khaled. If you truly think Alena had a Gomes-like performance you might as well argue he should never be promoted. Calling him a tempo controller was wrong of me, but it was late when I said it and I was trying to make the point that he always picks out the correct pass and contributes to midfield dominance. Gomes does not do that, not even close. Gomes loses the ball in tight spaces nearly every time he gets the ball, which Alena did not. Gomes only feels secure passing backwards and rarely moves into space demanding the ball, which Alena does not. And Gomes' top running speed is in the Busquets/Samper tier, which Alena is not. No disrespect old friend, but comparing Alena to Gomes just to downplay his abilities is nonsense.
Gomes has plenty of shit performance, and I didn't argue against that. But Gomes himself had performances like Alena and you won't find many (although there is always few) who will get excited about him.
Ok, Alena is young and promising but that doesn't make him good player immediately for first team. Point is there is two standard of how good a player is,one for La Masia and the other for new purchases.
That is argument is valid when we have someone who is 100% ready and has nothing to do in B team and that isn't Alena, even last season he has problem with being consistent, and again plenty of young players suffered from that.
I admittedly wasn't a fan back in 2003 but I do know Edmilson faced decline as he got older. Weird you don't address Thiago and Busquets in your argument.
If Alena is really only able to do what Gomes does why do you care about his development at all?
I could argue that past players not doing well is down to them being flops more than anything. If it was really so impossible for great, young, talented players to succeed if promoted too early we'd never see players like Donnarumma, Mbappe, or Dembele develop.
Maybe he will, maybe he won't. It's clear he's going to get a lot of minutes with the first team either way.
Who did you think I was talking about when I brought Edmilson name?
Man, the names you are bringing has developed in totally different clubs, a much smaller clubs (Milan is currently not our level by any mean) and easier leagues.
It is one thing to put a player into one of the top teams in the world with insane pressure in comparison to those clubs; and considering that people doesn't fantasy the idea of loan. I don't see the comparison at all.
Being a midfielder in Barca is probably second toughest position to succeed after CB position. Not worth the risk by any mean
Better be careful of making nonsensical argument to justify your opinion.
I understand your point of not rushing the promotion but this was just beyond common sense.
Gomes has surely more experiences in La Liga and he might deserve another chance to prove himself (though I believe it's completely waste of time)
but that doesn't make him a better player than current Aleñá.
I didn't say who is better, and while I believe that Gomes is better player currently (and probably far worse fit) I avoided such discussion. Point is Alena isn't a difference maker at the point, he is at the stage of his career that people will get excited about any thing good he does, promote him now and by the end of the year you could be reading about how he doesn't add to our midfield or that he is another over hyped La Masia even if he had slightly better performance.
