To be fair, Barto has an indentity to consider. If Barca made as many transfers as Real, people would be on his back. Every player in Real's lineup has been brought from another club, while Barca still has many home-grown talent. That is simply the price we pay. Perez can flood his midfield with plenty of players and keep the ones which work. I mean he's brought Asensio, Casemiro, Kovacic, Kroos, Lucas Silva, James, Isco , Illarramendi and Modric all in the past 5 years. While our midfield has stayed the same until last year due to our 'indentity'. We've lost the likes of Fabregas, Song, Halilovic because we werent patient enough. Says more about our transfer policy and mentality when it comes to players than the president or managers.
Imo, that thing about how Real is buying players and Barca is different was true only from 2006 till 2015.
Again, it happened ONLY because we were blessed with Xavi-Iniesta (Busi) and we didn't need to look further.
We didn't have similar players ever in our history and of course that it was somewhat easy to keep the same team (especially since the were winning trophies all the time).
In 90s: Barca was the same as Real or any other top team. We were buying like crazy each summer.
2000s: the same (except a part where we had Messi-Xavi-Iniesta and didn't need new players in that key area).
When Messi-Xavi-Iniesta will be gone, I am quite sure that we will return to old days and just buy 5+ players each summer in a hit and miss (Real Madrid's) style.
For example, look at this:
Barca 1997/98, players bought:
1. Rivaldo
2. Sonny Anderson
3. Reiziger
4. Bogarde
5. Hesp
6. Ciric
7. Dugarry
Barca 1998/99, players bought:
1. Kluivert
2. Zenden
3. Frank de Boer
4. Ronald De Boer
5. Cocu
6. Pellegrino
Barca 1999/2000, players bought:
1. Dani
2. Litmanen
3. Simao
4. Dehu
Barca 2000/2001, players bought:
1. Overmars
2. Gerard Lopez
3. Alfonso Perez
4. Petit
5. Dutruel
2001/02:
1. Saviola
2. Geovanni
3. Christanval
4. Fabio Rochemback
5. Patrik Andersson
6. Bonano
7. Francesco Coco
2002/03:
1. Riquelme
2. Mendieta
3. Enke
4. Sorin
2003/04:
1. Ronaldinho
2. Quaresma
3. Marquez
4. Davids
5. V Bronckhorst
6. Rustu
7. Mario
2004/05:
1. Etoo
2. Deco
3. Guily
4. Edmilson
5. Larsson
6. Belletti
7. Silvinho
8. Maxi Lopez
9. Albertini
2005/06:
1. Van Bommel
2. Ezquerro
2006/07:
1. Zambrotta
2. Gudjohnssen
3. Thuram
2007/08:
1. Henry
2. Abidal
3. Milito
4. Yaya
2008/09:
1. Alves
2. Hleb
3. Caceres
4. Keita
5. Henrique
6. Pique
2009/10:
1. Zlatan
2. Chyngry
3. Maxwell
4. Keirrison
2010/11:
1. Villa
2. Masch
3. Adriano
4. Affelay
2011/12:
1. Fabregas
2. Alexis
2012/13:
1. Song
2. Alba
2013/14:
1. Neymar
-- we bought 49 players in 8 years from 1997/98 to 2004/05.
-- then in 2004/05 we won La Liga and we created a core of La Masia players Xavi-Iniesta-Messi-Puyol-Valdes-Oleguer, who were all starters in that era (except young Iniesta)
-- that meant that we had 5-6 starters from La Masia and that we don't need to buy too much players anymore
-- we bought only 28 players in the next 9 years
Also, look at a number of midfielders bought:
1997-2006: Ciric, R De Boer, Cocu, Litmanen, Simao, Petit, Gerard Lopez, Fabio Rochemback, Riquelme, Mendieta, Davids, Deco, Edmilson, Albertini, Van Bommel=15 players, and yet, we "ended" with Xavi and Iniesta in the end
2006-2013 (during Xavi-Iniesta-Busi): Yaya, Hleb, Keita, Affelay, Fabregas, Song
-- look how we signed way lower number of midfielders in the era when we had Xavi-Iniesta-Busi, since we didn't need any new players
So, you see, when a team is winning titles all the time: you don't need to change coaches, you don't need to buy too many new players, you don't need any changes.
Somehow in the last 10 years, on the internet has spread a myth how Barca ALWAYS relied on La Masia, how we are ALWAYS keeping players for 10 years, how we don't fire coaches, how we don't buy players in a crazy way like RM etc.
On the other hand, look at this "funny thing": Real has a good and balanced team now.
And lately they aren't doing any transfers, right?
While Barca had 2 crazy summers behind and we are yet to see a major overhaul in upcoming summers.
So, currently Real is acting like Barca from 2006-2016, and we are acting like Real from era when Barca was dominating (like losers who have no clue what are they doing).
You see how things and club's policies can change easily?
I am trying to say: No, we are not more patient than other teams.
No, we aren't buying less players than other top teams.
It only happened in a once-in-a-lifetime 2006-2016 era when we were blessed with Xavi-Iniesta-Messi-Puyol-Valdes-Busi-Pedro-Fabregas-Pique.
La Masia is dry (like always before 2006), we won't be winning titles like we used to do, and we will soon return to our good old ways with buying 5-6 new players every single summer, in a hit and miss style.
One of the problems is that our board and our club in general probably forgot how to buy players since they didn't have to do it for 10 years.
And now they are buying players who are quite average for our needs.