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La Masia ‏@Youngcules 8m8 minutes ago
Bartomeu announces that Sergi Samper will be LOANED OUT next season.

 

Barcelona News ‏@news_barca_fcb 9m9 minutes ago
Neymar signs five-year contract extension at Barcelona with £210m buyout clause..

 

TODAY WAS A GOOD DAY, AKA “BENVINGUT, UMTITI!”
Samuel Umtiti is coming to Barça from Lyon, a 25m transfer (straight up, no incentives) on a 5-year deal.

Prima facie, so what, right? Those jackasses finally signed a young CB. Barça Twitter brought rumblings of overpaying, etc, etc. but let’s look at what really happened here, shall we?

In a market where CBs are the gold standard, Barça got just about the hottest young CB prospect in world football for a comparative pittance, especially as he had three years left on his contract. All the names being bandied about such as Marquinhos, would have cost at least 40m. Aymeric Laporte? 40-plus. Stones? Bidding starts at 50. Barça pulled off a brilliant move in snagging Umtiti, a player that a lot of culers are kinda in the dark about because they aren’t obsessive football freaks like some.

The deal on Umtiti is, in a few words, Mascherano on steroids, with hops. He has gobs of pace with excellent closing speed, and wins aerial duels with a regularity that makes him like a utility. His closing speed means that he can sort problems without being rash or sliding in, so he wins a lot of tackles by being in the right position. He can also play left back, not like a slumming CB but like a proper left back. Oh, and he scores goals.

There are so many good things about this transfer, starting with the price, which isn’t enough to build the crazy expectations than can saddle many a transfer. At 25m, Umtiti would be classified as a mid-priced transfer for a giant club such as Barça. There will be pressure, but not of the craziness that would have come with the price tag for a player such as Marquinhos. He will also have time to develop, which makes it easy to see why Luis Enrique insisted on Mascherano staying. Because for all of the guff that Mascherano takes, he understands how to be a Barça CB better than any CB on the club, including Pique. He will impart that knowledge to Umtiti, in training and matches.

The club also gains a young CB. La Masia is a cradle of wee, gifted midfielders, but is kinda crap at producing the front and back ends of things. Up front, Barça is set. In back, there is Pique, Mascherano, and everybody else. Mathieu is a old man without a meniscus. He will be useful this season, but look for Umtiti to pass him in the depth chart pretty quickly. Vermaelen is serviceable. The end, now that Bartra is off to Dortmund. More importantly, Umtiti, at age 22, is for the future. The club is old at key spots. A quality CB, and a young one, was essential for Barça. It’s unfortunate that the club isn’t also going after another young’un despite the Mauricio Lemos rumors, but look for that position to be further reinforced in coming windows.

Umtiti also has DM-like ball skills, and is very comfortable moving forward in attack. It’s difficult to find a “Barça CB” in a world where more traditional CBs are revered. As good as a player such as Thiago Silva is, there is something to be said for a smaller, fast, mobile CB who gets up and back on the pitch with alacrity. That is Umtiti. The other cool thing about the transfer is that it’s nice to see some brotha back in the club. I remember the days of Thuram, Abidal, Henry and Eto’o. From this seat, a global club should look like the globe — Spaniards, South Americans, French, white, black, shades in between. Plus it gives the more backward-thinking Catalans something to huff about.

Now, here’s the caveat: He’s a young player, so be patient. He will make errors. Old players also make errors, but there is more patience for those than with young players, especially young players that cost anything more than a warm beverage at a coffee shop. Never forget how cruel the fanbase was to Txigrinski. It takes a very strong player not to be bothered by that kinda crap. It won’t stop people from doing it, even as it should.

The Umtiti move also solidifies what is shaping up to be an excellent summer for Barça, and one that is, of necessity, youth-focused. Neymar renewed, for a 5-year deal. He’s 24. Umtiti is 22. Denis Suarez, who will return to the club this summer from loan, is 22. Even if those three moves are all that the club does, it will have been an excellent summer. But rest assured that more is coming, since the club maintains that Umtiti was signed from transfer kitty goodies left over from last season. This means the club has 68m (60+Bartra proceeds) to spend this summer. Let’s see what happens.

In the meantime, welcome a new CB to the fold, and watch the France/Iceland match at Euros, where buzz is that he will be starting for Les Bleus.

P.S. The last player that Barça signed from Lyon didn’t exactly suck, did he?

 

Why Samuel Umtiti is the signing Barcelona have waited half a decade for


Finally, after two years of transfer ban shenanigans, Barcelona have completed a legal and complication-free transfer, signing Samuel Umtiti from Lyon.

Well, not exactly. In true Barcelona fashion they can’t conduct transfers like a normal club, so here they’ve gone ahead and announced a fee being agreed while personal terms have yet to be settled.




