What were you thinking?

Before I get down to brass tacks tomorrow with the first installment of my full on La Liga preview (I had to wait for the end of the transfer window…or at least that’s my excuse), there is news afoot in Catalunya that’s worth discussing. First and foremost, Carles Puyol, our beloved captain, injured his left calf in Spanish national team training on Tuesday. I’m not sure if the injury actually occurred during warm-ups for the Racing match, but regardless, it seems rather irresponsible that he then went to full training with the national team. It’s both Puyol and the medical staff’s fault for not keeping him out when he was obviously not 100%. There’s no official word on a timetable for his return, but 3 weeks is the going rate for such an injury, unless it’s less severe than previously thought.

The news on the Mascherano deal is that it’s €20m plus €4m paid by the player himself. I don’t know if that’s him giving up a cut of something or if he’s got to dig into his own pocket. Either way, the deal looks better at €20m than €22m, though the total valuation of Mascherano at €24m reminds me of another player that recently cost that much (actually 2, but more recently just the 1).

Speaking of that player, Andoni Zubizaretta came and said the Ibra deal was done for sporting reasons rather than anything else. It doesn’t much matter, really. Clearly Guardiola wanted him out and, as I wrote over on Soccernet yesterday:

What was last year a dream buy is this year a horrible investment and the blame lies with all sides. Guardiola is a coach first and a friend second. He has a style and an approach that allow for no individuality and no questioning. If you are interested in playing for Barça, you must accept his totalitarian rule. If this acceptable, the club will occasionally find themselves on the receiving end of bad business. Other times, players like Pedro will surprise everyone, including themselves, and turn into World Cup winners in the span of a few years. So it is partially Guardiola’s fault for not being willing to iron it out with the player, but it is also the player’s fault for not ironing it out with the manager. And if we as cules make our bed in Guardiola’s camp, we have to lie in it, come what may.

Obviously Luke got to most of those points first, but I think it’s important to note that around these parts we say things like In Pep We Trust (I have IPWT tattooed across my back*) and if we really mean them, we should really do that intead of questioning his moves. I personally can’t write that I don’t agree with selling The Yaya and bringing in Mascherano if I’m then going to use IPWT as my reasoning when he brings in Maxwell or Adriano instead of a known quantity at this level. I can’t say IPWT when we buy Ibra for €46m and then question his logic when Ibra is sold 12 months later, unless, of course, I no longer trust in Pep. But I do, so while I wonder what’s going on in his super cerebrum now and then, I don’t question his actions. I can and do question the board’s financial moves sine those aren’t directly connected to Guardiola’s decisions, but if we had to get rid of Ibra, we had to get rid of him to the highest bidder. If that was Milan at €24m, then we were actually great at business instead of terrible–but that’s not something everyday fans can really know.

The loanees had various deals worth noting: Víctor Sánchez signed with Getafe and Keirrison signed with Santos with those clubs paying 100% of their salaries; Martín Cáceres signed with Sevilla, who will pay 90% of his salary; Henrique stayed at Racing Santander, who will pay 85% of his salary; and Alexander Hleb went to Birmingham City in a late deal, with the English club paying 75% of his salary. Apparently Hleb made it difficult by refusing to go to any club except Birmingham, which is why the high cost for us.

So then. David Villa, Javier Mascherano, and Adriano are our new boys while we lose Alberto Botía (Sporting), Dmitri Chygrynskiy (Shakhtar Donetsk), Henrique (Racing), Rafa Márquez (NY Red Bulls), Martín Cáceres (Sevilla), Yaya Touré (Manchester City), Víctor Sánchez (Getafe), Alexander Hleb (Benfica), Keirrison (Santos), Thierry Henry (NY Red Bulls), and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (AC Milan). 11 players, €39m in immediate sales with €24m coming in a year for Ibra and possibly some €5-10m for Cáceres come next May.

—–
*Not really

I said I would do it if Ibra left this summer and so I shall: I will be writing here under the name Queen Elizabeth until the end of September. You know what that feels like? Birmingham City will soon:

Dammit.

In happier times...

Let’s start with some concessions. Yes, I and others who write in these spaces defended Ibrahimovic’s play last year (although we shouldn’t have had to, since he had a good year for a 9 playing partly out of position in this system) and his presence on the team, stating multiple times that he would not be moved, nor should he have been. I freely admit now that not only were mistakes made with how he was handled, but he may have also been misutilized by Pep at times. Of course, it is also now clear that he had to go by the end of all this. But enough of contrition, you came to hear about the shit show. So, let’s chat, what do we know about the situation, what should we have seen coming, and what does it all mean?

