[Voyteck]

We've been wining on our president a lot since he started ruling. But in fact, except for losing Figo, he really tries his best I must say.

He managed to keep Rivaldo (although now it looks like we'd all like to ged rid of him).
We always wanted talented players so he was trying to get those. We signed Rochemback, Geovanni, Christanval and now we have Enke who is also young (24) as for goalkeeper.
We really wanted Saviola since we've heard there's such a good young little player in River who was top goalscorer of Argentinian League in the age of 17. We got him.
Finally I have no idea how many times we have been writing about Riquelme here, but I'm sure almost everybody wanted him to join us. And again - he's finally ours.
Maybe more of our dreams will come true in some time ( I mean "players to have" dreams cause we're still without any results to be proud of) like signing a good central defender (Nesta, Samuel or Cannavaro).
The problem is that once I thought that all this talking about how little money we have was a bull**** to get players cheaper but I've realized that it might be truth.

In conclusion: so is he really such a bad prez?

 

[Krijn]

Yes he is.
We didn't sign any defenders so far, and he signs bad coaches...

 

[Super Puyol]

Correction: Gaspart is not a bad president. Gaspart is a PATHETIC, STUPID AND SILLY president. Guess why Real fans are so happy with him being our prez, just like we were when Mendoza was Real's boss:dontcare:

 

[Mohammad]

i think that the only problem of gaspart is the bad chosing of coaches....

 

[Mohammad]

i think that the only problem of gaspart is the bad chosing of coaches....
we was have a excellent team in 2000 and 2001 but serra ferrer and rexach make them very bad, and make us lose many trophies we was able to get...

 

[Steph!]

Btw, Fabian Carini was announced at Barcelona (on loan) during the WC. It was kinda vague and undetailed. And now I read that you snapped Enke. Did the Carini move collapse?

Ciao.

 

[Krijn]

Nope, the Carini-deal was cancelled. I think we only negotiated with him to get a better deal from Enke...

 

[Mohammad]

Nope, the Carini-deal was cancelled. I think we only negotiated with him to get a better deal from Enke...

Gaspart mind (geneous) , :glasses: smart Gaspart

 

[Zhuge Liang]

In my honest opinion, FC Barcelona has bad player recruitment and management system...

They have many 'super-star' players, but they can't use it as one whole team. They have good players in the front, but they're so much weak in the back row. And, the biggest problem Barca have is in their mid-field since most of the time Barca only hope on one Rivaldo to control the flow of the ball.

I think Barca really need to sign a really good 'round-up' mid-fielder and a defender who can play consistently to defend enemies approching Barca's net.

And, re-recruitment of Van Gaal is the most stupid decision of Barca I've ever seen in my entire life at least until now (sorry, I don't hate Barca, but I hate that Van Gaal guy...)

 

[Super Puyol]

In my honest opinion, FC Barcelona has bad player recruitment and management system...

They have many 'super-star' players, but they can't use it as one whole team. They have good players in the front, but they're so much weak in the back row. And, the biggest problem Barca have is in their mid-field since most of the time Barca only hope on one Rivaldo to control the flow of the ball.

I think Barca really need to sign a really good 'round-up' mid-fielder and a defender who can play consistently to defend enemies approching Barca's net.

And, re-recruitment of Van Gaal is the most stupid decision of Barca I've ever seen in my entire life at least until now (sorry, I don't hate Barca, but I hate that Van Gaal guy...)

No need to say sorry, I'm a Barça fan and I agree 100% with you

 

[Mohammad]

welcome Zhuge Liang to barca forum, guess this is the first visit...
i don't agree with u about Vaan Gaal...
and i still remember when we beat Arsenal 2-4 with Vaan Gaal

 

[Steph!]

OK, thanks for the update on Carini.

Zhuge Liang, what's the prob with Van Gaal ? Him and his countrymate Hiddink are adept of total football. And he's probably one of the last to have displayed it, with his pre-Bosman Ajax. You don't like the perspective?

Ciao.

 

[Zhuge Liang]

Well, beside Arsenal, I actually like many other clubs. And, one of them is FC Barcelona...

I dislike Louis Van Gaal for many reasons. Firstly, of course because of his incapabality to bring Netherlands national team qualifying for the World Cup (I am a big fan of Holland NT). It's true that he brought Ajax to win ECL some years ago and have good reputation in Barca. But, I don't like his approach in dealing with the team, especially when he turned Barca into "Ajax-Barcelona". In my honest opinion, he is a man with great tactic and scheme, but he lacks in player understanding. In certain situation Van Gaal can be a great manager, but under any circumstances he's a coach who has bad adaption to team playing style.

