Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Arsenal have won the race to sign Gabriel Magalhaes from Lille OSC, according to The Guardian.
Having arrived to Lille from Brazilian club Avai in 2017, the 22-year-old defender spent some time on loan with Troyes and Dinamo Zagreb, but his fine performances for Lille in the cut-short 2019/20 season attracted the attention of a number of clubs across Europe. Everton, Napoli and Arsenal all showed very serious interest, while Manchester United and Manchester City monitored the situation. Everton were the first to drop out of the race, and the player’s wish to test himself in the Premier League therefore had him leaning towards Arsenal until Napoli made him a last-gasp lucrative contract offer.
Nonetheless, talks with Arsenal on Saturday yielded a significant breakthrough, and Gabriel is now scheduled to travel to London on Monday to complete the move which should see Lille receive up to €30 million (£27m) for giving his services up.
1) I'd be very surprised if he went anywhere. This is just a ploy to get the President Bartomeu out. Once Bartomeu is out I'd be shocked if he didn't rescind the transfer request. Plus the situation could end up messy too as Messi had the release clause by June 30 but due to the covid break he said that was now until August 31, but Barcelona is saying the date didn't change, so even IF Messi did want to leave even with the president out that's going to be a sticky situation.
2) IF Messi is indeed intent of leaving, then Barcelona shouldn't even contest it, they should just give into his request and they should just go through a complete rebuild, just change that whole team over. I told someone like a month or 2 ago that Barcelona was heading down the same path that Manchester United headed down post Fergie and to a lesser extent Roma & Inter headed down. You look at how long it's taken United and Inter to bounce back and Roma is still struggling along, so Barca can either go for another champs league run with the old guard of Messi, Suarez, Busquets, Pique but once they all retire and they are ALL on the wrong side of 30 so probably sooner rather than later they are TOTALLY screwed, or they can integrate younger players, try to find a new Messi, new Iniesta, new Pique, new Busquets and take their lumps for a few seasons but then get back to the top of Europe in 3 or 4 years.
Case 1....Good Points, but the New Coach seems to be calling the shots for now.
Case 2.... The Dutchman does NOT want, Suarez, Pique and only God knows who else he's not keen on keeping.
The Short Time left for this to explode, is running out for the Institution.
By September 1st we will have a better View of the Barca Pandemia.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
