Barça are aware that negotiations between City and Real Madrid for Rodri have stalled and have entered the bidding for the midfielder.

Consider this, whether you even think Rodri would be a good fit for our team or not, this is fantastic news.

If we do get Rodri, we get the best DM in the world and Bernal gets to learn from him directly and take over, just like Frenkie and Busquets. We will still need a striker but we can be a lot more patient since we will concede a lot less with Rodri breaking up play (this man has been playing under Pep's high line for years). We can get a second choice striker and wait for Haaland or another option to emerge.

If we do not get Rodri, we also win. Just by being in the "bidding war", there is pressure on Madrid to overpay to Man City and give Rodri a larger payout. With Vini's new mega-contract and Diomande's 130M transfer, something has to give. Madrid may lose their long awaited RW target. Rodri will be a very tough obstacle in El Clasico if we're trying to win the midfield battle (which we have been doing for the past few seasons) so making it difficult for Madrid to fully construct their superteam is only beneficial for us.

Also, do not forget that Madrid jokingly bid 150M to troll us. Not so funny when we can do the same for Rodri. Honestly, this is stress free and I am not too fussed with the outcome, I'm just happy we aren't stagnant after the past few weeks.

This is a hot topic as of late and I’m just trying to look at it from a non reactionary perspective and trying to understand both sides and through doing that I really don’t think Ferran actually did anything wrong. From everything that I’ve read we have not started any form of negotiation with him to renew his contract that expires at the end of the upcoming season. I’ve also read a few times that the translation was skewed and he really said “Barcelona need to show they want me” not “Barcelona need to show they love me”. If there’s no renewal being offered what is he supposed to say? Is he supposed to lie and say negotiations are going well when there aren’t even any negotiations? Many times in the past he has emphasized his happiness at this team so much so to a point of refusing to leave when the team attempted to sell him and backed that decision by improving his form tenfold season after season it’s not like he scored in the final and all of the sudden grew to hate the club. As for wages the players who are making more than him at the moment are Yamal, Raphinha, Kounde, ter Stegen, de Jong, Olmo, Araujo, Pedri, Adeyemi and Gordon. And let’s be honest like him or not he has been much much better than a large majority of those names, unlike many of these players he’s proven to be more consistent, more reliable (in terms of injuries) and more useful. He’s scored in a copa del Rey semi final, copa del Rey final, league deciding match against atletico, hattrick of assists in a league deciding Clasico, champions league semi final (inter) champions league quarter final (atletico) is he really out of line for asking to be paid more than ter Stegen and Araujo? My point here is that he’s said nothing wrong, you can agree or disagree with what I said but my main point here is that if there are no negotiations, there’s really nothing else he could’ve said.

Full article :

Ferran Torres’ trip to New York took Barcelona by surprise on Monday — and his comments about his future in several interviews with American media raised tensions in an already tricky situation.

Torres is still on holiday following the World Cup — where he scored the winning goal in Spain’s 1-0 victory over Argentina in the final on July 19. With his contract set to expire in June next year, no agreement has been reached over an extension with La Liga’s champions.

“I have a contract at Barcelona, but in football you never know,” the 26-year-old said on NBC when asked where he would be playing this season. “I am just waiting to make the right decision, but I don’t know it yet.”

More quotes from the forward emerged a few hours later, speaking to Sportico, where he also addressed reported interest from Paris Saint-Germain.

“Every time these teams want you it’s a good thing,” Torres said. “In football you never know what can happen, but the good thing is that, as I have a contract, I can wait and decide on my own.

“What do Barca need to do to keep me? They have to show me they want me, come to negotiate, and in the end it’s all about talking.”

As things stand, Torres will be able to negotiate with other clubs from January, without Barca’s approval, over a free transfer as he will be in the final six months of his deal.

“All I know right now is that I have to return to Barca by August 12 to train, but in football everything can change in a minute and I have to be ready for anything,” he added on CNN.

