What If I was Barcelona Manager?
By Jim James
A what if. I know I haven’t done many of these, but I will try to from now on. That and try to get a post done every day. So in this scenario I take the reigns as Barca manager and try to steer the ship and get them to success. More specifically, I have a few goals:
- Get Erling Haaland
- Get their Salary Cap higher
- Set them up for Success
With the goals in mind, let’s begin!
January Transfer Window
Step 1: Have a dumpster fire sale
My first plan is to sell – or try to sell – the following players; Ousmane Dembele, Samuel Umtiti, Clement Lenglet, Frenkie de Jong, Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, Sergi Roberto, and Sergino Dest. I plan to get in the region of 75 million in the window. Anyone who doesn’t sell I’ll try to sell in the next window.
Step 2: Only make necessary signings
With our drastically reduced Salary Cap, and our goal to increase it by a long shot for next season, we’ll only make signings that are absolutely necessary. I’ll drop our search for a striker, as it seems like a waste of funds. A necessary transfer would be a Goalkeeper if Ter Stegen leaves, potentially a swap for the unsettled Gianluigi Donnarumma, partly because it’s a steal bit of business, and also because it will likely help our relationship with Mino Raiola for you-know-who.
Transfers
In:
Gigi Donnarumma: 30m + MATS
Total: 30m
Out:
Ousmane Dembele: 20m
Samu Umtiti: 15m
Clement Lenglet: 20m
Sergi Roberto: 15m
Marc-Andre Ter Stegen: Gigi Donnarumma
Total: 70m
Net: +40m
2nd Half of the season
Step 1: Set up a game plan
I want to make a game plan that keeps in-form players in the squad, gives opportunities to youngsters, and is just plain good. For the game against Alaves, this would be my Starting XI:
Ansu Fati L.de Jong Ferran T.
Pedri Gavi
Nico G.
Alba D.Alves
Pique Araujo
Donnarumma
Subs Bench:
Neto
Dest
Eric
Mingueza
Balde
Busquets
Puig
Sanz Catalan
Ferran J.
Ilias
Depay
Ez Abde
Step 2: Bring Classic Barcelona Back, but with a twist
In recent years, Barcelona have been lost in boring possession, sidepassing, no forward progression football. I would change that. I’d train the team to do Tiki-Taka style with a pinch of counter attack. I want to bring attack minded football back to the Camp Nou. On defense I would press the heck out of teams with a high, unrelenting press.
Summer Transfer Window
Step 1: Sell the rest of the unnecessary parts
The Ultimate goal this summer is to sign Erling Haaland. To do that we do of course need the money. We want to get a couple transfers done before Haaland’s ultimate signing. We’d want to sell Busquets, FdJ, and Memphis Depay to raise the last little bit of money for our summer spree, hopefully with a much larger salary cap.
Step 2: Go on a Spree
Our top target is of course, Erling Haaland, but we need a plan B, which would be Dusan Vlahovic. If we’re priced out of a move for him, we would go for Paulo Dybala. To replace the previously sold Sergino Dest and likely retired Dani Alves, we’d sign Noussair Mazraoui for free from Ajax. We’d also sign Cesar Azpilicueta and Niklas Sule for free from Chelsea & Ajax respectively. Our last priority signing would be Ryan Gravenberch from Ajax for 30m and if we could and had the money, we’d do the unprecedented and try to get Leo Messi back for PSG. If that doesn’t work, we’d go for Adama Traore.
Summer Transfer Window
In:
Erling Haaland: 75m
Ryan Gravenberch: 30m
Leo Messi: 25m
Noussair Mazraoui: Free
Cesar Azpilicueta: Free
Niklas Sule: Free
Total: 130m
Out:
Memphis Depay: 40m
Frenkie de Jong: 65m
Sergio Busquets: 20m
Total: 125m
Net: -5m
Net From All Windows: +35m
Final Gameplan
Ansu Fati Haaland Messi
Pedri Gavi
Nico G.
Alba Mazraoui
Araujo Sule
Donnarumma
That’s all I’ll do for now, as I can’t forsee what would happen with this team. Until Next Time.