I don't think we can compare him to other 'total football' practitioners such as the late Johan Cruyff or Guus Hiddink. Van Gaal is not better than both of them, IMO. Coaches like Johan Cruyff and Guus Hiddink have special ability to train a team to implement 'total football' system without change the whole players style of playing. Van Gaal, on the other hand, seems hasn't show any sign that he can use potential players that available in one team into optimum result. I don't mind with his 'Dutch players' recruitment policy in the past, but just think about it...do you think there's no other place than Holland have players like them ? Did he really see that there're many good talents in Spain that deserved to play in Barca (I don't know if this matter related to Basque nationality matter) ? And you guys can see what he has done to Holland NT...he spent too much time in 'experimenting' than fixing whole team performance.


And, at the time when Arsenal got beaten 2-4 by Barca, I hadn't been a football fan or Arsenal fan...

 

[Bernhard]

After a couple of years winning nothing, I´m glad we have a "big" coach again. I know he might not be the funniest guy around, but what we basically need is success. I don´t think that in todays footbal the performance depends on the kindness-factor of the coach. South-coreans Hiddink also isn´t such a kind guy, in fact he is very strict I believe. Also brazillians "Scolari".... although all the fans (including me) wanted to see "Romario", he seemed to know what he was doing whith R+R+R+Denilson. It´s always a matter of "how the press translates" the coaches actions to the public.... you´ll find problems and arguments in every team of the world! The question is, does the press start bitching about certain actions or will they try to foresee the benefits (if given) for the long run..... Nonetheless, the coach is ALWAYS resposible for success and failure....and since none of us is in the position of being responsible for such a great club like "Barcelona", it´s very likely that "fans" or "spectators" can not always understand a coaches decision.

As for the club´s decision, it´s quite simple:
-he is familiar whith the languages spoken in the team.
-he represents offensive footbal, which is the way we always played.
-he knows more about tactics and system than most other coaches.
-he stands for success and is ready to sacrifice alot for it.

I´m not always satisfied with all of his decisions and I am not trying to sugar-coat things he may have done wrong in the past, but he´s still one of the very best around and I like to see that exciting game again that we used to play in the past!

Regards,
Bernhard

 

[Krijn]

VG's tactical ideas are good, but the way he handles the players and the way he performs under pressure suck. Above that he's a nightmare when it comes down to media-appearances....

I'm still curious about Koeman. He also plays total-football. He has all the great aspects Cruijff has as well, and the few great things VG has... Koeman is the future of attacking football....

 

[Bernhard]

Yes of course, I also would like to see "Koeman" at Barcelona and I´m sure one day we will see him there... The problem whith all those coaches that play "total football" is that there aren´t so many of them around. After spending two years whithout great tactics I´m just glad we have someone again, since they are not standing in a row just waiting to come to Barcelona.

Regards,
Bernhard

 

[nijhuist]

Yes, Koeman will be barcelona's next coach after VG leaves after two years (the first winning alot of trophies, the second winning absolutely nothing ). Koeman worked with all the great dutch coaches, Rinus Michels (the inventor of 'total football') at EURO88, Cruiff at Barca, Hiddink as a player at PSV and as his assistant at WC98. He learned alot from that and can show it in holland and Europe the next couple of years at Ajax. After that, he's ours.

 

[Grinch]

Why I Think Van Gaal Is Overrated

Let me say that IMHO Van Gaal is brutally overrated. He had some sucess with that Ajax team, yes, but since then all I've seen was arrogance and a staunch determination to force the players into a predetermined system, no matter who the players are. This is not how a competent coach works, IMO. A good coach should see what he has in his hands and then build the best squad possible. But Van Gaal's tactical repertoire apparently is too limited, so instead of organizing a system around his players' qualities, he builds a system and then tries to hammer the players into the 'adequate' shape.

On his first stint at Barcelona, his most glaring defeats came when opposing coaches sucessfully exploited the holes in Van Gaal's tactics: In such a situation VG squirms and substitutes a couple of players, but doesn't really change anything to get out of the tactical lockdown.

I'm not saying he's an imbecile or that he's not a reasonably good coach, I'm saying that rating him among the top coaches in the world isn't realistic. He's not a 'Top Manager', he just gets a lot of positive press from some stuff he achieved almost a decade ago.

 

[Krijn]

VG would be a great youth-coach...
But he stinks with handling stars...

 

[Steph!]

Zhuge Liang, don't take this wrongly but what enables you to comment on Van Gaal, Cruyff and Hiddink since you became a football fan only after 1999?

Van Gaal's Ajax of 1993-1996 was one of the best European side ever and the last one to date that played "total football". OK, this was before the Bosman's effects and the philosophy regarding the game and transfers was different back then. Nevertheless, I'd credit Van Gaal with a great deal of that success.

The guy is a perfectionist and if he was given the means to go to the very end of his ideas, he would have gained more silverware. I have a huge admiration for him, he was the first coach, along with Sacchi, that got me interested in coaching. I know he has some major issues with the media and some players because he's very demanding, he likes discipline and doesn't like being bothered in his job by external factors.

It didn't please many people when he started the Barjax thing but only one thing matters: Barça played its best football in years under his reign even though it ended up in decay. The 1999-2000 Barcelona vintage was the best of Europe and I'm still wondering what happened against Valencia that year.

Ciao.