Thiago Alcantara | Signed for Bayern Munich

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So one source that we haven't even heard from before and the sky is falling?

I'll wait until Balague comes out and says it isn't true before I believe it!
 
One that would be a waste of Martinez's talent. Second you still have Kroos waiting in the ranks even if you move Schweinsteger to the defensive mid position.

It would not only waste Martinez´s talent, but also weaken Schweinsteiger´s influence on the game. Why in the world would you take away a huge amount of the strength of the freaking brain of the team, just to get a strong talent to join you? I call bullshit.
 
If he does go to Bayern shouldn't we at least be able to buy one of their midfielders?
 
You are, I'm afraid. He can play AM, but he's better as a box-to-box CM. He likes to pick the ball up deep, and he's extremely strong defensively and tactically. In fact, the thing that makes him stand out is his all-round excellence. CM is where he has played almost all his football for Barca and for Spain's U21s.

He honestly wouldn't be in competition with Rooney or Kagawa at all if everyone was played in their best positions. He'd take game-time from Cleverley and Anderson, but hopefully more than anything else he'd erase all the minutes we've had to give to the likes of Giggs and Jones in CM. With Thiago as first choice and Cleverley and Anderson as back-up, we wouldn't have to fall back on playing people out of position in CM any more. Oh, and he'd get Scholes' game-time too.

I don't mind being shown the error of my ways, and I'm very pleased to read Alcantara is a box to box guy and not merely (which I should put in quotation marks) an attacking mid.

According to outsideoftheboot, this is what Alcantara brings to the party:

His role in the team is as one of the two midfielders ahead of the defensive midfielder. He sometimes plays as the deeper of the two (when Xavi is out), but is perhaps better suited to the more attacking minded role (usually occupied by Iniesta), and has often demonstrated a willingness to make runs into the penalty area as well as good timing in terms of when to pick his moments to go forward.

Still, his main strengths are his superb ball control, technique and composure. He can bring the ball down in just about any situation, never gets stressed, and usually plays the right pass. Like most La Masia graduates he has no problem receiving the ball under pressure, as his combination of ability, composure and awareness of his surroundings means he rarely loses the ball. He also has the ability to do the unexpected, which makes him able to destabilise the opposition and instigate attacking moves from seemingly innocuous situations. This is something which separates him from the rest of Barca’s midfielders; his style is more adventurous than the more calculated minds of Xavi, Iniesta and Fabregas.

As with many other technical players, his weakness lies in the physical side of the game. He is not particularly big, strong or quick, and although he makes up for it through sheer footballing ability the question mark revolves around how he would cope playing a different type of football, in a different midfield setup. Even though he has decent body strength and good balance, and also has the Barca work ethic ingrained, I doubt we will see clubs deploying a two man midfield playing a more direct style of football being after his signature any time soon. If so, it would probably be in a no.10 role, operating at the apex of the midfield. To be fair though, this has more to do with the type of player he is than it being a weakness.

http://outsideoftheboot.com/2013/01/07/ootb-scout-thiago-alcantara/

I'm not here to defend or deny this description, but only to suggest this is apparently a conventional view of the book on Thiago Alcantara. But you're quite right in suggesting he would rob Cleverley and Ando of valuable minutes. I've only seen him on a few occasions, plus the requisite youtube footage. His ability is ridiculous and I really could see him be an instant sensation in England. So ridiculous that I could see him pushed forward and rob Rooney and/or Kagawa of valuable minutes in the event Fletcher or even Ando make it back into proper form. Ando does his best work IMHO with the transition pass out of the back third in starting a counterattack. (Apart from that, Ando is useless.) Carrick is fantastic at that dark art as well. What we've lacked in recent years is what Scholes used to give us -- the ability to pick out that perfect pass, long or short, with a credible threat of going on goal directly, in the last third. That, it seems to me, is what Alcantara can do much better than Cleverley. Cleverley did a fairly decent job in the middle third, but really didn't have any good ideas in the last third and thus his influence was significantly cut down.
 
Let us get some fecking sense in here because I'm afraid people will soon start to chew on their on cocks.

 
Graham Hunter tweeted that it needs confirming but COPE has a good record. Time to panic?
 
I've looked through that Marcelo Lopez's twitter history. Complete bollocks. Sorry chaps.
 
Let us get some fecking sense in here because I'm afraid people will soon start to chew on their on cocks.



Wow, Honigstein saying something that makes sense. Now, I have truly seen anything...
 
Cope does have a good record, they break quite a few stories.

