Matheus Fernandes
- Thread starter xXKonan
- Start date
Messi983
Senior Member
I like him.
We don't know if he'll be good enough for Barça but I think he's much closer to Emerson (in terms of him being relatively cheap young player who quite a lot of people in Brazil rate and who we hope could maybe develop into at least a good squad player in a few years or sell for profit if not) than Douglas (who was 4-5 years older when we've signed him, not rated by anyone in Brazil so it was more obviously a money laundering than anything else) so even if he won't make it here he should still have a solid career in Europe. But surely, until he'll prove his quality (or won't) people will have his doubts about him. I still think for the rumoured price it's well worth a risk. Imagine if RM would sign him and he would turn out well for them then people would be all over our stupid board to not get him. Every transfer is a gamble. You win some, you lose some but if you're signing a relatively unproven player (on a top level) it's a much lower risk if you get him for 10m than if you need to pay 30m or 50m like RM did with their recent signings out of Brazil.
Don't get why it says he's a CF/RW/RM/AM at the start of the video though. I have no idea where (position-wise) he would fit in our system if he'll ever play here but I certainly don't see him playing at any of those positions.
Catalan media says we see him as a possible Busi replacement (which means the club sees FDJ's future as a CM) but I think he could also be used in a box-to-box midfielder role as a longterm replacement for Vidal. Don't know if he would bring the same level of energy (but then again, there aren't many young players like Arturo available) and be dangerous closer to the goal. 2 goals and 2 assists in 74 games is not exactly great but he's still young enough to possibly improve in that aspect if he'll be used higher up on the pitch. But in ideal world we would send Busi into retirement in 2021 (he won't leave for another club) and have FDJ and Matheus as DMs while bringing another more creative CM (who can also score) to pair with Arthur/Riqui. First thing first though hopefully he'll adapt quick to La Liga and get some valid experience in Valladolid in next 4 months and then maybe get a pre-season with the first team and let Setien (or whoever will be our coach) decide what to do with him next year. It's quite likely he'll need another loan if not for another reason because he would take a non-EU spot though with Vidal possibly leaving we'll have two spots open. One will probably be used on Neymar (hopefully not) or Lautaro. Emerson's early return (though I'd like to see him) seems unlikely for now so if he'll convince we might also have a spot for Matheus. But there is still a long way and a lot of hard work for him to be done before reaching that point.
khaled_a_d
Senior Member
Is he box to box or DM?
serghei
Senior Member
Seems like we're stealing the Madrid approach. Sign them young, before the price explodes, and loan him. Build a network of these players so that if 2-3 pop, we are tied to them.
Everybody looks good in the highlights. Let's see these guys play in La Liga.
Everybody looks good in the highlights. Let's see these guys play in La Liga.
FinBarcelonafan
Well-known member
I like this approach. Let's hope it pays off.
Luftstalag14
Culé de Celestial Empire
The difference is, Real Madrid has been going after some known top talent (sure they could have been hyped up too much and there is no guarantee any of them will succeed) and we are going after some relatively unknowns. Of course, just because they are unknown it doesn't necessarily mean they are not good but based on our past history I'd be hard-pressed to think that we are actually ahead of the rest in terms of identifying those gems.
Coupled with what have done with so many players in the past, this actually makes me think we are buying these players not because we truly believe that they have a future with us, rather we want to resell them later for profit.
serghei
Senior Member
Yea, well, as we found out, an 120m. talent is often not more likely to succeed than a 20m. talent.
And what's wrong with reselling them for profit if they don't prove to be Barca level? This allows us to further fund these signings without running at a big loss.
I'd rather go with these types of signing and invest the big money on established world class players.
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serghei
Senior Member
It is basically the Madrid way. Spend big on established stars, and sign in raw talent before they become flavor of the month and get massively overpriced. Then use clubs who need these players in a quid pro quo deal. They develop the players, use them for a number of seasons, and in return they get some money on the side for basically giving those players the game time they couldn't get at Barcelona.
Luftstalag14
Culé de Celestial Empire
A 120m talent might not be more likely to succeed than a 20m talent but if he succeeds the return will likely be much higher than that from a 20m talent.
There is nothing morally wrong of course with buying players with the intention to sell but I think our No.1 priority and focus signing players should always be getting that player for us, to suit our own needs etc. Judged from so many players we have bought and let go, that might not be the case. We are not Monaco, Porto or Dortmund (even Dortmund doesn't buy players just for resale).
I don't think Real Madrid buys players with the intention to sell them later.
serghei
Senior Member
And that is the priority. We don't buy these players just to move them on, but it's good to at least have that as a contingency plan in case things go sour and the player doesn't rise to the challenge. And it's easier to pass on a 30m player and cut losses to a minimum, or even make a 10-15m profit, than to recoup the huge sums paid for super-pricey talents.
Basically, the only way you should pay 100-150m. for a talent is if that talent is at least a De Jong level player. Which is a player who is already established and putting up top class performances at the highest level.
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