Pretty good stuff for a first post.
Thanks.
This sort of logic doesn't work on here.
Say we decided to discard Rabiot and sign FDJ on a massive transfer fee which limits our abilities to make other signings. Well the same people who are calling Abidal and idiot now because he is not signing De Jong are the same people who are going to be calling him an idiot next season if we sign De Jong and fail to sign a back-up striker.
We keep on saying that our board is bad, but I think (though not perfect) they are good. If we take a look at a couple of the present board's signings like Gomes, Turan, Denis Suarez etc. are bad signings in hindsight. But at the time, we were signing them because they looked really good (Valencia had so much faith in Gomes' talent that they added a Ballon d'Or clause).
The board is being castigated for these signings, but I feel we as fans have gotten really entitled and forgotten that the transfer market is a game of chance. Not a single club, no matter how good their board is, will have a 100% success rate in the transfer market (I would really love to see the percentage of Barto's successful transfers).
Then there is the case of wages. I constantly hear Barca's wage bill is spiralling out of control, but we continue to advocate for signing high wage players and Rabiot is highly different. It's not like I'm an epic Rabiot fan, but I recognize the fact that he is a signing with the potential to be World Class. Whether he attains that or not is another story is an another story. We are allegedly giving him a 5-year-contract of €10m/year and a €10m sign-on bonus. Doing some rough investment analysis, Rabiot will cost Barca €60m barring any contract renewal and this is less than the purported De Jong transfer fee where it's rumored to be €70m and if you add his alleged €7m/year contract that it means he will cost Barca €105m if we give him a 5-year-contract.
Back to my point on wage bills (Todibo vs De Ligt). In an ideal world, I would sign De Ligt. But we have to take into consideration that this is reality and his wage will further stress our wage budget.
My argument? Though at present, De Ligt has shown better potential for succeeding at Barca, but Todibo might just suprise us. De Ligt will probably come for nothing less than €7m/year salary while Todibo will be on a much lower starting salary. In a scenario where they both become World Class, Todibo will prove to be a better deal. This is not just that he comes for free, but our wage budget will also see it as a bargain. Players usually don't see out their contracts before renewals. So if we get Todibo or De Ligt within 3 years and they turn out to be World Class, then they will be seeking contract renewals with increased salaries. De Ligt's €7m/year salary will become maybe €12m/year while Todibo will probably get a €7m/year salary in his second Barca contract as I imagine his wages will be significantly less than De Ligt. De Ligt, as can be seen, will place more stress for on our wage bill for a long while when compared to Todibo.
This doesn't mean I'm against De jong and De Ligt signings. It's just that (I will and most fans should understand) if the board doesn't go for one of even both De Jong and De Ligt but rather trusts the scouting team to find bargain deals. I mean, what's the point of a scouting team if you're only going to sign players that everyone and their mother know are food ala De Ligt, Coutinho, Dembele etc? A good scouting team will reveal a good player to the world and not just being players that have already shown their class elsewhere.