57 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

If we were to sell Willian, I wouldn't want Malcom as part of the deal. I would rather keep that position open for somebody better.

Competition is needed......plus we could take those rumoured 50 and get fekir etc.....or add another 40-50 and get a quality striker or a Koulibaly, gives us decent options this deal. I dont know what kind of substance Barca are on to offer such a deal......sadly it seems we are on the same sh*t for rejecting it.

42 minutes ago, atomis said:

Competition is needed......plus we could take those rumoured 50 and get fekir etc.....or add another 40-50 and get a quality striker or a Koulibaly, gives us decent options this deal. I dont know what kind of substance Barca are on to offer such a deal......sadly it seems we are on the same sh*t for rejecting it.

the deal seems to be malcom +12 for willian... if we don't rate malcom, it's not much of an offer.  We're fighting for top 4 and Barca for Spain and Europe.  It makes sense to open things up for CHO, and get younger.  But once again it just depends how we rate malcom, if we rate him at 25 mil, well then it's not worth it.

Selling Willian sends the right message to CHO. if our future is our aim and is why Barkley played and Cesc did not so he left we should likewise move Willian aside and say to Callum "there you go son, shows us your worth"

12 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

I'd assume we're not interested in Malcom as part of any potential deal. 

If we're hoping to keep hold of CHO, with Pulisic arriving in the summer and Pedro having signed a contract extension we're not in need of bringing in more wingers. 

Straight cash deal is what we need. 

Get a striker in this month and use Hazard, Pedro, CHO on the wings for the remainder of the season with RLC providing additional cover there is needed. Sarri's already used Emerson out wide a couple of times recently too which could also be an option if required. 

SELL, SELL, SELL! 

I think you're right about the cash thing. Our business model and FFP compliance is largely determined by player sales. If we are selling players a player exchange would be less helpful to do that. 

As for whether we swap Willian with Malcom, to put this in context Malcom has never played for Brazil where Willian is a regular. He has also played about 5 games for Barca this season, most off the bench. He's had one good year at Bordeaux that got him the transfer to Barca. From that we can assume that:

1. He isn't a better player than Willian right now.

2. We are buying potential not end product.

3. That he wouldn't be match fit and would need time to adjust to our system.

Based on that I can't see how the transfer improves our team for the run in. 

If we can say there is no benefit to the squad from the swap. Let's look at the finances:

Malcom is paid about 80k a week at Barca where as Willian is paid 120k here. With a fee of 12m that makes about a 14m dollar saving. In 2018 I think it's fair to say that Willian is probably worth more than 14m to us, particularly when if we were going to sell, a Chinese club could offer us double if not triple that in the summer. 

It's a good call from the club and makes total sense as soon as you look at arguments beyond 'but Willian doesn't get enough goals and assists'.

29 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

I think you're right about the cash thing. Our business model and FFP compliance is largely determined by player sales. If we are selling players a player exchange would be less helpful to do that. 

As for whether we swap Willian with Malcom, to put this in context Malcom has never played for Brazil where Willian is a regular. He has also played about 5 games for Barca this season, most off the bench. He's had one good year at Bordeaux that got him the transfer to Barca. From that we can assume that:

1. He isn't a better player than Willian right now.

2. We are buying potential not end product.

3. That he wouldn't be match fit and would need time to adjust to our system.

Based on that I can't see how the transfer improves our team for the run in. 

If we can say there is no benefit to the squad from the swap. Let's look at the finances:

Malcom is paid about 80k a week at Barca where as Willian is paid 120k here. With a fee of 12m that makes about a 14m dollar saving. In 2018 I think it's fair to say that Willian is probably worth more than 14m to us, particularly when if we were going to sell, a Chinese club could offer us double if not triple that in the summer. 

It's a good call from the club and makes total sense as soon as you look at arguments beyond 'but Willian doesn't get enough goals and assists'.

 

54 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

I think you're right about the cash thing. Our business model and FFP compliance is largely determined by player sales. If we are selling players a player exchange would be less helpful to do that. 

As for whether we swap Willian with Malcom, to put this in context Malcom has never played for Brazil where Willian is a regular. He has also played about 5 games for Barca this season, most off the bench. He's had one good year at Bordeaux that got him the transfer to Barca. From that we can assume that:

1. He isn't a better player than Willian right now.

2. We are buying potential not end product.

3. That he wouldn't be match fit and would need time to adjust to our system.

Based on that I can't see how the transfer improves our team for the run in. 

