Thiago Alcantara

[Barcafan 2304]

The revista team do get a lot right.

 

[mittchan82]

Hope this is Thiago and his dad putting pressure on the club to get him more minutes on the field... I mean how incompetent can Tito and the board members be? So much that they can't see that Thiago's talent don't come along everyday? Let's have faith...

 

[Barcafan 2304]

Lets hope its cleared up one way or another soon and all parties can move on

 

[matth_22]

Lets hope its cleared up one way or another soon and all parties can move on

This.

 

[Butaan4barca]

Roberto isn't anywhere near Thiago level, and he doesn't have the potential to be a star ,kid can't even play in Spain U-23 squad ,people should realize not every young La Masia kid is gonna be a star
I mean Sergi isn't even the best mid-field player in Barca B ,Rafina is,and he is the less talented of the Alcantara brother .may be Samper will be better than Thiago,but it is way too early to tell

Wait for it....its coming.....its still coming.....Legen.......

 

[Fantomet]

http://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1gsc50/an_analysis_of_thiago_alcantaras_situation_aka/

There are so many layers of complexion in this situation, so I hope I'll not ramble on for too long.

Man United have contacted the entourage of Thiago. They offer him a huge pay rise (Xavi-Iniesta salary) and to be starter from day one. [as]
If that's true, you can hardly blame the lad. The World Cup is right around the corner, and becoming a starter at United severely increase his chances of a (starting) spot and/or higher involvement in the tournament. Further, Thiago has never struck me as a player that's in it for the money, but such an extreme wage bump while playing for United would be hard for any player to turn down.
The thing is, you can hardly blame Thiago for wanting to leave Barcelona. We as fans expect our players to have 100% loyalty towards our club while we often forget that the club needs to show loyalty the other way around too. This is where Barcelona have failed under Rosell.

Let's just start with his playing time. Look at any matchthread from /r/barca and you'll see how people couldn't believe that he started on the bench again. Xavi had fitness problems for large parts of the season but he still played so much even though he wasn't anywhere near top of his game. Granted, Thiago has had the occasional lapse in concentration which has led to a few balls lost in midfield (huge no-no for Barcelona).
However, we won the season with ****ing 100 points. Pep never reached 100 points because he was much more focused on playing the youngsters. Tito was showing signs of an OK rotation of the squad before his cancer "struck" but then it went down hill. Barcelona should never care about setting records but playing younger players in other to get them match experience.

In other words, at a sporting level Barcelona did not reward Thiago talents with adequate playing time. But it is much more interesting when we look at management issue

The problem with Thiago is that the club has grossly mismanaged his contract. Under Rosell, we have had our fair share of contractual problems:

Keita leaving on a free.
Youth players leaving.
Youth players banned from playing due to errors in the contractual process.
Abidal's contract not being extended.
Tello's release clause stands at a mere 10M which is way too little for such a talented player.
Muniesa leaves on a free due to the club not wanting to extend his contract. Should have had a longer contract and atleast made 4-5M on his sale if he wasn't good enough.

The worst offense here is Thiago's escape clause of 18M. You're talking about one of the most talented creative midfielders in the world. 18M is a scoop any day in the week. Tito said he didn't know anything about it. Rosell has kept his mouth shut. Either that's extreme incompetence or it's just not true. If they knew about it, it's bad business from Rosell. Tito shouldn't play players based on contractual clauses but he should be aware of them and Rosell should never have let it been so low.
You might have noticed how we are starting to see rumors of Mata joining Barcelona as soon as the Thiago rumors started to increase. This is by no means a coincidence - Rosell has leaked the "interest" in Mata in order to deflect attention from the Thiago case. Who honestly believes Chelsea would let him go?

The whole PR spin is working though. Fans are starting to turn on Thiago - "Club is bigger than one player etc." which is all true. But the fault doesn't lie with Thiago. It lies with the club. Tito for not playing such a talented player enough and Rosell for ****ing up his contract. Rosell is just doing his best to deflect blame since we might have elections right around the corner and he isn't exactly that popular.
Meanwhile, Marca are reporting Zubizaretta has contacted Thiago in order convince him into staying. A new contract 'may' have been offered.

So it seems like they're trying to fix the situation in the last seconds. Hopefully he'll take it, as I want him to stay. We can't even find an adequate replacement for twice what were going to get for him. And people who will inevitably point at Sergi Roberto etc from La Masia is kidding themselves. Thiago is much more talented and ready now.
TL;DR; Club mismanaged both Thiago playing time and his contract. Part of a bigger problem with Rosell and management. Fans expect loyalty from Thiago but the club isn't offering any towards Thiago.

(Thanks to @Youngcules @euleri and @Barcastuff for insights/sources etc).

