David Alaba

[behindbrowneyes]

His salary demands are crazy. He is good, but not that good. There is a reason Bayern stepped back from their offer and let him leave for free. He is and always was an important player in the squad, a regular starter whenever fit. Tells you a lot if Bayern lets such a player leave for free and signs Upamecano instead. They are just not as stupid as Barca, buying the "Busi to City, Umtiti to United" rumours and extending their contracts for whatever they wanted.

 

[KingLeo10]

LOL
People are questioning Alaba's quality and preferring Lenglet instead.
3 years of Valverdeism does indeed damage perception and destroys football values...

Alaba is WC and plays the CB position as a modern CB should play it, with his pace making sure you can play a high line without worrying every time a ball is being played behind the back.
Remember Umtiti's losing a run against Negredo? You will never see that with Alaba.
He is ideal either as a LB or as the LCB in a 3 at the back.
Laughable to compare him to Lenglet.

The only problem is his wages and whether he will stay injury-free

Except no one is making direct comparisons to Lenglet.

LOL.

 

[Rory]

How much of a transfer fee would be considered good for a player of his quality? Signing for under 40m would be considered a good deal by 99.999999999....% of people (perhaps the handful of people in the world who consider that too much will be on this forum) .

So assuming crazy high 23m demands on a 3 year contract it?s the same as signing him for 40m and paying 10m a year for a player who has consistently shown a good level of quality over his career. He is also someone that is adapted to the modern game.

 

[messi2140]

That means we will have to sell all three to get even, based on your numbers. We are not going to able to sell those three I am afraid.

I'd pass on Alaba and anybody like him who demands higher salary than what his ability justifies. Will be a hard renewal down the line too.

Or you can offload Griezmann for free and you can afford 2 Alaba's.

On a serious note , I remember [MENTION=15376]DonAK[/MENTION] mentioning that Alaba was willing to go for a lower wage if it came to joining Real or Barca. Not sure how true that is though.

 

[Vilarrubi]

Or you can offload Griezmann for free and you can afford 2 Alaba's.

On a serious note , I remember [MENTION=15376]DonAK[/MENTION] mentioning that Alaba was willing to go for a lower wage if it came to joining Real or Barca. Not sure how true that is though.

Selling Griezmann and Coutinho should be priority. Take a massive chunk off the clubs wage bill and hopefully get a reasonable amount for both.

 

[Rory]

Just for clarity I'm not saying sign at all costs. I wouldn't pay him 23m a year either. I'm showing that even if that was the case financially speaking it's not a bad deal.

My requirements to sign him would be:

- Sales of Umtiti/Firpo/Lenglet fund at least 50% of what he would cost us over his contract, factoring in not having to pay their wages too.
- Maximum 15m a year contract.
- If he is known for having a bad attitude or anything like that I wouldn't touch him.

 

[FC433]

I highly doubt it. Alaba reportedly is asking for 23m a year, that is a lot of money, probably how much all three players make combined, at least two of the three.

As someone who watches Bayern frequently, he is OK as a CB but not great (good feet but positioning is questionable), but as a LB, he is far from his hey days in terms of being effective.

+1
I think Umtiti earns about 12m (before tax, 6m after-tax), while Alaba wants something around 20m (10m after-tax). He is just not worth it. I would be okay if our team was ready and we only missed one key player, but this is not the case. Let us take our time and build the team properly.

 

[Luftstalag14]

Or you can offload Griezmann for free and you can afford 2 Alaba's.

On a serious note , I remember [MENTION=15376]DonAK[/MENTION] mentioning that Alaba was willing to go for a lower wage if it came to joining Real or Barca. Not sure how true that is though.

How much money is Griezmann on, salary-wise? I am against letting him go for free or selling him for peanuts, especially if Messi leaves this summer and that means our front line next season will be consisting of Fati (if he fully recovers), Braithwaite and Dembele?

I highly doubt the lower salary demand in Spain is true, why would he accept that?

 

[messi2140]

How much money is Griezmann on, salary-wise? I am against letting him go for free or selling him for peanuts, especially if Messi leaves this summer and that means our front line will only be Fati (if he fully recovers), Braithwaite and Dembele?

I highly doubt the lower salary demand in Spain is true, why would he accept that?

Reportedly on 46M gross. Obviously Im also against that , but was just making a point on the ridiculous wages Griez is on. Just getting rid of him and having Messi take his wages (40~ reduction excluding those bonuses) would solve a major part of the high wages Barca has.