What We Know
That this was much much worse than any of us here feared or knew. If the relationship was this toxic then it is no wonder we were looking for a place to dump Ibra in the wake of all of this coming out so swiftly. In hindsight, we now know a lot more about the key players too.

Firstly, all those comments that Pep made avoiding questions about Ibra and his place on the team during the preseason were not so much about Rosell looking to sell off Zlatan to the lowest bidder but were more about a frosty relationship based on a communication breakdown at the end of last season. That breakdown evolved into something we haven’t seen very often involving our own Don Draper: a sniping match wherein Pep let his true feelings be known. Last year, after losing out on Villa, who Pep wanted to replace Samu Eto’o originally, Pep let Samu go because of a “feeling” and little else was said. Sure, the writing was on the wall (“I don’t like Eto’o's style, he’s a child sometimes, lazy others, and he won’t play how I want him to”), but it was never explicit. Now it was laid bare by Pep, via Raiola and Zlatan.

Guardiola wants to win, but he wants to do it his way, with his people, and through his own symphony. If a player is not cutting it or is not playing the game the way it should be played, he will let that player walk, and with a quickness too. Eto’o, Yaya (maybe not wholly on the player, but with Çeluk, this was always going to happen and he may have influenced Toure’s thoughts and actions), and now Zlatan have seen how Pep takes to players that try to make themselves bigger than the team, so too have we. He wants harmony, he demands perfection, and while we love him for trophies, and comments, and his outstanding haberdashery, he is also wont to cut down anyone in his path. This process shows that we have a manager who is tactically and strategically gifted, but who may also cut off his nose to spite his face.

Second, Zlatan did not like how he was treated. He derided the coach for speaking to him only twice in six months and only hours before his departure became imminent, showing up at the Camp Nou, stating that he was there to sign his renewal. This went south rather quickly. Sid Lowe has more:

“The ‘philosopher’ has kicked me out,” spits Ibrahimovic as he strolls into the scrum. “I don’t know what his problem with me was. Whenever I walked into a room he walked out again … maybe he was scared of me.”

Alright then. So Ibra has been pissed at Pep for a while, likely since his exclusion from the squad at the end of the season to the benefit of the littlest 11, Bojan. Seeing Barcelona nearly triumph against all of Mourinho’s might in the Champions League and complete a second consecutive conquest of La Liga while sitting on the bench must not have sat well with the big guy. What started in a flourish,

He hasn’t been a failure at Barcelona. Not really. He got 21 goals and 11 assists in all competitions, scored the winner against Real Madrid, and averaged a goal every other game in the league. He even scored in the Champions League – twice, against Arsenal. Only Gonzalo Higuaín was directly responsible for securing his side more points in La Liga.

soon came to be what we all feared: a situation with a star striker who didn’t fit the system and eventually weighed on both manager and team. To wit,

As one insider puts it: “Zlatan thinks he’s Messi and he’s not.”

All this blame cannot be laid on him, because there is too much to go around. His attitude certainly did not help matters and he apparently had no clue how to deal with Guardiola or how he would fit into the squad at all. Maybe we should have known he would cause internal problems because when you have former fans warning you of that, it’s probably a bad sign.

Third, Mino Raiola. He’s an ass and apparently damn good at his job. I’ll let Mr. Lowe take this one to the house:

Those who called Raiola an idiot, the world’s worst agent, are as wrong as those who call Pedro López the world’s worst serial killer. Look at it his way: he’s the best. Yes, he’s a clown and a big mouth, a walking parody, but he’s a ludicrously rich one, feisty as hell and successful too. Ibrahimovic has now commanded €140m in transfer fees. You’ve got to admire their balls. Just don’t let them catch you doing it.

His commentary throughout the entire situation may have been the final nail in this coffin. Statements that Zlatan would certainly last longer at Camp Nou than Pep due to the contracts they had signed were disconcerting to some fans worried about Pep’s future at the club and laughable to others of us at the time. Now they seem as opening salvos. And out of all of this, Raiola may be the most culpable in turning it from a “normal” transfer saga–if any transfer with Braça can be so called–into something toxic and awful:

The same Guardiola that Raiola said, “should be in a mental hospital”, “has a problem with himself” . . . “You don’t buy a Ferrari and just leave it in the garage,” Raiola complained.

