a la masia reject who the club gave up on when he was 16. He was also never a fullback at Barcelona, he was trained entirely as a winger until Valencia decided to convert him. I know your theory that every Catalan who ever stepped foot in the Barcelona youth ranks has a mystical connection, and he's no doubt a very technical player familiar with the league, but we are talking a guy who was a fringe prospect until Valencia saw something in him.

he was a left-winger. Ronaldinho had that spot locked the fuck down in the first-team, and we were playing a different style of football, it's no surprise he was "rejected." we were about to reject Pedro, too, and Busquets was seen as no great shakes either.

and while Alba was not earth-shattering as a winger, the move to fullback has ignited his career. and we obviously just didn't think to do that. but then I'm not surprised given we had Ronaldinho at LW working with Gio & Sylvinho at LB, and they were all seasoned professionals. real men. there was no room blood a youngster on that flank, so I'm not surprised no one tried.

And there's also the fact that Alba is a slight player. Pereira is not an intelligent defender but he has tracks back and the physical edge makes a difference.

Alvaro is bigger, yes, congrats to him.

but if we're talking about physicality being a plus then we may as well go for Bale. he's even bigger, even faster, even younger and even more likely to be an absolutely storming LB for us. Alvaro to me just seems like an uninspired middle ground between Alba and Bale, and he'd be hugely expensive to boot. I mean Chelsea couldn't get him for £20m last summer ffs, and Porto just won the league again and don't have to spend money this summer securing Hulk's rights.

there's just no chance he'll be cheaper now, and paying €30m for what is essentially a bit of an upgrade on Adriano except he's not really an upgrade on Adriano is just fucking retarded. we don't need our own Coentrao.

I know you have a relentless chubby for Uruguayans but honestly you're closer to the mark when you say we should bring Cacerés back. Alvaro is a looney idea.

[La Furia]

Actually my point with Pereira is that if we must bring in a wingback for some stupid reason (Believe it or not, I'd rather just keep Alves), then I like the idea of Pereira precisely because he's the middle ground between Alba and Bale.

What would make more sense is keep Alves and Adriano, the latter is a perfectly good squad player who can play in the midfield too, and get a defensive minded fullback to replace Abidal. So yeah, bring back Caceres?

[Metaphysical]

who actually owns Cacerés right now? Sevilla?

I dunno if he'd wanna come back, but I mean his beef was clearly with Pep who just couldn't tolerate his stupidity, the club seemed to like him. I remember our doctor basically getting a yusuf-style homoboner for him, saying that he was in such perfect physical shape that had he not told them about an injury he had, they'd have never known.

plus the stupidity that plagued him has largely been eradicated from his game, as was always going to happen. not every young CB can be as awesome as Piqué.

it's funny that we had these two projects back to back in Cacerés and Chysus, and both had what the other lacked. if we coulda combined them we'd have had a young Nesta on our hands. ah well. it is what it is.

[La Furia]

I still don't get why you all had to give up on Caceres so easily. Most young stoppers are very flawed, Barca fans have been spoiled by so many young attackers that they forget that defenders hit their prime later. Pique's game is all about skill and pose, on the other hand Puyol had a stupid streak throughout his early 20s.

But yeah, sadly that ship has sailed, next time Pep needs to call me before he makes judgement on Uruguayan prospects. He should stick to 'Spanish' players.

[Metaphysical]

I still don't get why you all had to give up on Caceres so easily. Most young stoppers are very flawed, Barca fans have been spoiled by so many young attackers that they forget that defenders hit their prime later. Pique's game is all about skill and pose, on the other hand Puyol had a stupid streak throughout his early 20s.

But yeah, sadly that ship has sailed, next time Pep needs to call me before he makes judgement on Uruguayan prospects. He should stick to 'Spanish' players.

I dunno about anyone else, but I never gave up on Cacerés.

I'm one of the few people who realise that defenders can make retarded mistakes and still be awesome, let alone have the potential to be awesome. Ramos is the perfect example. you see people ripping him and saying he can't be the next Puyol (footballistically, obv. he's a totally different person) because he makes retarded mistakes, but Puyol STILL makes retarded mistakes at the age of 34! he made loads in his younger days and it's not like Ramos as the advantage of being partnered by a suave sex icon that encourages him to not be a moron, or being managed by a cool-as-fuck dude who preaches love and happiness rather than misery, despair and hate.

Cacerés would have always come good, but it was clear Pep didn't have the patience for him and rather than recalling him every summer and trying to find him a new club, they thought it better to just move him on. me? I'd have sent him on a 2/3 year loan someplace coz he was always gonna pick up at some point and with Pep maintaining he wasn't gonna stay for that long, he could have been brought back in soon enough.

now he'd be perfect for that LCB role we need to fill in Bilal's absence. but then I guess Bilal was a similar physical specimen, which is probably why the club felt cool letting Cacerés go, as Bilal would just keep rockin' til someone from La Masia was ready to take that spot. who could have forseen his medical problems?

[Myrmecophile]

Bring Yaya, Sexy Lopez, Marquez, Caceres and Chygrynskiy back.