Transfer Window Closed!
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Jim White - Sky Sports News "The summer transfer has now closed! Clubs can no longer sign players past this point. Lets take a look at the biggest deals that took place involving Spanish clubs...
Real Madrid signed Dutch wonderkid Matthijs de Ligt from Ajax for an initial £22.5m potentially rising to £27.5m
Another one involving a player leaving a Dutch team to join a club in Spain; Steven Berghuis left Feyenoord to join Real Sociedad for an initial £9m potentially rising to £10m, which is a real coup for the Spanish club.
Finally; ex-Arsenal player Thomas Vermaelen left Barcelona to join Italian side Torino; we understand that the deal was for an initial £6.5m potentially rising to £9m
Lets take a quick look at the rest of Barcelona's transfer activities during the summer window..
Players In:
Pelayo Morilla - 17 year old attacking midfielder: Sporting de Gijón - Barcelona £1.2m
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Iván Martínez - 16 year old goalkeeper: CD Iruña - Barcelona £1m
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Players Out:
Jasper Cillessen - Barcelona to Spartak Moscow £5.5m
Thomas Vermaelen - Barcelona to Torino £6.5m (8m)
Transfer Targets Missed Out On:
Matthijs de Ligt - This was my main transfer target at the beginning of the window. However; having £17m to spend on new signings I needed to try and clear some players out in order to get my number one target. I didn't manage to raise the funds in time, and my biggest rivals; Real Madrid swooped in to steal his signature for a mere initial cost of £22.5m, which is a really good bit of business by them as he's one of the biggest talents on the game.
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Barcelona Squad List Announced!
FC Barcelona have announced their list of 25 players for both the Champions League, and La Liga season ahead:
Goalkeepers:
Marc-André ter Stegen, Iñaki Peña
Defenders:
Gerard Piqué, Nélson Semedo, Jordi Alba, Samuel Umtiti, Clément Lenglet, Jeison Murillo (Loan In), Juan Miranda
Midfielders:
Sergio Busquets, Ivan Rakitić, Philippe Coutinho, Malcom, Arthur, Sergi Roberto, Rafinha, Sergi Samper, Carles Aleñá, Arturo Vidal, Ousmane Dembélé, Kevin-Prince Boateng (Loan In), Carles Pérez
Forwards:
Lionel Messi, Abel Ruiz, Luis Suárez
September Update:
Come the end of September; Barcelona currently sit joint top of La Liga; level with Atlético Madrid on 16 points after 6 games played. Out of the 6 games played across the month; Barcelona came away with 5 wins; including a 6-1 victory against FC Shakhtar Donetsk, in the Champions League's first round of fixtures.
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Player of the Month:
Ousmane Dembélé
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After an impressive run of fixtures during September; Ousmane Dembélé was the teams top performer. The French winger scored 4 goals;created 7 chances for his teammates; and picked up 1 assist, over the course of September's fixtures. He also averaged a match rating of 7.6.
September Results and Goal Scorers:
02/09/18 La Liga-
Barcelona 2 - 0 Getafe CF
Ousmane Dembélé (15), Lionel Messi (pen 41)
16/09/18 La Liga Barcelona 2 - 1 Rayo Vallecano
Ivan Rakitić (10), Carles Pérez (45+1) Raúl de Tomás (45+2)
19/09/18 Champions League Barcelona 6 - 1 FC Shakhtar Donetsk
Arturo Vidal (pen 21), Luis Suárez (42), Arthur (54), Ousmane Dembélé (67), Abel Ruiz (70), Philippe Coutinho (90) Jordi Alba own goal (87)
23/09/19 La Liga Real Betis 0 - 1
Barcelona
Ousmane Dembélé (4)
26/09/18 La Liga Barcelona 0 - 0 Valencia
29/09/18 La Liga Eibar 2 - 3
Barcelona
Pablo de Blasis (79), Gonzalo Escalante (84)
Philippe Coutinho (75), Luis Suárez (76), Ousmane Dembélé (77)
An excellent start to life at the Camp Nou. The results, often, aren't particularly dominant in terms of the score-line, but if the results and success can come, then I'm sure the fans will be on board. The ultimate aim is to restore glories in Europe once again, whilst restoring success domestically - this looks achievable so far.
Brilliant start to life at Barca with that 2-0 away win at Madrid signalling just how great it has been! Topping the league at this point is a good place to be hopefully the form continues and you end it at the top!
ScottT - I agree the scorelines could have been better. Although we're dominating matches, we're not converting many of the chances that we've created. Messi has been surprisingly poor so far, although he did miss a couple of games through injury.
TheLFCFan - Great start in terms of topping the league, results could have been slightly better; almost squandering the lead against Eibar for instance. The Madrid win was huge! Had a couple of players injured, including Ter Stegen; was regretting selling Cillessen before the game, but fair play, Iñaki Peña stepped up to the task.
Plenty of wins under your belt early on, now it is time to build on the momentum!
Justice - Seasons going well so far; unbeaten through November as well; long may it continue!
November Update:
Barcelona continued their unbeaten start to the campaign through to the month of December; picking up 4 wins and a draw during November. They beat local rivals; Espanyol 3-0 away from home; this result being the standout performance for the club during this month. Barcelona still occupy top spot in La Liga; however, title rivals Atlético Madrid have reduced the gap at the top of the table to just 1 point. Barcelona have also achieved qualification to the next stage of the Champions League, doing so with the luxury of a game to spare. If the results continue to coincide with the performances; it won't take to long for fans and pundits alike to get on board with what novice manager, Miguel Rodríguez is trying to achieve at the club. Surely it wont take the Barcelona board to much longer to offer him an extended contract if they continue to progress as they are doing so.
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Player of the Month:
Arthur
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Not to much to shout about this month in terms of individual performances; none the less; this months player of the month award goes to Brazilian play-maker, Arthur. The Brazilians dominant displays in midfielder, accompanied with his excellent passing capabilities see's him win this months player of the month award. In the 4 games he was involved in; he successfully completed 379 passes, averaging a pass completion rate of 94.75%. To top his month off; he scored a goal of the season contender at home to A.S.Roma in the Champions League, a stunning 20 yard first time volley from the edge of the box.
November Results and Goal Scorers:
03/11/18 La Liga Athletic Bilbao 1 - 1
Barcelona
Iñaki Williams (84)
Lionel Messi (5)
07/11/18 Champions League Barcelona 2 - 0 A.S. Roma
Ivan Rakitić (pen 62), Arthur (80)
10/11/18 La Liga RCD Espanyol 0 - 3
Barcelona
Luis Suárez (34, 90+1), Malcom (59)
24/11/18 La Liga Barcelona 2 - 0
Lionel Messi (8), Arturo Vidal (pen 12) Óscar Duarte sent off (45)
27/11/18 Champions League FC Shakhtar Donetsk 1 - 3
Barcelona
Taison (17)
Abel Ruiz (26), Malcom (30), Arturo Vidal (pen 62)
A draw against Bilbao isn't the most ideal results, but a few draws are inevitable. Well done on sealing qualification to the knockout stages with a game to spare.
ScottT - Yeah we need to cut out these annoying draws. We bossed the game, created more chances, just couldn't get that second goal, and ultimately paid the price for it. Still early days yet, got the big game against Atlético Madrid coming up at the end of December which hopefully will put some daylight between us.