Fourth we have the much vilified Sandro Rosell. First Sandro was said to have been looking to sell Ibra as a way of getting rid of all of Laporta’s latest signings (after the Chygy move was made to save some money). Then Rosell was an idiot who couldn’t get anything out of this deal and had to take a bath due to his own bravado in some misguided attempt to make his own imprint… um, wrong. Sandro apparently knew that Ibra and Pep were not getting along and flyers were out all summer trying to sell Ibra, but the market wasn’t great as it has been depressed and the only big spenders, Man City, who were looking for young guys and no more Adebayors, were not looking for a deal. So a deal was struck, a really shitty, stupid deal, but one that had to be made based on the circumstances: an inability for player and coach to coexist and a need to save umpteen millions in salary, financial crisis or not.

The cost was high. Some newspapers splashed their covers with a little round sticker like it was Tesco Value Thick Slice, declaring “double saving: Barcelona make €24m and save €60m in wages”. Or screamed: “Good riddance Ibra”. Others pointed out that Barça had lost €40m on the deal.* They were right. Last season, Barcelona bought him for €45m plus Eto’o, formally valued at €20m. It looked like a ridiculous deal then: it looks like even more of a ridiculous deal now. It also underlines an uncomfortable truth: Guardiola wanted David Villa

Finally, fans. Yes, we should have seen more of this coming and yes we should have been more appreciative for how Ibra played last year.

What We Should Have Seen Coming
Hindsight is 20-20 they say, and here, they are certainly right. We missed that giant pink elephant sitting on the other end of the room, staring us in the face and knocking shit off the walls. This had to happen in a lot of respects, possibly in this very manner. Sure a partnership up front of Villa, Ibra, and Messi would have been superb, if it worked, but failing that, it could have been the downfall of the most talented team in club football. It should have been clear as day from the time the big Swede was removed from his role as the starter and it became a permanent injunction:

For all that the coach was seduced by the idea of having a Plan B, it hadn’t worked when they needed it most. When Barcelona made a final, hugely impressive push for the title, they did so without Ibrahimovic and with Bojan Krkic. The group mattered most so at the end of the campaign he insisted on Barcelona selling the Swede – no matter what the cost.

Pep wanted Villa all along. Laporta finally made it happen, but maybe a year too late. Pep knows Villa can play the wings, and he has shown his ability to play as a lone man up front or in a two-man strike formation for La Furia Roja, and he wanted this. Villa is the player who does what is needed and who stuck around for a team with almost zero chance of succeeding in little more than holding out hope of continental football for three years too long, playing his ass off each year. This is what Pep wanted and this is what he has now.

In short, we should have seen Zlatan’s signing for what it was last year, an ill-fated, ill-conceived, and short-sighted marriage of convenience to get rid of Eto’o on short notice to a team willing to give up a good player. Inter was that white knight, they got the better end of that deal.

It was largely the fact that Inter would take him that forced their hand and finally ensured it would be Ibrahimovic that signed instead.

It ended how all marriages of convenience do: with both sides hurting and one making out better than the other. Zlatan, Raiola, and AC Milan got us here, it was always going to be like this. You can only make the best out of a bad situation sometimes, and this is one of those times.

A team.

What Does It All Mean?
In short, a lot, and yet, not so much. Zlatan’s time here was short and acrimonious, but we achieved goals, winning La Liga and the 2010 Supercopa amongst others with his contributions, and they were many. And yet, that hole up front may not be so large after all. Sure, he’s 6’3″ and can hold the ball up well, but maybe that is just not what we needed in our system, maybe we just needed the player our manager wanted all along and the one we got this summer.

And that’s the thing. When the dust finally settled, Barcelona went into the opening game of the season and destroyed Racing Santander with two wonderful finishes from Messi and Iniesta. There was also – and you should get used to this phrase – a goal from Villa. It may have been costly, painful and hugely embarrassing, it may still come back to bite them but now, at last, after all the bickering and the shouting and the name-calling; after the accusation and counter-accusation, the chest-puffing and posturing, Raiola has finally got what he wanted – a huge great big lorry pulling into his drive loaded with cash – but so have Barcelona. The harmony Guardiola demanded and the perfect addition to an already fantastic side, a striker who should have joined a really, really big club years ago. “This team is even better than last year,” the Racing coach Miguel-Ángel Portugal sighed.

