SnokenKeekaGuard

Girona have had the biggest rebuild in Spain and a very fascinating window and I wanna talk about that. But before I talk about it, here's what the manager thinks.

#Michel Quotes:

“The preseason has been bad. We have not been able to have all the players available. Right now I am not clear about the team or the way to play… and we are five days away from the competition.”

“I’m impatient. I don’t know how the team will go into the season. There are players who have trained less because they arrived late, but I am convinced that we will have a good week to arrive at the league match in good shape.”

“We don’t have to be worried, but we do have to be alert. With work, the team will give a very good version.”

“Right now, I don’t have a clear idea of the team, nor the way of playing, injuries, players at the Euros, at the Olympics, signings arriving late... I’m worried about that. About not being able to train together.”

#Transfer Incomings:

•Alejandro Frances: A great center back I've wanted in the top division for two years now alongside Mika Marmol who luckily got the move last year to Las Palmas. •Ladislav Krejci: A left footed center back who I've seen very little of but looks like a decent ball playing cb and a long term replacement of Blind. •Gabriel Misehouy: Very young and unlikely to make much of an impact in the short term. •Abel Ruiz: A decent young striker who played over Samu at the Olympics. •Bojan Miovski: Very highly talked about by people who know his game, from the little I've seen, I like him dropping deep and connecting play.

#Loans:

•Pau Lopez: Has a buy option and a much needed second keeper. •Oriol Romeu: Return of the man who never ought to have left. Will probably do fine this season. •Donny van de Beek: Let's see if he even stays fit. •Bryan Gil: Clearly has the talent but seems weak and has failed to make a difference. Tactically would do a lot that Savio did and hopefully can be half as impactful as Savio.

#End of loans:

•Eric Garcia: Played a lot last season and had his career revived, disappointing to see him leave. •Yan Couto: One of the best fullbacks around honestly, did a spectacular job last year. Big loss but atleast Arnau is around. •Savio: Best player in the team. Too good for Girona tbh. •Pablo Torre: Didn't even play a 1000 minutes, won't be missed.

#Sold:

•Dovbyk: Atleast got 30m for him. •Aleix Garcia: The heart of the team. Absolutely ran the game and one of my favourite midfielders in Spain. Would have liked to see Kirian Rodriguez as his replacement. Lost for under 20m unfortunately.

Irrelevant players left/loaned:

•Pau Victor: Wasn't at Girona last season. •Toni Fuidas: 3rd choice keeper. •Sala •Kebe •Gabri •Callens •Borja Garcia

#Current Squad:

Only 12 players played over 1300 minutes! 5 of which have left, Pablo Torre the only not to have played a big role of the 6 major leavers.

Arnau Martinez and Jhon Solis are the only 2 players in the squad who could have an improved role this season.

The club and manager still want 3-4 more signings and that makes sense. They relied on just 12 players last year and this year they'll have more games to play.

#Further transfer rumours:

•Pubill after failed medical at Atalanta (is it me or are far too many deals falling through at medicals this window?)

•Sergi Roberto was linked although I thought he was closer to Ajax.

•Failed to land Bryan Zaragoza who would've been useful.

•Nico Paz and Oroz have been linked as attacking mids while Oroz won't be leaving and Girona look like an unlikely destination for Nico Paz too. Giannis Constentellias is the third and it seems PAOK did not even want to negotiate so unlikely.

•Javi Guerra was openly a target for Girona and Atletico cancelled that transfer. Girona might just gk for him again.

•Orri Oskarsson and Umar Sadiq were strikers also linked to Girona but 2 have been signed already. Vitor Roque was also linked but I feel thats just a random rumor.

•Arnau Comas was a center back linked but with Krejci and Frances already done I don't see that happening.

•Petrusenko is a Ukrainian midfielder. Now I don't know how real this link is but Girona need a midfielder and have targeted the Ukrainian league recently. Looks the likeliest of the rumours to me.

•Left back Lucas Piton. Not a position the club is targeting.

•Unai Lopez is another midfielder although perhaps just not good enough for Girona rn.

#Season Prediction

At this point Madrid, Barca, Atletico and Athletic Club are the clear top 4. La real are probably the 5th best despite Le Normand and possibly Merino leaving, atleast Zubimendi stays. Betis and Villarreal both seem to think center backs are unimportant in a squad somehow and yet I'd say they still have more of their core intact and would probably end up above Girona. So my prediction would be Girona ending at 8th in the League and being irrelevant in the UCL. And I say 8th only because I pray for the failure of Valencia.