And when it comes to him willing to play for a lower salary , maybe he prefers a new challenge/enviroment and is willing to lower his demands for that (speculating here)

 

[Luftstalag14]

Reportedly on 46M gross. Obviously Im also against that , but was just making a point on the ridiculous wages Griez is on. Just getting rid of him and having Messi take his wages (40~ reduction excluding those bonuses) would solve a major part of the high wages Barca has.

And when it comes to him willing to play for a lower salary , is maybe he prefers a new challenge/enviroment and is willing to lower his demands for that (speculating here)

I hear you, I know we are all armchair strategizing here, but good luck with swapping Griezmann's and Messi's salaries. There is no way Messi would accept a 60% reduction.

 

[Bobo32]

I get what you mean here but successful squads need decent fits, players who can adapt and offer flexibility. Imagine if Yaya Toure was poor at CB? If Puyol was poor at RB. Do we win the UCL 08/09? Imagine if Mascherano wasn't a good CB, do we win 10/11, 14/15? A league is won on the depth of your squad 9 times out of 10. Look at Man city this year compared to Liverpool. Real Madrid have managed to win league's due to being able to field a second xi better than most ucl teams.

I think you maybe didn't understand my point there, but I think I do understand yours and I agree with it! You should not only have "world class players" but a nice mixture of players fitting together, and ideally able to play multiple positions. The players you list were great players and great fits. Pjanic is a "world class player" but useless to Barcelona. Pedro was "good enough", there was no need for Robben or whatever to have the greatest team of all time...

Alaba could be a great fit, I have small qualms about him being on his way down and so on, but my main concern is if they feel the need to bring him along with Aguero, Depay, Wijnaldum at the same time. If Alaba can do a very good job on multiple positions, then bring him, if not, there is a Eric Garcia, Sergi Roberto or Grimaldo who can do a good enough job, require less salary, can later be sold, and who understand the language and the playing style immediately.

 

[DonAK]

Or you can offload Griezmann for free and you can afford 2 Alaba's.

On a serious note , I remember @DonAK mentioning that Alaba was willing to go for a lower wage if it came to joining Real or Barca. Not sure how true that is though.

Christian Falk reported it last year.

He's also been running off his mouth about wanting to play in Spain for years.

Personally I would offer Alaba the same deal Bayern did or match Real Madrid's offer at best and see how much he really want to play in Spain. Given how reasonable Real Madrid's wage structure is in general I doubt they offered him the massive deal he's looking after.

I would honestly try to see if Juventus who are having financial troubles of their own would bite on cash + Coutinho for De Ligt if Alaba decides to chase the money. Raiola is close to Laporta and might convince De Ligt to join us this time. Juve also really need a creative midfielder and I see Coutinho more likely to accept Turin than Arsenal for example.

This all obviously depends on our financial situation and what we're able to do when it comes to refinancing our debt and what the internal audit shows.

For now it's all smoke. Just a bunch of rumors the press are throwing because the fans are excited about Laporta and will click on whatever they report.

We need to remember that the likes of Mundo Deportivo and Sport have spent years attacking Laporta so it's highly unlikely they have any inside information from his camp.

 

[xxxxxx]

It's never going to happen. He'll want about 300k a week. He'd also want a big signing-on fee.

I heard he's close to joining Real Madrid in any case.

 

[DonAK]

It's never going to happen. He'll want about 300k a week. He'd also want a big signing-on fee.

I heard he's close to joining Real Madrid in any case.

With all due respect, you are the most miserable person on this forum.

I'm not too keen about signing Alaba anymore, but every post of yours is the same. A doomsday scenario. Doesn't matter what the topic or thread is. You might want to consider taking some time off and do something you like. That much negativity is soul crushing for yourself.

It's not good for you.

 

[xxxxxx]

With all due respect, you are the most miserable person on this forum.

I'm not too keen about signing Alaba anymore, but every post of yours is the same. A doomsday scenario. Doesn't matter what the topic or thread is. You might want to consider taking some time off and do something you like. That much negativity is soul crushing for yourself.

It's not good for you.

I'm stating facts but you're getting offended by it?

You're right. Let me pretend that we actually have a chance of signing the likes of Mbappe, Alaba and Haaland with our current debt. Our finances are suddenly amazing now that Laporta has taken over.

I'm sorry you're getting offended by the realistic posts I've made in recent weeks.