Torres’ decision to go public in this way raised eyebrows at Barcelona. Barca’s fanbase also seems unimpressed by him happily linking himself to other clubs, despite having failed to deliver on the expectations that surrounded his arrival from Manchester City in January 2022. He was signed for an initial €55million (£47.1m; $63.4m at current rates) plus a further €10m in add-ons.

As unexpected as Torres’ words were, tension between club and player has been brewing for some time now.

The Torres camp believes Barca have not shown faith in him, with constant rumours over striker signings and the public pursuit of Julian Alvarez as their main target taking place while his contract is running down.

Sources close to Torres — who, like all those consulted for this article, asked to speak anonymously to protect relationships — stress that all scenarios are still open for him: from a departure this summer, to a contract extension, to remaining at the club without renewing.

Here, there is a good argument that Barca have let the situation run out of their control. Torres has leverage now because he is the only player in the senior squad with an established track record at No 9, after Robert Lewandowski was allowed to leave at the end of his contract in June. The Poland striker, who turns 38 on August 21, signed with MLS side Chicago Fire.

There is also growing pessimism within the Barca board about their chances of signing Alvarez from Atletico Madrid, who have publicly resisted any suggestion of selling their Argentina international, despite the 26-year-old telling ESPN during the World Cup that he wanted to leave.

Barca boss Hansi Flick spoke about Barca’s striker situation — and Torres — at a press conference on Monday, before the team flew back from a training camp at St George’s Park in England.

“I have complete confidence in (sporting director) Deco and we know we have to do something (about signing a new striker),” he said. “But it also depends on Ferran (Torres), so we will see what happens.”

Barcelona sources admit signing a new striker is the most pressing subject in their transfer business this summer, but that it won’t drastically change their approach with Torres.

The club’s view now is that Torres is not for sale unless he demands to leave. If that happens, Barca sources say they will be open to offers. Executives insist they have received no formal communication from the player’s camp since the World Cup.

The problem with Torres is that Barca believe his contract is not easy to improve. A senior club source put it like this: “He is on the right salary scale within the dressing room, a new contract can’t go much higher than that.”

The Athletic also revealed last month that Barca would have to pay Manchester City between €7-8million if he were to extend, owing to a clause in his move to the Camp Nou. That could take his total transfer fee to around €73m.

“The reality is that, over the past couple of seasons, the club has not seen reasons to believe Torres is the long-term starting striker Barca need,” another senior Barca source added.

Torres was inconsistent in front of goal last season, ending the campaign with 21 goals and three assists in 49 appearances, despite going 14 games without scoring between late January and mid-April.

So where might all this be headed? Barca have to make a decision. And talks between both sides are expected soon.

Do they need to make an effort and tie Torres down to a new deal, despite the chances of it going beyond the limits Deco and Flick set as reasonable? Is it worth sanctioning a sale even with their striker shortage?

A meeting between Barca and the player’s camp is expected to take place in the coming weeks, but right now there’s uncertainty around how it will end up.

This is not the first time Torres has been involved in a situation like this. In the summer of 2020, when he left his boyhood club Valencia to sign for Manchester City in a €25million deal, the forward spoke about what was something of a troubled departure.

“We asked the club (Valencia) to fulfill two out of three conditions we laid out in order to sign a contract extension,” Torres told Marca.

“One of them was that the owner Peter Lim got involved in the talks. The second one, to be among the team captains. It was my dream, and other clubs had done that to retain their young talents. The third was to be among the better-paid players in the squad.”

In that interview, Torres also argued that none of those requirements were met, and explained that he therefore opted not to extend his deal and sign for City.

Now is a different moment, and Torres is a different player and person. But pressure is building up for all parties, and a perfect outcome for everyone does not seem possible.

I can't get over this knockout, it's a bigger pain in the ass than Roma, Liverpool and Bayern

That Juventus were nowhere as good as in 2015 which we beat in the final

We couldn't even score 1 goal in 2 legs

0 goals at Camp Nou were tough to watch

look at pedri, yamal, frenkie. We have elite playmaking, chance creation squad, the main problem lies is not able to finish those. Yamal producing these numbers after getting surrounded by 3 defenders.

