Summer Mercato 2011

[fLame]

WTF

Cant you understand why so many people like Barca's football? Have you been living in a cave? Their football is absolutely BRILLIANT, even better. Its genius, totally out of this world.
I think every football lover likes barcelona, not only for their football but also becouse they play with 8/9 homegrown players in their starting lineup, giving many chances to young players.
Only real Madrid fans hate, but I guess they are only jealous, barca beats their asses time and time again

Go watch some barca games my friend, thats football!! They take it to another dimension, yesterday they played with only 1 real defender and a defensive mid

Their football is certainly entertaining to watch, at least it sure has been fun for the first two years. Right now, it's not that interesting for me. They suffocate the opposing team leaving them absolutely without possession, and eliminating intrigue out of the games. It's genious, I will admit, but not that entertaining for me. I like game where there are two great teams that have something to show. With Barca - it's always a one sided game.

Besides, there are other "ugly" downside of their team - Xavi and Puyol's who are full of themselves and like to brag how "noone can play football against them", or just remember a couple of their speeches regarding Fabregas at Arsenal.

Another downside - disgraceful divers, they managed to dethrone even CR - Busquets, Pedro, Mascherano, Alves. Also these four always try to assault the ref on the field and gain advantage by exaggerating simple injuries.

Disadvantage 3# - their behavior on the transfer market. They are one of the most in debt clubs in the world, yet every summer they splash ridiculous amounts of money on players and wages, which they can't cover.
You talked about home grown players, but I am sorry - most are not an integral part of Barca's squad (Pedro, Busquets are easily replacable).
But the ones they didn't grow - Alves, Fabregas, Sanchez, Villa, etc - were all bought for RIDICULOUS amounts of money.
Let's also not forget epic fails like Ibra, Chygirinskiy, etc.

Final reason 4 - a horde of self proclaimed fanboys who appeared out of nowhere in the last three years. Before that - you wouldn't hear much from Barca fans. Now they are everywhere bragging and bragging and bragging.
Many of them don't even watch football that much. But if it's Barca - they just can't shut up.

So yeah, if you try to be obejctive - there are many many reasons to not like Barca.

[Aficio]

@theaxeofpain: I just want to give an example, maybe Milan pay a little more, maybe it is for another player or maybe nothing at all

@ZvonimirBoban and Zeekay: I like to read your recent posts. Barca is just a team. The stronger they are, the greater the desire to beat them is.

[reza]

I don't think it matters how far we are from Barca or whoever else for that matter. The question is are we doing enough to be the best or stay close to the best now and in the future.

[ZvonimirBoban]

Milan is still a top 10 teams in Europe. If Barca can play with ONE defender and dominated a game, why can't Milan play with ONE true midfielder to win games. Imagine a line up of Abate, Nesta, Mexes, Taiwo with DM of Silva and MVB, and have Robinho and Cassano on both wings with Ibra and Pato in the middle. If at happens, Milan still have Pippo on the bench.

I don't know the intention, but your tactics sound possible to me, maybe Allegri could read it and try to implement them in group stages

[Jay Crisp]

United Chelsea City Bayern Madrid Barca are all stronger and better placed than us.
Inter Villarreal Lyon Arsenal Valencia Milan Porto(not in any order) are second tier teams who with luck and great form could spring a surprise.
Top 10 teams yip top level not anymore.
I'll still have faith going into any match that we'll win it , but realisticly it's going to be difficult in the CL.

We list Pirlo Flams is out and we got Aquilani injury prone and yet to realize his potential..we have not strengthened midfield

[ElMago99]

Barcelona represents the people & the culture of their part of Spain. They representative creativity in Humans, and revolution against the establishment. They do things their own way, a very different way to most. I am a Milanista, but have great respect for Barcelona's club.

Real Madrid represent the Fascist establishment. They generally represent structure & order and €money€ and power. I find that most people outside of Spain tend to gravitate towards Barcelona, not Real Madrid, although I guess both are popular. In the La Liga thread, someone posted Barca's lineup yesterday against Villareal, a top Spain Team. They played with 7 or 8 midfielders, and only one true defender (abidal) who actually attacked up the left flank, lol. What an unbelieveable display, and we're witnessing the evolution of Football before our very eyes....a manifestation of all of Humanity, In my humble opinion....

