for all the criticism of Adriano it's worth pointing out that he has by far the 2nd best non-Masia relationship with Messi.
it's quite interesting that the non-Masia players to best understand/compliment Messi are Brazilian wingbacks.
honestly, if Argentina could just take 10 years off Javier Zanetti's life they wouldn't even need anything else. him and Messi would fuck everyone up.
as for Adriano vs. Alba, well one of them is a Catalan canterano so you know where my preferences lie.
but honestly... is there any point? Muniesa is coming through and he looks a solid LB/CB type. I mean, I think he'll be wanting games next season and LB is a likely place he could get them. Bilal will obviously be first-choice ahead of that. now Adriano is the type of player whose profile means you can make him 2nd choice and he won't be too fussed. you can move him around the pitch and he'll happily do a job wherever you put him. Alba is better than Adriano, obviously, but that quality brings its own problems.
is he going to want to sit on the bench in favour of Bilal? (who OWNS him as a defensive force) and even if Bilal is injured, honestly I think I'd favour Muniesa as a replacement for trickier games because he looks like he plays with a similar style. (how fast is he though? accurate reports only pls) so, I mean, Alba would just be a huge upgrade on Adriano. which would be fine but his talent-level is too good to be a mere sub, no?
if Muniesa doesn't get promoted next season, I don't think there's much of a problem with getting Alba in as he won't be taking games away from anyone but Adriano who's injured half the time anyway. but if Muniesa does get promoted I don't see where there's room unless we squad-stack which is totally ghey.