Gerard Gumbau

[khaled_a_d]

Yep. I don't remember any positives, nor does any aspect of his game look encouraging.

It's weird how the posters who were dismissing Samper's promising CL debut against APOEL based on the quality of the opposition, are now bringing up the first game excuses for Gumbau's awful showing.

Yeah ,how can someone dismiss using one senior game in deciding who is the next superstar and who is shit .
Did I say Gumbau was gr8 or something?we know what to expect from Gumbau and it isn't much (I said like zillion times I rate Samper way higher) but considering the type of player he is and the low expectations, I would want to criticize him but in a situation that is worth criticism . he was basically thrown away in a tough situation playing beside one single midfield player beside him
I would have said same thing if Samper was subbed in not Gumbau if he didn't do well

 

[Ryan_Cule]

Too early to comment on this guy.

But for little bit of enlightenment, if you see his Barca B games from previous year, he always had weaker performances. Left midfield exposed in many occasions. I have my doubts because his positional gameplay is very unpredictable and often caused us embarrassment. On the other hand, Samper is more consistent, brilliant and proved his worth many times.

Lucho's affection for physically strong players( for his new system) maybe the reason.

 

[xXKonan]

Gumbau: "Playing at the Camp Nou is impressive, stadium is really big. What's next? I'm a B-team player, but if they need me, delighted."

Gumbau: "I knew I could come on in case the game went well. I'm very happy with my Liga debut. This is what you hope for, few make it..."

 

[God Serena]

I don't get what in hell Lucho could see in this guy. He watches the ball when it gets close instead of moving into space. He bombs forward as a DM and leaves the entire midfield and back line exposed, and to top all of that off he has the technical ability of a giraffe, in the rare instances where he doesn't pass it wayward and give away possession.

The only thing I've ever heard of him having over Samper is his defensive contribution but at this level even that is awful. I just don't get it. This guy wasn't even good enough for Barca B last season but he gets to make his first team debut at the Camp Nou?

 

[Behrox]

The bigger question is why Lucho didn't put Roberto in instead of lord Gumball. I switched off my TV and went to sleep as soon as I saw him coming in for Busi

 

[BBZ8800]

Yep. During preseason Samper also played better, despite having less minutes. Enrique can be stubborn with some things, who knows what's going on. But it surely makes no sense to play Gumbau as DM, ahead of Samper. Gumbau is not very good in his original position, and as DM he is really bad.

I love(d) Samper, but he was good and imposed himself in a preseason only in that match against USA team.
Other than that, he was extremely meh in a preseason.

Gumbau was horrible all the time, I agree.

While Gumbau and his playing is a huge Lucho's fault, I am not blaming Lucho on Samper (too much) anymore.

I mean, Lucho is giving 1000s of chances to Munir, Sandro, Rafinha and even Mats.
Either Lucho is extremely wrong/blind about Samper or Samper has much more flaws than we all think...

 

[Ritchie]

If this guy is our midfield cover then we're in trouble.

Under Pep we had Romeu, Thiago and Roberto coming through. Only Samper is of that sort of standard.

 

[Galning]

Lucho has no clue how to handle, use & evaluate youngsters.

 

[Ustari]

Yeah you seem to know better than him

 

[Flavia]

I love(d) Samper, but he was good and imposed himself in a preseason only in that match against USA team.
Other than that, he was extremely meh in a preseason.

Gumbau was horrible all the time, I agree.

While Gumbau and his playing is a huge Lucho's fault, I am not blaming Lucho on Samper (too much) anymore.

I mean, Lucho is giving 1000s of chances to Munir, Sandro, Rafinha and even Mats.
Either Lucho is extremely wrong/blind about Samper or Samper has much more flaws than we all think...

It's just weird he's giving those chances to Gumbau, of all b players. Samper surely has flaws, but he has more talent. Should be the one groomed with the 1st team. And Gumbau is not a dm, which makes it all even weirder.

 

[Ritchie]

Lucho has no clue how to handle, use & evaluate youngsters.

