Gerard Deulofeu

[FC B]

Yes, this was agreed in 2015 most probably and AFAIK he didn't want back but we still wanted to activate our options. It didn't made sense for him to wave such clause as it makes sure the club isn't buying him just to sell him again

Damn.

 

[Ousmane Dembélé]

Growing up with a La Masia golden generation have led people to believe every La Masia player is talented and good enough to make it big.

People have become delusional.

Prime example:

[tw]958161073697247232[/tw]

B team on the verge of relegation, let's promote some shit La Masia products and get relegated rather than reinforce the squad and try to stay up. But relegation is a small price to pay for upholding the values of the club! Give me a break, disgusting shit.

These snobby Cruyff/Pep elitists need to GTFO. No worries, they already support City as much as if not more than they support Barca and Messi leaving/retiring will be the final nail in the coffin of their fandom.

 

[God Serena]

Prime example:

[tw]958161073697247232[/tw]

B team on the verge of relegation, let's promote some shit La Masia products and get relegated rather than reinforce the squad and try to stay up. But relegation is a small price to pay for upholding the values of the club! Give me a break, disgusting shit.

These snobby Cruyff/Pep elitists need to GTFO. No worries, they already support City as much as if not more than they support Barca and Messi leaving/retiring will be the final nail in the coffin of their fandom.

It's for the betterment of the club if the B team gets relegated, though.

 

[Adversus]

I thought he did ok. He was never good enough to start for Barca but when he did he was fine.

Of the bench he's even more inconsistent than when he starts and unfortunately for him after the Malaga game when he actually had one of his better games it was clear at best he was only going to be used as a squad player.

Watford is a great move for him but it's a huge shame for him Watford have gotten rid of Silva. Silva is a coach that is meticulous with his instructions and I think that's what Deulofeu needs.

 

[JamDav1982]

I thought he did ok. He was never good enough to start for Barca but when he did he was fine.

Of the bench he's even more inconsistent than when he starts and unfortunately for him after the Malaga game when he actually had one of his better games it was clear at best he was only going to be used as a squad player.

Watford is a great move for him but it's a huge shame for him Watford have gotten rid of Silva. Silva is a coach that is meticulous with his instructions and I think that's what Deulofeu needs.

He was awful and looked nowhere near good enough.

As one dimensional as he ever was and brings little.

 

[BBZ8800]

Growing up with a La Masia golden generation have led people to believe every La Masia player is talented and good enough to make it big.

People have become delusional.

People are finally waking up.
Imagine writing something like this 3-4 years ago.
You would get 10-20 very rude and harsh replies here.

The thing is, internet and media overhyped La Masia because of our golden generation and our success with Messi and under Pep.
And then media built that new myth how La Masia is the best football academy in the world, how La Masia is a core of our club, how we have been always different than all other (buying) clubs, plus people started to use "more than a club" in terms of La Masia and buying players (lol) etc.
I might have missed some info as a kid and as a teen, but in 90s and early 00s, I have never heard on a Tv or in media back then (before Messi, before Pep, before sextuple) how:
1. we are different than other clubs
2. how we have the best academy in the world
3. how we are not a buying club

We were the same as Real, Bayern, Milan, Juve, Man Utd, all big teams.
We were all buying like crazy. And ONLY if we had some extraordinary youngster, we would play him.
Then came our golden generation and media and internet suddenly used revisionism and started to sell a story how we have always heavily relied on La Masia, how we have always been so different than RM and other clubs, which is not true.

On the other hand, let's breathe and be objective for a second:
How would it be possible that out of 10-15 biggest teams in the world, ONE of them is always the best in terms of youths and that only ONE of them is producing magic and majority of others create one good player from their academy in 5-10 years?
People will reply: La Masia is different, we do things better and differently (lol).
Well, let's assume that it WAS true.
But then, a lot of our coaches/scouts will get fired or move to other clubs.
Then those coaches will tell our "secret" to other big teams.
Then, the other big teams will be able to copy our formula and develop players as good as our "magical players".
Also, our players who won't make it here, will move to other teams. Some of them might be angry due to failing here, and they could tell to other clubs everything about La Masia, training, development, coaches...

