So [MENTION=16942]BBZ8800[/MENTION] you've admitted you'll never have faith in young players no matter what. Can you spare us from your essays in young players thread then?
No.
It is not as if I don't have ANY faith in young players.
I have faith, but very low faith.
And I am extremely cautious.
Based on 100s of youngsters seen in lots of clubs which I have loved and followed over years.
And lots of real footballers from my city and region whom I knew personally and who's career I have followed since the age of 12-13 till the insane failures aged 25 or 30.
I have some friends who were youth NT players in my country and were hyped for the greatest things, and ended playing in a German or Austrian 3rd division aged 30, lol.
And even worse, if you want to play for Barca, the bar is set 100s times higher than that.
It's just a simple maths.
Less than 0,01% of footballers in the world are good enough for Barca.
Less than 1% footballers in top leagues are good enough for Barca.
Usually around 70% of all transfers by Barca are failures (players of all ages).
And between 80-90% of best La Masia kids and best world's prospects like Dembele, Malcom and Arthur end as not good enough for Barca.
I have "gave up" and accepted this over years and I don't want to fight against stats, numbers and history.
I see that you and majority of guys haven't reached that level yet.
I can stop writing bad things about our youngsters, but that won't make them any good.
Dembele and Malcom will still be equally as good. Or, more precisely: equally as average.
If you'll mention Arthur, well, 1 out of 5 or 1 out of 10 youngsters will make it here.
The problem is that you guys have faith in more or less any highly rated youngster, while 1-2 out of 10 of those will make it here.
A hint for the future: De Jong and De Light are far from safe bets.
Especially far from current high expectations where people think that they are no brainers and certain best players in their positions in the future.
It doesn't work that way.
Or, to say it: it works that way. But roughly in 1 out 5 cases.
So, I could change my opinion about youngsters being able to make it at Barca and Real ONLY if a percentage of successful stories will significantly rise in upcoming years.
But with current cases of Dembele, Malcom, Vinicius Jr and similar, it seems highly unlikely.
They will fit perfectly in a pattern seen over and over in the last 30 years.
But as I have said, feel free to fight against numbers and stats, and feel free to hope that it will magically change (for no apparent reason) in 2019' and 2020' and onwards.