The previous month was full of shocks and surprises for the transfer market. The defeat of Barcelona by Bayern in Champions League made a lot of impact on and off the pitch in Barcelona, with finally Ronald Koeman arriving and making some strong statements about which players he wanted in his team and which players should be shown the gate. The 8-2 loss of Barcelona created an impact which was far from imagined. Messi sent official documents to leave the club for which he has been playing for almost 2 decades.
The people of Barcelona, Spain and many more fans protested for Messi to stay and asked the Barcelona president to resign. In the meantime, Koeman told Luis Suarez, Ivan Rakitic, Arturo Vidal, Nelson Semedo and Arthur that they were not a part of his project. Ivan Rakitic went back to Sevilla at a transfer fee of $1.5m, whereas Arturo Vidal landed at Inter Milan. Inter finished 2nd to Juventus last season. They have now even a better midfield with a player like Vidal’s experience. With Lautaro Martinez and Lukaku in the front, Vidal, Nainggolan and Brozovich in the midfield, De Vrij and Godin in the defence, Inter looks like a team to watch out for in Italy as well as in Europe.
When Alphoso Davies left Nelson Semedo in dust in the Champions League quarterfinal it was pretty much clear his future lies somewhere else. So that has come true and Semedo has joined Wolves in the Premier League, and would be looking forward to developing himself under his compatriot Coach Nuno. Luis Suarez, Barcelona’s 3rd highest goal scorer of the club was asked to leave the club. He didn’t want to leave but eventually had to bid an emotional adieu to the club and team mates.
Juventus offered Miralem Pjanic plus $14m to Barcelona for Arthur’s service. The swap deal went through but it doesn’t make that much of a sense. Arthur is a young dynamic midfielder. He is very good at the position he plays and works as an excellent box to box midfielder. Letting such a brilliant player like Arthur go is a mistake Barcelona will realise later.
After all these transfers, I still feel that Barcelona actually needs to get 2 world class centre backs, who are fast, strong and have good defensive and marking skills. As we recall the score of the champions league quarterfinal vs Bayern, it was Bayern 8-2 Barcelona. So, the problem lies in the defence not in the midfield. Until or unless effective defenders won’t be signed by Ronald Koeman, the problem at the core of the club won’t be solved.
The author is a Certified Tactical Analyst from Barcelona universities.