So, even if we had some magical formula, over time others would find out our formula and they would be able to replicate it more or less.

Anyway, apart from a Golden La Masia generation, we were never THAT MUCH different from other big clubs.
We are buying tons of players, plus sometimes we get a good youngster from our academy. And that's it.

But imo, "La Masia is magical" was just a myth from around 2009-2011 and exaggeration due to Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Pep, CL titles, sextuple, records and everything.
Due to a lot of success, fans and media started to overrate things and to "change" our history, claiming how La Masia was actually ALWAYS as special as in golden years and how we have always heavily relied on La Masia.
While in 90s, before Xavi, in some moments we had 0 domestic players in our team.

As others have mentioned a few posts above, too many people are still delusional and they are still believing the story how La Masia is different than Juve's, Man Utd's, Real's or Bayern's academy (other teams are newbs who don't know how to develop youngsters, lol).
Also, maybe people will be less critical of Gerard Lopez, and on EV for not playing too many La Masia players.

Further, lately: Deulofeu, Bartra, Munir, Sandro, Samper, Adama. Not only that they haven't turned into Barca's level.
Majority of them will end as midtable team's players.
And even worse, a few of them are struggling to even earn a starting place in midtable teams.

 

[RMU ReBorn]

 

[Aryagorn]

It's for the betterment of the club if the B team gets relegated, though.

This

Every time the B team is in the Segunda, the club had to buy players from outside just to maintain the level and not get embarrassed by getting relegated. However, when they were in the third division, the youth were getting ample experience as they never had to share their playing time with sloppy externals who were older than them. It also was easier to call them up to the first team wheneverr needed because the managers never had to be scared of losing out on their service for the B team!!

But now, every time we have to call Alena or Arnaiz, we have to first be assured that they would not miss out on an important match in the Segunda!

 

[MessiCam]

People are finally waking up.
Imagine writing something like this 3-4 years ago.
You would get 10-20 very rude and harsh replies here.

The thing is, internet and media overhyped La Masia because of our golden generation and our success with Messi and under Pep.
And then media built that new myth how La Masia is the best football academy in the world, how La Masia is a core of our club, how we have been always different than all other (buying) clubs, plus people started to use "more than a club" in terms of La Masia and buying players (lol) etc.
I might have missed some info as a kid and as a teen, but in 90s and early 00s, I have never heard on a Tv or in media back then (before Messi, before Pep, before sextuple) how:
1. we are different than other clubs
2. how we have the best academy in the world
3. how we are not a buying club

We were the same as Real, Bayern, Milan, Juve, Man Utd, all big teams.
We were all buying like crazy. And ONLY if we had some extraordinary youngster, we would play him.
Then came our golden generation and media and internet suddenly used revisionism and started to sell a story how we have always heavily relied on La Masia, how we have always been so different than RM and other clubs, which is not true.

On the other hand, let's breathe and be objective for a second:
How would it be possible that out of 10-15 biggest teams in the world, ONE of them is always the best in terms of youths and that only ONE of them is producing magic and majority of others create one good player from their academy in 5-10 years?
People will reply: La Masia is different, we do things better and differently (lol).
Well, let's assume that it WAS true.
But then, a lot of our coaches/scouts will get fired or move to other clubs.
Then those coaches will tell our "secret" to other big teams.
Then, the other big teams will be able to copy our formula and develop players as good as our "magical players".
Also, our players who won't make it here, will move to other teams. Some of them might be angry due to failing here, and they could tell to other clubs everything about La Masia, training, development, coaches...

So, even if we had some magical formula, over time others would find out our formula and they would be able to replicate it more or less.

Anyway, apart from a Golden La Masia generation, we were never THAT MUCH different from other big clubs.
We are buying tons of players, plus sometimes we get a good youngster from our academy. And that's it.

But imo, "La Masia is magical" was just a myth from around 2009-2011 and exaggeration due to Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Pep, CL titles, sextuple, records and everything.
Due to a lot of success, fans and media started to overrate things and to "change" our history, claiming how La Masia was actually ALWAYS as special as in golden years and how we have always heavily relied on La Masia.
While in 90s, before Xavi, in some moments we had 0 domestic players in our team.