Sometimes you have to look bad, get shat upon, and otherwise take the blunt end of a tire iron to the chin in order to move forward. If things were as bad as Lowe, and others have intimated, this partnership could never have worked. A player who thinks he’s everything and cannot get behind a team effort is not going to function or be long for this era of Barça’s history. This deal means stopping something that was never sure to falter but could not have been good for the entire year. When a star player is hating life and his situation where he is, you can be assured it is no good for the overall success of the club.

This may also put an end to a lot of the speculation that Rosell always wants to overpower Pep and that Guardiola despises the President. Let’s be clear about something, this was not Rosell’s move, this was what Pep wanted, and everyone should see that now, loud and clear. When Pep had a player he disliked, even one who was difficult to move, Rosell found a suitor and sold him off, however bad it was for Barcelona, he got rid of that player, just like Laporta did with Eto’o 2 years ago. Instead of this being some calculated move by our totalitarian dictator, it was a calculated bombshell dropped by our totalitarian manager (and as Isaiah said, it’s only ok when the manager is a totalitarian). This was a move that needed to be made and resolved quickly, and it was. We took a PR hit and lost a good bit of money, but this cloud has a silver lining and we have to see that,

Some newspapers splashed their covers with a little round sticker like it was Tesco Value Thick Slice, declaring “double saving: Barcelona make €24m and save €60m in wages”. Or screamed: “Good riddance Ibra”. Others pointed out that Barça had lost €40m on the deal.* They were right. Last season, Barcelona bought him for €45m plus Eto’o, formally valued at €20m. It looked like a ridiculous deal then: it looks like even more of a ridiculous deal now.

Many hated the Eto’o deal, but we made the best of a bad situation where the player was not good for the team and the manager did not want the player. So with 1 year left, we sold him for what now appears to have been very expensive, good looking spare parts. We made the best of it, winning a few more trophies, losing only once in La Liga, in large part thanks to his contributions. And now, 1 year later, we’ve made the same “deal with the devil”, allowing Milan to take Ibra for change and moving along with the front Pep wanted all last year: Villa, Messi, Pedro, Iniesta, and Bojan. You have to get out of a bad situation, sometimes in any way that seems fit at the time. For Barcelona, this seemed fit, and now, we have to move on and make the best of a situation wherein we still have more talent than any other team and will still compete for all the trophies we already would have.

For Barça, better yet was the news coming in from Palma. Last year Barça dropped just 15 points all season; they already have a two-point lead over Real Madrid after Mourinho’s side could only draw 0-0 with Mallorca and have started off where they finished last season – without The Tall Man and top of the table. “Zlatan was the centre of attention on Saturday,” Guardiola said. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’d quite like my team to be.”

Long story short, I’ll get over it.

Photo 1: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images Europe
Photo 2: Miguel Ruiz/FCB

Javier Mascherano has been officially presented by Barça today at the Camp Nou. He’ll wear the #14, replacing Thierry Henry in that number. He signed a 4-year deal with a salary reported to be €5m a year.

Some details: Javier Alejandro Mascherano, 26 years old, is listed at 5’8 1/2″ (174cm). He started his career at River Plate in Argentina in 2003 at the age of 19. He then moved to Brazilian side Corinthians in 2005. It was his transfer from there to West Ham in 2006 that ended up costing the Hammers 5.5m GBP in fines due to illegal signings, even after he’d moved on to Liverpool in 2007.

He played for the Reds until just a few days ago, making a total of 139 competitive appearances in all competitions. He scored just 2 goals–1 in the EPL, 1 in the CL, but that’s not really his game. He can certainly play the hard man if necessary, but Guardiola thinks he can also play the passer. He comes in knowing he won’t be starting often, but his statement on that matter–”it would be stupid if I thought I was going to play constantly”–makes for good reading, at least, and hopefully he’s serious about not minding working hard in practice and not always getting chosen.

My thoughts on him in general are that we’ll have to wait and see. I don’t get why we spent €22m on a backup, but with Oriol not being deemed capable of making the step up this season, we had a hole at DM and Mascherano is certainly proven on the international as well as domestic level. You don’t captain Argentina if you don’t know how to play at least a little bit.