The delay is more than likely because Umtiti is currently representing France at Euro 2016, and might be in line to start in the quarter-final against Iceland. So he’s probably a little occupied right now.

Still, the deal will likely be confirmed once France are eliminated/triumphant. It’s a great deal, too. €25 million, which comes out to around £20 million.

£20 million for a magnificent 22-year-old defender who still had three years left on his contract.

The figures Barcelona were being quoted for other young defenders were about twice as much as they ended up paying for Umititi. In the current market, where 28 year-old Troy Deeney is valued at £30 million or 18 year-old Renato Sanches costs £29 million up-front with £37 million in variables, this is a deal that defies belief.


Even at an inflated price, this would have been an excellent deal for Barça. The Blaugrana are one of the two best sides in the world, and their attack is unquestionably the finest on the planet. With Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suárez their firepower is beyond compare. In midfield they have the peerless Sergio Busquets, and the legendary Andrés Iniesta, while Ivan Rakitić completes an excellent trio.

But their defence is a bizarrely ramshackle thing and has been for the last five years since Carles Puyol’s decline hit at the same time as Eric Abidal’s health problems. An ageing Dani Alves (now departed, to be replaced by a utility man or a converted winger who barely played last season) plays right-back. Jordi Alba is on the left and while he’s matured into a solid defender, he is the approximate height of a tin of biscuits and can be overawed positionally.

At the heart of their defence, Gerard Piqué is a towering figure. One of the best defenders in the world, but his partners are a circus menagerie of misfits.

Jeremy Mathieu is an average centre-back who gets injured a fair amount, Thomas Vermaelen is a better centre-back but gets injured even more often, and Marc Bartra is a very good-looking defender but has been sold to Borussia Dortmund to fill their handsomeness deficiency following Mats Hummels’ sale.

Javier Mascherano, meanwhile, is one of the best defensive midfielders in the world and has, through sheer force of will, had a serviceable career at centre-back for the last five years. But this short tenacious midfielder who couldn’t execute an offside trap to save his life is struggling more and more these days: Kevin Gameiro ritually humiliated him in the Copa del Rey Final, causing him to get sent off after just 30 minutes.

The miracle of Piqué holding together the Barcelona defence is something that cannot last (just look at how quickly they collapsed when he was withdrawn against Villarreal). The fact that it has lasted this long is impressive enough, but it was simply not sustainable given Mascherano is now 32 years-old and slowing down.

At some point, Barcelona were going to have to sign an actual starting quality central defender. And now, they have.

Umtiti is a wonderful defender who possesses a skill-set that Barcelona have not had since Puyol retired and the club disgracefully did not renew Abidal’s contract following the Frenchman’s recovery from cancer and then liver transplant surgery.

This is a skill-set that Barcelona have been trying to replace, too, with Mathieu and Vermaelen unsuccessful attempts to replicate the magic Abidal brought to the side. Injuries (and age in Mathieu’s case) have prevented them from working, but now the Blaugrana may have finally found their solution.

Umtiti is physically imposing despite his modest height of 5’11. He plays “bigger” than he is with an incredible leap, able to beat and dominate bigger opponents in the air in a style reminiscent of Barcelona legend Puyol.

His ability on the ground, particularly the brilliant way he times his tackles and interceptions, knowing just when and where to make his move, is also decidedly Puyol-esque. Moreover, his closing speed will mean that Alba is no longer the only Barça defender who can out-sprint an old lady.


Umtiti is composed and calm on the ball, able to step out of defence with it at his feet and pick passes over both the short and long distance. This is an essential part of any Blaugrana defender’s armory and will not disappoint on this front (and given how Mascherano’s passing improved, one can imagine Umtiti will only become more of a playmaker as time goes on).

He positionally intelligent enough to be able to play centre-back and left-back to a high level. This is key as it gives Barcelona the ability to, in big away games, go with a more defensively robust back-line.

This was a key component of the side under Pep Guardiola, with Abidal giving the Blaugrana the ability to protect the defence away from home, to be able to put out a back-line that doesn’t have a 5’5 ball of hyperactivity at left-back just begging to be exposed by a canny opposing striker.

Signing Umtiti returns the tactical versatility of the Guardiola era to Barcelona, meaning the team can shift from a back four to a three-man defence depending on the opposition. That kind of variance is huge for a club now looking to retain its league title for a third successive year.

They will need to be capable of evolution, and Umtiti provides a wonderful base for that.


His arrival also ensures that a side whose defence was precariously balanced on the brilliance of one man is now spread more evenly out across a back-line that just got younger, faster, smarter, stronger and just plain better.

Samuel Umtiti may have only cost Barcelona €25 million, but to them he is a priceless talent they have been waiting half a decade for.

 

#FCB | Denis Suárez beats http://bit.ly/29gReHx medical review

 

FC Barcelona will wear a purple and pink Nike Football away kit for the 2016/17 season