As others have mentioned a few posts above, too many people are still delusional and they are still believing the story how La Masia is different than Juve's, Man Utd's, Real's or Bayern's academy (other teams are newbs who don't know how to develop youngsters, lol).
Also, maybe people will be less critical of Gerard Lopez, and on EV for not playing too many La Masia players.

Further, lately: Deulofeu, Bartra, Munir, Sandro, Samper, Adama. Not only that they haven't turned into Barca's level.
Majority of them will end as midtable team's players.
And even worse, a few of them are struggling to even earn a starting place in midtable teams.

Well said but I will include one caveat.

What Bartomeu and Lopez are doing now is contrary to the values of La Masia.

La Masia was never a result orientated program which seems to be where it is headed now with the promotion of the B-team to Segunda. La Masia was used to teach the kids Barcelona or better yet Cruyff style principles and to understand the game more than anything else. Cruyff didn't go around asking the La Masia coaches what the results were but rather how they played. The way they played was emphasised more than any result and this ethos happened to coincide with what you call the golden generation. Is it coincidence or is there more to it?

I'd like to think that it's a little bit of both because I am romantic about La Masia but I'm also aware that no academy is going to churn out 10 world class players every 10 years.

That said there does seem to be a problem at La Masia recently in that those making the step up struggle a lot more as well as all the best talents moving on prior to even making the B-team and I can't help but feel that it is due to the B-team becoming result orientated and signing more instead of promoting from within.

 

[BBZ8800]

Well said but I will include one caveat.

What Bartomeu and Lopez are doing now is contrary to the values of La Masia.

La Masia was never a result orientated program which seems to be where it is headed now with the promotion of the B-team to Segunda. La Masia was used to teach the kids Barcelona or better yet Cruyff style principles and to understand the game more than anything else. Cruyff didn't go around asking the La Masia coaches what the results were but rather how they played. The way they played was emphasised more than any result and this ethos happened to coincide with what you call the golden generation. Is it coincidence or is there more to it?

I'd like to think that it's a little bit of both because I am romantic about La Masia but I'm also aware that no academy is going to churn out 10 world class players every 10 years.

That said there does seem to be a problem at La Masia recently in that those making the step up struggle a lot more as well as all the best talents moving on prior to even making the B-team and I can't help but feel that it is due to the B-team becoming result orientated and signing more instead of promoting from within.

Xavi and Iniesta were by far the best players of Spanish youth NT teams and they were winning WC cups and everything, being named player of the tournament and similar.
1. they had an insane potential
2. they were key players in winning Spanish NT teams
3. they were world class in terms of mental strength, IQ and similar

Apart from Xavi and Iniesta, you ahd Puyol who turned into one of best CBs in the world. And Busi, who has an IQ like Einstein.

And then, after our Golden generation:
1. you have a traitor Thiago
2. scared kid Bartra, with skills nowhere near to Puyol and similar
3. midfielders like Samper (who is also mentally fragile and there were reports of him breaking down when Barca B faced a relegation and he wasn't able to play due to a pressure, lol wtf)

People will say that this is not true, but 90% of La Masia players from the last 5-6 years are on the level of 2nd level players from 10-15 years ago, like Oleguer, Gabri, Motta etc.

Look again, it is quite significant that not a single La Masia player post 2011 has set the world on fire, except Thiago (and Roberto to some extent).
Deulofeu, Munir, Sandro, Adama, Samper, Kaptoum, let's see how many of them will turn into starters for midtable teams at all.

And then, once again, we are wondering why they aren't turning into a new Xavi and Puyol.

Players like Munir and Sandro is how La Masia always looked like.
La Masia was for years producing that level of players.
And then we hit a jackpot with Messi, Xavi, Iniesta.
So, Messi alone is 1 in a million incident. Xavi and Iniesta also.
And then people started to believe that: THIS is our level, and how La Masia will alway produce that level of players.
But a cold reality is that Munir and Sandro is an average level of quality of players from La Masia from 1990 till today.
And Xavi-Iniesta was just a lottery luck and an exception.