Commenter IS summed up the transaction a lot better than I could have, so I’ll reprint it here, so that we can all have a giggle:

Galliani: “How much for the big guy?”
Rosell: “70”
Galliani: “Last price?”
Rosell: “50”
Galliani: “I’ll give you 5”
Rosell: “No, last price 45, and like that I’m already losing compared to how much he cost me”
Galliani: “I can go up to 10, but that’s it”
Rosell: ” Ummm …. No? 40?”
(Galliani walks away)
(Rosell chases him with ‘the big guy’ in his hand and shoves ‘it’ in his hand)
Rosell: “Ok, ok, 30 — but just for you!”
Galliani: “25”
(Galliani waves the cash infront of Rosell)
(Rosell’s eyes widen and sparkle as he starts dreaming of all he can do with the monies — but then reverts to a a big frown)
Rosell: “Fine, 25, here you go…”
(Rosell hands over ‘the big guy’ and takes the money and counts it)
Rosell: “Mister, Mister! There’s only 24 here!!”
Galliani: “Sorry, that’s all I had on me”
Rosell: “Oh, ok… well.. please come again and I make you another great deal. Oh… and tell your friends!!”

I don’t have much to say about this one, yet. At least not any depth. Numbers aren’t available yet, but AC Milan and FC Barcelona have agreed to a one-year loan deal with an obligation to purchase at a number in the neighborhood of 40 million Euros.

I’m a little sad right now, not for the player and his gargantuan potential and never seeing it again in FCB colors, but for the way that this all transpired. In just a season, the man we labeled BANGS went from tens of thousands of fans swooning over him at the Camp Nou, to not good enough, to gone. And it was a mess. A big, fat mess that should have been handled better, irrespective of whose ultimate responsibility it was.

And the reputation of our club is a little …. no, a lot tarnished. At present, it is unknown whether we are going to replace him, or soldier on with what we have. While we’re figuring it all out, here’s a tip-top compilation of all of the goals of BANGS from this past season.

Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images Europe

Initial reactions

I like this deal for a few reasons. The most obvious of which is that we need MF depth, specifically to help out with the defense as we were relying solely on Busquets to buoy the DM position, and failing that, Pique or Keita. Now we have a bona fide DM to stick in as depth, but he can also fill in at other midfield positions in a pinch. A team that is likely going to play 65+ games this season is going to have to have more than one DM, and now we have two that could start.

The key here, and I am sure Pep has already laid this one out, is Masch knowing that he is not going to be the first starter here, Busquets is. And nor should he be at this point, he will have had zero days experience in the club before the Racing game, which he won’t play in. This won’t kill his chances to get a good start, but it will hinder him in some ways, meaning he will come along slowly most likely. This is not a problem, it’s to be expected.

He doesn’t score a lot of goals because he’s not expected to, scoring only 4 goals in his international and club careers combined. He is however a solid leader for Argentina (and Liverpool), serving as the captain through the shit storm that has been the last 4 years for the Albiceleste. Notwithstanding the back line collapse that was Argentina’s final World Cup game against Germany, Masch played well, serving as the only defensive stopgap the team had.

What he does do is fight. Figuratively, sometimes literally, but he’s a fighter. He doesn’t let people run over his teammates and has shown a predilection to fight for Messi when he gets knocked down for Argentina. He won’t allow any of our guys to get knocked down repeatedly and will fight with any opposing player we have. He’s short, but he controls well and is great with crosses.

He’s not perfect, but he’s the depth we needed. People should not be down on this after losing Yaya. Yaya did not want to be here and play under our terms, Mascherano does, and that’s what we need. We could not make it through with one DM all year and Romeu simply is not ready right now. In a couple of years, I think he will be. We will have more and update you more when we are sure. Check out Kevin’s short post with a Masch video if you’d like.

Javier Mascherano joins us from Liverpool. He’s not even 5-foot-9 inches tall, but he plays like a giant. Ramzi will post, once he is finished dancing a mambo of joy. Meanwhile, Busquets gets competition that, as with Keita and Abidal and Maxwell and Pedro!, can only make him better. More importantly, we get a thug. A flat-out. for-sure ass thug. Yes, he has ball skills galore, and is an excellent passer and handler of the ball. He’s Argentine. Come on. But more importantly, he will get all up in that ass.

