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Author Topic: How much to turn us into a Barcelona?  (Read 12786 times)

Offline Chris Jameson

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Re: How much to turn us into a Barcelona?
« Reply #45 on: March 08, 2012, 01:56:45 PM »
It'd be much easier to just move to Catalonia and watch actual Barcelona.

You also get to live by the sea in a city full of lovely architecture, fantastic restaurants and lovely women.

I know we all like to think we have Villa in our blood, but honestly, I reckon I'd be over us in about three weeks.

They also have orange trees growing on the roads approaching the ground, beer sellers in the stands (with change passed along the rows of seats!), and sitting in the gods watching the game and the sun setting is amazing.  Still prefer VP though!

And barely a steward in sight!

Offline Toronto Villa

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Re: How much to turn us into a Barcelona?
« Reply #46 on: March 08, 2012, 02:16:26 PM »
You need a long term plan from the people at the top of the club and everything you do from that point on is geared towards that objective. The players you sign, the image you portray, the investments you make, the sponsors you associate with, the academy you build. The whole thing needs to continuous. Spanish football was in the dumps for a long time, but they now produce some of the best young players in the world and Barcelona are testament to that. Now it helps when you get a player like Messi to join you as a kid, but he wouldn't be as good as he is today had ended up at almost any other place. The culture is condusive to developing players that pass and move, and have incredible technique and control. He is just at the very, very top of that pyramid in terms of ability.

It can be done, because they weren't always this good. But it takes a lot of people to buy into one vision over a sustained period of time, from everyone at the club through all of the fans that now get to see this glorious stuff in action in every week.

Offline Dante Lavelli

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Re: How much to turn us into a Barcelona?
« Reply #47 on: March 08, 2012, 03:42:54 PM »
You need a long term plan from the people at the top of the club and everything you do from that point on is geared towards that objective. The players you sign, the image you portray, the investments you make, the sponsors you associate with, the academy you build. The whole thing needs to continuous. Spanish football was in the dumps for a long time, but they now produce some of the best young players in the world and Barcelona are testament to that. Now it helps when you get a player like Messi to join you as a kid, but he wouldn't be as good as he is today had ended up at almost any other place. The culture is condusive to developing players that pass and move, and have incredible technique and control. He is just at the very, very top of that pyramid in terms of ability.

It can be done, because they weren't always this good. But it takes a lot of people to buy into one vision over a sustained period of time, from everyone at the club through all of the fans that now get to see this glorious stuff in action in every week.

I agree with this.  I'd struggle to identify our club's football philosophy.  In fact I'd almost certainly say there isn't a thread that runs through all the teams.  John e also raises some good points about the weather, however we would not need to replicate Barca's tikka takka but we could follow Germany's style pretty easily (4231) as it largely complements the cliched athleticism and passion of british football.

At least then we'd have an identity and could grow in a logical linear fashion.

Offline Vanilla

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Re: How much to turn us into a Barcelona?
« Reply #48 on: March 08, 2012, 07:14:13 PM »
Perhaps we could pretend we are a bank on the verge of bankruptcy and go cap in hand to the government for a few billion pounds.

Offline old man villa fan

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Re: How much to turn us into a Barcelona?
« Reply #49 on: March 08, 2012, 07:45:02 PM »
The first step in creating longevity of a footballing philosophy is identifying and appointing a Director of Football that oversees the football played by the club from the most junior team through to the 1st team.  You then employ coaches as opposed to football managers.  In this way, the football played by the 1st team does not change every time you appoint a new manager.

A DOF needs to be technically gifted so as to assess strengths and weaknesses but will also be well respected so that he has a wide circle of contacts in the game.  Above all the DOF would have to want to be in it for the long term and therefore somebody the owner would be comfortable with.  To support a DOF you need a top quality financial guy.

Somebody mentioned it earlier, we should rely substantially on home grown players and just buy one or two quality key players a season to cover the inevitable weaknesses that will occur from time to time with using home grown talent.

Online London Villan

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Re: How much to turn us into a Barcelona?
« Reply #50 on: March 08, 2012, 08:09:32 PM »
If the club actually came out and said that was the plan then I think the whole atmosphere would be different. The only problem is that it's a massive gamble and if it starts to go wrong and the club are at the bottom of the table what do they do.

Offline HK Villan

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Re: How much to turn us into a Barcelona?
« Reply #51 on: March 08, 2012, 09:25:34 PM »
I live 90 minutes drive from Barcelona. I don't go and watch them though.

I'm living 5 minutes walk from the Nou Camp and I do go sometimes, but it doesn't do it for me like a 1-1 mid winter draw at home to Everton, or similar. 

Offline JUAN PABLO

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Re: How much to turn us into a Barcelona?
« Reply #52 on: March 08, 2012, 09:36:06 PM »
fuck Barcelona . I'd be happy If we just played like Swansea.     