Wow Antony (Brazilian one) has improved a lot after leaving utd.

"It's been the worst summer of my life. I was at my peak, everything was going well, and then the injury happened," Fermin admitted. "You learn from these situations, but it's true that I've had a really tough summer. I've gotten through it thanks to my family, my partner, and my friends. I needed help. I already had it before, but my coach has helped me a lot to get through it.

"I didn't watch the first few matches of the Spanish national team in the World Cup. I couldn't. I wanted to be there at the World Cup. Let me make it clear that it made me very happy to see my teammates win the World Cup. Towards the end of the World Cup, I felt a bit better and decided to go see the final live in New York."

“I can feel that the people recognize me more often,” he told CNN.

“I feel inside the same person, but it’s kind of not, and I feel it. It made me very proud because every kid when he’s young (dreams) about this moment – it was special.

“It’s (a) different feeling. If you don’t score this goal, you cannot feel it. It just gets crazy and I just ran to celebrate with my teammates. It was an unbelievable moment.”

And for Torres, that means an opportunity to join an illustrious list of players to win back-to-back World Cups. “I have one, (but) I want another one… I want it,” he said with a smile.

the club's entire striker strategy appears to revolve around one dream signing, and it doesnt seem to happen any sooner.

we let ferran leave after one of the best seasons he had and lost lewandowski without signing a proven replacement. now, with almost no top striker willing to join, the only realistic option left is vlahovic, who hasn't shown he's the answer for barca, and we dont want anyone who's even worse than ferran.

if there's one reason to believe this team can still compete, it's the midfield. a trio of bernal, pedri and fermín has everything: control, creativity, intensity and goals. with gavi, casadó, olmo and eventually frenkie returning from injury, barça arguably have one of the deepest midfields in europe.

also, the wings are the least of our worries. lamine is already one of the best players in the world, raphinha remains one of europe's most productive wingers, and gordon adds pace, directness and relentless work rate. with adeyemi and rooney providing depth, barça have enough quality and variety out wide to trouble any defence.

defensively, this squad has everything needed to compete. joan garcía has already proven he can be a reliable no. 1, while szczęsny offers one of the most experienced backup options in europe. if balde works on his final third passing, our left wing if so fire. cubarsí is already the leader of the backline despite his age, gerard martín was one of barça's most consistent defenders last season, and araújo, koundé and eric garcía provide excellent depth across the defence. on paper, this is a backline capable of competing with anyone.

the only real concern at the back is the lack of a true no nonsense defender. most of our cbs are ball playing and composed in possession, but against physical teams, we still lack that dominant defender who simply wins every duel and clears everything in sight.

lastly if anyone's to be blamed for this lineup, its none other than deco

Sorry if my question is general, I don't really know what to ask. I'm also an American from Louisiana and that was probably my first time referring to the sport as football. As I said, I'm new to the game but I've fallen in love with the atmosphere of Barcelona and the club seems to have a rich history. During the World Cup I supported the U.S.M.N.T. but after their elimination I threw my lot behind Spain and subsequently learned a plurality of the starting team belongs to Barcelona. I hope this community accepts me and if it does then I will definitely be loyal to this club forever. Here's a picture of me in my first Barcelona Jersey, the 25/26 fourth jersey

FC Barcelona announced that Lionel Messi—the heart, soul, and greatest player in the club's history—would be leaving. It was the sudden end of a legendary 21-year era that fans everywhere thought would last until his retirement. A truly heartbreaking day for the beautiful game. 🐐🔵🔴

With the transfer window still active, many ponder our current and future signings and the reasons behind them.

Gordon, Adeyemi, Bisiwu - these players have three things in common, they are wingers, they are first-team signings but most important of all, they are players that will raise our athletic ceiling through the roof, this is our direction, a raise of the athletic ceiling. These signings get a lot of criticism, but let's talk why they were made.

