Ronnie O'Sullivan
Full Member
Just imagine tomorrow a new report suddenly appears that City now want him and will pay him double what United or Bayern offer!
Yeah. That was kind of me telling you that stuff rather than The Guardian and that, but in principle you're not entirely wrong. You're mostly wrong; probably entirely; but at least you've got your chin up and that's what counts at the end of the day.
It was really as strange move by Pep if you think about it. IF the deal was as close as all the papers are saying, why would he need to come out and say THIAGO I LOVE YOU PLS JOIN ME XXXX
The more I think about it, the more it seems like it was a hail mary.
Sod it though, if the kid leaves Barcelona and joins Bayern its jumping out of the pan and into the fire. We are the only club out of the choices who could offer the type of game time he supposedly wants.
Odd how some of them seem indifferent to the prospect of signing Thiago. Many of them probably hope to retain their German core.
Odd how some of them seem indifferent to the prospect of signing Thiago. Many of them probably hope to retain their German core.
http://www.bayernzone.com/transfers/3407-thiago-alcantara-43.html
see their redcafe comments. They must be part time City fans, they're fecking obsessed.
Pep said at the press conference that he not only wants Thiago but he needs him because he has unique abilities no player at Bayern possesses. He said he can use him in any midfield role and he can even play as a striker, so playing time won't be an issue. We probably have to wait how true that is, I'm sure Pep thinks about more than just one season. He mentioned that Shaqiri can play several roles as well, for example, even play as a left back.
I posted a while back in one of the Guardiola/Bayern threads, that I believe Bayern's future in a few years might be a 343 with Shaqiri as a wing back and Alaba in midfield. It looks more and more likely that we see something comparable already in Pep's first year. Thiago would be perfect in such a system. I'm a bit worried, because signing Thiago might hinder the development of some of our own youth players, but in reality, the club wants to be at the top of europe, so signing a probably even bigger talent than what we have won't harm the club overall, at least not for €18m. We probably will make a profit if we sell any of our midfielders.
Bringing in two young players who are good enough to start after an incredible season isn't over the top. Two players with huge salaries already left (Gomez & Tymoshchuk) and there's more than enough time for other players to leave until the end of August (Gustavo for example), if they don't fit in with Pep's ideas. It's not a major overhaul of the squad, it's just building for the future and bringing in a few new players in to keep the mentality of the team in check, it doesn't allow anyone to relax, no one is sure of his starting spot in the team, not even Schweinsteiger, Ribery and Lahm.
http://www.bayernzone.com/transfers/3407-thiago-alcantara-40.html#post304770I did some research on Pep's habit of rotation.
In 2011/12 Barcelona was stacked in midfield, just as much as we are this season. He also had the same program with league, national cup, CL, club world cup, European supercup etc.
That was the result of it
Mascherano - 4,403 minutes (52 appearances)
Busquets - 3,865 minutes (52 appearances)
Xavi - 3,551 minutes (51 appearances)
Fabregas - 3,252 minutes (48 appearances)
Iniesta - 3,004 minutes (46 appearances)
Thiago - 2,866 minutes (45 appearances)
Keita - 2,171 minutes (42 appearances)
JdS, Sergi Roberto, and Rafinha - 716 minutes (14 appearances)
In my opinion this shows that in order to press relentlessly, and this is Pep's philosophy, you need a deep bench because you want to avoid fatigue and injuries.
Guardiola spreading out a lot of playing time between Martinez, Schweinsteiger, Gustavo (if he stays), Kroos, Thiago, Gotze, and even Can/Hojbjerg isn't an unheard of task. He's done it before and gotten results so nothing is there to say he can't do it again.
Not really.
Those posts they've quoted were cringey and deserved the ridicule.
Well no matter how you spin it, the fact remains that you'll have Götze, Ribéry, Robben, Müller, Kroos, Thiago, Martinez, Schweinsteiger, Shaqiri and Luiz Gustavo for five positions. I can see Shaqiri and Luiz Gustavo quietly accepting a fringe role but the rest of them? They're all high profile players. And it's all well and good saying that Martinez will be moved to CB... but will the side be stable and solid enough with Schweinsteiger as the only "defensive" midfielder? He's very different to a Busquets or even a Carrick.
Guardiola surely knows what he's doing but signing Thiago makes very little sense. Unless he just doesn't rate most of the players already at the club.
I never call for threads to be locked, but that was a good shout from the modmins imo as emotions were far too high in here for sensible posting.
Well on the English speaking Bayern forum they don't seem overly enamoured with the idea to say the least.
Posts such as:
And on Barcaforum a lot of the posters think that he won't get more game time there as he's leaving a team with world class players ahead of him in midfield for another one:
so Bayern fans don't want him, Barça fans think United will be better for him and don't want him strengthening the team that beat them 7-0 over two legs, and we are crying out for him. Sucks if he doesn't end up here (still clinging).
Read Skywarden's post.Well, it depends on yer perspective. There seems to be a lot of people these days who reckon the lad will the best midfielder in the world in a couple of years. Signing him up for a relatively modest fee does make sense, even if Bayern are already more than well stocked.