Offline PeterWithesShin

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Re: How much to turn us into a Barcelona?
« Reply #53 on: March 08, 2012, 09:38:13 PM »
Fuck Barcelona, how much to turn us into Bilbao?

Offline HK Villan

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Re: How much to turn us into a Barcelona?
« Reply #54 on: March 08, 2012, 09:38:51 PM »
To be honest, having watched Barcelona stuff a team 4-0 in a league game this season I wouldn't want us to be like them.

Yes it must be nice being able to thrash teams like Bayer Leverkusen and seeing Messi play is a delight but Barcelona are so successful that their fans pay a silly amount of money to watch them and sit there throughout expecting to be entertained.  It's everything that's bad about modern football.  The atmosphere is crap and it all feels a little bit fake.

I'd much rather football in general go back to a game where, largely, everyone has just as much chance as everyone else.  Yes, there will be better clubs than others but the current gulf between the best and the rest, as emphasised by Barca last night is a horrible situation for the game to be in.

I agree about the atmosphere.  I've been to see the other Barcelona club RCD Espanyol as well recently, and for a neutral it was actually much better for atmosphere and as a game of football - arrived not knowing who would win and saw an end to end thriller.

Offline ozzjim

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Re: How much to turn us into a Barcelona?
« Reply #55 on: March 09, 2012, 07:02:45 AM »
To be honest, having watched Barcelona stuff a team 4-0 in a league game this season I wouldn't want us to be like them.

Yes it must be nice being able to thrash teams like Bayer Leverkusen and seeing Messi play is a delight but Barcelona are so successful that their fans pay a silly amount of money to watch them and sit there throughout expecting to be entertained.  It's everything that's bad about modern football.  The atmosphere is crap and it all feels a little bit fake.

I'd much rather football in general go back to a game where, largely, everyone has just as much chance as everyone else.  Yes, there will be better clubs than others but the current gulf between the best and the rest, as emphasised by Barca last night is a horrible situation for the game to be in.

I agree about the atmosphere.  I've been to see the other Barcelona club RCD Espanyol as well recently, and for a neutral it was actually much better for atmosphere and as a game of football - arrived not knowing who would win and saw an end to end thriller.

I think both are good points, and part of the issue with English football and football across Europe. There are at the start of the season realistically only a couple of teams who can win the league, and the top 5-6 places are dictated every season before it begins. There is no system in place to level the playing field at all, so essentially you watch your side to finish mid table and never compete for anything unless you support one of 4-5 teams. One day people will cotton onto this and attendances will plummet due to the lack of any sense of competition. It is interesting that the SFA have jumped on the opportunity to try and seize some power off the Old Firm while Rangers are up in the air.

Online PaulWinch again

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Re: How much to turn us into a Barcelona?
« Reply #56 on: March 09, 2012, 08:59:07 AM »
Fuck Barcelona, how much to turn us into Bilbao?

That's simple get Bielsa, because it's the style he plays. He pretty much only attacks, which is why Chile were so good to watch in the World Cup. He's essentially the anit-Mcleish.

Offline ADVILLAFAN

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Re: How much to turn us into a Barcelona?
« Reply #57 on: March 09, 2012, 09:00:45 AM »
All you need to do is go into the latest version of PES (Pro Evolution Soccer) and you can register players to teams. So you could put all of Barcelona's players in the Villa Squad. Easy.

Offline Dante Lavelli

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Re: How much to turn us into a Barcelona?
« Reply #58 on: March 09, 2012, 04:07:35 PM »
There is no system in place to level the playing field at all, so essentially you watch your side to finish mid table and never compete for anything unless you support one of 4-5 teams.

Potentially the FFP rules will help in a way as the ultimate punishment is sanctions that prevent you entering European competitions.  Therefore clubs below have the opportunity to overspend to get themselves closer to the top but must have their finances in order once they're pushing for european places.

I'm not sure whether that is how the rules were intended to work but it's a small crumb of comfort for smaller clubs (on the assumption that UEFA actually prevent clubs like City taking part in the Chumps League).


Offline Doorbell

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Re: How much to turn us into a Barcelona?
« Reply #59 on: March 09, 2012, 06:18:57 PM »
There is no system in place to level the playing field at all, so essentially you watch your side to finish mid table and never compete for anything unless you support one of 4-5 teams.

Potentially the FFP rules will help in a way as the ultimate punishment is sanctions that prevent you entering European competitions.  Therefore clubs below have the opportunity to overspend to get themselves closer to the top but must have their finances in order once they're pushing for european places.

I'm not sure whether that is how the rules were intended to work but it's a small crumb of comfort for smaller clubs (on the assumption that UEFA actually prevent clubs like City taking part in the Chumps League).

Haven't UEFA already come out with some ruling that essentially allows clubs to spread existing debt over a number of years as a transition period?

 


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