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With a 30m sale of Larsen now likely and the 40m sale of Veiga last year, this transfer window should be fascinating. Now I haven't seen many transfer rumours (pls mention any you've seen).

I've liked the decisions Celta have made, Rafa Benitez failed but was a reasonable hire considering they wanted to shore up their defence and wanted a manager who'd help develop players, with his cv the hiring decision was a wise one. They then face him a lot of time (which they got a lot of flack for) but again the underlying numbers were good, celta were just underperforming which isn't a tactical issue. But once he was fired they didn't take any manager available but went with Giraldez from the B team which was another good decision, this time one that paid off.

Now the issues they had this season were mostly defensive, they simply leaked in far too many goals. Especially late in the game which I presume has been a conditioning issue which I hope is worked upon.

The two massive positives of having Giraldez have been the attacking style and the academy players being introduced.

Last seasons signings (summer signings only):

• Carles Peres: failed having played under a 1000 minutes despite coating over 5m.
• Manu Sanchez: a very smart free transfer which was ok ig, still expect him to improve as he's a decent player with good potential.
• Bamba: Quality player I was shocked went to Celta but has been predictably good, hopefully stays for a long time as he could be key post Aspas.
• Dotor: A valuable signing for little money who flirted with being a starter for a few games mid season. A midfielder who I always thought was best at popping into the box as a goalscoring mf at Castilla but wasn't ready for the top division. Obviously never could have replaced Veiga and Vigo should've gotten a starting level cm last year instead but dotor has potential and hopefully can have more of an impact next season.
• Starfelt: Another signing that just makes sense but didn't work out, I heard he might go back to Celtic which would be OK ig. Unavailability of the cbs was a massive issue all season.
• Douvikas: 13m on this guy. Don't think they should've done so. But he scored as much as Larsen in like half the minutes. Idk if he has what it takes to be a top flight striker but for the sake of celta I hope he does.

So onto the holes in the squad. I think this team needs a striker replacement, 2 starting centre backs and a starting midfielder. Unai Nunez is the only cb I trust and I'd rather play Oscar Mingueza as a full back/ wing back since I like his crossing.

So here are some realistic signings I'd like:

Alvaro Rodriguez: Going down the Dotor route and signing another Castilla product. Hes clearly ready for the top division and would be good competition for Douvikas. Likely joining Getafe.

Sergi roberto although unsure about this: Despite Hugo Sotelo doing well alongside Tapia (who should be a definite starter) I feel like a good cm is needed, although I'm not sure who. There's quite a few players in the squad who I hope step up and make a cm unnecessary. There's also Damian Rodriguez, as I said loads of cms and loads of academy players introduced. I'd like an experienced guy alongside all these young players.

Alejandro Frances: A center back I really like at Zaragoza who could play on the right.

Raillo: Mallorca's captain and cb. Probably unrealistic but what a signing that would be!

Pablo Ramon: if Frances is undoable. Another Castilla guy.

Nico Paz: not needed in the squad but a very talented who could potentially be a bargain signing and a decent market opportunity.

Now I don't have the data but it feels like the other 3 nations (England, Germany and Italy) can just buy away players from Spain. Maybe I'm wrong hut I think there's a larger ratio of outgoings than incomings.

The league has still maintained it's status thanks to all the local talent produced and great academies.

OK maybe Germany, Italy and Spain are on similar footballing level and so buy from each other whole everyone has to sell to the EPL. (Minus a club or two)

We seem to have more incomings from south america (maybe bc Spanish makes it easier for Argentinians) but no other reason I can think of (climate maybe??).

The league rules don't particularly make it anymore easy or difficult I don't think.

Perhaps it's just a bias of mine, I can't be certain until I find the data.

There are 493 Spanish players in the top 5 leagues compared to 390 for France who are the runner ups. 320 for Italy. 303 for England. 299 for Germany. 107 for Brazil! Non European team with 100+ players. 75 for Argentina.

71 Portugal. If it said top 6 leagues they'd be higher. 62 Netherlands. 57 Belgium. 49 Senegal! 47 Côte d'ivoire! Both small nations with massive numbers and over the likes of Serbia, Croatia, Denmark etc.

Spain let's a lot of players go. But part of it is just the ability to produce talent within the country.

• Ronaldo, I was sad but felt like it was an exciting time with bale, benz and Isco ready to step up and asensio rising. I thought the drop off wouldn't be too bad and everyone else would get a chance to shine.

• Benz, it was time and with Saudi calling it felt right for him to leave on a high.

