What exactly are Barcelona doing?

What is the plan? have they accepted Madrid as the superior team and given up? why are they targeting technically average midfielders like Serri and Paulinho?

Are they out of cash or out of ideas?

Is Seri 'technically average'?

-They hired Ariedo Braida, a genius director who's brought the likes of Valter Birsa and Urby Emanuelson.

-Messi doesn't have time between family, football and tax lawsuits, his minimal scouting is limited to Snapchat/Youtube etc

-Beyond players that spent a night in La Masia, they do not know how to assess players, i mean im pretty sure Semedo was a flavor of the month thing with no extensive scouting, they've been on Bellerin since forever

Hapless_Hans wrote:Is Seri 'technically average'?

Yup.

You could have started this thread 5 years ago and it would still be relevant

8-9 years ago, members of these forums were bragging about how La Masia would churn out world beaters for years to come. Anyone who disagreed were idiots and knew nothing about football

To be honest, the La Masia products they let go, bellerin and thiago would have probably solved their RB and CM problems already

Thimmy wrote:8-9 years ago, members of these forums were bragging about how La Masia would churn out world beaters for years to come. Anyone who disagreed were idiots and knew nothing about football

True instead to prove you know something about football everyone must act like dribbler whores, cause everyone missed the xavi-ini-busq hype train, so every mid with decent technical ability is god send and the kroos, and casemiro's of the world are all bang average no?

Valkyrja wrote:To be honest, the La Masia products they let go, bellerin and thiago would have probably solved their RB and CM problems already

Bellerin was not so much let go, Arsenal took him as a 16 year old when Barca couldn't offer them a pro contract. Thiago I completely agree with.

They still have Piqué, Messi, Busquets, Iniesta, Rafinha, Sergi Roberto and now again Deulofeu as Masia players who are part of their first team. Munir and Samper aren't gone either.
Which other club has so many academy players in their squad?

And we're talking about a first team which won the strongest league in the world 3 out of 5 times in the  last 5 years, won three CLs and were constantly a top 2, if not the no.1, team
all during the last decade.

And then, the crop before incuding Xavi was so strong that even a world class talent like Thiago left for lack of opportunities.
Which is a natural bybroduct of a very strong and successful team - lack of opportunities for the succeeding youth age groups.

So all around Europe, La Masia players are playing at very good clubs - Bartra a starter for Dortmund, Grimaldo a starter for Porto, Bellerin at Arsenal, Thiago at Bayern, Pedro and Fabregas at the English champions Chelsea, Sandro at Everton, Tello at Fiorentina, Bojan at Mainz etc.

Criticizing Barca for their academy and its perceived failings is frankly absolutely laughable.
@Thimmy is just mad that his beloved Ödegaard can't even cut it at Hengelo, after having been ruined by Real's youth setup

Hapless_Hans wrote:They still have Piqué, Messi, Busquets, Iniesta, Rafinha, Sergi Roberto and now again Deulofeu as Masia players who are part of their first team. Munir and Samper aren't gone either.
Which other club has so many academy players in their squad?

And we're talking about a first team which won the strongest league in the world 3 out of 5 times in the  last 5 years, won three CLs and were constantly a top 2, if not the no.1, team
all during the last decade.

And then, the crop before incuding Xavi was so strong that even a world class talent like Thiago left for lack of opportunities.
Which is a natural bybroduct of a very strong and successful team - lack of opportunities for the succeeding youth age groups.

So all around Europe, La Masia players are playing at very good clubs - Bartra a starter for Dortmund, Grimaldo a starter for Porto, Bellerin at Arsenal, Thiago at Bayern, Pedro and Fabregas at the English champions Chelsea, Sandro at Everton, Tello at Fiorentina, Bojan at Mainz etc.

Criticizing Barca for their academy and its perceived failings is frankly absolutely laughable.
@Thimmy is just mad that his beloved Ödegaard can't even cut it at Hengelo, after having been ruined by Real's youth setup

Our youth setup destroyed Odegaard??? He was playing for Castilla and training with the first team on his terms. And it's the club's fault he couldn't even outperform the likes of Febas and Mayoral who by the way flopped for Wolfsburg?

Bojan is at Mainz? Damn, good for him. Has he done well there?

he only came in January and I think he has done okay-ish

Neat. Anyway, Barcelona would be fine. Their problems aren't actually issues that warrant their fans to be so over the top but it is what it is. Not sure what they are seeing in Paulinho or Serri but they did address a major issue in purchasing a "rated" RB (or a RB in general).

As for midfielders, unless they dip into La Masia to see what latest CM is there, they are gonna have to realise a lot of footballers are not anywhere close to Xavi or can play exactly how they want a midfielder to be like.

Well, and I'm paraphrasing my Barca peeps here, it really started with Laporta and signing Ronaldinho along with bringing back old man Johan into the mix. Windkick and others would know way more.

I am absolutely positive though, if the likes of Gaspard were still in charge, Messi would have left Barcelona a lot earlier since Pique actually left to go to Utd.

I kind of like what they're doing, tbh

Kick wrote:I kind of like what they're doing, tbh

You're not the only one tbh. I love what they're doing

Hapless_Hans wrote:I still have a boner for Barcelona    

Criticizing Barca for their academy and its perceived failings is frankly absolutely laughable.
@Thimmy is just mad that his beloved Ödegaard can't even cut it at Hengelo, after having been ruined by Real's youth setup

The hell is Hengelo? He's doing fine. Real Madrid have voiced their concern over his lack of playing time at Herenveen, but he's played well on the occasion that I've had the time to watch him/them play recently. His vision, and silky, weighted passes are still top tier quality in my opinion, and that's not something you can be taught so easily. He just has to keep developing and hopefully find a club that actually needs a playmaker.

- Ødegaard was just handed kit number 10, and will be a regular starter on the team next season. I suppose he can cut it at Hengelo, after all

What exactly are Barca doing?

ffs

In fairness Hans, someone meeting a ridiculous release clause isn't really something they are in control of.

It's not, true.

But ultimately it's up to the player's wish. Clubs can meet release clauses every day if the player does not want to move. So what I wonder is why they can't keep Neymar happy at Barca?

That's true, that they are definitely in control of that.