It doesn't help that he's in charge when the music has stopped and the talent has stopped coming through while the likes of Xavi, Adriano, Pedro, Puyol and soon to be Alves and Iniesta need replacing. There's no Busquets, Pedro or Thiago coming through to add to the squad. Rafinha was the hope and he's done for the season leaving only Roberto. Adama and Deulefeu deemed too maverick. Lucho knows Munir and Sandro aren't the answer.

Gumbau wouldn't have got anywhere 5 years ago.

 

[Galning]

It doesn't help that he's in charge when the music has stopped and the talent has stopped coming through while the likes of Xavi, Adriano, Pedro, Puyol and soon to be Alves and Iniesta need replacing. There's no Busquets, Pedro or Thiago coming through to add to the squad. Rafinha was the hope and he's done for the season leaving only Roberto. Adama and Deulefeu deemed too maverick. Lucho knows Munir and Sandro aren't the answer.

Gumbau wouldn't have got anywhere 5 years ago.

It's not a coincidence that players stopped getting through the ranks when Rosell became president. You don't magically get world class potentials in your youth set-up who then magically push someone out of Barça's starting eleven. Nobody is saying there should be a definite first team candidate in our youth players right now but look at how Munir, Sandro, Deulofeu, Adama, Halilovic, Suarez, Grimaldo, Samper, etc. all are being handled right now. Heck, even Bartra who is 24, won best defender in Liga Adelante and has been in the first team for God knows how long is still waiting to get a sniff of some first team football. There's no way none of these guys doesn't have what it takes if only they were mentored and played in the correct way.
Judging from past season and the start now, nurturing youngsters into the first team is arguably the biggest flaw in Lucho as a manager.

Yeah you seem to know better than him

Intelligent input into the discussion. Please continue.

 

[God Serena]

Either Lucho is extremely wrong/blind about Samper or Samper has much more flaws than we all think...

Considering Lucho is using Gumbau as DM for the first team over Samper when everyone with eyes knows Samper is far better than him I'm somewhat inclined to believe it's the former.

 

[BBZ8800]

It's not a coincidence that players stopped getting through the ranks when Rosell became president. You don't magically get world class potentials in your youth set-up who then magically push someone out of Barça's starting eleven. Nobody is saying there should be a definite first team candidate in our youth players right now but look at how Munir, Sandro, Deulofeu, Adama, Halilovic, Suarez, Grimaldo, Samper, etc. all are being handled right now. Heck, even Bartra who is 24, won best defender in Liga Adelante and has been in the first team for God knows how long is still waiting to get a sniff of some first team football. There's no way none of these guys doesn't have what it takes if only they were mentored and played in the correct way.
Judging from past season and the start now, nurturing youngsters into the first team is arguably the biggest flaw in Lucho as a manager.

Again, then in 100 of years of our history, all of our presidents and coaches till Pep were idiots.
Because La Masia was ALWAYS the same as today.
We would get 1 playable (not a world class, but a playable player) in 2-3 years.

Munir, Sandro, Adama, Halilovic, Suarez, Grimaldo, Samper.
As the things currently stand, maybe only Samper has the Barca's needed quality.
Deulo and Adama will have the chance to impress the world this year in new clubs. But they will prove that they are not of Barca's quality.
Munir and Sandro, well, they will get chances and prove how they are probably not the next MSN trio.
Other guys, somewhat similar story.

The same as on the "Xavi-Iniesta is the perfect Barca's duo" and "Barca's players should be shorter because Pep played that way", people are again measuring the whole Barca's history and football's history with Pep and Pep's era.

La Masia was never that special.
We were lucky in our golden era.
Now we are average again.

We will have to live and build our team as all other teams in the world.
With some superstar's foreign transfers (like Neymar, Suarez, Pogba) and with some transfers of good domestic players (like Alba, Vidal etc). That's it.

 

[BBZ8800]

Considering Lucho is using Gumbau as DM for the first team over Samper when everyone with eyes knows Samper is far better than him I'm somewhat inclined to believe it's the former.

Everyone with eyes, well.

A few weeks ago, user [MENTION=11668]khaled_a_d[/MENTION] was the only one who doubted Samper.
As the time passes, I am leaning to his side more and more.

