We will have to sign players from big clubs sooner or later tbh, this is still a key for remaining one of the top 3 teams. RM got Cr7 from Many and Kroos from Bayern. Many clubs would still sell if the players force his way out. we are top 2 clubs atm and we will need to use that. Sometimes you need to act like you are the biggest club to be one. Not saying this should be our focus,but it shouldn't be dismissed. I think in a year or two we will probably be in the hunt for Dybal to replace Suarez
Regarding the academy, I think it has been improving at least with new signing look promising. we are still a bit lost in preparing players for 1st team but hopefully it will be fixed
I believe the game has changed tremendously in the last 5 years or so. Ronaldo looks to be part of this era, but actually, it's from a past era in football. What we're seeing now, this level of money being invested in football, it will sooner or later lead to a clear conclusion. It's a bit like the economic crysis. Price are going up and up, with a rate that will not be matched by the rate with which normally ran clubs (not oil funded or owned by multi-billionairs) can up their income. This will lead to less star players being moved around between top clubs, and more attention being focused on signing the talents early. Talent stays roughly the same. There are too many big clubs fighting for the same players mostly.
Yes, Madrid managed to land Kroos, but it was a mix of extremely rare and favorable circumstances. Bayern already took note of this and probably now consider not giving Kroos the right money a big mistake. Bayern themselves seem to pay a lot more money for players that they did in the past IIRC. They also sense that these days, you need to pay up, or you run the risk of not signing the players you need.
In this fight for talent, the clubs with great football academies are in a privileged spot, as long as they know how to take good care of their constant source of talent. La Masia won't provide us with Messi and Xavis too soon. But the talent will be there in a lot of players. That much I'm sure of. We will have to give more time to young players in the future imo. A lot of times, the amount of risk that exists in signing a relatively uproven 23 years old from another team is around as high as promoting a Barca B player who you feel can make it. The key in all of this is getting the right manager who knows and feels the right time when you can give a young player a chance. Lucho had awful timing for example. He didn't seem to know which were the games in which he could have afforded himself some luxuries, like trying a young player here or there, and which were the games which should have been approached with a stronger first 11.
Home games against average La Liga teams are golden chances to give players like Palencia and Alena a chance. Just start with a strong team, and include one or two young players on some positions. And see how they react in a comfortable field (Camp Nou), with great teammates around them. They are less likey to be overwhelmed, because the Camp Nou crowd will give them support, and the other players, will surely make their job easier. Put them with teammates who played less (Lucho had this bad habit of breaking the team into two sides), in some away games on a poor pitch with aggresive opponents trying to act like tough men in front of their home fans, and it's a no-go. Developing young players is often a skill in itself. The bad news for us, more than anything else that is happening on the market, is that Zidane seems to have this skill. This is the worst news for us. But I really hope that Valverde has this as well, so we can really see him developing our several young players, like Madrid's manager is doing with Real's squad.
A lot of users here would go to extremes trying to convince anyone that our young players are shit. Which is far from the truth.
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