• Bale, personally top 3 favourite for me (alongside kroos and carvajal) but glad the drama was over. Will always have a special place in my heart.

• Casemiro, the anti bale, him and varane were ALWAYS called underrated to the point that they weren't underrated anymore. Great player but I was only mildly worried seeing him leave, wanted one more season of his.

• Kroos, ABSOLUTELY devasted. This is the worst thing that has happened for me since I started following football. I wish it hadn't happened but I understand its best for him. Atleast we knew there was a chance since he always said he wanted to go out on top.

• Marcelo, sad to say I was glad he left. It felt like he overstayed. While most of the team recovered from the post 18/19 slump, Marcelo wasn't the same. He was a liabily on the pitch against any level of opposition. Especially with Mendy showing exactly what Marcelo's weakness had always been later.

• Ramos, the only one I was as worried about as I was with Ronaldo. Alaba did well to fill in his boots but noone can replace all of Ramos' qualities.

• Varane, the timing was bad and hence I was worried. But still thought it was OK that it happened. In the Casemiro camp for me.

• Isco, felt like it was overdue. Although since I always loved both Bale and James I had a bit of a bias against him. Looking back I may have underappreciated his peak, but the player he was at the point of departure was one that didn't deserve to be a starter (or a bench player tbh). Loved his revival this year.

• Navas, what a valuable guy he turned out to be, forever undervalued by his clubs in favour of star players. Wtf was that video of his that just got leaked. I really really wanted de gea so took me a while to warm up to him, but once courtois was here .... the writings were on the wall.

The rest were mostly squad players or players here for not all 3 years.

Would love to hear which player hurt the most for y'all.

Aleix Garcia, Savio and Dovbyk are likely all gone next season to Leverkusen, Man City and Atletico (direct Rival). These are the 3 best players at the club.

Noone knows if Pablo Torre and Eric Garcia stay. Even if Pablo Torre stays he's a depth player. Also are they staying on loan or a permanent move.

Yan Couto and Miguel have been linked with moves away.

Blind and David Lopez are on their last legs both turning 35.

They'll have European games next sesson making a much heavier game load and they don't have any quality depth rn anyways.

Not to imply all these players will leave, the best 3 look most likely to leave. I think this is a serious dent to the Girona project.

I genuinely don't think they'll end up in the top 7 next year. No matter who joins and I know everyone wants to say the city group will send x or y but they really can't do much.

Can't wait to see how they replace these players.

Even Tsigankov and Ivan Martin are potentially leaving. Absolutely ends the project. All they have for sure is Yangel.

##Manager Garcia Pimienta is a great manager and his style would perfectly fit the intended philosophy of the club. Now Flores deserves all the credit in the world for stabilising the mess that he inherited and it feels unfair to let him go, but that's just not the way the club want to play football.

##Salaries Sevilla have the 4th highest salary expenditure in the league, which in the long run tends to be the most directly proportional factor in regards to performance. Now Rakitic was the highest earner and he's off the books. But Sevilla are still one of the most underperforming clubs in the world. (Thank you Monchi 🙄)

##Exits There's a hell lot of rumours about who stays and who leaves. * Navas will play for another 6 months then move to a non playing role.

• Ramos seems to be leaving to the MLS.
• Acuna a target for West Ham.
• En Nesyri wanted as always.
• Joan Jordan a possibility for Alaves.
• The way the Veliz and Mejbri loans have gone, they won't stay.
• Soumare is too expensive to finalise a deal.
• A few loan deals that ideally turn into permanent moves away.
• Lamela to Besiktas seems done.
• Rafa Mir might be of interest to Valencia.
• Most remaining players are welcome to leave.

Not all exits are bad tho, I'd welcome a squad clearance. As would the board.

##Chance Creation Desperately need someone like, hmmm, let me think now - Isco! Imagine having someone like that. Couldn't imagine it. There's needs to be more energy in the side. I'm sick of the stupid cross and inshaallah approach. Its the worst possible method of chance creation and smth no big club ought to do. Absolutely wasting possession this way.

##Defence It's been quite an issue recently, smth Flores helped with but the team is still unable to keep a clean sheet and with the back line clearing out, there's a serious need for some defensive solidity and will need some new signings.

##Philosophy

• Heavy possession ✅
• Crossing ❎ HATE IT
• Wide turnovers ✅ has worked well but need to do more than just cross it then.

##Starting XI

I think the future ought to be a midblock possession heavy side with maybe a 442 building on the partnership of Romero and En Nesyri (if he stays).

