lol I want Cesc sold badly but questioning the loyalty of a 16 year old who was playing somewhere in the 4th divisions of Spain with the likes of Deco, Xavi, Iniesta in their prime years (or even before their prime years) all way ahead of him when a top club like Arsenal comes with a big offer is the worst possible comparison to Alcuntara who was already a 22 year old first teamer with 100+ caps and jumped ship after the very first hurdle. I hold nothing against Cesc for leaving Barca.
What? Deco was at Porto then, waiting to win the CL, while Iniesta wasn't near his prime years(he had 9 apps with the first team in 2002-2003). And Cesc was as appreciated as Messi in the cantera at the time and the club actually tried to convince him to stay, but he didn't wanted. Another thing that you need to remember was what was happening at the club in that summer and how the board was struggling to get rid of the bad players and replace them with better ones(and Pique's grandfather was already atacking Laporta at the time).
And you do realize that Xavinho was talking about a Thiago at the age of 16-17, who had a lot of offers from Chelsea and Arsenal(just like Rafinha, Deulofeu or Samper), but he chose to stay at Barca(and at the time we actually had Xavi, Iniesta & Deco with the first team and then Xavi, Iniesta, Keita and Yaya Toure). But I can see that it's worst for him and for the few of us that still like him that he did that. He should have left for free when he had the first offer and maybe now everybody would want him back for more than 30M euros, instead of insulting him after leaving for a fee bigger than what the board managed to get for Ibra.
If Rosell's board had been in charge back in 2003 the narrative would have looked like Cesc being driven out of the club or the cantera not being valued and it wasn't his fault, e. g. Sanabria. There is a very fitting Pippi Langstrumpf song line that describes it best. Too bad you can't translate it properly into English.
For one Rosell was in charge in 2003(he was Vice-president of sports area at the time), but I don't blame him or Laporta, just like I never blamed Rosell for Sanabria or Bellerin or Toral leaving.
Both put their own career before the club (unlike Xavi and Iniesta), so i dont see how both cases are any different. "I want to triumph in football, not necessarily at Barca", Thiago's intentions were clear from day 1.
in 2008, but Pep convinced him that he will be important for the team. And Xavi is the biggest cule from all of our players.