It will be less painful for all of our fans if they will accept that 9 out of 10 our future La Masia players with the highest potential in every year will end as Munir and similar.
And that only once in 5-10 years, we'll get one Thiago.

I mean, only in the last 4-5 years people expected these players as future key players of our club:
1. Deulofeu
2. Bartra
3. Munir
4. Adama
5. Sandro
6. Dongou
7. Halilovic
8. Lee
9. Kaptoum
10. Palencia
And lately:
11. Alena
12. Arnaiz (wtf)
13. Oriol
14. Cucu
15. some are already having high hopes in Xavi Simons

For every single of those guys, statistically there is 90% of a chance that he will end as JDS, Cuenca, Tello, Adama, Halilovic and similar.
And only 1/10 chances that he will turn into some sort of Roberto.
Chances for a new Busi, Xavi and similar are probably lower than 5% for any of these guys above (or for any single La Masia player EVER in the future).

 

[MessiCam]

Xavi and Iniesta were by far the best players of Spanish youth NT teams and they were winning WC cups and everything, being named player of the tournament and similar.
1. they had an insane potential
2. they were key players in winning Spanish NT teams
3. they were world class in terms of mental strength, IQ and similar

Apart from Xavi and Iniesta, you ahd Puyol who turned into one of best CBs in the world. And Busi, who has an IQ like Einstein.

And then, after our Golden generation:
1. you have a traitor Thiago
2. scared kid Bartra, with skills nowhere near to Puyol and similar
3. midfielders like Samper (who is also mentally fragile and there were reports of him breaking down when Barca B faced a relegation and he wasn't able to play due to a pressure, lol wtf)

People will say that this is not true, but 90% of La Masia players from the last 5-6 years are on the level of 2nd level players from 10-15 years ago, like Oleguer, Gabri, Motta etc.

Look again, it is quite significant that not a single La Masia player post 2011 has set the world on fire, except Thiago (and Roberto to some extent).
Deulofeu, Munir, Sandro, Adama, Samper, Kaptoum, let's see how many of them will turn into starters for midtable teams at all.

And then, once again, we are wondering why they aren't turning into a new Xavi and Puyol.

Players like Munir and Sandro is how La Masia always looked like.
La Masia was for years producing that level of players.
And then we hit a jackpot with Messi, Xavi, Iniesta.
So, Messi alone is 1 in a million incident. Xavi and Iniesta also.
And then people started to believe that: THIS is our level, and how La Masia will alway produce that level of players.
But a cold reality is that Munir and Sandro is an average level of quality of players from La Masia from 1990 till today.
And Xavi-Iniesta was just a lottery luck and an exception.

It will be less painful for all of our fans if they will accept that 9 out of 10 our future La Masia players with the highest potential in every year will end as Munir and similar.
And that only once in 5-10 years, we'll get one Thiago.

I mean, only in the last 4-5 years people expected these players as future key players of our club:
1. Deulofeu
2. Bartra
3. Munir
4. Adama
5. Sandro
6. Dongou
7. Halilovic
8. Lee
9. Kaptoum
10. Palencia
And lately:
11. Alena
12. Arnaiz (wtf)
13. Oriol
14. Cucu
15. some are already having high hopes in Xavi Simons

For every single of those guys, statistically there is 90% of a chance that he will end as JDS, Cuenca, Tello, Adama, Halilovic and similar.
And only 1/10 chances that he will turn into some sort of Roberto.
Chances for a new Busi, Xavi and similar are probably lower than 5% for any of these guys above (or for any single La Masia player EVER in the future).

Why the long speech? I agree with you...

You miss a lot of good players too. Valdes, Amor, Guardiola himself, Pedro, Fabregas (he left for Arsenal's academy though), Pique...

I still think there has been a shift in philosophy and that it weakens the program. But that's just me.

 

[impeh]

hes starting tonight

 

[Messi983]

Looks like Watford fans are pleased with his game against Stoke.

 

[Androutsos]

He is already their best player.

 

[JamDav1982]

He is already their best player.

Nowhere near it.