With Keita now leaving, who should be signed?

[Flavia]

I think it would be better to bring Romeu back and sign a good cb, than get Javi Martinez for 40 million.

[Deco 20]

I haven't thought of any names as I'm no expert on CBs outside of Spain. What's important is that any eventual CB we buy has some pace, good technique and speaks spanish or a similar language in order to integrate seemlessly.

I don't really think we need a DM but if Busi suffers a serious injury having an adept backup like Romeu wouldn't be bad. It's that or us getting Bruno Soriano from Villarreal (he should be cheaper, too)

I still don't see any real need for a signing though, especially not a big name

[Isco]

Javi Martinez. I think him and Pique could form a nice little duo for many years to come. He could also supplement Busquets throughout the year and or would allow Mascherano to move back as a DM full-time. Getting Javi Martinez would give us a lot of flexibility and should be a bigger priority than acquiring Neymar.

[impeh]

Martinez + promote the next best youth CB

If mascherano can be an awesome CB, so can Martinez!

[Birdy]

Someone explain me why do we need another CB ??
We have pique, puyol (who said he wants to play football untill 40), masch as first choice options.. Also, Abidal from January on, after recovering - and you all know he will - and of course the youngsters Fontas and Bartra for gradually playing more..
Why are we after another player there?
The only defensive gap we had was a LB. With Alba the gap is closed.

Now that Keita left, we only need a sub for Busquets.. Javi martinez is a young and great player. It will be too much for him to be a sub and play as many minutes as Keita played last season..

[Isco]

Realistically, Puyol is probably through after this year.

[Birdy]

Puyol? Have you seen any other CB playing with that passion at his age?
Besides, the only bad season he had injury wise was 10-11...

[Maria]

Javi Martinez. I think him and Pique could form a nice little duo for many years to come.

How do you know that? Just because 2 CBs are very good, it doesn't mean that they would make a good partnership(we have Puyol-Mascherano as an example or even Pepe-Ramos, who although they are both good with RM, I always thought that they are better with their national teams).

[Isco]

How do you know that? Just because 2 CBs are very good, it doesn't mean that they would make a good partnership(we have Puyol-Mascherano as an example or even Pepe-Ramos, who although they are both good with RM, I always thought that they are better with their national teams).

And how do you know they won't?

Martinez played a style very similar to Barcelona's this past year under Bielsa and I think he's ready to make that next leap. He made a few penalties last season but I thought he looked fantastic for the most part. I feel a guy like Hummels wouldn't be a great fit in our system.

[foot-soldier]

Someone explain me why do we need another CB ??
We have pique, puyol (who said he wants to play football untill 40), masch as first choice options.. Also, Abidal from January on, after recovering - and you all know he will - and of course the youngsters Fontas and Bartra for gradually playing more..
Why are we after another player there?
The only defensive gap we had was a LB. With Alba the gap is closed.

Now that Keita left, we only need a sub for Busquets.. Javi martinez is a young and great player. It will be too much for him to be a sub and play as many minutes as Keita played last season..

I agree. It's better to risk with having some sort of gap in central defense, and go for a world class forward player. Maybe sell Villa, and add in the extra millions to bring in Neymar from this summer.

[Maria]

And how do you know they won't?

I am not the one who said that they will be a disaster together, am I?

Martinez played a style very similar to Barcelona's this past year under Bielsa and I think he's ready to make that next leap. He made a few penalties last season but I thought he looked fantastic for the most part. I feel a guy like Hummels wouldn't be a great fit in our system.

So Javi would be a great fit because Athletic played a similar style with Barcelona last season(although they resembled more with Real Madrid than with Barcelona), but Hummels would be a flop despite the fact that BVB is as similar with Barca as Athletic.

And another thing and with that I will finish..we complain about the lack competitivity in La Liga, but then Barca is the first team that contributes at this sad state of affairs. Because not only that our club takes 140 million euros per year from TV rights, but then we make sure that we buy the best players from the league. Only since Pep became our coach we bought Dani Alves, Keita and Adriano from Sevilla, Villa and Alba from Valencia..and now our next target seems to be Athletic.

This makes me sad.

[Flavia]

Someone explain me why do we need another CB ??
We have pique, puyol (who said he wants to play football untill 40), masch as first choice options.. Also, Abidal from January on, after recovering - and you all know he will - and of course the youngsters Fontas and Bartra for gradually playing more..
Why are we after another player there?
The only defensive gap we had was a LB. With Alba the gap is closed.

Now that Keita left, we only need a sub for Busquets.. Javi martinez is a young and great player. It will be too much for him to be a sub and play as many minutes as Keita played last season..

The team has been suffering in the cb position lately. That's why we need another cb. Puyol should be preserved to play the important games, and having just 2 players is a big risk. Also, there's no way to be sure Abidal will ever play professionally again. He had a transplant, not a minor surgery. Fontas should be sold imo, he hasn't shown quality enough for barça standards. Bartra will get his chances, but he's still too young and unexpereienced to have to cover for the cb spot on an important match.

[Isco]

I am not the one who said that they will be a disaster together, am I?



So Javi would be a great fit because Athletic played a similar style with Barcelona last season(although they resembled more with Real Madrid than with Barcelona), but Hummels would be a flop despite the fact that BVB is as similar with Barca as Athletic.

Bilbao resembled Real Madrid? They played attacking football under Bielsa, very similar to Pep's style. That's why those two were so heavily linked in the media last year.

Martinez has grown up playing alongside many of our players, there would really be no assimilation process.

Deco said "What's important is that any eventual CB we buy has some pace, good technique and speaks Spanish or a similar language in order to integrate seemlessly." That sounds like an endorsement for Javi Martinez to me.

As for buying back Romeu, Chelsea can keep him. The last few times I have seen him, he failed to impress me.

[UberNjufer]

we don't need anyone,and good luck to keita it's been a long time since he had some impact in barca

[Maria]

we don't need anyone,and good luck to keita it's been a long time since he had some impact in barca

Bilbao resembled Real Madrid?

Yeah..and RM played catenaccio.
Athletic plays more phisycall, more direct than Barca and using a man marking system, unlike Pep that used zonal marking..not to mention that they use a true no.9 and their right winger has complete liberty on the field.
http://www.whoscored.com/Blog/eq9vmf...meobkdig/Show/

I wonder what team plays the same..

That's why those two were so heavily linked in the media last year.

They were heavily linked because Pep spent a day with Bielsa before deciding to become a coach..and the press kept saying that they were friends although that was the first and the last time that they saw each other outside of a football pitch.

Martinez has grown up playing alongside many of our players, there would really be no assimilation process.

Just like Cesc. Oh wait..

I don't have anything against Javi Martinez, but paying for him anything more than 25 million euros when we sold Yaya for the same price it would be a bad deal for Barca.