Very True, well said, & I like the spiritual aspect

Their football is certainly entertaining to watch, at least it sure has been fun for the first two years. Right now, it's not that interesting for me. They suffocate the opposing team leaving them absolutely without possession, and eliminating intrigue out of the games. It's genious, I will admit, but not that entertaining for me. I like game where there are two great teams that have something to show. With Barca - it's always a one sided game.

Besides, there are other "ugly" downside of their team - Xavi and Puyol's who are full of themselves and like to brag how "noone can play football against them", or just remember a couple of their speeches regarding Fabregas at Arsenal.

Another downside - disgraceful divers, they managed to dethrone even CR - Busquets, Pedro, Mascherano, Alves. Also these four always try to assault the ref on the field and gain advantage by exaggerating simple injuries.

Disadvantage 3# - their behavior on the transfer market. They are one of the most in debt clubs in the world, yet every summer they splash ridiculous amounts of money on players and wages, which they can't cover.
You talked about home grown players, but I am sorry - most are not an integral part of Barca's squad (Pedro, Busquets are easily replacable).
But the ones they didn't grow - Alves, Fabregas, Sanchez, Villa, etc - were all bought for RIDICULOUS amounts of money.
Let's also not forget epic fails like Ibra, Chygirinskiy, etc.

Final reason 4 - a horde of self proclaimed fanboys who appeared out of nowhere in the last three years. Before that - you wouldn't hear much from Barca fans. Now they are everywhere bragging and bragging and bragging.
Many of them don't even watch football that much. But if it's Barca - they just can't shut up.

So yeah, if you try to be obejctive - there are many many reasons to not like Barca.

Also very true. You make good points. Particularly how they are in massive debt. As many on here may know how I feel, I feel that debt, printing money, taking on massive debt, etc will soon bring down the entire system, and anything or anyone that has contributed to that is doing humanity a bad deed.

I don't think it matters how far we are from Barca or whoever else for that matter. The question is are we doing enough to be the best or stay close to the best now and in the future.

The simple answer is we have not done what it takes to be the best. We've given away our youngsters (Astori, Strasser, Merkel, Paloschi), and we have not bought necessary players to improve the squad (Hamsik, Ganso), nor have we replaced our aging Senatori. Getting Aquilani on loan & buying El Sharaaway from Serie B is not renewing our midfield. We are better than when Leonardo was in charge 2 years ago, but the BIG teams have improved at a far more rapid rate. THAT is the bottom line of this whole thread.

[WCmilan]

I'm really excited to see our game vs barca, their is only 3 out comes, we get pounded like 4,5-0 like they did to real one time, or we come out with a small loss or a tie, or we win by a slim victory 1-0,2-1 etc.. hopefully the last outcome will be it

I'm thinking the best thing to do is put thiago silva at cdm similar to what real did with pepe then put mexes and nesta as cbs..


------ibra-----pato-------
----------robinho---------
----ambro boateng-
------------silva------------
-zambro-nesta-mexes-abate-
-------------abbiati------------

what do you guys think? I would've liked to have taiwo fit for this game but will he be? Zambro sure would be better defensively because of his vast experience but we need to take into consideration pace.. barca down the wings have unlimited running and fast ones at that, wether it be pedro or sanchez or messi or villa running at our fullbacks we need speed, im not worried at that matter on the right because abate will do well i guarentee it..

with barca there really is no way of blocking them out by just having a defensively compact game, because even if we outplay them completely every player in their starting line up is capable of pulling off some crazy shit and scoring

[Jay Crisp]

Are we actually playing Barca cos I thought we were just competing in Serie A..I dont care about line ups or tactics..Im a bit miffed now i'll be normal in a day or two.

[el fre]

24 hours to go. Will we buy somebody? Anybody?

[theaxeofpain]

Galliani is meeting with Marotta now (as reported from Milannews), discussing a possible players swapping. I wonder who they'll be...