Will Signing a Thiago Silva or David Luiz solve Barca's defensive issues?

There has been unanimous agreement among football pundits and fans across the World about where Barca needs reinforcements this season. After getting thrashed 7-0 by a brilliant Bayern Munich side, naturally the focus was on defense. But there was enough recognisation that even the attack needs some add-ons; and in Neymar they hope that they have the perfect weapon. But there was no doubt in anyone's mind that the area where the maximum focus needs to be placed is in defense. It is a nice thing to see Football Club Barcelona trying to iron out the issues that plagued them throughout last season. The single minded pursuit of Thiago Silva and even keeping the David Luiz option as a back up shows how important the management see the need of reinforcement. But in this huge transfer saga going on, with details changing every day; one has to ask oneself whether an aquisition of either Thiago Silva or a David Luiz really gonna solve our issues?

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Has Thiago Silva Reached an Agreement with Barca?

Today Catalan media house, SPORT broke the story of an apparent agreement being reached between the Brazilian central defender, Thiago Silva and FC Barcelona on a move to Camp Nou. As per the story, the Brazilian has agreed for a 5 year deal with the Club and decided to take a substantial pay cut to join Barca. In my earlier post where I outlined "Why Thiago Silva won't join Barca?"; I mentioned his wages as a big obstacle. As per the SPORT story he will be placed in the same bracket as Xavi and Iniesta and will have it's pay increase based on performance bonuses. That's in real terms means a minimum pay cut of 2 - 3 Million Euros; that makes it difficult to believe this story(Have a look at Barca Pay Structure here - FC Barcelona Player Wages 2013). Also SPORT has a history of drawing up stories to sell their paper. Remember a day before Barca agreed on Villa transfer, they sold the player along with Thiago to Manchester United in exchange of Rooney.

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Lionel Messi unfairly being Targeted in USA

• Cancellation of Los Angeles Friendly draws ire of US Media and Fans.
• Even Chicago Friendly has landed in serious controversy.

Things are not going well for Lionel Messi, at least on the Public Relation front. First it was the tax avoidance allegations, then came the cancelled friendly in Los Angeles and then came another disaster after the Chicago Friendly. To be honest Messi has nothing to do with any of this mess. The tax situation could be a bit of legal tussle; since his attorneys have stayed firm we could assume the case is strong on his side. The LA Friendly cancellation have somehow squarely landed on his head. This is happening even when there were other star players scheduled to play in that; Cesc Fabregas, Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, Robert Lewandowski, Sergio Aguero and Boateng all were supposed play in that and all are in United States presently. But when the organisers decided to cancel the event they placed the entire blame on Lionel Messi.

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