Daddy likey. The happy number was a 16+6 deal, as in fee and incentives, and that’s in Pounds, rather than Euros. Watch the video, and then wonder about a Busquets/Mascherano trident with Xavi, and whether anyone would ever get the ball past midfield. Our defenders will be able to go out for Barca Xips.

Yes.

Okay, this is going to sound crazy, but the man in that picture at left, want-away whiner Alexander Hleb, could be one of the keys to this season. So the news that he is going with the squad on the Asian tour warms my heart, even though I know that it is to put him in the shop window, in the hopes that somebody, anybody, will pay around 7m for our 15m midfielder.

There is, effectively, a month left in the transfer window. We have bought a little (David Villa, Adriano Correia), sold a galaxy and a Ukranian (The Yaya, Txigrinski), dumped a kid (Gai Assulin) and released some veterans (Thierry Henry, Rafa Marquez). Which demands the question** Where are we now?

Where we are is in a position to explain why Hleb could be one of the keys to season, before the natives come running after me with pitchforks and torches, demanding that I explain an assertion that is, prima facie, absurd. But, one of the things that we need, desperately, is midfield cover. We saw it last season, as Xavi ran down for stretches at a time, and Iniesta spent much of the season recovering from varied and sundry injuries, usually to the exact same spot on his right thigh.

Various tricks and tidbits were tried, including running out the World’s Largest Attacking Midfielder who is, alas, now a Citeh player. But what if we’d had a quality midfielder, one who could pass and dribble with accuracy, who could retain possession while taking contact and who came from a first-class European side, so he understood how the game is played at the highest level? The value of such a player would have been immense.

We owned such a player but alas, he was in Stuttgart being a prick and a piss-poor winger. But Hleb is back with the squad. I won’t begin to argue, even for an instant, that he deserves to start, blah, blah, blah. But as a squad player, provided he can sit the hell on the bench, shut his hole and play well when called upon, would mean a great many things, most notably that Xavi wouldn’t have to play those 5-1 matches until the bitter end, thus keeping him daisy-fresh.

Admittely, Hleb being one of the keys to the season assumes that we are going to sit pat during the remainder of the transfer window. Let’s assume that we do, and look at the squad.

Last year, we were thin, and it showed at crucial times. Henry being injured and/or ineffective robbed us of that legitimate left wing threat that made our offense roll so well during the treble season. More importantly, we lost tactical flexibility, the wonderful emergence of Pedro! notwithstanding. This season, ZubiZa (that could be more fun to say than Txiki B.) has intimated on more than one occasion that we will look inward before looking outward, seeing what is on offer from the B ranks before splashing for some player who might be a) expensive, b) vexing and c) not up to standards. Now let’s go spot by spot:

The back line

The starting back line is etched in stone: Alves, Pique, Puyol, Abidal. Rafa Marquez, the most recent defensive departure is for me, in the “good riddance” category. Yes, I respect and admire what he did for the club, but his days of having the physical capabilities to perform at the level required by us were over. We saw that last season. Yes, we lost a defender, but if it’s a defender who can’t be counted on, what have we lost? But, with the sale of Txigrinski, we are suddenly down two back line players, even if they are back line players that got ripped every time they came on to the pitch.

So right now we have in addition to the Fantastic Four, Milito, Andrade and Correia for the back line. Adriano can roam around, filling in where need be, and Milito is a world-class center back. But one more quality center back is a decided need. Yes, we could play Abidal there, some who didn’t watch him as center back for Les Bleus might say. Lord, no. But we do have a farmer or two ready to step up into the role of a squad player: Fontas and Muniesa. The former has already been spoken to by Pep Guardiola, so expect to see more and more of him as a role player.

I think we can save our pennies here, and go with what we have. Our starting quartet have been exceptionally durable, and the addition of Adriano means that we can fill two of the four back line positions with a player who doesn’t bring down the quality all that much. I’m fine with that.

The midfield

Again, the starting midfield is rock-solid: Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets. The most glaring departure from our midfield is The Yaya, who moved to Citeh for a not-so-cool 24m (would have been 30, but some jackass allowed a “give the Pond Scum some” clause). This robs us of a number of things, including depth, since he could play midfield and back line, intimidation factor (even though he went down a little too easily for me) and just overall Man-ness. Most importantly, we go from 2 1/2 (Keita is the half) defensive mids to 1 1/2, which ain’t a good number. We’re a wrong foot plant away from being screwed, and you need a different kind of player than Busquets. Keita can do that, but this is where I think that we need a signing, a solid squad player who can slide right in without much loss in quality.