But. I will say this: Pep was never known to rotate much during his incredible spell at Barca. In fact, his model depended on a core group of players NOT being rotated at all, almost. He does have an abundance of very good players at Bayern, it seems. And how that will turn out in terms of dressing room atmosphere once the season gets underway is - well, let's just say it could be a challenge for him.
Yeah, that post conveniently ignores one little thing: that Mascherano played exclusively as a CB.
They were very clearly not serious though.
Taken from Bayernzone, this post is quite relevant to those (including myself) who cannot wrap their heads around how Pep will provide them all with enough minutes:
http://www.bayernzone.com/transfers/3407-thiago-alcantara-40.html#post304770
Which isn't going to translate well outside of redcafe.
If we saw that on RAWK it would get the same reaction on here as it did there.
Whatever the situation with Rosell, courting Thiago away is still hurting barcelona. Still fine with it? Or are you taking solace in the fact that Thiago was anyway going to go.If a player, even under contract, declares their intention to depart, there is no holding ransom - they look to move the player. I imagine the only holdup is the terms which the board will look to salvage what little dignity remains and get as much out of the transfer as possible. But it's too late, this transfer is as good as done.
Strange turn of events, without question. Pep's public reaction or declaration for Thiago, doesn't really surprise me - I was waiting for him to eventually respond to Rosell et al. The same with Thiago & Mazinho's actions thus far. I say only the timing of things catches me a bit by surprise. So either Pep had this planned all along which would be uncharacteristic of him or it came about late in the sequence of events when United may or may not have been in pole position. Still think Mazinho had been looking to get a bumper contract improvement for his son from Barcelona but when Pep came calling everything changed. Could be as simple as that. On the one hand, there's been a battle waging in the media between Rosell/board & Pep over the last 6 months to a year. Clearly the Tito issue angered Guardiola but the Neymar rumours probably pushed him over the edge. And with Thiago in the middle of a club tug of war, might be as simple as Pep punching the board/Rosell in the eye - especially if Pep felt they had put the player in a tenuous position regarding his future via hardball negotiations Rosell & Zubi were apparently employing.
Pep had to have had a pretty clear understanding of Thiago's situation from even before the U21 Euros and before the Neymar deal was done. Did the lies over his involvement with Neymar push him to get involved late in a deal that could've been construed as tampering with his boyhood club from fans? Would make less sense if he had been involved from the beginning in the pursuit of Thiago which, for me, makes Rosell et al look even worse. They've had a bad couple of weeks, no wonder Sandy made a dash for the ladies loo
Pere Guardiola played us, might have been passing all info to pep, including our playing assurances all along, including our terms, let us haggle the VAT whilst telling Pep to pay the VAT and swoop in late and blind side us. If Thiago can't see us as amongst the 3 biggest club in the world, he can go to bayern and compete with 5 midfielders, I wonder how training's going to be. With us he would be the main midfielder, given authority and respected, in Bayern he would just be another big fish amongst other big fishes.
Pep better know what he's doing, by dismantling a winning treble formation, his Barca system got found out by a determined 4-1-4-1,
he's stated his intention according to Mundo Desportivo, to join Bayern, its more than likely over, where is Dave when we needed him.
I hadn't seen the minutes for that year.
If I were a barca fan I'd find it hard to stomach Thiago leaving using lack of minutes as the excuse. I assume he was fit that year whereas last year he had injuries. Of course he'll get less minutes.
I wonder if united decided not to go in for him because of this?
I hadn't seen the minutes for that year.
If I were a barca fan I'd find it hard to stomach Thiago leaving using lack of minutes as the excuse. I assume he was fit that year whereas last year he had injuries. Of course he'll get less minutes.
I wonder if united decided not to go in for him because of this?
No-one knows we're 'dilly dallying' on VAT. The people reporting that are the same full-of-shit news sources who said he'd agreed terms with us 7 days ago.And to think Scholesy retirement announcement was to appease him into signing, , we should tell players to tell us straight up if they want to sign, agree terms and then deal with club, the way i see it, we should do what Barca and Madrid do, whether other clubs like it or not, we're too 'by the book', that way at least we know where we stand. instead of dilly dallying on VAT, the stingy glazer tact.
Yeah he played around ten games last year due to injury (correct me if I'm wrong).
We are getting more and more information the longer this saga continues. One thing I haven't seen be touched upon is the report about Bayern not allowing buy-back clauses. I posted this but none picked it up for discussion:
https://www.redcafe.net/threads/thi...but-no-new-news.355208/page-368#post-13790709
This could be what is keeping the transfer to either of the interested clubs on hold.
Sorry but in regards to Madrid, they have spent so much in the last decade and been less successful than us.And to think Scholesy retirement announcement was to appease him into signing, , we should tell players to tell us straight up if they want to sign, agree terms and then deal with club, the way i see it, we should do what Barca and Madrid do, whether other clubs like it or not, we're too 'by the book', that way at least we know where we stand. instead of dilly dallying on VAT, the stingy glazer tact.