Whether this story's a certainty or a maybe is less obvious. The reporter makes it sound like a certainty, the show like it's a possibly.
 
Wow, Honigstein saying something that makes sense. Now, I have truly seen anything...


Managers lie about their transfer dealings all the time. Fergie said we weren't interested in anyone pretty much every season.
 
Does he back it up with their hits/misses?

Nope. Really the only way I can see him going to Bayern is if he doesn't care that much as it was supposed for playing time, but wants to get out of Barca.
 
If anyone actually reads the link it's ridiculously wishy washy and non committal. According to some journalist, it may have happened. Why it's being taken as it absolutely has happened I don't know.
 
Managers lie about their transfer dealings all the time. Fergie said we weren't interested in anyone pretty much every season.


Depends on how you interpreted his presser. Was he talking about "little changes" in players in and out or in a broader sense? I'd argue he spoke in a broader sense because it makes little sense talking about transfers at your first presser.
 
If anyone actually reads the link it's ridiculously wishy washy and non committal. According to some journalist, it may have happened. Why it's being taken as it absolutely has happened I don't know.
No we are worried now that a credible Spanish radio has suggest Bayern have snapped him up.

This is perhaps the most worrying moment in the entire saga
 
I just don't see the logic, for Bayern or for Thiago, in Thiago going to Bayern. It's gotta be Barca or United, full stop.
 
Just read the article people are talking about, while google translator might be wrong, the article seems to be made up of "possible" and "could" Hardly a concrete confirmation that he's already signed for Bayern.
 
The article never said he will join them. It said he could. He could join Aston Villa, but that doesn't mean he will.
 
A bayern move doesn't make any sense, his main motivation for leaving barca was to play, he stands a better chance starting at barca than bayern at the moment.
 
The article never said he will join them. It said he could. He could join Aston Villa, but that doesn't mean he will.


It does, but the reporter bringing in the story isn't saying could or possibly, he's saying it like he's sure.

That doesn't mean he's right or that it's official, but he's not saying maybe, it's the station that's adding the words could and maybe.

The Spanish press are picking up on the story now (describing him as having one foot and a half in Munich), but they're all quoting the Cope story as the source. AS, for example, describing it as an unexpected turn.
 
We would be well advised to not read too much into tweets, cryptically written "news articles", Tarot cards, flight schedules, tea leaves, cloud formations, Loch Ness monster sightings, voodoo dolls or anything of that nature. When the deal is done, we will be informed of it by traditional means. We may then all erupt in orgasmic euphoria.
 
The next guy who asks for this thread to be locked gets a thread ban.

Folk shouldnt come on here slaggin about the delay in signing Thiago & acting like spoiled brats because he hasnt yet - and then with this "lock thread" shite.

Just hope he does sign of course, but support all the muppets when negativity creeps in from contrasting reports.. Its silly season - so muppets get silly... when in Rome etc..!
 
People clutching at straws here. A move to bayern makes perfect semse for the kid....he could constantly interchange positions with gotze and robben/ribery like peps teams like to do...there is no fixed position for a forward in peps philosophy and he'd play for his old boss pep in a team that is far greater than ours...lets hope he signs for us but signing for bayern seems to be a no brainer for the kid
 
People clutching at straws here. A move to bayern makes perfect semse for the kid....he could constantly interchange positions with gotze and robben/ribery like peps teams like to do...there is no fixed position for a forward in peps philosophy and he'd play for his old boss pep in a team that is far greater than ours...lets hope he signs for us but signing for bayern seems to be a no brainer for the kid
And where exactly are Kroos and Muller going to play?
 
People clutching at straws here. A move to bayern makes perfect semse for the kid....he could constantly interchange positions with gotze and robben/ribery like peps teams like to do...there is no fixed position for a forward in peps philosophy and he'd play for his old boss pep in a team that is far greater than ours...lets hope he signs for us but signing for bayern seems to be a no brainer for the kid

Well he could constantly interchange positions with Iniesta, Xavi and Messi at his current club but it's quite difficult when you can't get on the pitch. Same applies at Bayern.
 
The cynic in me thinks that using us to get Barca to agree to more playing time hasn't worked and now the Tiago camp are leaking Bayern stories and using the Guardiola connection to see of that forces their hand.

I bet he'll stay at Barca.
 
Wouldn't be surprised if he ends up at Bayern. The Pep factor would be hard to resist and his agent is Guardiola's brother. If Bayern wants him, I think they'll get him.

Only question is do they want him.
 
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