Busquets has been very durable, but isn’t always at his best. He also needs pressure to give of his best all the time. Rare is the player who doesn’t. A Marcos Senna would be perfect. He’s ready to end his career somewhere, but still is an excellent player. He’s also cheap which, to hear Sandro Rosell talk, is a pretty big, giant ol’ important thing right now. And what of Oriol Romeu, the 18-year-old, “he’s ready really he is” farmer? He might be ready for Osasunas or Copa matches, but if Busquets is injured and Keita suspended, would you trust our Champions League future to him? No. Sorry, but no. So look for a DM to be purchased before the window closes.

In the attacking midfield phase, in addition to the big two, we have Hleb. But Correia and Andrade can also move up, to perform valuable command and control work in the midfield. Neither is a Xaviniesta, but neither is anybody else on the planet. This is also the season for either Thiago Alcantara or Jonathan Dos Santos to step up, and begin getting more first-team minutes. Voila, hey, whoa, we’re suddenly looking pretty darned deep in the midfield, particularly when you consider that Messi can also slide back, feeding a front line of Villa/Ibrahimovic/Pedro!. No purchases required here, provided Hleb demonstrates that he can be a good boy, and a productive one. And hit those Berlitz Spanish books, eh. Crikey.

The attack

This part features three irreplacable players but again, backing them up is quality. The starting trio is, without a doubt, Villa/Ibrahimovic/Messi. Expect the three to swap positions, run around and generally wreak havoc on the opposition. The addition of David Villa brings back the scoring threat from the left, and the presence of Ibrahimovic means that Villa has a grownup around (he was much more effective in the World Cup with Torres on the pitch) to distract, while he does damage.

Villa will also shift defenses because like Henry, he requires the attention of two defenders, as do Ibrahimovic and Messi. This warms my heart. But after them, we have Pedro! and Bojan Krkic, players who would probably be playing regularly for most clubs in the world. I expect P! to be a stalwart, wonderful first sub. He might even start in some situations. I predict that this is going to be a difficult year for Krkic, because all three front-liners are durable as well as brilliant, making it difficult for him to get the reps that he needs to develop. This is also going to be a tough one for the oft-injured Jeffren, because one sub role is now filled by P!, and the other by Krkic. Where does he sit on the depth chart? On paper, it’s on the outside, looking in. I would add Jonathan Soriano to that mix, a farmer who is 24, and into prime “Will he or won’t he” territory.

Keeper

We have Pinto, and Valdes, who is exceptionally durable. Pinto is an excellent keeper for Copa matches and other situations that don’t require Valdes. A high-quality third keeper would be a luxury, but given the quality and durability of both our current keepers,

So, as we begin the Asian tour, I like our squad, and don’t think that we need to spend another penny, except for an inexpensive but manly DM. This one’s easy, and there are a number of choices, none of which will unduly tax the remaining 40m of our transfer budget.

But enough from me. What say ye?

**Nerdy editor’s note: To beg the question isn’t equivalent to demanding a question. Yes, it is one of those lovable misuses that has come to be considered truth. Instead, it’s a way of, in effect, calling B.S. on a point that defies logic. It’s part of an intellectual or logical argument. So, “Pique could be a great midfielder because midfielders pass a lot, and Pique passes a lot.” The logic is flawed, thus begging the question, as you may well wonder what the mere act of passing has to do with being a great midfielder? Gotcha.

And that’s what I know.

The Kaiser of Michoacan, Rafael Márquez Álvarez, made his debut for Barça on September 3, 2003 against Sevilla and, 242 official appearances later, he has come to an agreement with the club to rescind his contract. Rafa has always been a team player for us, has always played wherever we needed him to, and has made little to no noise behind the scenes, but the arrival of Piqué and the resurgence of Milito have pushed him towards the back of the center back queue. That’s not a position Márquez feels comfortable in–he’s the captain of his national team, after all–and with several canterano centerbacks vying for a place in the first team, it makes sense for Rafa to move on and, hopefully, find a team where he can be a star.

There’s no reason I need to stop seeing him play just because he’s leaving the blaugrana, though, right? Yaya, you should have moved to Red Bulls too!

Take care, Rafa, and many thanks for your  7 years of service in blaugrana. Your leadership (and looks!) will be missed.