If we can say there is no benefit to the squad from the swap. Let's look at the finances:

Malcom is paid about 80k a week at Barca where as Willian is paid 120k here. With a fee of 12m that makes about a 14m dollar saving. In 2018 I think it's fair to say that Willian is probably worth more than 14m to us, particularly when if we were going to sell, a Chinese club could offer us double if not triple that in the summer. 

It's a good call from the club and makes total sense as soon as you look at arguments beyond 'but Willian doesn't get enough goals and assists'.

Willian himself only had about 5 caps at the age of 25 when we signed him, so malcom being uncapped at 22 isn't really relevant in my opinion. 

It appears the club just don't fancy malcom as a player. 

Personally i think it would've been a great deal, especially when you look at the likes of pepe being touted as €70m when they have had a similarly productive half season in France, despite being 4 years older.

I get your point about malcom not being match fit though, if it takes him a while to settle we could be worse off in the short term. 

I really like the look of malcom though, great left foot, very tricky, plays with confidence, and he has end product. He made a poor decision signing for barca though, he was never going to feature heavily competing with the likes of messi and dembele, and just like CHO has found, talent doesn't necessarily correlate to playing time. 

 

I think the board have called it right by not risking losing Willian. It’s too much of a risk with our thin squad. 

We prob missed our chance in the summer to offload Willian. 

I failed to see why both sides are so keen to have Willian, he's just not and hasn't been that good. I'd do the deal, last chance to sell him and generate some cash for future purchase. If that Malcolm is truly awful, we could always sell him for a profit, he maybe half decent.

Barcelona are willing to listen to offers for midfielder Philippe Coutinho, 26, with Manchester United interested in signing the former Liverpool man in the summer. (Calciomercato, via Star)

3 hours ago, icecoolguy22 said:

I failed to see why both sides are so keen to have Willian, he's just not and hasn't been that good. I'd do the deal, last chance to sell him and generate some cash for future purchase. If that Malcolm is truly awful, we could always sell him for a profit, he maybe half decent.

Willian works his butt off defensively, his motor is really high.  Even though he lacks the first touch, he brings a lot to the table, can soften a defense to for a super sub situation.

7 hours ago, the special one said:

Barcelona are willing to listen to offers for midfielder Philippe Coutinho, 26, with Manchester United interested in signing the former Liverpool man in the summer. (Calciomercato, via Star)

Work out a deal for Coubtinho. Cash plus Willian. Unfortunately I think it would probably cost a fair bit. 

3 hours ago, JM7 said:

Work out a deal for Coubtinho. Cash plus Willian. Unfortunately I think it would probably cost a fair bit. 

Sell Barkley and we're break even? 

9 hours ago, Wearyourblue said:

Willian works his butt off defensively, his motor is really high.  Even though he lacks the first touch, he brings a lot to the table, can soften a defense to for a super sub situation.

absolute myth.

The defensive contribution argument is a weird excuse to try and ignore his failings in offense where his primary duties lie. 

Wouldn't even mind it if he actually puts in a hard working defensive game but he hasn't really since Mourinho left.

7 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

The defensive contribution argument is a weird excuse to try and ignore his failings in offense where his primary duties lie. 

It's like the David Luiz argument in reverse.

I’m just worried that we turn this offer down, a few years down the line Malcom turns out to be a world beater.

4 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

The defensive contribution argument is a weird excuse to try and ignore his failings in offense where his primary duties lie. 

It's like saying a defender isn't so great defensively but is great going forward so it's acceptable for him to be poor at defending.

... so about that offer from Barca...

Someone just abduct him for the next 3 months please. 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115851/

Great goal today. Played okay aswell, should've scored that one at the end of the first half, but he was unlucky with the chance he tried to lob the keeper. 

It was about this time last year he hit some really good form, hopefully we see the same with some big games coming up in the next 4 weeks.

with today's performance, there will be less hate for Slicky Wily & perhaps more hype for Barca to buy him from Chelsea

A brilliant goal from Willian won us this match. He would be one of the best players in the Premier League, if he could do this more often.

I’d still sell him. This form is only going to last for a few more weeks and then he’ll be back to usual.

A wonderful player at his best but sadly it doesn’t come very often.

30 minutes ago, robdog said:

with today's performance, there will be less hate for Slicky Wily & perhaps more hype for Barca to buy him from Chelsea

To be honest I thought he was pretty dreadful (along with a few others). I know that’s harsh considering he scored the winner.