 

[kollegah]

Best situation : thiago stays, thiago silva joins
Acceptable situation: thiago leaves , thiago Silva joins
Worst situation: Thiago leaves, tsilva remains at psg

 

[Martindn]

Strange situation, the spanish press almost certain hes leaving, english press certain hes staying. Usually other way round.

http://sportwitness.ning.com/forum/...ago-assurances-making-manchester-united-move-

Surely it would be down to rosell to give assurances in a new contract rather than villanova?

 

[Butaan4barca]

Best situation : thiago stays, thiago silva joins
Acceptable situation: thiago leaves , thiago Silva joins
Worst situation: Thiago leaves, tsilva remains at psg

edit: acceptable, thiago stays, silva doesn't joins.

 

[Galning]

Strange situation, the spanish press almost certain hes leaving, english press certain hes staying. Usually other way round.

http://sportwitness.ning.com/forum/...ago-assurances-making-manchester-united-move-

Surely it would be down to rosell to give assurances in a new contract rather than villanova?

The Spanish press isn't all that certain besides Sport... but that's because they were the first to jump on the "Thiago has agreed personal terms, transfer can be finished today" rumour.

 

[darthvader7888]

As much as I love Silva and would love him at Barca, we need to keep Thiago. Convince Thiago to stay and sell Villa or someone. Should give us enough to get Silva. If we can get him at all, of course.

 

[JamDav1982]

As much as I love Silva and would love him at Barca, we need to keep Thiago. Convince Thiago to stay and sell Villa or someone. Should give us enough to get Silva. If we can get him at all, of course.

They will be looking to sell Villa regardless of if Thiago goes.

Would imagine the money raised to buy Silva would be from Thiago, Villa, Dos Santos, Affelay and possibly even Alves.

 

[darthvader7888]

They will be looking to sell Villa regardless of if Thiago goes.

Would imagine the money raised to buy Silva would be from Thiago, Villa, Dos Santos, Affelay and possibly even Alves.

Villa should be enough. We have about 35m. 10m+ on top of that gives us 45. I would sell JDS and Afellay though, since they're dead weight.

Don't know if someone's posted this already, but:

Thiago's preference is to stay at Barcelona though assurances are required that he will get more playing time than last season. [guardian]

He'd better get those assurances. He deserves to be treated a lot better than he was. FFS, and , don't fuck this up.

 

[Jadentheman]

this would be the biggest oops of all time

lf Manchester United can complete the signing of Barcelona’s Thiago Alcantara they will have captured one of European football’s most cavalier young talents – a free spirit whose penchant for trying the unexpected has attracted the interest of United, but also helped persuade Barça to let him go.

It now looks like their decision to set his buyout clause as low as £15m will go down as one of the gaffes of the summer – Barcelona could have raised considerably more after he starred in Spain Under-21s European Championship triumph this month. But the bargain price hints at a nagging doubt shared by certain members of the club’s technical staff, who believe he gives the ball away too much and is slow to win it back. They say he is an anarchist on the pitch.The observations should not raise too much alarm among United fans as this criticism is a result of him being judged by Barça’s standards. He has been measured against Xavi, who went through one Champions League game last season against Paris Saint-Germain without giving the ball away once. Similarly, the observation that Thiago can be slow to win it back is true only when applying Barça’s golden rule of regaining possession within seconds of having lost it. Opta stats had him excelling in the Euros at both winning and keeping the ball.Take away the Barcelona yardsticks and you are left with a wonderful player – one who former Barça coach Pep Guardiola was last night urging his Bayern Munich directors to try to sign having been made aware of Thiago’s decision to leave the Nou Camp.“I am not going to change my way of playing football,” Thiago said at the start of the 2011-12 season. “It is what has got me where I am today. I just need to polish up certain things and that will happen with time.”There have not been enough opportunities to do that at Barça. At the Under-21 Championship he stood out playing in the three behind the striker with the support of two holding midfielders behind him. At Barcelona that is a space occupied primarily by Lionel Messi, Cesc Fabregas, Andres Iniesta and now Neymar too. Thiago has to play deeper and, with fewer options to shoot or play the final killer ball, he is more likely to gamble with possession. In the more chaotic environment of the Premier League he will thrive as much as he did in Israel.As players from that successful Under-21 team returned to Spain this week the man who scored a hat-trick in the final against Italy juggled the match ball signed by his team-mates as he headed to the arrivals lounge. He is more “made in Brazil” than born to play for Barcelona, although he chose Spain over the country his father Mazhino played for 35 times.“I am who I am thanks to Spain,” Thiago said before making his pledge of allegiance. He is desperate to follow up this season’s success by starring in next summer’s World Cup, but knows he must find a better platform from which to do that than the Barcelona bench.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...et-thiago-is-more-than-anarchist-8669363.html

 

[DonAK]

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