And what the majority think, well, it doesn't need to be objective.
Let's be honest, 90% of Barca's forum are desperate for a new La Masia star.
When was the last time we had a La Masia superstar, Pedro and Busi, right? (I am not counting Thiago, because he never succeeded here).

So, people are jumping on a hype train from a player to player, because we are desperate for what we love the most.
= young La Masia superstars

A few years ago, probably 90% users here believed that Bartra is the best defender since 1998' and Puyol.
Well, you see how wrong were 90% of our fans in the end.

When some players slightly disappointed, Samper was the next player with the highest chances.
If he will fail, we will all turn to Lee. He must be "it", isn't it?
If he fails, I don't know, we will turn all of our hopes onto Alena or onto those 2 young central defenders. They will be much better than Bartra, won't they?
They have to (we all hope)...

But look, since Pique and Fabregas (and somewhat Bellerin, and Thiago who wanted to leave), none of our young players proved that our board was wrong and that we lost a starting material.
All players who left the club or who didn't get chances here, proved to be not good for Barca in the end. (If you get my point)

Lucho gave really A LOT of chances to Munir, Sandro, Rafinha, Mats and now Gumbau.
If he sees nothing special in Samper, I am starting to believe that there must be "something wrong" with Samper.

They know him from trainings and from a Bteam.
Lucho can talk to Gerard Lopez and other former coaches.
Who knows, maybe Samper is extremely hot and cold, or afraid of pressure, or has who knows which mental problems or something.

Some will say that Lucho and the board are idiots because they let Deulo and Adama go.
But, if anyone wants to bet how those 2 will play this season in much weaker clubs, we can bet.
Halil was not sold, he still has some chances to prove himself.

I want to say, the board was more or less right in the last few years.
Most of younger player had some chances.
And all players who failed here, turned out to be very average and meh in all other clubs they played later.

If you want to look back at the past, and realize how people are always desperate, just look at this topic, and our 10 brightest potentials 5 years ago:
http://www.barcaforum.com/showthread.php/4079-10-La-Masia-products-to-watch-by-FCBarca

Some interesting posts from 2010:

Our Future is Bright. FORCA :004: .......too bad we can't hide them from Wenger.

great thread, Bojan. Cant' wait to see these guys in the first team

I'm not so sure he's not a risk taker, but then again, who is a risk taker in this business? I can't really think of any apart from Wenger, but that's part of his whole philosophy and there are still plenty of counters against him being a risk taker.
Great topic Bojan. I'm looking forward to seeing Muniesa, Thiago, Deulofeu and Etock develop. Hopefully Etock develops into a beast, he certainly looks like one in his age group.

I think you forgot Jean Marie Dongou, he's an excelent striker.

(Deulofeu) He is in every way possible a new cristiano ronaldo

JDS, Thiago, Muniesa, Deulofeu and Etock are the ones i am most excited about...they all have an excellent chance to succeed at Barca...

i really hope to see a barca team consisting of montoya, muniesa, bartra, fontas, romeu, thiago, roberto, gerard and espinosa some day. that only leaves room for a keeper and a forward. de gea and muniain or alcacer. have not seen much of pol calvet or sergi semper, their meant to bee class.

My hopes are on these players:

Javier Espinosa
Gerard Deulofeu
Marc Muniesa
Oriol Romeu
Sergi Roberto
Rafa Alcantara
Albert Dalmau
Jean Marie Dongou
Carles Planas
Pol Calvet

Espinosa maybe the next big thing?

Month ago I had a dream where Sergi Samper and Javi Espinosa ruled the midfield
It was like watching Xaviesta
Hope Sampinosa will take their step!

The next Xavi, Espinosa, now plays in Elche.
The next Messi, Assulin, doesn't play football anymore.
The next Etoo, Etock, plays in Makabi Thikva, lol.

So, were our coaches wrong because these guys didn't get more chances here.
Or these guys just weren't Barca's 1st team material?

Try to put Samper, Deulo, Adama and Grimaldo now in that story.