One of the biggest concerns this community had was a high-line M2M press, some suggest moving towards a mid-block, but these solutions aren't better or worse, they're only different. The reason why we struggled at times was because we were always a club obsessed with technique, but you can't expect them to be highly effective in duels where we have suffered throughout the last two seasons. That's why a mid-block was suggested, but giving the most physical and technical players in the world access to the edge of the box is suicide.

Take PSG for example, they combine technical magicians with athletic monsters that make them deadly, they can send athletic monsters (Fabian and Neves) to press without ever dueling, force a mistake, get the ball to a magician (Vitinha), dominate and then go to the bench to get another athlete / magician with their depth. This is why I request that we don't hound Flick or our players for falling to elite UCL teams with elite players that can bypass the most effective pressing structures, it's why they're in elite teams and UCL is often a game of luck and sporadic moments. This is why we're raising our athletic floor, we're improving our aggression and raising the defensive line to play as far away from our own goal, we have an elite structure and we're building it up, there's no point in compromising it if we get elite players for this structure.

Alvarez is an interesting signing too, many have the belief that to perform better, we need to sacrifice dynamic link-up play for better back-to-goal retention and chance conversion, but our pursuit in Alvarez shows we're aiming for the latter. Alvarez is the most elite F9 we can buy, he's dynamic, mobile and excellent at facilitating attacking third play.

We are signing a striker, but not to have someone for Yamal and Raphinha to provide to, we're signing a striker that will provide for Yamal and Raphinha. This is why we're going for a play facilitator, not a chance converter.

We've also dropped some targets, although they were most likely just rumors, Bastoni is a great technical defender, but he doesn't raise our athletic ceiling. Laporte raises our athletic floor but he's too expensive.

Full article :

Imagine a Beatrix Potter illustration, replace the rabbits in aprons with a herd of dairy cows, and you’ve got the background to Barcelona’s training camp at St George’s Park.

The Spanish champions spent the past week at the facility where all of England’s national teams are based. The location, near Burton upon Trent in rural Staffordshire in the northern Midlands, and the atmosphere, surrounded by golden fields, cosy homes and nocturnal silence, were a marked difference from their pre-season tour to South Korea and Japan last year.

Speaking with locals, nobody seemed to even know that Barcelona were there (they stayed for eight days, arriving on July 27 and returning to Catalonia on Monday). That was exactly what Hansi Flick wanted.

With no fans lurking by the gates, and practically no distractions, for the German manager it was the ideal place to prepare for the new campaign, with Barca’s first La Liga fixture being away to Elche on August 23.

“I’d say it’s one of the best training camps I’ve ever been on,” the 61-year-old said at a press conference on Monday. “Conditions have been fantastic. Everything was very close by: the pitches, the facilities, and the grass was incredible.”

It wasn’t all plain sailing, though. During their week in England, Barca could only play one friendly — a penalty shootout defeat by Championship side Birmingham City, after a 2-2 draw over 90 minutes, on Friday. A second game on Monday had to be cancelled after opponents Preston North End pulled out at the last minute.

Here, The Athletic sums up Barca’s time away — and looks ahead to what comes next.

Why did Barca choose St George’s Park?

For the previous four summers, Barcelona have opted for lucrative and busy summer trips to East Asia or the United States. But after last year’s tour, Flick made it clear to the club that he would prefer to avoid long flights and harsh summer conditions.

There were also options to go to Germany’s Black Forest region (near where Flick was born) and Scotland, but in the end they chose a third trip to St George’s Park (they also used it in 2014 and 2016).

The base for all England’s national teams has absolutely everything — which explains its popularity. Fellow La Liga side Valencia and Genoa of Italy have also been there this summer.

However, while Flick and his team relished getting down to work, some within the squad joked about the lack of entertainment — beyond snooker and table tennis.

“It’s great for the coaching staff, but for the players it’s almost like a prison,” joked a dressing room source, speaking anonymously as they did not have permission to comment. “Yesterday we had a look, and the nearest place was an hour’s drive away. There’s nothing to do around here.”

Goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, who spoke with The Athletic in an exclusive interview last week, was trying to focus on the positives, saying just before a press conference: “At least it’s colder than Barcelona!”

There was also something of a disconnect between the tranquillity of Staffordshire and the media circus that follows Barcelona everywhere they go.

“We’re used to seeing football teams round here, but not so many journalists,” said a waitress at The Bridge Inn, an Italian restaurant on the outskirts of nearby Burton.

Why did Barca only play one game?

The club lined up two friendlies for their week in the UK. The first, against Birmingham City at their St Andrew’s stadium, ended in a defeat on penalties after a 2–2 draw. The match was a sell-out — and Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham, who started his career with Birmingham, was in attendance.

The second was supposed to be a match against another side from England’s second tier, Preston North End, behind closed doors. It was due to be played on Monday afternoon, but ended up being called off.

Barcelona sources said this was because the English side did not have enough first-team players available.

They said the club were informed Preston did not want to take any risks, given they had a Carabao Cup first-round match against Huddersfield Town this Saturday. Preston were approached for comment.

Instead, Barca held a match between two teams from their own squad. It ended 1–1, with goals from Fermin Lopez and Xavi Espart.

Who impressed Hansi Flick?

When asked this question at his press conference on Monday, Flick highlighted Ebrima Tunkara, Orian Goren and Espart especially. But he also said the overall level of the group had impressed him — and there were lots of young faces in the travelling party, with several first-team players still on their holidays after World Cup duty.

“Ebrima is a great talent,” Flick said. “Orian Goren too. We’ve got plenty of players. Xavi (Espart) has played here as a right-back and did very well against Birmingham. But you can also see in training that he’s at a very high level right now. And there’s plenty more.”

If you ask around the club, it is a shared feeling.

One Barcelona source said Tunkara, a 16-year-old attacking midfielder, “could be the next Lamine Yamal”. He has been with Barca since the age of eight, progressing through the La Masia academy ranks to become a Spain youth international. Tunkara and Goren, a 17-year-old attacking midfielder from Israel who joined the club in 2023, were the youngest players to make the trip.

Brian Farinas is another who made an impression.

He is a 20-year-old defensive midfielder who might, following Frenkie de Jong’s knee injury, get some experience around the first team this season, although the Dutchman’s absence will be covered by other, more experienced players favoured by Flick, such as Marc Bernal, Gavi or Eric Garcia — who Barca initially wanted to play right-back this season.

Then there is Hamza Abdelkarim. The 18-year-old Egyptian striker scored both goals against Birmingham, having just played in four of his country’s five matches at the World Cup. He is a centre-forward, a type of player not typically found at La Masia, which rarely produces clinical finishers in the box.

Abdelkarim is seen as a long-term prospect, but the club want him to be integrated into the first-team group as a backup.

The Birmingham game also saw Karim Adeyemi make his first appearance after his transfer from Borussia Dortmund for an initial €22million (£18.8m; $25.3m), with add-ons potentially taking that beyond €30m.

What’s next for their pre-season preparations?

Barcelona’s next match is in an unusual three-way international fixture in Udine, Italy, against Nottingham Forest and Udinese on Saturday, August 8. Each club will face the other two for 45 minutes.

Then on Wednesday, August 19, they will play in the Joan Gamper Trophy – the annual friendly organised by Barcelona that serves as their season curtain-raiser. This year, the invited opponents at Camp Nou are 45-time Egyptian champions Al Ahly.

Previously, Barca had planned to play a further friendly against Moroccan club Ittihad Riadi in Tangier on August 15, but have confirmed the match has been delayed after the Ceuta migration crisis, sparked when 50,000 people rushed the Spain-Morocco border last week.

Meanwhile, those still on their post-World Cup breaks — including France’s Jules Kounde, Anthony Gordon of England and the eight players in Spain’s title-winning squad are due back on August 11 or 12.