Suso and Ocampos on the wings is salvageable if consistently healthy, although Suso is the only creative one of the two, Ocampos stills offers some value with his off the ball movement.

With Juanlu Sanchez the only one I trust in the back 4 now even he'd need a second with Jesus Navas only around for 6 more months. I could imagine a world where Ocampos turns to a right back.

If Acuna stays he's a starter, if not I'd love to see if Reguillon might return.

The CB partnership is what I have no clue regarding. Loic Bade would likely continue to start but I'd like a new cb alongside him since Salas plus Bade isnt a starting pair to me rn. Gudelj and Nianzou could be valuable backups too. Marcao is a signing I always hated.

Kirian Rodriguez, who I desperately hope arrives ought to be partnered with anyone Pimienta trusts since there's a lot of players in the squad already.

Nyland also looks to be a starter although I'd love Valles from Las Palmas who is one of my favourite keepers around.

##Development I love the breakthrough prospects this season and hope we see a few more next season. It will be interesting to see how they add to their games and if they can become absolute starters and whether someone else breaks through into the first team squad. I thought Mejbri showed energy and directness in his fee minutes and could've been a player who could add value. Manu Bueno is on the fringes of the team and might be the next guy to come in. Beyond that Lulo Dasilva and Xavi Sintes could be around the squad, let's hope for the best during preseason.

##Incomings

• Raid Las Palmas: Kirian Rodriguez, Valles, Alberto Moleiro, Mika Marmol and Sergi Cardona. All players I love and would fit right in especially with Pimienta. Although impossible, if this happens Sevilla are back in the race for top 7. None of these players ought to be too expensive, Moleiro might be around 20mil at most and be the costliest of the lot.

*Arribas from a relegated Almeira looks like a possible deal to pull.

• Dani Ceballos, he's a high peak player but has struggled with injuries and when he's struggling for form, he STRUGGLES. Still a great player but would want a big salary.

• Fabio Silva is linked although I don't like 20 mil for him, Fati is linked with a loan and again has very high salary demands. Greenwood linked and don't want a rapist here. Stefan Bajcetic was linked and I'm on the fence, on one hand he's 15mil on the other he's a great player and a rb is needed. Thiago Alcantara linked too but too injury prone for too long.

##Conclusion I guess we can just hope for the best and it looks like some good decisions are being made. I'm happy with the direction the club is moving in, just pls start creating with smth other than crosses.

Disclaimer: This I wrote 2 months ago in case anything isnt up to date.

Taking a look at Las Palmas' window so far:

Losing Pimienta was incredibly unfortunate, but atleast they replaced him with Carrion and the signs there are good.

Fuster, Ivan Cedric, Park, Cilessen, Mata, Ivan Gil, Horkas, Alex Munoz, Viti have been signed/ made permanent already. Of these I feel like Viti is the only starting level player in the top division.

Although I do like Fuster he isn't half the player Moleiro is and doesn't even show similar potential. If he's been brought in as a potential replacement for him, it would be disappointing.

Araujo, Perrone are both on loan and I'm not sure of their future. Would love to hear if anyone knows. I think Araujo is less certain than Perrone but I don't know.

Cardona was one of the nest players this season and hes leaving on a free, a terrible terrible loss.

Valles, Kirian and Coco have all been linked with moves away. I love all 3. Valles is the worst of all since he might run out his contract and leave on a free next season if he isnt sold, meanwhile Betis have offered 4m to the 13m demands. I actually think Valles is good enough to demand 13m even with a contract running out. Hope they can cash in on him atleast.

Marmol and Moleiro are the other 2 great players at the club. Surprise surprise Las Palmas would sell Moleiro for 20m and Atletico are rumored to be interested. Might help financially but he's the most talented player to come out of their academy for a while. Luckily Marmol hasn't been linked with a move away. I thought he'd be a perfect signing for Girona but they went for Krejci so it appears he'll stay for now since I haven't seen rumours as of now.

Overall it appears Las Palmas want to fix their financial troubles, not take any risks and settle back into the second division. There seems to be very little ambition at the club.

I think there has been some very smart recruitment, a great team was built and they played great football. I admire their principles and I like a lot of their players. I feel like LaLiga is better with Las Palmas and want them to stay. But even with these shrewd signings I don't know if they can stay up. They don't have a single top division attacker imo.

Folks I downloaded bypass paywall clean d here and am trying to set it up (on android, mull). After I had to remove the old one, yknow.

I enable the debug menu, click install extension from file but then idk what I'm doing wrong. I did extract the file but nothing seems to work?

Would appreciate any help, thanks!